5 ms·

Pretty unbelievable the times published this opinion piece by Thiel. Without any real evidence to back his claim and given Thiel's past, its hard for me to imag

by kahnjw 7y ago

Pretty unbelievable the times published this opinion piece by Thiel. Without any real evidence to back his claim and given Thiel's past, its hard for me to imagine this isn't him pushing a false narrative for some emotionally charged ulterior motive.

AndrewBissell 7y ago
What claims do you see him putting forth "without any real evidence"? I don't see how it's at all off base to assume China might take a military interest in AI labs Google establishes in Beijing. EDIT: Ah, I see that Thiel said elsewhere that China already carried out espionage inside Google and hasn't backed this up. That claim is absent from this op-ed but it may be CYA for those comments on his part.
- kahnjw 7y ago
  Context: Thiel originally made this claim in a speech where he claimed Google is committing "treason." [1] Given his "evidence" that's obviously insane. A large fractions of large multinationals have offices in China. I assume the editors at the Times told him that was a non-starter so he toned it down a bit. Nowhere in the article does he disclose that he, at one point, owned 10% of facebook, a top competitor of Google's. Most ironically, Facebook announced they'd open an office in china over a year ago [2]. He makes unsubstantiated claims that technology coming from this lab will be useful in the military before all else etc. He neglects to mention Google's public intent for the office, which has nothing to do with the military [3]. [1] https://www.axios.com/peter-thiel-says-fbi-cia-should-probe-google-9846a042-e689-49bc-bdc7-595988ce5d8c.html https://www.axios.com/peter-thiel-says-fbi-cia-should-probe-... [2] https://www.theverge.com/2018/7/24/17607992/facebook-allowed-china-censorship-ban-hangzhou-zuckerberg https://www.theverge.com/2018/7/24/17607992/facebook-allowed... [3] https://ai.google/research/join-us/beijing/ https://ai.google/research/join-us/beijing/
  - espeed 7y ago
    China currently does not have the capability to design and make advanced hardware microprocessor chips. The Google/IBM OpenPOWER Foundation is simultaneously researching nextgen chips and teaching China how to do so. Giving China this capability, i.e. gifting the gap, will give China an advanced hardware capability they do not have and did not earn. It will undoubtedly be used by the Chinese military. The supercomputer labs is the primary target. The AI race is already a big unknown, and the Chinese government internal checks and balances are inorganic and not yet tested. Remember the tenets, be slow to speak and be wary of unearned wisdom. What is the point of accelerating this?
- kahnjw 7y ago
  >EDIT: Ah, I see that Thiel said elsewhere that China already carried out espionage inside Google and hasn't backed this up. That claim is absent from this op-ed but it may be CYA for those comments on his part. I'm sure editors at the Times struck that as well. Still it makes you wonder, why publish him at all?
- lonelappde 7y ago
  Google publicly announced in 2010 that China hacked them, and that's why Google withdrew from China in the first place.
- fredgrott 7y ago
  was there any google entities linked to the HP cloud europe china hacker break ins?
lonelappde 7y ago
The NYT Opinion pages is a traditional forum for socioeconomic elites to push self-serving propaganda. Nothing unusual about that. Recall that Theil is on record as saying that democracy and women voting is bad for America. https://en.m.wikiquote.org/wiki/Peter_Thiel https://en.m.wikiquote.org/wiki/Peter_Thiel
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]

by kahnjw 7y ago

AndrewBissell 7y ago

What claims do you see him putting forth "without any real evidence"? I don't see how it's at all off base to assume China might take a military interest in AI labs Google establishes in Beijing. EDIT: Ah, I see that Thiel said elsewhere that China already carried out espionage inside Google and hasn't backed this up. That claim is absent from this op-ed but it may be CYA for those comments on his part.

kahnjw 7y ago
Context: Thiel originally made this claim in a speech where he claimed Google is committing "treason." [1] Given his "evidence" that's obviously insane. A large fractions of large multinationals have offices in China. I assume the editors at the Times told him that was a non-starter so he toned it down a bit. Nowhere in the article does he disclose that he, at one point, owned 10% of facebook, a top competitor of Google's. Most ironically, Facebook announced they'd open an office in china over a year ago [2]. He makes unsubstantiated claims that technology coming from this lab will be useful in the military before all else etc. He neglects to mention Google's public intent for the office, which has nothing to do with the military [3]. [1] https://www.axios.com/peter-thiel-says-fbi-cia-should-probe-google-9846a042-e689-49bc-bdc7-595988ce5d8c.html https://www.axios.com/peter-thiel-says-fbi-cia-should-probe-... [2] https://www.theverge.com/2018/7/24/17607992/facebook-allowed-china-censorship-ban-hangzhou-zuckerberg https://www.theverge.com/2018/7/24/17607992/facebook-allowed... [3] https://ai.google/research/join-us/beijing/ https://ai.google/research/join-us/beijing/
- espeed 7y ago
  China currently does not have the capability to design and make advanced hardware microprocessor chips. The Google/IBM OpenPOWER Foundation is simultaneously researching nextgen chips and teaching China how to do so. Giving China this capability, i.e. gifting the gap, will give China an advanced hardware capability they do not have and did not earn. It will undoubtedly be used by the Chinese military. The supercomputer labs is the primary target. The AI race is already a big unknown, and the Chinese government internal checks and balances are inorganic and not yet tested. Remember the tenets, be slow to speak and be wary of unearned wisdom. What is the point of accelerating this?
kahnjw 7y ago
>EDIT: Ah, I see that Thiel said elsewhere that China already carried out espionage inside Google and hasn't backed this up. That claim is absent from this op-ed but it may be CYA for those comments on his part. I'm sure editors at the Times struck that as well. Still it makes you wonder, why publish him at all?
lonelappde 7y ago
Google publicly announced in 2010 that China hacked them, and that's why Google withdrew from China in the first place.
fredgrott 7y ago
was there any google entities linked to the HP cloud europe china hacker break ins?

lonelappde 7y ago

The NYT Opinion pages is a traditional forum for socioeconomic elites to push self-serving propaganda. Nothing unusual about that. Recall that Theil is on record as saying that democracy and women voting is bad for America. https://en.m.wikiquote.org/wiki/Peter_Thiel https://en.m.wikiquote.org/wiki/Peter_Thiel

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]