Aside from making a name for itself rigging elections and censoring dissident media, Google has become notorious over the years for quietly walking back its publicly stated, apparently deeply held beliefs regarding its moral obligations to deploy technology responsibly in our Brave New World.
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Sometime in the spring of 2018, Google silently nixed its longstanding motto, “Don’t Be Evil,” from its code of conduct.
The precise date of the shift in policy is unknown because the company scrubbed it in the middle of the night like “Animal Farm” pigs did with the commandments.
Some animals are more equal than others.
Via Gizmodo, May 18, 2018 (emphasis added):
Google’s unofficial motto has long been the simple phrase “don’t be evil.” But that’s over, according to the code of conduct that Google distributes to its employees. The phrase was removed sometime in late April or early May, archives hosted by the Wayback Machine show.
“Don’t be evil” has been part of the company’s corporate code of conduct since 2000. When Google was reorganized under a new parent company, Alphabet, in 2015, Alphabet assumed a slightly adjusted version of the motto, “do the right thing.” However, Google retained its original “don’t be evil” language until the past several weeks. The phrase has been deeply incorporated into Google’s company culture—so much so that a version of the phrase has served as the wifi password on the shuttles that Google uses to ferry its employees to its Mountain View headquarters, sources told Gizmodo…
Despite this significant change, Google’s code of conduct says it has not been updated since April 5, 2018.
Why would Google go out of its way to purge a seemingly laudable motto such as “Don’t Be Evil” from its corporate literature? We can only speculate, since the company didn’t accompany the policy shift with any public announcement of the rationale.
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Similarly, the mega-corporation recently memory-holed a pledge on its “AI principles” page that it would not develop AI for weapons or surveillance applications.
Via TechCrunch (emphasis added):
Google removed a pledge to not build AI for weapons or surveillance from its website this week. The change was first spotted by Bloomberg. The company appears to have updated its public AI principles page, erasing a section titled “applications we will not pursue,” which was still included as recently as last week.
Asked for comment, the company pointed TechCrunch to a new blog post on “responsible AI.” It notes, in part, “we believe that companies, governments, and organizations sharing these values should work together to create AI that protects people, promotes global growth, and supports national security.”
Of course, the idea that Google would not use AI for “weapons or surveillance” was also farcical. On surveillance score, tracking its users and selling their data to the private sector as well as sharing it with law enforcement has been central to its business for years. On the weapons score, we’re living in the age of information warfare, so just because Google isn't currently churning out munitions in some factory doesn’t mean it’s not engaged in warfare.
The weaponization of AI, indeed, appears inevitable. The dilemma, from a national security perspective, is akin to the nuclear arms race of the 20th Century that is currently ongoing and likely to accelerate once AI starts building weapons with existential implications of its own.
