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Ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt Is Working on a Secret Military Drone Project

forbes.com

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Re: Ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt Is Working on a Secret Military Drone Project

#41

Post by threeseed »

el-dude-arino wrote: post #14
kramerger wrote: post #6

Maybe it was completely unrelated, but pre-Schmidt Google was nice. Under Schmidt it started its journey towards becoming the creepy stalker it is today. Never liked the guy, and wouldn't surprise me if he is working on landmines targeting children.

He's diddling the CEO of his main investment; Michelle Ritter of Steel Perlot. He's a fucking creep who got lucky and was in the right place at the right time, just like most tech oligarchs we all bow to, like Musk, Larry and Sergey, Zuckerberg, or Dorsey. https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidjeans/2023/10/23/eric-schm...

Schmidt was the CEO of Novell which was a well known company at the time.

And Google was a pretty unsafe bet.

It's easy to say in hindsight that these people were lucky but at the time most of the founders you list made bets that were pretty unorthodox.

Re: Ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt Is Working on a Secret Military Drone Project

#42

Post by roenxi »

el-dude-arino wrote: post #14
kramerger wrote: post #6

Maybe it was completely unrelated, but pre-Schmidt Google was nice. Under Schmidt it started its journey towards becoming the creepy stalker it is today. Never liked the guy, and wouldn't surprise me if he is working on landmines targeting children.

He's diddling the CEO of his main investment; Michelle Ritter of Steel Perlot. He's a fucking creep who got lucky and was in the right place at the right time, just like most tech oligarchs we all bow to, like Musk, Larry and Sergey, Zuckerberg, or Dorsey. https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidjeans/2023/10/23/eric-schm...

I'm identifying this as whinging without an actual complaint. Some people are lucky, and putting his girlfriend in charge of something is unimpressive but also unobjectionable in the main.

Re: Ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt Is Working on a Secret Military Drone Project

#44

Post by infotainment »

threeseed wrote: post #38
kramerger wrote: post #6

Maybe it was completely unrelated, but pre-Schmidt Google was nice. Under Schmidt it started its journey towards becoming the creepy stalker it is today. Never liked the guy, and wouldn't surprise me if he is working on landmines targeting children.

Google Adwords pre-dates Schmidt joining. And so it's unfair to blame him for what is an inevitable path once you decide to become an advertising-centric company.

I disagree -- the original AdWords felt like it was intended to be different. It was visually subtle, ads were clearly marked as ads, and the way it worked was completely transparent.

Google made a choice to enshittify AdWords.

Re: Ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt Is Working on a Secret Military Drone Project

#45

Post by coffeebeqn »

jjtheblunt wrote: post #37

How could Schmidt, kicked off the Apple Board of Directors for passing secret Apple designs to Google back when Android had a trackball, get a security clearance?

A billionaire is treated well by the US system? How could this be

Re: Ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt Is Working on a Secret Military Drone Project

#46

Post by surfingdino »

ChumpGPT wrote: post #16

After watching 1000's of Ukrainian drone videos, it's absolutely terrifying for the foot soldier these days. You almost stand zero chance and as for vehicles, it can seriously impact their usefulness. APC's,Tanks become scrap metal from a $500 drone carrying a shaped charge. The US has always depended on air superiority to fight its wars, they are completely unprepared for what facing an enemy with superior air defen…

We are getting close to the kind of warfare described in Neuromacer (i.e. Corto's mission over Kirensk).

Re: Ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt Is Working on a Secret Military Drone Project

#47

Post by petre »

paganel wrote: post #4

He was heavily mentioning drones in the Foreign Affairs piece [1] he wrote in the spring of 2023: "Innovation Power - Why Technology Will Define the Future of Geopolitics" > Drones offer distinct advantages over traditional weapons: they are smaller and cheaper, offer unmatched surveillance capabilities, and reduce soldiers’ risk exposure. Marines in urban warfare, for example, could be accompanied by microdrones tha…

[flagged]

Re: Ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt Is Working on a Secret Military Drone Project

#48

Post by sdenton4 »

nerpderp82 wrote: post #26
ChumpGPT wrote: post #16

After watching 1000's of Ukrainian drone videos, it's absolutely terrifying for the foot soldier these days. You almost stand zero chance and as for vehicles, it can seriously impact their usefulness. APC's,Tanks become scrap metal from a $500 drone carrying a shaped charge. The US has always depended on air superiority to fight its wars, they are completely unprepared for what facing an enemy with superior air defen…

Which is why we should be halting the progression and use of the drones like we are seeing in Ukraine. No one wins a drone war.

Are you suggesting we should move on from drone wars to clone wars?

https://youtu.be/enrUBmDgeOQ?si=F3nfNjO40_v04wCu&t=17

Re: Ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt Is Working on a Secret Military Drone Project

#50

Post by dmoy »

4gotunameagain wrote: post #36
2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #9

I worked for a few years in defense and it was the most meaningful work of my career so far but it is painfully slow and entrenched. There is massive opportunity for innovation. I hope he can move the needle- he was on the Defense Innovation Board a while back so he knows.

I'm curious as to what you found meaningful working for the defence industry ? Genuine question. I am asking because to me it does not seem like "defence" whatsoever.

In the US, the "defense industry" is just anything military-ish related. Or not even military related, but funded by e.g. NRL/AFRL research grants. It stems from the renaming of the Department of War to the Department of Defense after WWII.
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