Microsoft defends its bid on US military contract
Microsoft
Chief executives failed to supply technology to the US military. For the second time in months, the company has explained its relationship with the government in response to objections from employees.
Brad Smith, president and legal chief, said Microsoft's bid for a massive defense department contract known as JEDI-a project
Alphabet
Inc.s
Google recently abandoned – it's the work the company is committed to pursuing, even though employees can have different views. Mr. Smith and Managing Director Satya Nadella addressed the question with employees on Thursday.
A debate about ensuring that the United States military and police force with powerful technology that can invade privacy or lead deadly weapons has been silent Silicon Valley. The work of several major technology companies has sought to push their employers to stop working on projects, including those involving face detection and other forms of artificial intelligence.
"We want the people of this country and especially those who serve this country to know that we have Microsoft's back," wrote mr. Smith in a blog post for Friday. "They want access to the best technology we make."
Comments are on the heels of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, who also defends his company's bid on the same $ 10 billion defense department's cloud contract, called the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure project.
"One of the senior leadership positions is to make the right decision even when it's unpopular," Bezos said at a Wired time conference earlier this month. "If large technology companies are to retreat at the Department of Defense, this country will be in trouble. I like this country."
Microsoft, the second-largest provider of cloud infrastructure technology behind Amazon Web Services, is among a handful of companies hard lobbying for what constitutes one of the biggest government contracts ever for cloud computing. Companies had to bid earlier this month.
Withdrawal from JEDI would "reduce the ability to engage in public debate about how new technology can best be used responsibly," wrote Mr. Smith. "We will not withdraw from the future. In the most positive way we can work to help shape it."
Google, the third largest cloud infrastructure provider, chose not to submit a bid partly because "we could not be sure it would be in line with our AI principles," said the company earlier this month.
JEDI kerfuffle is the latest example of technical workers pushing back. In June, Microsoft employees tried not to end the company's work on immigration and prosecution of the Agency's role in separating children from their parents.The company said that it has not worked with the agency about any projects related to separating children from their families but continues to support and sell the e- mail and calendar programs.
Same month, Google decided not to renew a Defense Department contract as the delivered image tool used by drones. A few weeks earlier, some Amazon-a concerns about the company's decision to sell face detection technology to help law enforcement identify criminal suspects in surveillance.
-Douglas MacMillan contributed to this article.
Write to Jay Greene at Jay.Greene@wsj.com
