| > Imagine for a moment if FB and Google took all their developers and resources... It's a nice thought exercise, but of course not realistic. FAANGs wouldn't be able to attract or retain the talent if they were purely in scientific medical research (where do you think those fancy offices and fat paychecks comes from?). Having said that, it doesn't have to be either/or. I strongly believe that companies can be successful in balancing between thriving commercial businesses and using its profits to advance research that can benefit the society at large. Case in point: Google's DeepMind has for years published groundbreaking work in various areas including breast cancer research [1], protein folding [2], energy savings and climate change [3], and more. Also Calico [4], or its investments in health startups via GV, and of course all the well known services to users. What I'd like to see is more companies following a path where a portion of its profits is used to fund research in areas that can cause societal change for the better (which, in its turn, may eventually became new sources of revenue down the road - e.g. protein folding, self-driving cars). (disclaimer: Googler here, but no relationship with any of the projects mentioned) [1] https://www.deepmind.com/publications/international-evaluati... [2] https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/07/22/1029973/deepmind... [3] https://www.deepmind.com/blog/real-world-challenges-for-agi [4] https://www.calicolabs.com/ |