7 ms·

Google has 'outgrown' its 14-year old mission statement, says Larry Page

64 points by Libertatea 12y ago

porter 12y ago
It's like trying to figure out a new mission after you've already taken over the world. What the heck comes after that?
- ape4 12y ago
  Mars
- fidotron 12y ago
  They really haven't taken over the world, but they have run out of relatively low hanging fruit to attack. As gets pointed out a lot, their fundamental problem is an allergy to business models which involve humans in the workflow, and this will continue to be their problem as they simply haven't learned how to deal with people properly.
- agumonkey 12y ago
  The hardest part is to put yourself back into the 2nd runner mindset. The world is moving, you'll have to take over it again or join Kodak et al.
- swframe 12y ago
  I suspect a lot of the difficult world problems relate to poverty. The first job of "real" AI should be to better employ the under employed. Google (along with other highly successful companies) should provide the work environment and training programs for people in the 3rd world that will allow them to earn enough to become customers of 1st world businesses; similar to the way china buys US bonds that enable the US to buy chinese products. I think the first job of the 3rd world worker should be to transform their environment to 1st world standards. This will be extremely challenging. For example, there aren't enough resources to make the 3rd world into the 1st world. Those are the problems that google should hire 3rd world workers to solve.
jeremyjarvis 12y ago
Are they now actively planning on being evil?
- rl3 12y ago
  Considering their recent acquisitions on the cutting edge of robotics and artificial intelligence research, I certainly hope not.
jgilliam 12y ago
The Guardian's headline is very misleading. Google's mission statement is not "don't be evil" - it's "to organise the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful." Larry Page is clearly referring to the mission statement that may need to change, not "Don't be evil." This is all made very clear in the original FT article The Guardian cites, they just chose to go for a more inaccurate and salacious framing of the entire story. http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/3173f19e-5fbc-11e4-8c27-00144feabdc0.html#axzz3I1Ga58zO http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/3173f19e-5fbc-11e4-8c27-00144... [edit: the guardian changed the headline!]
- pmontra 12y ago
  "Don't be evil" is the corporate motto http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don%27t_be_evil http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don%27t_be_evil That's a very difficult motto to change. Removing it would mean "we're free to do evil now" and that won't be received well. Anyway, I wonder if is there anyone left who thinks Google is still faithful to their motto.
  - shizcakes 12y ago
    Given a sufficient cardinality of perspectives, everyone and everything is "evil".
    - pmontra 12y ago
      Yes, me too and knowing that I never wrote "don't be evil" on the door of my house. Google did it and they put themselves in the position of having to be more moral than anyone else, to everybody.
      - gtremper 12y ago
        Paul Buchheit wrote it on a whiteboard once, and it stuck. Blame him.
  - curun1r 12y ago
    > Removing it would mean "we're free to do evil now" It's a subtle distinction, but the motto is "don't be evil", not "don't do evil." The former allows you to do evil things in service to noble purposes. For example, "don't do evil" would have required the company to shut down services rather than sharing information with the NSA. "Don't be evil" allowed them to balance that evil action against the good created by those services to realize a net-positive societal benefit from offering those services.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
camillomiller 12y ago
With its Search products Google is already shaping the Western World views and culture in subtle ways not everybody's noticing. In doing that, almost always in a purely algorithmic way without human intervention, the "evil" threshold has been passed many times. Again, without anyone really noticing. In other words, it was an old motto already.
- api 12y ago
  I'd consider it far more evil if it were with human intervention.
  - gress 12y ago
    It is with human intervention, so please consider it far more evil. Each individual search is of course determined algorithmically, but the criteria for relevance that the algorithm applies are chosen by Google employees.
  - tonyplee 12y ago
    It is always with human intervention - whoever controls the ranking algorithm controls the display results. That's power of Google. Simple change of ranking algorithm can drop some website's traffic by 80%-90% for good or bad.
- NN88 12y ago
  Basically the CIA long con?
Zigurd 12y ago
How about "Enable knowledge of good and evil."
daveloyall 12y ago
I would go so far as to suggest that this link be ignored and this one be viewed instead: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8539114 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8539114
Kiro 12y ago
> This article previously stated that “don’t be evil” was part of Google’s mission statement, and has been corrected. Change the title.
dsugarman 12y ago
when you so vastly outgrow your mission statement, antitrust issues are likely present

