mo4ch:>Microsoft staff protest over Pentagon contract for augmented reality tech ‘designed to kill people’ | Mo4ch News
Dozens of Microsoft employees have demanded the company pull out of a contract with the US military to provide augmented reality technology, stating that they refuse to be complicit in “warfare and oppression.”Microsoft workers released a letter on Friday addressed to CEO Satya Nadella and President Brad Smith, in which they voiced opposition to the $479 million contract that aims to equip the US Army with up to 100,000 augmented reality headsets to be used in combat and for training. The Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS) will be based on a preexisting Microsoft technology called HoloLens. Released in March 2016, HoloLens is capable of interposing digital images on whatever its wearer sees.Signed by more than 50 employees, the letter states that the IVAS contract marks the first time that Microsoft has “crossed the line into weapons development.”“The application of HoloLens within the IVAS system is designed to help people kill,” they wrote. “It will be deployed on the batt…