Microsoft CEO defends US Army HoloLens contract intended to “increase lethality”

Microsoft’s CEO, Satya Nadella, has defended Microsoft’s HoloLens contract with the US military. The contract has received criticism from both Microsoft’s employees and many in the tech community as a whole, yet the company seems reluctant to let this particular $480 million contract slip away. IVAS, or Integrated Visual Augmentation System, is a military contract awarded to Microsoft on November 20, 2018 by the US Army. The sum of the contract is $479,197,708.33, to the penny, and Microsoft needs to deliver prototype devices reportedly totalling 100,000 HoloLens AR headsets to complete its part of the deal. These will be bespoke units tailored to the needs of deployed soldiers. Many in the tech community and beyond were dismayed by the contract. A group called ‘Microsoft Workers 4 Good’ recently published an open letter to Nadella calling for the immediate cancellation of the IVAS contract, for Microsoft to cease all development on weapons technologies, and for the board to appoint an independent ethics board to make sure the company sticks to its word.