According to the Associated Press, an entry appeared on Microsoft's corporate website, which seems to be the company's first public admission to deep involvement in the war, which began after Hamas killed about 1,200 people in Israel and led to the death of tens of thousands in the Gaza Strip.
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The mentioned entry appeared almost three months after the investigation carried out by the Associated Press revealed previously unpublished details about the close cooperation of the American technological giant with the Israeli Ministry of Defense. The investigation showed that the military use of commercial AI products increased rapidly by almost 200 times after Hamas's deadly attack of October 7, 2023.
Agency AP announced that the Israeli army uses Azure for transcription, translation and processing of intelligence data collected as part of mass surveillancewhich can then be checked cross with Israel's internal sights based on artificial intelligence and vice versa.
Microsoft confirms that he provided an Israeli army. Denies one
Microsoft announced on Thursday that Employees' fears and media reports prompted the company to start an internal inspection and employment of an external company in order to “establish facts additional”. An external company was not identified in the statement or a copy of its report was not provided.
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In its statement, the company announced that it provided the Israeli army software, professional servicesdisk space in the Azure cloud and Azure AI services, including language translations, and also cooperated with the Israeli government to protect the national cyberspace against external threats.
Microsoft also stated that provided Israel “special access to our technologies going beyond the terms of our trade agreements” and “limited support in emergency situations” as part of activities aimed at helping to save over 250 hostages taken by Hamas on October 7.
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As the Associated Press notes, The statement also did not answer directly to a few questions about how the Israeli army uses its technologiesand the company refused to comment.
In its statement, the company also admitted that “there is no insight into how customers use our software on their own servers or other devices.”
Microsoft said that the Israeli army, like any other customer, was obliged to comply with the principles of permissible use and the AI Code, which prohibits the use of products for causing damage in any way prohibited by law. In its statement, the company stated that it did not find “any evidence” that the Israeli army violated these conditions.
