I am surprised at how much trust is placed in GitHub from avowed open source evangelists. The npm debacle is a quick preview of what it looks like when things go wrong.
Sometimes open source and corporate interests do align. If a corporation wants to have a large pool of potential engineers to hire from, they need a large base of programmers with experience programming using their platforms. Why else would Google released their AI Engine TensorFlow? Other recent examples include Microsoft Open Sourcing the .NET platform and Apple opening up the Swift language.
I think the reasons behind AI, in particular, go far beyond what you're looking at. Many companies, most assuredly including Google, know full well where AI is taking us, and could take us. I think OpenAI phrases it quite eloquently in their mission statement. OpenAI is a billion dollar nonprofit started by many of the biggest names in Silicon Valley with the specific goal of not having to make a profit and instead working to ensure that AI is something that can and will be utilized to the benefit of all of society and not just an elite few.
This isn't also just singing kumbaya. The finish line for advanced AI is not really the finish line, but the starting point of an entirely new game. We're not competing to build a racecar so it can go drive around in circles against other racecars. We're competing to build a racecar so we can take it out into the wild and then do amazing things with it. AI isn't the goal, but the medium! And once advanced AI is a reality it's going to completely reshape everything we do. A company like Google would be extremely well positioned to be one of the biggest players in this brave new world, so open sourcing and pushing AI forward as fast as possible is something that is not only great for society, but also makes sense even from the perspective of their own self interest.
4 comments
5 u/Genr8r [OP] 21 May 2016 12:13
I am surprised at how much trust is placed in GitHub from avowed open source evangelists. The npm debacle is a quick preview of what it looks like when things go wrong.
0 u/LardOn4Bacon 21 May 2016 14:26
I personally can't wait until github pulls some bs to piss everyone off. Hopefully it will be too late for shit to avoid the fan.
3 u/elcob32 21 May 2016 13:56
Sometimes open source and corporate interests do align. If a corporation wants to have a large pool of potential engineers to hire from, they need a large base of programmers with experience programming using their platforms. Why else would Google released their AI Engine TensorFlow? Other recent examples include Microsoft Open Sourcing the .NET platform and Apple opening up the Swift language.
1 u/rwbj 21 May 2016 18:17
I think the reasons behind AI, in particular, go far beyond what you're looking at. Many companies, most assuredly including Google, know full well where AI is taking us, and could take us. I think OpenAI phrases it quite eloquently in their mission statement. OpenAI is a billion dollar nonprofit started by many of the biggest names in Silicon Valley with the specific goal of not having to make a profit and instead working to ensure that AI is something that can and will be utilized to the benefit of all of society and not just an elite few.
This isn't also just singing kumbaya. The finish line for advanced AI is not really the finish line, but the starting point of an entirely new game. We're not competing to build a racecar so it can go drive around in circles against other racecars. We're competing to build a racecar so we can take it out into the wild and then do amazing things with it. AI isn't the goal, but the medium! And once advanced AI is a reality it's going to completely reshape everything we do. A company like Google would be extremely well positioned to be one of the biggest players in this brave new world, so open sourcing and pushing AI forward as fast as possible is something that is not only great for society, but also makes sense even from the perspective of their own self interest.