but-it-happened.txt

In a commencement speech at the University of Arizona, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt acknowledged that the internet and social media platforms his company helped build have "degraded the public square," "rewarded outrage," and "polarized democracies." However, Schmidt framed these outcomes in passive terms, stating "it happened" rather than taking responsibility for the negative consequences of the technology his company created.

| 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. |