Google Shut Out Privacy and Security Teams from Secret China Project
My personal conclusions:<p>- Google can&#x27;t be trusted on anything to do with building responsible AI (they violated ACM Code of Ethics and their own AI at Google Principles).<p>- Google has no authority to talk about ethical use of technology and human resources. The main manager responsible for this kerfuffle brands himself as promoting diversity and responsible use of technology.<p>- Google can&#x27;t lay claim to being a transparent company, both to its users and outsiders, and to its employees and insiders. Even Larry Page was blissfully unaware of this controversial project that directly goes against his motivations for leaving China in the first place.<p>- When you go work for Google, you&#x27;ll have colleagues and managers that won&#x27;t speak up if they get to work on another unethical project. That will eschew core values for making their stock options grow. That want to build their own empire and positive performance reviews at all cost (even if this costs Google dearly in PR and culture damage).<p>- Google can&#x27;t be trusted to be self-regulating, putting the user first, and to clean up any damage done from a top-level ethics violation. There is no objective ethics commission or employee Ombudsman to keep the bulls in check.<p>- There are more than a few rotten apples in the upper echelons of Google. Perhaps such $$-eyes behavior is rewarded by growing the ranks and internal opposition is seen as a necessary evil to be managed.