Brian Eno, the composer of the Home windows 95 startup sound, has penned an open letter calling for Microsoft to cease offering synthetic intelligence and cloud providers to the Israeli navy. Titled “Not in My Identify,” the letter outlines the corporate’s technological assist for Israel’s Ministry of Protection, as detailed in a Microsoft weblog publish final week. “For those who knowingly construct programs that may allow struggle crimes, you inevitably grow to be complicit in these crimes,” wrote Eno. In response, he pledges to donate his charge for the Home windows 95 composition to victims of the assaults in Gaza.
Within the letter, Eno mentioned his authentic work with Microsoft “represented a gateway to a promising technological future.” He added, “I by no means would have believed that the identical firm may someday be implicated within the equipment of oppression and struggle.”
Eno cited the Microsoft weblog publish as proof of its collaboration with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s authorities, and the corporate’s “assist of a regime,” he wrote, “that’s engaged in actions described by main authorized students and human rights organisations, the United Nations consultants, and rising numbers of governments from around the globe, as genocidal.”
Eno went on to precise solidarity with Microsoft employees who’ve “carried out one thing actually disruptive and refused to remain silent.” Discover his full letter beneath.
Brian Eno is a longtime critic of Israel and supporter of the pro-Palestine Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) motion. By way of his assist of the Palestinian folks and the BDS motion, he has usually urged musicians to not play live shows in Israel.
Not in My Identify: An Open Letter to Microsoft from Brian Eno
Within the mid-Nineteen Nineties, I used to be requested to compose a brief piece of music for Microsoft’s Home windows 95 working system. Hundreds of thousands – presumably even billions – of individuals have since heard that brief start-up chime—which represented a gateway to a promising technological future. I gladly took on the challenge as a artistic problem and loved the interplay with my contacts on the firm. I by no means would have believed that the identical firm may someday be implicated within the equipment of oppression and struggle.
At present, I’m compelled to talk, not as a compser this time, however as a citizen by the position Microsoft is taking part in in a really completely different form of composition: one which results in surveillance, violence, and destruction in Palestine.
In a weblog publish dated Might 15, 2025, Microsoft acknowledged that it supplies Israel’s Ministry of Defence with “software program, skilled providers, Azure cloud providers and Azure AI providers, together with language translation.” It went on to state that “It is very important acknowledge that Microsoft doesn’t have visibility into how prospects use our software program on their very own servers or different units”. These “providers” assist a regime that’s engaged in actions described by main authorized students and human rights organisations, the United Nations consultants, and rising numbers of governments from around the globe, as genocidal. The collaboration between Microsoft and the Israeli authorities and armed forces is not any secret and includes the corporate’s software program being utilized in deadly applied sciences with ‘humorous’ names like ‘The place’s Daddy?’ (- steerage programs for monitoring Palestinians with a purpose to blow them up of their houses).
Promoting and facilitating superior AI and cloud providers to a authorities engaged in systemic ethnic cleaning is just not ‘enterprise is common’. It’s complicity. For those who knowingly construct programs that may allow struggle crimes, you inevitably grow to be complicit in these crimes.
We now dwell in an age the place companies like Microsoft usually command extra affect than governments. I imagine that with such an influence comes an absolute moral duty. Accordingly, I name on Microsoft to droop all providers that assist any operations that contribute to violations of worldwide regulation.
My new begin up chime is that this: stand in solidarity with the courageous Microsoft employees who’ve carried out one thing actually disruptive and refused to remain silent. They danger their livelihoods for individuals who have misplaced and can proceed to lose their lives.
I invite artists, technologists, musicians, and all folks of conscience to hitch me on this name.
I additionally pledge that the charge I initially acquired for that Home windows 95 chime will now go in the direction of serving to the victims of the assaults on Gaza. If a sound can sign an actual change then let it’s this one.
