I don't think Google/Facebook execs realize to what extent they destroyed themselves when they allowed the meltdown over James Damore. He literally wrote a whole essay warning them of the dangers of allowing rampant left wing purity spirals inside their companies, and they wrecked him for it.
Now years later they have problems like not being able to release something that will make playlists with Kanye in it, or they can't make their AI available at all because given a prompt like "picture of a builder" it draws white men (Google Imagen). If they hadn't ruthlessly purged or suppressed every single conservative years ago they might now have some way to push back against or make peace with this insanity, but instead they have to sit back and watch as OpenAI systematically eat their lunch. Largely by poaching all the researchers who were sick of the crazies being in charge!
There's a management lesson in here for those who choose to look, but somehow it seems unlikely many will.
Now years later they have problems like not being able to release something that will make playlists with Kanye in it, or they can't make their AI available at all because given a prompt like "picture of a builder" it draws white men (Google Imagen). If they hadn't ruthlessly purged or suppressed every single conservative years ago they might now have some way to push back against or make peace with this insanity, but instead they have to sit back and watch as OpenAI systematically eat their lunch. Largely by poaching all the researchers who were sick of the crazies being in charge!
There's a management lesson in here for those who choose to look, but somehow it seems unlikely many will.