Hacker News Reader

Comment by hadi77ir | Hacker News Reader

he resigned because of... "politics"? and not because of the path Google has chosen for Android security?

The actual reason is right at the top: he's a director who was "promoted" to IC.

The only stated reason for his resignation is that Google is no longer adhering to their promise to not use AI for weapons. I was surprised that the reasoning was so one-dimensional.

While I don't agree with the author exactly, I do admire someone sticking to their guns (no pun intended). Like Oscar Wild said, "Morality, like art requires drawing a line somewhere".

One of my favorite 80's movies was Real Genius with Val Kilmer. He accidentally helps develop a weapon and then goes to extreme measures to prevent its use. For some people creating weapons is a line they wont cross and that's not a bad thing.

Go through enough pattern recognition and you'll realize it's often not someone sticking to their guns.

Would the author have left if they didn't have another job lined up? Definitely not. Then, how strong are their principles?

That's not remarkable to many.

He has not been responsible for Android Security since 2019.

https://www.mayrhofer.eu.org/post/leaving-google/

right, I don't see the connection between being _forced_ to resign and his his pacifist principles + as EU academic he sees himself as target of likely mass surveillance

i know right. i imagine they were other reasons and this one sounded nice to share on a public doc tbh.

They are one and the same.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com