Prof. Emily M. Bender(she/her)"The trusted internet-search giant is providing low-quality information in a race to keep up with the competition," --- this phrasing makes it starkly clear that it's a race to nowhere good.
From @daveyalba
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“The group working on ethics that Google pledged to fortify is now disempowered and demoralized, the current and former workers said.”
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Google’s leaders decided that as long as it called new products “experiments,” the public might forgive their shortcomings, the employees said.
➡️We don’t tolerate “experiments” that pollute the natural ecosystem and we shouldn’t tolerate those that pollute the information ecosystem either.
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“Silicon Valley as a whole is still wrestling with how to reconcile competitive pressures with safety.”
➡️Are they though? It seems to me that those in charge (i.e. VCs and C-suite execs) are really only interested in competition (for $$).
“But ChatGPT’s remarkable debut meant that by early this year, there was no turning back.”
➡️False. We turned back from lead in gasoline. We turned back from ozone-destroying CFCs. We can turn back from text synthesis machines.
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“On the same day, [Google] announced that it would be weaving generative AI into its health-care offerings.”
➡️ 🚨🚨🚨
“Employees say they’re concerned that the speed of development is not allowing enough time to study potential harms.”
➡️Employees are correct.
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wobweger 
@emilymbender 🤨
in nearly all other tech-segments, you need to prove that a product does no harm, a company producing even one trading the product is accountable, down to the engineer;
why isn't that applicable on software products?
... even with piles of red flags up ...
in nearly all other tech-segments, you need to prove that a product does no harm, a company producing even one trading the product is accountable, down to the engineer;
why isn't that applicable on software products?
... even with piles of red flags up ...
richardwild@wobweger @emilymbender this has been in the culture of the software industry for a long time. In most software EULAs you will find clauses disclaiming all liability for consequences arising from the use or misuse of the product. Software vendors routinely refuse to provide any guarantees about the correctness of their product. It's rotten and it should change.