Microsoft fires employee who protested and called his AI boss "beneficiary of the war."

Microsoft has decided to terminate one of its employees who interrupted the event celebrating the company's 50th anniversary. Ibtihal Aboussad was notified by email that her employment had been rescinded due to "acts of misconduct." During the celebration, Aboussad was one of two protesters who interrupted the presentation by Microsoft's AI CEO, Mustafa Suleyman, accusing him of being a "war profiteer" and demanding that the company "stop using AI for genocide in our region."

The second protester, Vaniya Agrawal, also interrupted at a later moment during Bill Gates, Microsoft co-founder, Steve Ballmer, former CEO, and current CEO Satya Nadella's presentations. Both employees sent emails to thousands of colleagues urging Microsoft to cancel its contracts with the government of Israel.

In the email sent to Aboussad, it was noted that the interruption occurred during a speech by the AI CEO in front of a live audience of thousands, where hostile and completely inappropriate accusations were made. Although Suleyman attempted to calm the situation, Aboussad's behavior was deemed so aggressive that security intervention was required to escort her out of the venue.

Aboussad's termination took place today by Microsoft Canada, while Agrawal was dismissed shortly after giving her two-week notice before the protest, according to a reviewed email. Both are linked to the No Azure for Apartheid group, which opposes Microsoft's contracts with Israel.

The email sent to Aboussad also indicated that her conduct appeared to be aimed at gaining notoriety and causing maximum disruption at such a highly anticipated event. Throughout the message, there were concerns about the lack of an apology from Aboussad and her absence of remorse regarding the impact of her actions.

Efforts have been made to obtain a comment from Microsoft regarding the dismissals, but the company did not respond before this information was published.