A step in the positive direction, at least they don't have to pretend any longer.
It's like Google and "don't be evil". People didn't get upset with Google because they were more evil than others, heck, there's Oracle, defense contractors and the prison industrial system. People were upset with them because they were hypocrites. They pretended to be something they were not.
As much as what you are saying sounds right I was there when sundar made the call to bury proto LLM tech because he felt the world would be damaged for it.
And I don’t even like the guy.
Then where did nano banana and friends come from? Did Google reverse course? Or were you referring to something else being buried?
This is all well known history.
See Facebook’s Galactica project for an example of what Google was afraid would happen: https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/11/18/1063487/meta-lar...
Many products we use every day start out unsafe and dangerous during the early stages. Why would this be any different?
And why allow the paper to be published?
We should stop putting the bar on the floor for some of the (allegedly) most brilliant and capable minds in the world.
It's clearly possible for companies to self-impose safeguards: ESG/DEI, Bcorp, choosing to open source, and so on. If investors squeal, find better investors or tell them to put up with it. You can make plenty of profit without making all the profit that can be made.
(Yes, I know there is an even larger number of "charities" that do not achieve this ideal)
I'm highly skeptical of this.