Why I Left Google DeepMind • Hacker News Board

Re: Why I Left Google DeepMind

#151

Post by za3faran » Wed, Jul 15, 2026, 9:39 PM UTC

slowin wrote: post #117

za3faran wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I salute you for your morality. If most people did this, those companies would change their position very quickly. After all, they only think about money.

Thank you but I'm no saint. I joined Microsoft knowing that they were incompatible with my values. I just told myself that I wouldn't work on those types of projects and try to stick to my values. I told myself that I could just be "professional" and keep my head down. But, as I learned more I was filled with a deep sadness and shame. It was tearing me apart. Every day I got up to go to work and was getting sick to m…

As you astutely point out, it's not easy, many companies are complicit, or at least the people and groups funding them.

Have you looked at the healthcare or green energy domains with smaller companies/start ups?

Re: Why I Left Google DeepMind

#152

Post by hashstring » Wed, Jul 15, 2026, 9:46 PM UTC

Powerful

Re: Why I Left Google DeepMind

#153

Post by moribvndvs » Wed, Jul 15, 2026, 9:51 PM UTC

metalsiliconYT wrote: post #64

Respect for sticking to your beliefs. Just out of curiosity though why do people not want smart AI weapons? I would much rather have an onboard AI that can discriminate between unarmed civilians and military assets, seems irresponsible to not... Is a dumb sea mine that blows up everything somehow better than a smart sea mine that knows to not blow up sometimes?

It’s true that humans are unreliable, even if we could guarantee a consistent set of moral and ethical standards as well as the appropriate tools and authority to enforce them at all times. We do, however, have to deal with 100% of the implications, one way or another. Machines don’t. Vasily Arkhipov and Stanislav Petrov had to consider the world they would condemn their children to if they pushed the button, the missiles didn’t. These are imperfect devices made by imperfect beings, whose rules and goals can be changed more or less at will by whomever wields them. Offloading the responsibility of pulling a trigger or trampling someone’s legal or human rights to such a machine while insulating those in command from consequences threatens to make things worse at a speed and scale I don’t think we’ve seen before in all of our dark history. Meanwhile, it further concentrates immense and unchecked power in the hands of a relative scant handful of elites, all of whom exhibit the lack of ethical and moral fiber we were talking about to begin with.

Teaching something or someone to pull a trigger is trivial compared to teaching them not to. I have no reason to believe that automated weapons and surveillance will be more reliable than our world leaders or that the world will be safer with them in it.

Re: Why I Left Google DeepMind

#154

Post by verdverm » Wed, Jul 15, 2026, 10:01 PM UTC

Zsfe510asG wrote: post #83

metalsiliconYT wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Saying AI military products wont work is the dumbest thing i've heard in awhile

Search for Anduril drone failures in Ukraine and several Lattice software failures. And perhaps capitalize "I". How is Maven working in Iran?

Search for Ukraine mid-range strike capabilities in the last 1-2 months. It's using homegrown Ai systems to great effect, re: Crimea is cutoff to the point gas is heavily rationed or not sold to civilians at all.

Re: Why I Left Google DeepMind

#155

Post by verdverm » Wed, Jul 15, 2026, 10:03 PM UTC

Google and Palantir are quite proud of their new found friendship

https://cloud.google.com/solutions/palantir

https://www.palantir.com/partnerships/google-cloud/

I've migrating away for this and many other reasons.

I recall a slide from this year's i/o or next, where they put Palantir's name first on a slide of new partners. I was quite taken back by how loud and proud they are about it. Suppose I shouldn't be considering the CEO paid up the $1M to attend the inauguration.

Re: Why I Left Google DeepMind

#156

Post by ncruces » Wed, Jul 15, 2026, 10:04 PM UTC

metalsiliconYT wrote: post #64

Respect for sticking to your beliefs. Just out of curiosity though why do people not want smart AI weapons? I would much rather have an onboard AI that can discriminate between unarmed civilians and military assets, seems irresponsible to not... Is a dumb sea mine that blows up everything somehow better than a smart sea mine that knows to not blow up sometimes?

> Is a dumb sea mine that blows up everything somehow better than a smart sea mine that knows to not blow up sometimes?

Yes. If smart mines lead to belligerents laying more of them because they're "safer."

Re: Why I Left Google DeepMind

#157

Post by therobots927 » Wed, Jul 15, 2026, 10:12 PM UTC

Chance-Device wrote: post #129

kombine wrote: post #121

This is no longer on the front page of HN despite 200+ points and having been posted 1 hour ago.

There’s a flame war detector, this has certainly triggered it and pushed the thread down the rankings.

You really believe that?

Re: Why I Left Google DeepMind

#158

Post by therobots927 » Wed, Jul 15, 2026, 10:12 PM UTC

SirHackalot wrote: post #125

kombine wrote: post #121

This is no longer on the front page of HN despite 200+ points and having been posted 1 hour ago.

I saw it on the front page.

They move uncomfortable subjects off the front page pretty quickly these days.

Can’t have the sheep getting too rowdy.

Re: Why I Left Google DeepMind

#159

Post by busterarm » Wed, Jul 15, 2026, 10:28 PM UTC

scoring1774 wrote: post #146

busterarm wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, they would just walked all over by the 2% who have no principles whatsoever. Kind of like what's happening already. Principles are only good up until they enable you to be systematically victimized.

I sometimes think this way but I do wonder whether this would be true in a world where individuals demand more control over the impacts of their work. It seems that the current problem is that the labor of the 98% (or whatever number you like) is well-aligned with the demands of the 2% without principles who seem to have a strong propensity to end up in leadership positions. It reminds me of the simulations people ru…

Yeah I don't even judge them poorly for making that decision, I just come to different conclusions.

Now I think there are plenty of other reasons not to work for Google or Facebook so I guess I end up in the same place for different motivations.

Re: Why I Left Google DeepMind

#160

Post by xtracto » Wed, Jul 15, 2026, 10:39 PM UTC

Zsfe510asG wrote: post #69

We know now that Google is a sycophantic company whose DEI initiatives were all fake and dropped once Trump got elected. This somewhat naive initiative was bound to fail. The good news is that the AI military products won't work, except perhaps for blowing up a girls' school. Here are CEOs falling over themselves to support Hassabis' regulatory capture proposal: https://xcancel.com/sundarpichai/status/207708695183306…

Come on, ALL companies are psychopaths in their behavior.

Their only objective is to make money to shareholders. So anything that gets in their way is fair game. They are relentless optimizers.

After all, most people holding GOOG, MSFT, META, or others don't care how I happens, they just want their 401k fund going up. It's like that by design.