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> In an interview, Mr. Schmidt — by turns thoughtful, pedagogical and hubristic... > While that philosophy has led to social networks that spread disinformatio

> In an interview, Mr. Schmidt — by turns thoughtful, pedagogical and hubristic... > While that philosophy has led to social networks that spread disinformation and other unintended consequences, Mr. Schmidt said he was convinced that applying new and relatively untested technology to complex situations — including deadly ones — would make service members more efficient and bolster the United States in its competition with China. If the NYT would cast an equally cynical eye at politicians as they are doing at Eric Schmidt, it might actually be productive. To me, this article is so drenched in loathing that it's hard to read. (E.g., the second paragraph that I highlighted seems to misattribute elements of the authors' opinions to Eric Schmidt.)

mellow2020 6y ago
"seems to", "is drenched to me" -- your comment is just the usual padding without content. All you're saying is that you don't like it, but have not a single thing about it you can correct.
- verall 6y ago
  No, those are some fun words, but it's not padding without content. The parent comment makes a clear point whether you agree or not: "NYT dislikes this guy so much it's distracting. I wish they did this with most politicians."
  - mellow2020 6y ago
    That commenter is so in love with Eric Schmidt it's distracting -- isn't making "obervations" about what one cannot observe in the first place fun?
keiferski 6y ago
I’m pretty critical of the NYT, but I don’t think this article is particularly biased. It’s a fairly in-depth look at his actions over the last few years and is mostly just descriptive.
ForHackernews 6y ago
Do you really think the NYT is uncritical of politicians? They're extremely critical of anything the GOP does, and moderately negative on the populist left. Maybe they're too cosy with corporate Democrats, but those are the same Davos set as Schmidt et al. If anything, I feel like the Silicon Valley titans have gotten a free pass from the media for too long. It's only in the past few years that issues like data privacy or monopoly power have started to get coverage in major media after decades of the EFF or Mozilla banging their lonely drums.
- crocodiletears 6y ago
  I'd say it's mixed. Critical coverage of tech corps like Google's market position is sparse, but when it comes, it's like watching someone trying to put up a picture frame with a sledgehammer, because it's only ever trotted out to serve as a political weapon when a publication wants to force the target of their coverage to suppress either a competing new-media outlet, or some unofficial/unendorsed' (mis)information floating around the social network. It's always framed as, "[thing] is happening, I don't like it. [Platform] is too powerful, they're too big, and they tolerate [terrorism/racism/foreign propaganda]". The article is published, gets rewritten by other journos, [platform] has its censors wipe or suppress [thing], and publication magically forgets that [platform]'s market position was ever problematic. This happens a lot, both to the right and to leftists with critiques of the established political order.
- Redoubts 6y ago
  > Do you really think the NYT is uncritical of politicians? NYT On Trump: On Thursday, he speculated about treatments involving the use of household disinfectants. Some experts disagree. From their own WH Correspondent: Once again, wondering how Trump would have fared had he ever run for office in NY and had to face either the NYC or Albany press corp. ... guess the NYT doesn't think highly of themselves at all. NYT On Biden: We found no pattern of sexual misconduct by Biden, beyond hugs, kisses and touching that women previously said made them uncomfortable. Later removed because "the [Biden] campaign thought that the phrasing was awkward" The NYT is flaming garbage.
  - 6y ago
ur-whale 6y ago
> To me, this article is so drenched in loathing that it's hard to read Actually, it's kind of fun to see the lefties attacking one another. More please.
- pc86 6y ago
  Let's at least pretend to have more intelligent commentary than "get rekt lefties LOL"
klum 6y ago
I agree that the article is a little heavy on the author's opinion — the quote above neglects to put the perils of software and machine learning in any kind of relation to their positive impact, which makes it sort of pointless. Also, headlining a section "I don't care", when the (paraphrased) quote is "I don't care why people listen to me, as long as I have a positive impact", is just ridiculous.
- ForHackernews 6y ago
  Semi-serious question here: What are some of the "positive impacts" of big data/machine learning? We have somewhat better (but still bad) image search, and somewhat better (but still bad) machine translations. Anything else?
  - klum 6y ago
    I'm not sure... someone else can probably give a better answer on this! Medicine, weather prediction, logistics and driving aids are a few possibilities that come to mind, but I don't know if those are actual ones. Even if there were no benefits, I think the quote in question was pointless without noting this. But what the quote actually refers to is a "worldview where advances in software and A.I. are the keys to figuring out almost any issue" — I would say it's safe to say that software has had some positive impact in the world.
einpoklum 6y ago
> If the NYT would cast an equally cynical eye at politicians as they are doing at Eric Schmidt, it might actually be productive. You forget what the NYT produces... it is Manufacturing Consent: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manufacturing_Consent https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manufacturing_Consent

mellow2020 6y ago

"seems to", "is drenched to me" -- your comment is just the usual padding without content. All you're saying is that you don't like it, but have not a single thing about it you can correct.

