Why Google is on the wrong path
I'm going to say this again. I think that the vast majority of
Googlers are great. I've only very rarely met a Googler I didn't like.
This has been true for my dealings with Google from the outside over
the many years since Google began, and notably during those periods I
worked inside Google. And yes, this includes engineers, many managers,
and numerous others, and yeah, even some VPs and other executives with
whom I have or had contact.
I have never had direct contact with CEO Pichai. I assume if we
chatted he'd tell me something along the lines of that he was
fulfilling his fiduciary obligations to the firm and its stockholders,
in a highly fluid and competitive environment.
Those would be logical words. But they do not capture the inevitable
sense that he has steered Google away from its traditional core
values, and many observers inside and outside of Google (including me,
of course) would argue that his chosen route was while perhaps
expedient, only one of numerous potential paths available, many others
of which would be far less damaging to employees and users, while
being far more ethical across the board, and yes, still maintaining
his fiduciary responsibilities.
Life is full of choices, and that applies to businesses too, even to
very large and powerful ones. And the manners in which the CEOs of
powerful firms choose to deploy their power has vast ramifications not
only to the firms, but in cases such as Google also broadly across
society. This is why regulatory concerns so often focus on firms like
Google -- their power is vast and their potential to do damage with
that power is also enormous. And unfortunately, once regulators home
in on a firm like Google, it's not uncommon for proposed remedies to
be technologically "ignorant" and in some cases even more damaging to
users and society than the status quo.
Google under Pichai is on the wrong course and there seem to be no
indications that Pichai plans to do otherwise than double, triple, and
quadruple down on this path.
To say that this is discouraging for Google and the world at large, is
a vast understatement indeed. -L
- - -
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein
[email protected] (https://www.vortex.com/lauren)
Lauren's Blog: https://lauren.vortex.com
Mastodon: https://mastodon.laurenweinstein.org/@lauren
Founder: Network Neutrality Squad: https://www.nnsquad.org
PRIVACY Forum: https://www.vortex.com/privacy-info
Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility
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