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What a dishonest mischaracterization of the issue at hand, shame on you
Why I Left Google DeepMind
51–60 of 186 posts
Re: Why I Left Google DeepMind
#52If you do not like what Google is doing, just leave as I said before [0]. They don't care about you. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47931336
I mean - the idea that any company employing non-trivial amounts of people "cares" in any sane sense of the word "care" is absurd.
Who is supposed to "care" about you? A single person, definitely not the CEO, is going to individually care about 20k+ workers, especially not 200k+ workers.
Even if you assumed an altruistic HR department, it's still going to be a faceless blob when you're a 100k+ company.
Re: Why I Left Google DeepMind
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
On the upside, I guess maybe DeepMind is hiring. ... I'm sure I'll get flamed into oblivion for this but it's weird to me how the zeitgeist is anti-colonialism but also against enforcing borders and national sovereignty. I guess maybe they are okay with it unless you're a western nation. Whatever, there's no room for nuanced opinions anymore in modern online discourse. I'll admit to being a weird outlier on this. I m…
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Same to you I guess? The world is not a black and white place. Rigorous self-defense is not evil.
I chose to be vulnerable and honest knowing what kind of responses I would get and the guidelines of this board call for assuming good faith. It's discourse like yours that is inflaming and ruining our society.
I didn't even endorse any specific actions here, I'm just not meeting your moral threshold based on your interpretation of some pretty thinly-detailed comments that I made.
You also can't influence the game if you're not a player so opting out of working in the entire defense industry is probably against your interests.
Re: Why I Left Google DeepMind
#54This is a long post about someone who has very obviously just gotten into politics. It is good for people to try and see how to impart change. Here are some constructive critical questions for the author: 1. Why no mention of No Tech For Apartheid or Google Workers United, who have been doing similar work for years? 2. What about all of the other police, DHS, and military contracts Google has been a part of? Did this…
I for sure agree about encouraging people to dig deeper and wider, and that absolutely none of this is new or is occurring in a vacuum, but (and I don't say this to single you out, this is just a long-held feeling I've had) I do also think it's important to encourage and commend anyone who reaches these conclusions, however late or nascent they might be. Especially someone with the backbone to speak out at and then quit a cushy, prestigious job.
Something something every journey, something something single step. For the author (and for all of us, really) I hope it's one of many. And I think they should be proud of this particular step :)
Re: Why I Left Google DeepMind
#55> I wanted AI ethics commitments to hold under pressure.
LLM chatbots, they way they are trained and have data collected for them today, are fundamentally unethical, regardless of whether Google sells services to the DHS.
No less importantly, Google's is a fundamentally unethical entity. After all, it says so right in its motto: "Do Evil".
Ok, that's not it's motto, it's just a pun on the old motto Google dropped when it became too starkly opposed to its practices, of mass surveillance and manipulation and censorship of search and content discovery results for commercial and political purposes, on its behalf and that of governments. This has been widely reported upon.
I will just give a few links regarding Google's complicity in the ongoing genocide in Gaza, as described by the UN special rapporteur for the Palestinian Occupied Territories:
https://novaramedia.com/2025/07/02/tech-giants-and-british-b...
(or get the report itself: https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/hrbodies...)
Re: Why I Left Google DeepMind
#56Re: Why I Left Google DeepMind
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
Vast majority of people against it seem to be against the principle, not against the implementation.
People tend to agree that immigration enforcement can be necessary (except for that pocket of philosophical bohemians that accept that people should be able to flow as free or freer than capital if we are truly free at all). But interestingly, most people feel immigrants that did not enter through legal means should be able to stay in a lot of circumstances! People almost universally agree that stripping citizenship…
There is something fishy about where someone happened to be born (or looks/sounds like they’re from), where they are, and the relationships between different government blowhards having a bigger impact on their life than just being a decent person trying to get by.
Re: Why I Left Google DeepMind
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
> They’ve shot citizens and fabricated evidence to cover up their actions in multiple instances. typical police activity protected by impunity in this country.
i don’t think statements like this help reinforce how serious the situation is; rather, it subtly normalizes it.
Normal/not normal is a matter of opinion.
It sounds like it is normal for majority of political elite as well as voters, since this is not top of political agenda in this country.
It is not normal from my point of view, but I am not sure what can I do about this.
Re: Why I Left Google DeepMind
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
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This is false. > Good was in her car, stopped sideways in the street, which led Ross to circle her vehicle on foot. Other agents approached, and one ordered her to get out of the car while reaching through her open window. Good briefly reversed, then began moving forward and to the right, into the direction of traffic. At this point, Ross was standing several feet away at the front-left of the vehicle which was turni…
> Good briefly reversed, then began moving forward
No one disputes this. She and the others were deliberately antagonizing agents first. They were not random innocent third parties. She deliberately ignored the lawful orders of armed officers and drove towards them. In almost any other situation involving police, no one would be surprised if this happened.