We are underestimating the power of a system like LaMBDA. The importance of what is happing is being lost on the argument of whether the system can think for itself. It's irrelevant if it's sentient of not. What matters is that it can process a huge amount of data and come up with useful results. Given enough time, it will be part of our everyday life. And that means it will change society as we know it. It's the automation of cognitive work. And that will change everything.

Think about it as being on the verge of inventing the cotton gin for the mind. And now think about how the cotton gin changed the US and the world as it was known before. Google wants to dismiss what they are doing as less than important but we should proceed with caution. What happens at this point will have a huge impact on our future even if it stays at the level it's at. Google is being too flip about its impact.