Google director resigns, citing the company's military deals: "management has lost its moral compass"
Including a concern that Google's Pentagon deal could mean mass surveillance of EU citizens.
Google's own staff don't trust them anymore... we shouldn't either.
https://www.businessinsider.com/google-director-resigned-pentagon-ai-deal-military-artificial-intelligence-gemini-2026-6Open linkView original on lemmy.world
35 replies
Alphabet lost its "moral compass" more than 10 years ago, what a blind idiot.
It’s not that he’s blind, it’s that he has a different moral compass compared to us. That’s why he became a director, because he has a flawed moral compass and is driven mainly by money.
Apparently his moral compass does have its limits, or he decided he made all the money he will ever need and is trying to clear his conscience and his reputation.
Whoa, whoa, hold up. What would "trying to change the system from within" look like? Maybe he had better motives but has now given up.
Jumping to conclusions to fit a common narrative is not how we'd like to be, is it? Are we irrevocably jaded beyond redemption, or can we assume better of people until we know more?
He kept working there through a whole plethora of morally bankrupt decisions. He has proven his guilt many times over. So, what jumping to conclusions exactly?
The decisions you were referring to weren’t taking place in his department. He was in android security apparently. If we assume culpability with such a tenuous link then would you also say that paying taxes to a government engaged in such behaviour is morally unjustified per your morals?
Holy false equivalence Batman!
He still worked at the company and could quit there anytime he wanted.
If I stop paying taxes I get thrown in jail.
What if their life circumstances didn’t allow it? We don’t know who they were supporting someone in their family or whether they had a visa status that prevented easily switching jobs etc.
We cannot assume that the negotiating parties - employer and employee - are operating at an equal footing. Most often it’s not. Therefore casting judgement like this is very misleading imo.
But my original point was also that Google is such a large company that it seems weird to blanket rule everyone who worked there as being guilty because some exec approved a deal. My question was, what about extending that to the economy as a whole. Sure it’s illegal to fail to pay taxes but my question was whether you think that’s immoral to participate in the economy at all, because it’s very much like this person’s participation in google.
I think we’d both agree on what the world should look like, but I also think we have to make practical choices in the world we live in. I don’t mean it as a defense of doing some horrible thing, of course, I hope that’s clear. But if such a large employer were out of bounds for moralistic reasons then very likely you’re looking at ruling out a bunch of other companies too and it’s too much of a disadvantage to operate in for an average person looking for a job.
Sorry for the rant / long post.. but I hope I got my point across!
"Guys, maybe the Nazis in the SS were trying to change the system from within? We shouldn't jump to conclusions!"
Sure, it's technically possible they were trying to change things from within. Seeing as they didn't speak up before and continued to work there, as a director, for a long time without any public protest, indicates to me they're culpable in whatever Google was doing. If they want to prove that wrong, they're free to provide evidence, or to take actions that prove it (like leak some damning data or something). We don't always have to wait for evidence to prove something like this though.
LOL
I believe that's a key distinction. Google's behavior has become too problematic for someone who is significantly morally deficient.
Big fucking red flag here.
It’s hard to see past the money in your unvested stocks.
To his credit, google has accelerated their enshittification, but they certainly were on the shitty company list 10 years ago. But even now I’m told that Android is just better than iOS because it’s “open”, bypassing the fact that it exists solely to provide screens for people to view Google Ads.
Both Android and IOS are unacceptable. GrapheneOS for me, and hopefully once Motorola releases their "shipped with Graphene" devices, a whole lot more people. Anyone who says anything otherwise is a sucker for marketing.
eyyy, another Graphene user.
Dozens of us!
The irony of GrapheneOS is that it works very well on a Google device, and mostly supports Google devices. I'm also a GrapheneOS user.
I'm worried that with all the legal attempts by governments around the world trying to undermine privacy and encryption and enforce ID verification and total surveillance, Motorola might get cold feet about the deal. There are powerful people in many countries who would love to make GrapheneOS illegal.
Let's hope that doesn't happen. Graphene is BY FAR our best option, by a large margin.
In the short term, probably. It's still android though. There's no technical reason why phones can't be running actual Linux though, which provides users real freedom.
It's not, postmarketOS or even SailfishOS are much better, because they don't depend on Android,
10 billion rich.... Ok they lost their moral compass....
Hahahahahahahahaha
Omfg are you kidding me? You just noticed?
I mean, it's not like they ever had a moral compass to lose in the first place. "Don't be evil" - who needs to say that?
“Be Evil” wasn’t a big enough clue?
How do you lose something you never had?
Just be evil
In a public company there is constant pressure from the shareholders to place people with no moral compass in corporate management positions. It is like an evolutionary pressure. We see the results of this happen over and over again.
Better late than never...
google lost that shit decades ago.
Why do we pretend this ad company is anything but?
Please enjoy this commercial break before your invasive surveillance begins.
PFFFFFTT HAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
Oh fuck, now that is great a joke!
I would love to see a "Careless People"-style book for Google, Amazon and Palantir. Though the Palantir one would probably be called "Evil People" directly.
They had one maybe in 1995.
He only wants to help the sfascis US government kill children when they're ruled by Blue MAGA