I find the whole thing fascinating because it just shows there are one of two things happening: 1. The CEO is being genuine but is completely powerless to driv

I find the whole thing fascinating because it just shows there are one of two things happening: 1. The CEO is being genuine but is completely powerless to drive the direction of the company at google. 2. The CEO sends memos he knows are absolute hogwash because he tells his direct reports something completely contradictory to the memo in question. If he's being genuine, even as a plebe from the outside I can see that advertising drives everything the company does. Responsible AI? Sure, as long as we can mine data to drive more ads (not responsible). Most helpful personal devices? Sure, as long as we sell ads while "helping" (aka not helpful at all). Innovate Google Cloud? I guess that's a nice side-project as long as it is cost-positive and helps us expand the cloud we run our ads platform on. Build the world's most trusted products? Sounds like we just need to convince people to trust us so we can sell them more ads. Etc. Etc. Etc.