• rottingleaf@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    2 days ago

    I think I want to read more Sabatini the next weekend. No modernity at all - and plenty of such “pledges” always turning out a lie.

    Provided I won’t learn a person who went offline almost a month ago is fine (other than severe burnout as expected). The only mutual acquaintance (who is supposed to know their real address etc) hasn’t yet read what I wrote them. I’ve went offline for longer periods of time, but it’s still scary.

      • bobs_monkey@lemm.eeEnglish
        763·
        2 days ago

        Um, yes?

        Following Google’s corporate restructuring under the conglomerate Alphabet Inc. in October 2015, Alphabet took “Do the right thing” as its motto, also forming the opening of its corporate code of conduct. The original motto was retained in Google’s code of conduct, now a subsidiary of Alphabet. Between April 21st and May 4th of 2018, the motto was removed from the code of conduct’s preface and retained in its last sentence.

        Between 21 April and 4 May 2018, Google removed the motto from the preface, leaving a mention in the final line: “And remember… don’t be evil, and if you see something that you think isn’t right – speak up!”

        They kept it within their internal code of conduct, but it’s been quite a while since that was their public motto.

        • dev_null@lemmy.mlEnglish
          4·
          2 days ago

          To be fair, breadsmasher didn’t ask if it’s the public motto, they asked if they removed it. And they didn’t remove it, as it’s still in the public code of conduct.

        • Zorque@lemmy.worldEnglish
          76·
          2 days ago

          So… they didn’t remove it, they moved it.

          But that’s really neither here nor there, as it’s just words. I’ve never known a company to care much about words over profit.

  • werefreeatlast@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    2 days ago

    Maybe they should change their name to “Pacific Bell” something fitting like that. Or AT&T. Or Maybe something a little more adjusted to their near future… “Blockbuster”

    • Sturgist@lemmy.caEnglish
      4·
      2 days ago

      something a little more adjusted to their near future

      Sorry bud, with Herr Trumpf and Von Musk at the helm of the States, they’re in absolutely no danger of being slapped down a few pegs…let alone broken up and made humble. Need a functional government based on the adherence to the rule of law for that. And unfortunately what they have is D.O.G.E. “streamlining” the removal of “woke” at maximum “efficiency.”

      • werefreeatlast@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        2 days ago

        At&t was the most important company in the world. Now, not so much at all. And it happened by pissing off the costumer beyond the point of no recurring business. If you make a good phone, I buy your next one. But if you sell me a phone subsidized by Amazon such that my every moved is recorded and inspected for possible purchases or alarms for authorities, I’m gonna hard pass on your next one. Oh, no next phone? No problem. The cassette died, the CD, DVD, blue ray, all died. Sony used to sell Walkmans and portable radios. Not anymore. Kodak used to sell chemicals, lenses, cameras, optics, etc, not anymore and there are no more manual cameras made in mass production at cheap prices. Similarly, Google will find its end. Now, I don’t search by googling. That gives me shit results. I mix chat GPT and general search regardless of engine. I’m keenly aware of being monitored for purchase. I ignore email ads and YouTube ads. I use YouTube without logging in. In short I am less traceable or predictable. Thus I am less valuable. Also I will not buy IOS or Android phones for the same reason. So if I don’t buy another device, I’m automatically not a customer for any online-only retailer. Think of your idiot friend or old family member who doesn’t give a fuck about a phone… We all used to be like that. We have a phone only to be costumers… A source of revenue for large companies. Once we stop using our phones, then there’s nothing to be had from us.

        • Sturgist@lemmy.caEnglish
          2·
          2 days ago

          Agreed, just saying that they’re likely to avoid the FO stage of FAFO for a little while. And yeah, they could easily piss off the consumer enough to lose all their business, but to John T. Public, they’re still the GoTo for search, ad serve, email, navigation, in certain areas cell service/ISP. Without a strong governmental/judicial boot on their neck and gun to their head they’ll continue to monopolise a load of sectors, and will continue to pull money hand over fist for the foreseeable.

          • werefreeatlast@lemmy.worldEnglish
            1·
            2 days ago

            I’ll agree in good faith. Superstitiously, this is is like agreeing to never ever actually winning the lotto. Ah yes! I will never ever become rich or famous.

            • Sturgist@lemmy.caEnglish
              2·
              2 days ago

              Look, we can go back and forth on this until the heat death of the universe. End of the day, we’re just two meat sack LLMs practicing a bit of conjecture and hypothesis. For all we know Google might accidentally create a minor black hole at HQ tomorrow and no longer be in anyone’s hair by lunchtime. I’ll agree to stop spitballing, I hope what you hope will happen happens, but from where I’m sitting we’re clearly in the Biff-Timeline, and I wouldn’t expect things to go well for anyone but the shareholders for the near future.

              • werefreeatlast@lemmy.worldEnglish
                1·
                1 day ago

                So let’s all be shareholders? Somehow? That doesn’t sound bad. I’ll voluntarily go back to the Philippines where I’m not from and live out the rest of my life there from my shareholder package lol. Anything but the Biff timeline. That sucks. And if they rig the system to always win elections then it won’t matter if the face is orange goo or some other diarrhea. Sux!

        • Sturgist@lemmy.caEnglish
          3·
          2 days ago

          Drumpf

          Fair enough, I’m not changing it though.

          I think Google may still get split

          Maybe, or maybe they’ll slip a bulging manilla envelope across the desk in the Oval Throne Room and an E.O will make everything go away. They might be forced in other countries to spin off regional business into separate corps, but with how international banking goes the money would certainly still hit the same accounts they always did, and marching orders will still be stamped by the same hands.

    • Kite@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      38·
      2 days ago

      The canary died back when they removed “don’t be evil”. I think the canary was just resurrected as a Horizon Zero Dawn mech canary.

  • Log in | Sign up@lemmy.worldEnglish
    46·
    2 days ago

    When they removed their “don’t be evil” motto, I thought it was hilariously bad optics but probably came from some misguided thinking that if they stopped talking about the potential for evil, people would stop wondering whether they had bad motives and needed the motto to keep straight.

    It became clearer and clearer that they removed the motto because they felt it was holding them back from greater profits and was skewing employee behaviours in ways they didn’t want and bringing up objections to policy ideas that they wanted to avoid. It was never about the optics, it was about the profits.

    Now, when Google removes a pledge not to make portable killer AIs and skynet, you have to accept that it’s because they see making portable killer AIs and skynet as hugely profitable for them, and they don’t want any good intentions or moral behaviour getting in the way of that profit.

  • conditional_soup@lemm.eeEnglish
    9·
    1 day ago

    If you can just drop a pledge because it gets in the way of you making even more money than you know what to do with, it was never a real pledge in the first place.