but-it-happened.txt

| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlQ7EoJDTQY | | | Hello, internet. I am making one of those videos where you sit in a chair and | | | directly address the camera about a serious subject. I know it's not in my | | | wheelhouse, and there are people who do this way better. And in fact, that's the | | | reason I'm making this video is that something happened last week that I really | | | wanted to see people make this kind of video about, and nobody did. So, I'm | | | hoping that I can generate some attention for it and some interest in this topic | | | so that people will cover it. | | | Specifically, there was these clips that were sent around last week. It was Eric | | | Schmidt, the ex-CEO of Google, giving a commencement speech at the University of | | | Arizona. And this did get some coverage the second half of the speech. He says | | | some things about AI that are clearly supposed to be like positive, uplifting, | | | like applause lines or that kind of thing, but actually he just gets booed the | | | entire time. uh and the students clearly don't like what he's saying. This was | | | part of a trend of commencement speakers mentioning AI and getting booed. And | | | that was kind of the end of the news story about this. | | | But in the first half of that commencement speech, which I went and watched the | | | whole thing, he actually says a bunch of things that I think are really | | | important for us to look at. They're in a way very troubling, I think. At least | | | they were to me. And so I'd really like people to talk about it and I'd like to | | | hear what people have to say to see if they think the same thing as I do. | | | So here is a clip from that first half. Give it a look. | | | We believed that connecting every human being on Earth to each other. And I | | | really believe this and all of the world's information would be an unambiguous | | | good. We believe that it would democratize knowledge, lift people out of | | | poverty, and make us wiser and kinder and more curious about each other. In a | | | sense, we thought that we were adding stones to a cathedral of knowledge that | | | humanity had been constructing for centuries. But the world we built turned out | | | to be more complicated than we had anticipated. The same tools that connect us | | | also isolate us. The same platforms that gave everyone a voice like you're using | | | now also degraded the public square. They rewarded outrage. They amplified our | | | worst instincts. They coarssened the way we speak to each other. in that way and | | | in the way that we treat each other is in the in the essence of a society. In | | | the years that after I graduated, no one sat down and resolved to build a | | | technology that would polarize democracies and unsettle a generation of young | | | people. That was not our plan, but it happened. | | | So, the thing that struck me about this was that Eric Schmidt is basically | | | talking about all of the positive possibilities of the internet, like connecting | | | all the people together and providing them access to the world's information, | | | all these really good things. He's talking about all of that in like an active | | | way. He's saying like that's what we set out to build. And I guess by | | | implication kind of that is what we built, right? | | | And the weird part is then he acknowledges all of these very bad things that | | | happened like the fraying of democracy, uh the degrading of the public square, | | | the alienation of youth, like all of these very bad things that we all kind of | | | now acknowledge have happened in the last 10 to 20 years. And somehow all of a | | | sudden the tone becomes completely passive. He doesn't say, "We built this stuff | | | and then it turned out to do these really bad things. That was our fault." Or, | | | "What a horrible mistake we made." Or, "Here's how we failed." Right? It's just | | | completely passive. He says all these bad things. We didn't set out to do it, | | | but it happened. Completely passive. It happened. That's it. | | | And you know, I can kind of see that there are people in computing history who | | | could say things like that. I mean, if Steve Waznjak wants to complain about | | | what Apple Computer is doing in terms of maybe closed ecosystems or something | | | like that, and he goes on a podcast and he says, "You know, when I was building | | | those first Apple computers in my garage, I never intended for anyone to turn it | | | into a company that was going to restrict your access to computing or control | | | what you did on your device." I mean, it would sound so genuine. It's so true. | | | It's it is what happened and you could understand his perspective. You know | | | exactly what he's feeling and what he's saying there and it's not his fault. I | | | would never consider those things to be his fault. Right? | | | But Eric Schmidt, the CEO of Google and in other executive roles there from like | | | 2001 to like 2017, the very period when like the dark patterns of internet | | | business were developed and entrenched in how the industry worked. led by his | | | company like Google the place that made advertising and data collection and | | | manipulating what people did and all this sort of AB testing everything that | | | whole thing was like their science that's what they were building literally that | | | thing for him to come out and and like cosplay as Steve Waznjak right basically | | | he's he's sort of like Tim Robinson in the hot dog outfit looking around going, | | | I'm still trying to find the guy who did this, right? To have him say that, it | | | just it doesn't make any sense. | | | But then when I thought about it, I was like, "Oh, I guess it does make some | | | sense." Because if you were there and you were one of the primary decision | | | makers who'd said, "We're going to do the business model this way and kept | | | following the money down every dark path that it implied for the technological | | | landscape. Unless you want to sort of accept that you are the villain, you have | | | to have some kind of a mental process for excusing yourself from the results, | | | right? You have to have some way of isolating. | | | And I guess this is how in Eric Schmidt's mind, he didn't build the dark part of | | | the internet. It just kind of happened as an outgrowth of what was otherwise a | | | noble pursuit of a strictly good thing. And you can see him