64 points by Libertatea 12y ago

porter 12y ago

It's like trying to figure out a new mission after you've already taken over the world. What the heck comes after that?

ape4 12y ago
Mars
fidotron 12y ago
They really haven't taken over the world, but they have run out of relatively low hanging fruit to attack. As gets pointed out a lot, their fundamental problem is an allergy to business models which involve humans in the workflow, and this will continue to be their problem as they simply haven't learned how to deal with people properly.
agumonkey 12y ago
The hardest part is to put yourself back into the 2nd runner mindset. The world is moving, you'll have to take over it again or join Kodak et al.
swframe 12y ago
I suspect a lot of the difficult world problems relate to poverty. The first job of "real" AI should be to better employ the under employed. Google (along with other highly successful companies) should provide the work environment and training programs for people in the 3rd world that will allow them to earn enough to become customers of 1st world businesses; similar to the way china buys US bonds that enable the US to buy chinese products. I think the first job of the 3rd world worker should be to transform their environment to 1st world standards. This will be extremely challenging. For example, there aren't enough resources to make the 3rd world into the 1st world. Those are the problems that google should hire 3rd world workers to solve.

jeremyjarvis 12y ago

Are they now actively planning on being evil?

rl3 12y ago
Considering their recent acquisitions on the cutting edge of robotics and artificial intelligence research, I certainly hope not.

jgilliam 12y ago

The Guardian's headline is very misleading. Google's mission statement is not "don't be evil" - it's "to organise the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful." Larry Page is clearly referring to the mission statement that may need to change, not "Don't be evil." This is all made very clear in the original FT article The Guardian cites, they just chose to go for a more inaccurate and salacious framing of the entire story. http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/3173f19e-5fbc-11e4-8c27-00144feabdc0.html#axzz3I1Ga58zO http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/3173f19e-5fbc-11e4-8c27-00144... [edit: the guardian changed the headline!]

pmontra 12y ago
"Don't be evil" is the corporate motto http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don%27t_be_evil http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don%27t_be_evil That's a very difficult motto to change. Removing it would mean "we're free to do evil now" and that won't be received well. Anyway, I wonder if is there anyone left who thinks Google is still faithful to their motto.
- shizcakes 12y ago
  Given a sufficient cardinality of perspectives, everyone and everything is "evil".
  - pmontra 12y ago
    Yes, me too and knowing that I never wrote "don't be evil" on the door of my house. Google did it and they put themselves in the position of having to be more moral than anyone else, to everybody.
    - gtremper 12y ago
      Paul Buchheit wrote it on a whiteboard once, and it stuck. Blame him.
- curun1r 12y ago
  > Removing it would mean "we're free to do evil now" It's a subtle distinction, but the motto is "don't be evil", not "don't do evil." The former allows you to do evil things in service to noble purposes. For example, "don't do evil" would have required the company to shut down services rather than sharing information with the NSA. "Don't be evil" allowed them to balance that evil action against the good created by those services to realize a net-positive societal benefit from offering those services.

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

camillomiller 12y ago

With its Search products Google is already shaping the Western World views and culture in subtle ways not everybody's noticing. In doing that, almost always in a purely algorithmic way without human intervention, the "evil" threshold has been passed many times. Again, without anyone really noticing. In other words, it was an old motto already.

api 12y ago
I'd consider it far more evil if it were with human intervention.
- gress 12y ago
  It is with human intervention, so please consider it far more evil. Each individual search is of course determined algorithmically, but the criteria for relevance that the algorithm applies are chosen by Google employees.
- tonyplee 12y ago
  It is always with human intervention - whoever controls the ranking algorithm controls the display results. That's power of Google. Simple change of ranking algorithm can drop some website's traffic by 80%-90% for good or bad.
NN88 12y ago
Basically the CIA long con?

Zigurd 12y ago

How about "Enable knowledge of good and evil."

daveloyall 12y ago

I would go so far as to suggest that this link be ignored and this one be viewed instead: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8539114 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8539114

Kiro 12y ago

> This article previously stated that “don’t be evil” was part of Google’s mission statement, and has been corrected. Change the title.

dsugarman 12y ago

when you so vastly outgrow your mission statement, antitrust issues are likely present