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Comment by prepend | Hacker News Reader

Why would they strike?

Google employees went on strike because of a government contract to improve AI used in the targeting of drone strikes. The fallout of that project lead to Google dropping out of the running for this contract citing its "AI principles".

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/04/technology/google-letter-...

https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/08/google-will-not-bid-for-th...

Microsoft employees are not like Googlers. There was a protest letter that was passed around and I think it got more ex-MSFT than actual employees to sign it.

I suspect a few people from both companies will complain but it won't be enough to dictate change. MSFT employees complained about the company working with ICE and while that did get a response, it didn't get the contract canceled.

I think there is a big difference as well to work on something generic that the military happens to use as well like a database or truck compared to building something which is mainly part of a weapon. Luke a drone targeting system or a truck mounted AA gun.

Do you think the hiring process at Microsoft somehow selects fewer people with strong political views?

Or perhaps the employees are the same, but the corporate executives and culture encourages or discouraged certain behaviors?

Google is wired to have more "activist" type people. I don't think Microsoft has that type of culture based on the people that I have spoken to that work there, though I'm sure they exist.

That’s not really the same thing as generic cloud services. At a certain point you need to draw a line for responsibility. Is it renting computer time? Probably not.

I think most people would distinguish between government vs. military contracts (despite the outsized proportion of government spending that the military occupies).

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