Is it a canary? Does this mean the government has imposed on Google for use of it's AI?
Google drops pledge not to use AI for weapons or surveillance
31–40 of 567 posts
Re: Google drops pledge not to use AI for weapons or surveillance
#32[flagged]
Re: Google drops pledge not to use AI for weapons or surveillance
#33I initially thought that this was an announcement for a new pledge and thought, "they're going to forget about this the moment it's convenient." Then I read the article and realized, "Oh, it's already convenient." Google is a megacorp, and while megacorps aren't fundamentally "evil" (for some definitions of evil), they are fundamentally unconcerned with goodness or morality, and any appearance that they are is purely…
I guess a question becomes, how does dropping these self-imposed limitations work as a marketing exercise? Probably most of their customers or prospective customers won't care, but will a cheery multi-colored new product land a little differently? If Northrop Grumman made a smart home hub, you might be reluctant to put it in your living room.
They are dropping these pledges to avoid securities lawsuits. “Everything is securities fraud” and presumably if they have a stated corporate pledge to do something, and knowingly violate it, any drop in the stock price could use this as grounds.
Re: Google drops pledge not to use AI for weapons or surveillance
#34Which defense contractor did they just sign with to sell AI features? Really if a company wants people to trust claims like this, they should make them legally binding. Otherwise it's all PR.
> Which defense contractor did they just sign with to sell AI features?
I'm gonna presume "the new leadership of the FBI".
Re: Google drops pledge not to use AI for weapons or surveillance
#35What is a $1M TC when you'll get jacked on your way to the tech bus for turning America into mad max? You're not rich enough to have your own billionaire bunker.
It's gotta be better than being in mad max without a $1M TC.
Re: Google drops pledge not to use AI for weapons or surveillance
#36I initially thought that this was an announcement for a new pledge and thought, "they're going to forget about this the moment it's convenient." Then I read the article and realized, "Oh, it's already convenient." Google is a megacorp, and while megacorps aren't fundamentally "evil" (for some definitions of evil), they are fundamentally unconcerned with goodness or morality, and any appearance that they are is purely…
I guess a question becomes, how does dropping these self-imposed limitations work as a marketing exercise? Probably most of their customers or prospective customers won't care, but will a cheery multi-colored new product land a little differently? If Northrop Grumman made a smart home hub, you might be reluctant to put it in your living room.
Being a defense contractor isn't a problem that a little corporate rearrangement can't fix. Put the consumer division under a new subsidiary with a friendly name and you're golden. Even among the small percentage who know the link, it's likely nobody will really care. For certain markets ("tacticool" gear, consumer firearms) being a defense contractor is even a bonus.
Re: Google drops pledge not to use AI for weapons or surveillance
#37What is a $1M TC when you'll get jacked on your way to the tech bus for turning America into mad max? You're not rich enough to have your own billionaire bunker.
It's gotta be better than being in mad max without a $1M TC.
The whole point of Mad Max is that your TC and RSUs and whatever aren’t worth shit anymore, and the people you thought useless and weird and poor suddenly have the chance to kick you in the face.
Re: Google drops pledge not to use AI for weapons or surveillance
#38Other countries will use AI for weapons - shouldn’t the EU and US also do that to remain competitive?
It's not exactly unheard of for certain weapons to be declared off-limits by most countries even if the "bad guys" are using them - think chemical and biological agents, landmines, cluster munitions, blinding weapons and so on. I doubt there will ever be treaties completely banning any use of AI in warfare but there might be bans on specific applications, particularly using it to make fully autonomous weapons which s…
But AI is not decided to be on that list.
Re: Google drops pledge not to use AI for weapons or surveillance
#39I initially thought that this was an announcement for a new pledge and thought, "they're going to forget about this the moment it's convenient." Then I read the article and realized, "Oh, it's already convenient." Google is a megacorp, and while megacorps aren't fundamentally "evil" (for some definitions of evil), they are fundamentally unconcerned with goodness or morality, and any appearance that they are is purely…
> while megacorps aren't fundamentally "evil" (for some definitions of evil), I think megacorps being evil is universal. It tends to be corrupt cop evil vs serial killer evil, but being willing to do anything for money has historically been categorized as evil behavior. That doesn’t mean society would be better or worse off without them, but it would be interesting to see a world where companies pay vastly higher tax…
You're taking about pre-Clinton consumerism. That system is dead. It used to dictate that the company who could offer the best value deserved to take over most of the market.
That's old thinking. Now we have servitization. Now the business who can most efficiently offer value deserves the entire market.
Basically, iterate until you're the only one left standing and then never "sell" anything but licenses ever again.
Re: Google drops pledge not to use AI for weapons or surveillance
#40They finally found a killer app for AI