Google abandons 'do no harm' AI stance, opens door to military weapons

[amon@lemmy.world]

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[tempest@lemmy.ca]

I mean of course they did. A public company can not be trusted to leave money on the table. The only thing that might slow them down is the bad press that might erode good will. In this climate though they were always going to strap Gemini to a machine gun.

[merc@sh.itjust.works]

Worth noting that when Google was founded, Microsoft was in the middle of a long antitrust investigation, which was documenting every illegal thing they had done to maintain their monopoly and hurt every company that challenged it.

The "evil" in the Don't Be Evil motto was widely seen as a reference to that company and that behaviour. From early on, Google saw Microsoft as a threat. They ran Linux servers, and tried to make sure as few employees as possible were running Microsoft on their desktops and laptops. A lot of internal tools were developed to try to avoid any kind of dependency on Microsoft, including ones that eventually became available externally like Google Docs etc.

Now, 25ish years later, it's Google who are being investigated for leveraging their monopoly in a way that hurts consumers. IMO, they still never stooped as low as Microsoft did. Google paid Apple and Mozilla billions to be the default search engine. Microsoft used lawsuits and patents to try to drive their competition out of business. But, it's still a monopoly that harms the world.

Anyhow, I'm glad that Google originally had the "Don't be evil" motto, and also had this bit about AI principles that avoid the risk of harm. They act like useful warrant canaries because when they're removed you know something's up.

[very_well_lost@lemmy.world]

Do no harm (to quarterly earnings)

[redditwanderer@lemmy.world]

Same reason suckerberg went full elon. It's the gold rush of corporate greed.

[thetechnician27@lemmy.world]

Not only can they not be trusted to leave money on the table, but they can actively be trusted not to.

[dephyre@lemmy.world]

Don't be evil
Do the right thing
Do no harm
Line must go up

[stovetop@lemmy.world]

Don't be evil (to the shareholders)

Do the right thing (for our stock value)

Do no harm (to our profit margins)

...

Line must go up (before it comes down) ((wishful thinking))

[griff@lemmings.world]

could Goog-l possibly change their motto to ‘Do no smarm’ then?

[myopinion@lemm.ee]

Doing evil and harm is one of their strengths.

[gedaliyah@lemmy.world]

"Well, you have to let us do a little harm." ¯_(ツ)_/¯

[screen_shatter@lemmy.world]

Do all the harm

[samus12345@lemm.ee]

Oh god, they already blew off your arm!

[max_p@lemmy.max-p.me]

A computer can never be held accountable, therefore a computer must never make a management decision.

IBM, in 1979.

This is wide open to send a nuke on allies and blame the AI.

[brucethemoose@lemmy.world]

Well, Gemini 2.0 is bad. Flash seems to have regressed to be worse than my local 32Bs, and pro fails some prompts 1.5 gets.

Maybe they are trying to compensate?

[schizo@forum.uncomfortable.business]

send a nuke

Hey I've seen that movie.

[briantheebiscuiteer@lemmy.world]

Do harm others before others harm you

[lolrightythen@lemmy.world]

Make everyone but "us" poor, so they can't afford to resist. Just start with marginalized populations (bc that is who america truly is deep down).

Divide and conquer

[carbonatedpastasauce@lemmy.world]

Glad I abandoned Google 7 years ago when they made it obvious what they were really all about. I do miss my customized Android phones but it'll be a frozen day in hell before I give them another cent.

[jaybone@lemmy.world]

do a little arm