say this very | | | specifically. He even describes it as the same tool. The same tool that is used | | | for positive X is used for negative Y is the mental framework he used and what | | | he said in the speech. | | | So to him it's as if he only presided over the construction of the tool part. He | | | only was responsible for Google the search engine. He wasn't responsible for | | | Google the advertising company, Google the data collection company, Google the | | | behavioral modification, AB testing, whatever you want to call all of that dark | | | pattern layer. Somehow he just built a search engine and wow, look at all the | | | crazy terrible things that started to happen downwind of that. It's just really | | | strange, but I guess it makes a lot of sense. | | | And with that in mind, right, like if you take that perspective, the part of the | | | speech, the second part of the speech where the students were booing much more | | | actively and that were they were booing about AI specifically, it now takes on a | | | very different tone really. Uh go take a look at like a clip from it now just | | | because, you know, just to refresh your memory of what was in there. You | | | probably already saw it, but here's an example from the second half of that | | | lecture and the kinds of things that Eric Schmidt was saying. | | | My hope is that you will choose to engage anyway, that you'll choose to be in | | | the room where these decisions take place and to have a voice in how they're | | | made. When you are in that room, bring something with you. Bring the values that | | | make us human in the first place. The technology on its own is just a tool. It | | | will optimize for what we tell it to optimize for. But somebody has to decide. | | | And in your lifetime, that somebody is going to be you. So choose freedom. | | | Choose open debates and the slow, often messy, but beautiful project of learning | | | to live alongside people with whom you disagree. Choose equality. Choose a | | | diversity of perspectives, including, let me add, and if you if you'd let me | | | make this point, please. | | | So, when you combined the first and second halves of this commencement speech, | | | hopefully you can now see why I really want people to talk more about this | | | because it's not just a case of somebody getting up and saying some AI | | | punchlines and they get booed because people hate AI. I think there's something | | | much more twisted going on here. | | | This is a case where someone who had direct decision-making authority during the | | | time period when the very worst most dystopian parts of the technology business | | | model were developed, perfected and entrenched. | | | And he is giving this commencement speech to a group of students who have known | | | nothing but that their whole lives. They're not like me. They didn't know a time | | | before all of this. They didn't experience technology in the 80s or something | | | like this. So all they know is the dark pattern version. All they know is the | | | one where they don't own anything and their data is kept by other people and | | | their behavior is tracked and their data is sold and they are targeted for | | | advertising. That's what they know about technology. That's what technology is | | | like for them and only that. | | | And Eric Schmidt, one of the primary architects, is now looking them in the eye | | | with a straight face and saying, "You should be enthusiastic about the next new | | | wave of technology. You should want to be in the room and make decisions about | | | how that new technology will go. And you should bring your humanity with you and | | | your good judgment about how we can do things in a way that will benefit all of | | | us and be good for all of us. | | | Well, yeah, but why didn't Eric Schmidt do any of that? He just said in the | | | first part of the commencement speech that there were all these really bad | | | things that happened on his watch and he was in the rooms the entire time. He | | | was in one of the most important rooms where these decisions were being made and | | | he either didn't or didn't want to or couldn't stop any of that from happening. | | | So if he wanted to pass on something valuable to these students, well that would | | | have been the thing. It would have been the introspection of what went wrong. | | | Why did he fail? Why did he say okay to building this very bad aspect of | | | technology on top of the useful tool? The parts that we all think are actually | | | good. Why didn't he stop that top part? Why doesn't he take some responsibility | | | for it? | | | Why doesn't he see that the thing that people are afraid of with artificial | | | intelligence is not just technology in the abstract. It's that they saw what | | | Eric Schmidt and his cohort of Silicon Valley decision makers did the last time | | | they were given a new technology to guide. They saw them build the dark pattern | | | version of it. They lived it and now they are terrified that they're going to do | | | the same dark pattern thing on top of the next new technology that AI will go | | | exactly the same way. | | | And what do you have to show them to try to convince them that you're not going | | | to do that? Do you show up with an apology for what happened? Do you show up | | | with an acknowledgment of your culpability there? Do you show up with any advice | | | about how to avoid it? Nothing. Just the passive voice. But it happened. That's | | | it. | | | So, I really hope that people who are better at making this kind of video than I | | | am will dig into this more and make a bigger deal out of it because it can't be | | | right that this is the kind of thing that is being said by the people who were | | | responsible for the newly dystopian aspects of technology. It didn't just happen | | | because the tool was let loose on the public and it just happened. People built | | | the bad parts of it. They did that. And we have to have some acknowledgementgg | | | about that and some introspection because if we don't want it to go the same way | | | again with artificial intelligence as it did with the internet, we'd better | | | figure out both why it happened and how to convince the next Eric Schmidtz of | | | the world and the current Eric Schmidt for that matter because he still has | | | influence in Silicon Valley and Washington DC that their decisions led to this | | | and we need to do better next time. |