Microsoft AI Security Chief Accidentally Reveals Walmart’s AI Plans During Protest
Microsoft’s head of AI security, Neta Haiby, accidentally exposed confidential internal messages about Walmart’s use of Microsoft’s AI tools during a disrupted Build conference session. The incident occurred when two former Microsoft employees, Hossam Nasr and Vaniya Agrawal, interrupted the talk to protest Microsoft’s cloud contracts with the Israeli government.
During the disruption, Haiby accidentally switched to Microsoft Teams while sharing her screen, revealing messages that discussed Walmart’s upcoming use of Microsoft’s Entra and AI gateway services. Walmart is one of Microsoft’s largest corporate customers and already utilizes Azure OpenAI for some AI work.
The private Microsoft Teams messages shown during the disrupted Build session.
One message from a Microsoft cloud solution architect stated, “Walmart is ready to rock and roll with Entra Web and AI Gateway.” A Walmart AI engineer was quoted as saying, “Microsoft is WAY ahead of Google with AI security. We are excited to go down this path with you.”
This protest was the third disruption at Microsoft Build, following previous incidents where Palestinian tech workers interrupted keynotes. The protesters were demonstrating against Microsoft’s business dealings with Israel’s Ministry of Defense amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza.
Microsoft conducted an internal review and hired an external firm to assess how its technology is used in the war in Gaza. The company maintains that its relationship with Israel’s Ministry of Defense is a standard commercial relationship and found no evidence of its technology being used to harm people or violate its terms of service.
