Google, 2001: Don’t Be Evil
Google, 2025: Fuck It
2001, or so, for those have forgotten the history of Google’s former unofficial motto :
Yesterday, for those who missed the news:
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The thought of Google using their enormous resources, and all the personal data they collected for years, is terrifying.
And LLMs for combat? Oy vey. What could possibly go wrong?
That news confirms something I have long feared; no matter how much you must trust a company or its management, things can eventually change.
Powerful AI, sooner or later, will wind up in bad hands.
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What changed here was the AI landscape. It’s all about money, of course.
And the biggest news yesterday in Google’s earnings call was not what was said — but was what was not said: how much money they made from AI in Q4. Reading between the lines, Google is locked in a epic arms race for AI supremacy that is not so far paying off. If they were already making zillions from AI, they would have mentioned that on the investor call. But presumably they are not, and that cannot continue indefinitely. Google has to find a way to make back the money back. Bye bye corporate motto, hello military and surveillance.
Can’t get more 2025 than that.
Gary Marcus is sick to his stomach. This is absolutely not what he wanted AI to become.
I press 'like' but I do not like.
As a psychologist, you knew it would go there due to money. As humanists, we don't want to believe humans can be that pathetic.
BTW their dumping the motto happened a few years ago, not recently.
2025 is the new "1984" - "Ignorance is Strength"