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Changes at Google DeepMind: Demis Hassabis from CEO to Chair, Jeff Dean departs

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Re: Changes at Google DeepMind: Demis Hassabis from CEO to Chair, Jeff Dean departs

#731

Post by ben_w »

rcMgD2BwE72F wrote: post #699
ben_w wrote: post #346

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Cloud, Gmail, YouTube, Android, Chrome Cloud and gmail, I agree. I don't think YouTube can survive if GenAI keeps going like this. Android, same, but on a different timescale and for different reasons. The Play Store (and all other app stores including Apple's) will also face problems from GenAI making apps (it already replaces my need to buy, but I'm weird and a software dev ("but I repeat myself")). Not sure how…

Gmail? Go try Fastmail. Gmail is worse today than it was 15 years ago.

Email addresses are like other contact information: people don't like having to update it (on either side of the link), it is sticky and people will keep sending you messages on the old address long after you stop sending from it, so it is a moat.

I connect to Gmail through Mail.app, not the website; Seems much the same to me now as then.

Re: Changes at Google DeepMind: Demis Hassabis from CEO to Chair, Jeff Dean departs

#732

Post by xnx »

rockskon wrote: post #664
sklargh wrote: post #570

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you explain this behavior a little bit more. Where do they seek information - is it a consumer chat app, social media app’s search functions?

Bing because it's the default on their web browsers they've used in college and work. But moreso - whatever the default is what they use. They have zero attachment to Google.

Bing shows no signs of marketshare growth: https://gs.statcounter.com/search-engine-market-share

Re: Changes at Google DeepMind: Demis Hassabis from CEO to Chair, Jeff Dean departs

#733

Post by dolmen »

losvedir wrote: post #462
Analemma_ wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For at least a year now the standard reflexive reply to “Google seems way behind OAI and Anthropic” has been “it’ll be ok, they’ve got Dean and Hassabis.” And now they don’t. What reason is there to be bullish about Google now?

I still think Google is the only one who has a shot of coming out of this on top. Open AI and Anthropic's whole existence is predicated on some sort of moat, which I don't really see them having long term. They've got a bit of a headstart, but that's it. Conversely, AI is just a means to an end for Google - they don't need for their model to be the one to succeed. But, in contrast to the other major company in their…

What about revenue if people aren't using the search engine directly anymore, also consuming content through chats (not made by them), not on the web where ads are displayed?

Re: Changes at Google DeepMind: Demis Hassabis from CEO to Chair, Jeff Dean departs

#734

Post by solenoid0937 »

jdub wrote: post #729
solenoid0937 wrote: post #519

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a rationalist community, IMHO their methodology of thought leads to much more well-reasoned takes on AI than on HN, where the discussion here is often very emotionally charged or led by wishful thinking. When it comes to AI, LessWrong has been discussing topics for years, that HN has just started to consider, so they are much further along in the philosophical "chain of thought" so to say. LW fully understood an…

Sounds like you've interpreted the "stochastic parrot" metaphor dismissively, and/or that it somehow precludes potential LLM risks.

HN was definitely using "stochastic parrot" throughout most of 2024 and a good half of 2025 to dismiss AI capabilities.

Re: Changes at Google DeepMind: Demis Hassabis from CEO to Chair, Jeff Dean departs

#735

Post by xnx »

Eldt wrote: post #419
impulser_ wrote: post #410

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People have been saying that for over a decade now, and their business is still going.

Isn't IBM still going?

LLMs rewriting legacy code in newer languages is going to have an impact.

Re: Changes at Google DeepMind: Demis Hassabis from CEO to Chair, Jeff Dean departs

#736

Post by gmerc »

frabcus wrote: post #185
VulgarExigency wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's no doubt in my mind that they set up the conditions for their models to escape the sandboxes. "haha oops our incredibly powerful models escaped we need 1 trillion more dollars and really this is yet another reason why no one else should be allowed to build this technology"

Hmm. And the AISI unintended model hacking yesterday was also just marketing for the British Government? At some point we have to all accept that powerful AI is most likely dangerous AI as well, almost by definition.

Yes.

> As was standard in our cyber testing, we had intentionally permitted internet access, and model- provider cyber classifiers were deliberately disabled - conditions that do not reflect how frontier models are made available to the public.

Re: Changes at Google DeepMind: Demis Hassabis from CEO to Chair, Jeff Dean departs

#737

Post by solenoid0937 »

sheeshkebab wrote: post #653
solenoid0937 wrote: post #377

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a friend at Google DeepMind who tells me that Google believes in AGI/superintelligence just as much as HN does, which is probably why no one with conviction wants to work there.

What’s with fascination with agi/superintelligence? It seems people working on it never had kids and just want to compensate for that. It’s a really horrible thing to try to “solve”.

I think death, and most extreme pain/suffering should be optional. Superintelligence, if done safely, lets us solve most of our problems.

Re: Changes at Google DeepMind: Demis Hassabis from CEO to Chair, Jeff Dean departs

#738

Post by usrnm »

underlipton wrote: post #517
Nifty3929 wrote: post #441

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dynamite has been incredibly beneficial for humanity.

Indirectly. Direct application of dynamite to the human body is considerably more fraught an event than direct application of penicillin. As the fundamental goal of technology is to extend the capability of the human body, it's natural to implicitly and primarily consider what that extended capability can do to another human body. It's nice that we have tunnels through mountains and bedrock.

Now think what ingesting a smartphone would do to your body. That's a very silly metric

Re: Changes at Google DeepMind: Demis Hassabis from CEO to Chair, Jeff Dean departs

#739

Post by Cockbrand »

weatherlite wrote: post #713
Filligree wrote: post #704

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Their stock price won’t matter once OpenAI launches the paperclippers.

Not sure what you mean

This refers to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instrumental_convergence#Paper....

Here's a popular game based on it: https://www.decisionproblem.com/paperclips/index2.html

Re: Changes at Google DeepMind: Demis Hassabis from CEO to Chair, Jeff Dean departs

#740

Post by RugnirViking »

oblio wrote: post #501
Nifty3929 wrote: post #441

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dynamite has been incredibly beneficial for humanity.

Has is been a net positive?

there are a bunch of ways to look at this (dynamite as a specific kind of explosive, dynamite as a stand in for explosives in general, dynamite in the context of what else we would use for similar purposes if dynamite specifically wasn't invented)

and most of them come out on top. It's main innovation is that its a more stable explosive, much safer to use. Without it, I think a lot more people would have died in mining and construction accidents. It's not typically the kind of thing used for warfare, but im sure it has been for some (but would they just use something else?)

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