A Planet Money interview with an author profiling the founder and current chief executive officer of the company’s AI research laboratory, now called Google Brain, Demis Hassbis, aside from covering the computer scientist’s lofty and noble ambitions and striving for fundamental understanding, the author also puts forward an intriguing set of reasons that might account for the tech giant’s self-sabotage. As with the case-studies of industry leaders developing potential disruptive innovations—Kodak inventing the first digital cameras, Blockbuster’s early partnership with Netflix, Xerox’ pioneering of the personal computer—likewise for Google, whose business model is based on reliable search results and serving advertising, it may have perceived a threat to its reputation should those answers be seen as something below what we’ve become accustomed to and reluctance to deviate from a proven formula. More from the NPR podcast at the link above.
synchronoptica
one year ago: assorted links to revisit (with sychronoptica) plus Campus Crusades for Christ
two years ago: Savage Curtain, impressions of West Berlin in the summer of 1977 plus Project 2025
three years ago: more links to enjoy
four years ago: TRON (1982), the first animated Hobbit, Choreography for a Copy Machine, Prague’s Charles Bridge plus even more links
five years ago: pets’ past lives regression, more on the Know Nothing Party plus underway to Sweden
six years ago: Bernkastle-Kues, more of Mittlemosel plus the Republic of Palau (1981)