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Microsoft released the results of shareholder votes on Tuesday. (GeekWire File Photo / Todd Bishop)
None of the six outside shareholder proposals at Microsoft’s annual meeting Tuesday won enough support for adoption, but the specific results, released today, offer a glimpse into the mindset of the company’s investors.
Shareholders were practically unanimous in rejecting a proposal calling for the company to consider investing in Bitcoin — with less than 1% (0.55%, to be precise) voting in favor of that idea, according to the official results.
However, as we reported yesterday, Microsoft’s management and board say they do at least consider the possibility of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency as part of the company’s investment strategy.
The top proposal in the voting results, with more than 36% approval, called for Microsoft to prepare an annual “Report on AI Data Sourcing Accountability.” The proposal singled out the company’s partnership with OpenAI, and cited ongoing questions about the origins of the data used to train AI models.
“The development and training of AI systems rely on vast amounts of data, and public information available via the Internet may not be enough to quench developers’ insatiable thirst for high-quality training data,” the proposal read.
It cited concerns “that developers will draw from unethical or illegal sources — such as personal information collected online, copyrighted works, and proprietary commercial information provided by users.”
The proposal, submitted by the National Legal and Policy Center, cited issues such as the New York Times’ lawsuit against Microsoft and OpenAI over the alleged inclusion of the newspaper’s articles in AI training data.
Microsoft’s board opposed the proposal, saying in part that the company has “articulated publicly a number of commitments as to how it sources data for training generative AI models in ways that are consistent with global laws, and that respect privacy, safety, and content.”
That was one of three shareholder proposals focused on AI. A proposal on AI-related misinformation and disinformation received 18.7% approval. Another proposal, questioning the use of AI and other technology for new oil and gas development and production, received 9.7% approval.
The proposal receiving the second-highest level of approval, about 32%, called for a report on the company’s decisions to put data centers in countries “of significant human rights concern,” citing Saudi Arabia specifically.
A proposal calling for a report on the company’s involvement in the development of military applications and potential weapons-related technology received 15% of the vote.
