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Google failed to warn 10M of Turkey earthquake
11–20 of 30 posts
Re: Google failed to warn 10M of Turkey earthquake
#12Can't say I like the tone of this article. Google is trying to do something good it is not in any way obligated to do. Painting this like they were responsible just encourages people not to try such things.
Google(and others) marketed these alerts as features of their product, as one of the reasons to upgrade a smartphone from a feature phone.
Median price of phone went from couple of hundred in Nokia era to a thousand or more today, justified by all the features including this one , meaning they certainly made money of providing all these value added services.
It’s no different from a fire or burglar alarm . Yes they are not substitutes for the police and fire departments .
However the alarm company cannot turn around and say you shouldn’t depend on us. The government shouldn’t depend/expect them to do anything for emergencies yes but buyers of their product can.
IF a company sold a product and advertised features for it, then it is a problem when said features don’t work especially when said features are designed around emergencies.
Re: Google failed to warn 10M of Turkey earthquake
#13Can't say I like the tone of this article. Google is trying to do something good it is not in any way obligated to do. Painting this like they were responsible just encourages people not to try such things.
It's worse than that.
> After the earthquake Google's researchers changed the algorithm, and simulated the first earthquake again.
> This time, the system generated 10 million Take Action alerts to those at most risk – and a further 67 million Be Aware alerts to those living further away from the epicentre.
So, basically, Google learned from the data, improved the algorithm, and they are blamed for not having done that before the earthquake.
The headline makes it sound like Google had the good model before, and something went wrong in the notification system so nobody got the alert.
Re: Google failed to warn 10M of Turkey earthquake
#14Can't say I like the tone of this article. Google is trying to do something good it is not in any way obligated to do. Painting this like they were responsible just encourages people not to try such things.
For context, early 2023 would put the earthquake in question just after the first big layoffs at Google (see their 2023Q2 Earnings Release). And this would have probably been considered "legacy google assistant" stuff, not "new-top-priority AI" stuff.
Re: Google failed to warn 10M of Turkey earthquake
#15Can't say I like the tone of this article. Google is trying to do something good it is not in any way obligated to do. Painting this like they were responsible just encourages people not to try such things.
Yes, sounds like something politicians would say to deflect blame from themselves or their government.
Re: Google failed to warn 10M of Turkey earthquake
#16There's an old blog article about "PETA problems", maybe? Can't remember the name. The premise is that if you mention a problem or help in a small way, then people blame you for not fixing it completely. Google saves people from earthquakes... BUT NOT EVERYONE!!! How could they???
Re: Google failed to warn 10M of Turkey earthquake
#17Can't say I like the tone of this article. Google is trying to do something good it is not in any way obligated to do. Painting this like they were responsible just encourages people not to try such things.
If anything, this highlights the need for continued investment in emergency infrastructure at the nation-state level.
Countries and the general public shouldn't be relying on private technology firms to provide this service, nor should they be defunding the public agencies that provide it.
Re: Google failed to warn 10M of Turkey earthquake
#18Feb 2023 was a while ago, and maybe I just didn’t pay attention at the time to the aftermath, even though I knew it was bad.
But I wouldn’t have guessed that over 50,000 people were killed by that earthquake.
Re: Google failed to warn 10M of Turkey earthquake
#19No good deed goes unpunished. The challenging sensor data quality (random handheld devices from various vendors placed in random environments) means that the detection algorithm can only be calibrated with real data, aka real earthquakes.
Re: Google failed to warn 10M of Turkey earthquake
#20Can't say I like the tone of this article. Google is trying to do something good it is not in any way obligated to do. Painting this like they were responsible just encourages people not to try such things.
Google(and others) marketed these alerts as features of their product, as one of the reasons to upgrade a smartphone from a feature phone. Median price of phone went from couple of hundred in Nokia era to a thousand or more today, justified by all the features including this one , meaning they certainly made money of providing all these value added services. It’s no different from a fire or burglar alarm . Yes they a…
It is actually worse than that. The product manager of this feature claimed that the system worked on both earthquakes and when he was asked why people say they didn’t get this alert he basically said “people probably didn’t notice the alerts due to the severity of the event” (https://youtu.be/z-KjVQJ7XKE?si=xwHuholLJV9xjBov). I know Google would be pretty down the list of those responsible for the effects of these earthquakes but they did misinform the public.