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Did the engineers have any input in the name? It certainly is surprising to me that kids would care. And then that they would think an AI product is a negative

Did the engineers have any input in the name? It certainly is surprising to me that kids would care. And then that they would think an AI product is a negative versus a positive or neutral example of the name. I thought bullies were more concerned with physical prowess or complexion or such things. Maybe they should just deal with the bullies themselves rather than blaming 3rd parties for the insults bullies come up with.

onion2k 5y ago
Did the engineers have any input in the name? Of course they did. They could have raised it at any point. That would be input. I think your question is really "Did the engineers have any real power over the name?". Obviously the final decision came down to someone who probably wasn't an engineer, but that doesn't mean the engineering team couldn't influence the outcome at all. Engineers can't abdicate all responsibility for the outcomes of their work simply because they don't make the final decision. Everyone on a project is responsible in some way for what happens as a result of it.
- unishark 5y ago
  We aren't talking about engineers making advertising algorithms then washing their hands of them. It's quite common for engineers to develop a product using some code name, then hand it off to other groups such as marketing who decide what to call it after the fact. The engineers would have no idea whether it will be called "Alexa" or "XJ47B" and may even be long gone by the time it is decided anyway. I think the question as I posed it works just fine. One simply needs a reasonable standard of what it means to have input. By your standard, everyone on earth had input since we all could have personally hounded Jeff Bezos with tweets or thrown ourselves in front of Amazon trucks as they tried to leave the warehouses. But certain employees were responsible for making these specific decisions on behalf of the company and those people may or may not have accepted input from employees. I suspect you already know what process is most likely to be in place at a large company like Amazon.

onion2k 5y ago

Did the engineers have any input in the name? Of course they did. They could have raised it at any point. That would be input. I think your question is really "Did the engineers have any real power over the name?". Obviously the final decision came down to someone who probably wasn't an engineer, but that doesn't mean the engineering team couldn't influence the outcome at all. Engineers can't abdicate all responsibility for the outcomes of their work simply because they don't make the final decision. Everyone on a project is responsible in some way for what happens as a result of it.

unishark 5y ago
We aren't talking about engineers making advertising algorithms then washing their hands of them. It's quite common for engineers to develop a product using some code name, then hand it off to other groups such as marketing who decide what to call it after the fact. The engineers would have no idea whether it will be called "Alexa" or "XJ47B" and may even be long gone by the time it is decided anyway. I think the question as I posed it works just fine. One simply needs a reasonable standard of what it means to have input. By your standard, everyone on earth had input since we all could have personally hounded Jeff Bezos with tweets or thrown ourselves in front of Amazon trucks as they tried to leave the warehouses. But certain employees were responsible for making these specific decisions on behalf of the company and those people may or may not have accepted input from employees. I suspect you already know what process is most likely to be in place at a large company like Amazon.