Last November, Microsoft and the US army signed a $ 479 million contract for the supply of augmented reality devices to the military. This is a variant of the new HoloLens 2 with a slightly more prominent FLIR (Forward looking infrared) front camera over the user's forehead.
A CNBC journalist got to try the prototype and wrote that it corresponds exactly to the experience that first-person shooters offer players. The display shows a compass at the soldier's field of view and the position relative to the other members of the commando. Furthermore, overlap a reticle to facilitate the sight of the soldier wearing it. The FLIR camera also helps to make the viewer a device with infrared or night vision , to allow you to see any threats inside the vegetation or in a blanket of smoke.
According to recent reports from Reuters, the US military has ordered Microsoft about 100 thousand devices of this type. The army hopes to start using HoloLens in military actions in 2022 and to make this type of strategy the standard by 2028. Which does not seem to be pleasing to the Microsoft technicians who developed the technology , according to the initial plans for completely intent different, of education and entertainment.
"We are concerned that Microsoft is working to supply technology to the US military, increasing a government's ability to kill," a letter sent by Microsoft employees to company CEO Satya Nadella and President Brad Smith reads . "We have not entered Microsoft to develop weapons, and we ask that our opinion be taken into consideration when deciding how to use our technology."
The letter, which according to the organizers includes dozens of employee signatures, claims that Microsoft violated the contract that it cannot develop military technologies. "The intention to hurt does not correspond to an acceptable use of our technology", say the employees, who ask the company to cancel the contract with the army and stop developing any kind of technology that could support military strategies. Furthermore, an external committee is called for the ethical review of the practical implications connected with the use of the technologies developed at Microsoft. The letter reveals that an internal audit body of this kind already exists within Microsoft., which however "is not robust enough to prevent the development of weapons, as evidenced by the IVAS contract " (Integrated Visual Augmentation System ed).
The letter from the employees to the management of Microsoft, also accepted by the latter who "is considering" the right ways to solve the embarrassments of its employees, is just the latest example of groups of workers who organize to protest against plans of their companies. Last year, Google employees mobilized to reject plans for the development of an artificial intelligence project for the Pentagon called Maven . Under pressure, Google had to give up the contract. Remaining within AR / VR, also Palmer Luckey , the young inventor of the initial version of Oculus Rift, is working to adapt virtual reality technologies to military needs, even in this case not without bad feelings.
Cases of lifting by employees with respect to company policies are increasingly common in the US. More recently, employees of various technology companies have lobbied executives on issues related to sexual harassment and the development of face recognition procedures for identification purposes.