Mustafa Suleyman, Microsoft's head of artificial intelligence, was interrupted on Friday by a protester who criticised the company for having contracts with the Israeli military.
Videos posted on social media show Mr Suleyman's speech coming to a halt as a woman in the audience shouts that he is a war profiteer.
“Stop using AI for genocide, Mustafa. Stop using AI for genocide in our region … 50,000 people have died. You have blood on your hands,” said the protester at the event on the Microsoft campus in Redmond, Washington state.
“All of Microsoft has blood on its hands. How dare you all celebrate when Microsoft is killing children? Shame on you all.”
“Thank you for your protest I hear you, I hear your protest,” Mr Suleyman responded while the demonstrator was escorted from the event, which celebrated Microsoft's 50th anniversary.
Another demonstrator, Vaniya Agrawal, later interrupted a session at the event featuring Microsoft founder Bill Gates, current chief executive Satya Nadella and former chief executive Steve Ballmer.
According to an email from the group which organised the demonstrations, No Azure for Apartheid, the protester who confronted Mr Suleyman was Microsoft employee Ibtihal Aboussad, who later sent an email to colleagues and referenced the ongoing Israel-Gaza war as her motive for interrupting the speech.
"Both Aboussad and Agrawal lost corporate access shortly after their disruptions and mass emails were sent to thousands of Microsoft employees including executive leadership," read an emailed statement from the group.
"As of 11:30 AM PT on Saturday, April 5, over 24 hours later, they still have not heard anything from Microsoft about the status of their employment."
Just before the event on the Microsoft campus, a group of demonstrators consisting of employees and non-employees, marched, chanted and held signs.
The National has reached out to Microsoft for comment on the demonstrations that transpired, but has not yet heard back.
In February, at least five Microsoft workers were ejected from a corporate event for protesting against the company's contracts providing AI and cloud services to the Israeli military.
Mr Suleyman became Microsoft's AI chief in 2024. On his personal website, Mr Suleyman describes himself as a “serial tech entrepreneur”. He grew up in London, and his father is from Syria.
In 2004, Mr Suleyman was listed as a board member for the Muslim Youth Helpline, which sought to advise young Muslims “in the condition of emotional need, hardship and mental distress through culturally aware and faith sensitive counselling and practical assistance”, data from the Registrar of Companies for England and Wales shows.
Mr Suleyman, whose mother was a nurse for the UK's National Health Service, spoke to Wired magazine in 2016 about AI's potential impact on health care.
“We're here to make the world a better place,” he said at the time.
In 2010, long before AI was on the tip of almost every tech pundit's tongue, he founded DeepMind, a London-based AI research company which created a buzz in tech circles.
DeepMind's AI research put it ahead of the curve, making it the envy of established tech titans such as Google, which acquired the company in 2014.
Most recently, Mr Suleyman served as co-founder and chief executive of Inflection AI.
In his 2023 book, The Coming Wave: Technology, Power, and the Twenty-first Century, worked its way on to The New York Times bestseller list.
“Properly addressing this wave, containing technology and ensuring that it always serves humanity means overcoming pessimism aversion. It means facing head-on the reality of what's coming,” he wrote.
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The specs
Engine: 1.5-litre turbo
Power: 181hp
Torque: 230Nm
Transmission: 6-speed automatic
Starting price: Dh79,000
On sale: Now
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THE BIO
Favourite book: ‘Purpose Driven Life’ by Rick Warren
Favourite travel destination: Switzerland
Hobbies: Travelling and following motivational speeches and speakers
Favourite place in UAE: Dubai Museum
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The internal combustion engine is facing a watershed moment – major manufacturer Volvo is to stop producing petroleum-powered vehicles by 2021 and countries in Europe, including the UK, have vowed to ban their sale before 2040. The National takes a look at the story of one of the most successful technologies of the last 100 years and how it has impacted life in the UAE.
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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Zakat definitions
Zakat: an Arabic word meaning ‘to cleanse’ or ‘purification’.
Nisab: the minimum amount that a Muslim must have before being obliged to pay zakat. Traditionally, the nisab threshold was 87.48 grams of gold, or 612.36 grams of silver. The monetary value of the nisab therefore varies by current prices and currencies.
Zakat Al Mal: the ‘cleansing’ of wealth, as one of the five pillars of Islam; a spiritual duty for all Muslims meeting the ‘nisab’ wealth criteria in a lunar year, to pay 2.5 per cent of their wealth in alms to the deserving and needy.
Zakat Al Fitr: a donation to charity given during Ramadan, before Eid Al Fitr, in the form of food. Every adult Muslim who possesses food in excess of the needs of themselves and their family must pay two qadahs (an old measure just over 2 kilograms) of flour, wheat, barley or rice from each person in a household, as a minimum.
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How to get there
Emirates (www.emirates.com) flies directly to Hanoi, Vietnam, with fares starting from around Dh2,725 return, while Etihad (www.etihad.com) fares cost about Dh2,213 return with a stop. Chuong is 25 kilometres south of Hanoi.
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The specs: 2018 Nissan Altima
Price, base / as tested: Dh78,000 / Dh97,650
Engine: 2.5-litre in-line four-cylinder
Power: 182hp @ 6,000rpm
Torque: 244Nm @ 4,000rpm
Transmission: Continuously variable tranmission
Fuel consumption, combined: 7.6L / 100km
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Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
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Getting there
The flights
Flydubai operates up to seven flights a week to Helsinki. Return fares to Helsinki from Dubai start from Dh1,545 in Economy and Dh7,560 in Business Class.
The stay
Golden Crown Igloos in Levi offer stays from Dh1,215 per person per night for a superior igloo; www.leviniglut.net
Panorama Hotel in Levi is conveniently located at the top of Levi fell, a short walk from the gondola. Stays start from Dh292 per night based on two people sharing; www. golevi.fi/en/accommodation/hotel-levi-panorama
Arctic Treehouse Hotel in Rovaniemi offers stays from Dh1,379 per night based on two people sharing; www.arctictreehousehotel.com
