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Very unfortunately named. OpenAI probably (and likely correctly) estimated that 13 years is enough time after the Snowden leaks to use "prism" for a product but
by postalcoder 8mo ago
Very unfortunately named. OpenAI probably (and likely correctly) estimated that 13 years is enough time after the Snowden leaks to use "prism" for a product but, for me, the word is permanently tainted.
- dylan604 8mo agoSurprised they didn't do something trendy like Prizm or OpenPrism while keeping it closed source code.
- cheeseomlit 8mo agoAnecdotally, I have mentioned PRISM to several non-techie friends over the years and none of them knew what I was talking about, they know 'Snowden' but not 'PRISM'. The amount of people who actually cared about the Snowden leaks is practically a rounding error
- hedora 8mo agoGiven current events, I think you’ll find many more people care in 2026 than did in 2024. (See also: today’s WhatsApp whistleblower lawsuit.)
- giancarlostoro 8mo agoMost people don't care about the details. Neither does the media. I've seen national scandals that the media pushed one way disproven during discovery in a legal trial. People only remember headlines, the retractions are never re-published or remembered.
- kaonwarb 8mo agoI suspect that name recognition for PRISM as a program is not high at the population level.
- maqp 8mo ago2027: OpenAI Skynet - "Robots help us everywhere, It's coming to your door"
- willturman 8mo agoSkynet? C'mon. That would be too obvious - like naming a company Palantir.
- wilg 8mo agoI followed the Snowden stuff fairly closely and forgot, so I bet they didn't think about it at all and if they did they didn't care and that was surely the right call.
- moralestapia 8mo agoI never though of that association, not in the slightest, until I read this comment.
- deleted 8mo ago[deleted]
- seanhunter 8mo agoPretty much every company I’ve worked for in tech over my 25+ year career had a (different) system called prism.
- no-dr-onboard 8mo ago(plot twist: he works for NSA contractors)
- seanhunter 8mo agoHehe. You got me. Also “atlas” is another one. Pretty much everyone has a system somewhere called “atlas”.
- songodongo 8mo agoOr the JavaScript ORM.
- locusofself 8mo agothis was my first thought as well.
- vjk800 8mo agoI'd think that most people in science would associate the name with an optical prism. A single large political event can't override an everyday physical phenomenon in my head.
- deleted 8mo ago[deleted]
- arthurcolle 8mo agoThis was my first thought as well. Prism is a cool name, but I'd never ever use it for a technical product after those leaks, ever.
- blitzar 8mo agoGuessing that Ai came up with the name based on the description of the product. Perhaps, like the original PRISM programme, behind the door is a massive data harvesting operation.
- deleted 8mo ago[deleted]