verall 6y ago
No, those are some fun words, but it's not padding without content. The parent comment makes a clear point whether you agree or not: "NYT dislikes this guy so much it's distracting. I wish they did this with most politicians."
- mellow2020 6y ago
  That commenter is so in love with Eric Schmidt it's distracting -- isn't making "obervations" about what one cannot observe in the first place fun?

keiferski 6y ago

I’m pretty critical of the NYT, but I don’t think this article is particularly biased. It’s a fairly in-depth look at his actions over the last few years and is mostly just descriptive.

ForHackernews 6y ago

Do you really think the NYT is uncritical of politicians? They're extremely critical of anything the GOP does, and moderately negative on the populist left. Maybe they're too cosy with corporate Democrats, but those are the same Davos set as Schmidt et al. If anything, I feel like the Silicon Valley titans have gotten a free pass from the media for too long. It's only in the past few years that issues like data privacy or monopoly power have started to get coverage in major media after decades of the EFF or Mozilla banging their lonely drums.

crocodiletears 6y ago
I'd say it's mixed. Critical coverage of tech corps like Google's market position is sparse, but when it comes, it's like watching someone trying to put up a picture frame with a sledgehammer, because it's only ever trotted out to serve as a political weapon when a publication wants to force the target of their coverage to suppress either a competing new-media outlet, or some unofficial/unendorsed' (mis)information floating around the social network. It's always framed as, "[thing] is happening, I don't like it. [Platform] is too powerful, they're too big, and they tolerate [terrorism/racism/foreign propaganda]". The article is published, gets rewritten by other journos, [platform] has its censors wipe or suppress [thing], and publication magically forgets that [platform]'s market position was ever problematic. This happens a lot, both to the right and to leftists with critiques of the established political order.
Redoubts 6y ago
> Do you really think the NYT is uncritical of politicians? NYT On Trump: On Thursday, he speculated about treatments involving the use of household disinfectants. Some experts disagree. From their own WH Correspondent: Once again, wondering how Trump would have fared had he ever run for office in NY and had to face either the NYC or Albany press corp. ... guess the NYT doesn't think highly of themselves at all. NYT On Biden: We found no pattern of sexual misconduct by Biden, beyond hugs, kisses and touching that women previously said made them uncomfortable. Later removed because "the [Biden] campaign thought that the phrasing was awkward" The NYT is flaming garbage.
- 6y ago

ur-whale 6y ago

> To me, this article is so drenched in loathing that it's hard to read Actually, it's kind of fun to see the lefties attacking one another. More please.

pc86 6y ago
Let's at least pretend to have more intelligent commentary than "get rekt lefties LOL"

klum 6y ago

I agree that the article is a little heavy on the author's opinion — the quote above neglects to put the perils of software and machine learning in any kind of relation to their positive impact, which makes it sort of pointless. Also, headlining a section "I don't care", when the (paraphrased) quote is "I don't care why people listen to me, as long as I have a positive impact", is just ridiculous.

ForHackernews 6y ago
Semi-serious question here: What are some of the "positive impacts" of big data/machine learning? We have somewhat better (but still bad) image search, and somewhat better (but still bad) machine translations. Anything else?
- klum 6y ago
  I'm not sure... someone else can probably give a better answer on this! Medicine, weather prediction, logistics and driving aids are a few possibilities that come to mind, but I don't know if those are actual ones. Even if there were no benefits, I think the quote in question was pointless without noting this. But what the quote actually refers to is a "worldview where advances in software and A.I. are the keys to figuring out almost any issue" — I would say it's safe to say that software has had some positive impact in the world.

einpoklum 6y ago

> If the NYT would cast an equally cynical eye at politicians as they are doing at Eric Schmidt, it might actually be productive. You forget what the NYT produces... it is Manufacturing Consent: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manufacturing_Consent https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manufacturing_Consent