Silicon Valley owes its existence to the US government — in particular, the defence department. It was long the tech industry’s most important customer, as well as the funder of foundational research.
硅谷的存在应归功于美国政府，尤其是国防部。长期以来，美国政府一直是该国科技行业的最重要客户，也是基础研究的资助者。
The relationship does not look so good these days. Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadell a this week became the latest tech executive to distance his company from contracts it has with the US government. Its work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement has not sat well with some employees, given the agency’s recent involvement in separating families entering the US illegally.
最近，这种关系看上去不那么好了。上周，微软(Microsoft)首席执行官萨蒂亚•纳德拉(Satya Nadell)成为科技行业最新一位让他的公司与美国政府合同保持距离的高管。微软与美国移民与海关执法局(Immigration and Customs Enforcement)的合作让部分员工接受不了，因为该局最近参与了拆散非法移民家庭的工作。
Earlier this year a Microsoft executive bragged in a blog post that the company’s technology had received official certification from ICE, enabling the agency’s staff to do things such as use its facial recognition software to identify people. But this week Mr Nadella insisted the relationship was limited to “supporting legacy mail, calendar, messaging and document management workloads”. The clear implication: Microsoft would think twice before helping ICE implement any controversial Trump immigration policies.
今年早些时候，微软一位高管在一篇博文中吹嘘说，该公司的技术已获得美国移民与海关执法局的官方认证，使该局工作人员能够利用微软的技术做一些事情，比如运用面部识别软件确定身份。但上周纳德拉坚称，这种合作关系限于“支持旧邮件、日历、即时消息以及文档管理等工作”。其中的意思很明显：在决定是否帮助美国移民与海关执法局实施特朗普政府出台的任何备受争议的移民政策之前，微软会三思。