Is my moral compass off, or does war profiteering completely violate the whole "don't be evil" thing?
[deleted]
If you're trying to make a point, it is entirely lost in the rambling.
Leaked Emails Show Google Expected Military Drone AI Work to Grow Exponentially
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Re: Leaked Emails Show Google Expected Military Drone AI Work to Grow Exponentially
#22Re: Leaked Emails Show Google Expected Military Drone AI Work to Grow Exponentially
#23I think that the leaked emails show that one or two execs within Google expressed the optimistic case for the eventual revenue leading from the project. That's how projects happen in companies. Some employee gets excited about the potential of the project and writes emails talking about all the huge numbers that project will post.
Most of those emails are wrong.
Maven may be wrong at any price or size. But Google's characterization of it as a minor project doesn't seem contradicted by these emails.
Re: Leaked Emails Show Google Expected Military Drone AI Work to Grow Exponentially
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
[deleted]
You are talking besides the point. War != "War Profiteering". You can believe war is unavoidable and still find excess profiting from war morally repugnant
The company with the single best resources to execute on this mission is trying to help make sure the kinetic energy doesn't get off target. How is that evil, exactly?
Re: Leaked Emails Show Google Expected Military Drone AI Work to Grow Exponentially
#25Is my moral compass off, or does war profiteering completely violate the whole "don't be evil" thing?
Good thing they removed all mentions of that from their workers' code of conduct then, no? They really dodged a bullet there (get it?) https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/google-dont-be-evil/ Moral compass out of sight, out of mind, is probably what the leadership must have been thinking, especially after the recent protest against Maven from a few thousand employees (which seems to have resulted only in the lead…
Except they didn't, it's still in the code of conduct ;)
Re: Leaked Emails Show Google Expected Military Drone AI Work to Grow Exponentially
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
I guess that depends on whether you view either profit or war as intrinsically evil.
It's whether one views the intersection of profit and war as intrinsically evil, which for most people is a resounding yes. Humans are already good enough at killing and causing misery for each other without adding additional economic incentives into the mix.
But you’re describing some commercial inventive to go to war, which is very different from selling goods and services to the military.
Re: Leaked Emails Show Google Expected Military Drone AI Work to Grow Exponentially
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
[deleted]
If you're trying to make a point, it is entirely lost in the rambling.
Read The Dictator's Handbook. Then come back and tell me if I'm rambling.
https://www.amazon.com/Dictators-Handbook-Behavior-Almost-Po...
Re: Leaked Emails Show Google Expected Military Drone AI Work to Grow Exponentially
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
They removed that clause recently, I believe.
"Google Removes 'Don't Be Evil' Clause From Its Code of Conduct": https://gizmodo.com/google-removes-nearly-all-mentions-of-do... "“Don’t be evil” has been part of the company’s corporate code of conduct since 2000. When Google was reorganized under a new parent company, Alphabet, in 2015, Alphabet assumed a slightly adjusted version of the motto, “do the right thing.” However, Google retained its original “don’t be…
That last sentence directly contradicts the title...
Re: Leaked Emails Show Google Expected Military Drone AI Work to Grow Exponentially
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's whether one views the intersection of profit and war as intrinsically evil, which for most people is a resounding yes. Humans are already good enough at killing and causing misery for each other without adding additional economic incentives into the mix.
But what if the US military wants to minimize civilian casualties and collateral damage as much as possible and wants technology developed to do so?
We don't know that Google will accomplish those goals.
Re: Leaked Emails Show Google Expected Military Drone AI Work to Grow Exponentially
#30Is my moral compass off, or does war profiteering completely violate the whole "don't be evil" thing?
[deleted]
No, your moral compass is off. The US has toppled a large number of sovereign states that were not acting violently toward other nations, and installed dictators and monarchs. The US supports Saudi Arabia, one of the most authoritarian nations on earth, who backed an actual attack on US soil, and yet they invade nations with false claims of WMD and kill hundreds of thousands. To claim that the US is the police and not the thugs is to completely ignore reality.