While projecting an image of sustainability, Microsoft has secretly been selling bespoke AI services to fossil fuel giants and claiming it can help them make, whistleblowers say that the tech giant has been pitching all manner of wild promises to oil companies like ExxonMobil and Chevron — and working to hide that fact from the public.
After reviewing troves of documents and speaking to dozens of former and current Microsoft employees, Hao found that Microsoft is providing oil companies with AI algorithms designed to help them "maximize" their potential by predicting where best to drill. In a 2022 pitch deck the reporter acquired, for instance, Microsoft claimed that its AI tools could help ExxonMobil increase its annual revenue by $1.4 billion. Of that figure, $600 million of that slated revenue would come from so-called "sustainable production," which purportedly allows for fossil fuel drilling that uses less energy.
Obviously, that logic is flawed: one cannot claim to be a climate champion while also helping oil companies drill for finite combustible resources that are very plainly destroying the planet, regardless of what greenwashing talking points Microsoft's salespeople use.
Microsoft, meanwhile, has "not committed to a timeline" to cutting ties with its oil clients, according to a spokesperson who spoke withBill Gates, Who Could Afford a Private Army of Researchers, Says He Does His Research Using ChatGPT, Which Makes Mistakes Constantly