Swastika predates the nazis by a lot too but I wouldn't put one on my leather jacket. Seniority is a weak position when trying to guess what meaning people might infer from a word.
The swastika is associated with a group that waged a major war against many nations and committed genocide and other atrocities. Avoiding it, at least in most contexts, is just good sense these days. "Q" in "QAnon" is associated with a bunch of idiots believing nonsensical conspiracy theories. These aren't quite the same things.
Giraffe makes a good point. Idiots believing nonsensical conspiracy theories became Nazi's after all. It's a slippery slope. It is completely fair to compare them. Crazy is crazy, regardless of which one is "worse".
So let's stop using the letter Q for systems related to "Q&A" services because some idiots might associate the Q with another group of idiots who have managed to accomplish nothing of value and most people know are idiots? That's idiotic.
from the NYTimes article:
The name Q is a play on the word “question,” given the chatbot’s conversational nature, Mr. Selipsky said. It is also a play on the character Q in the James Bond novels, who makes stealthy, helpful tools, and on a powerful “Star Trek” figure, he added.
I guarantee a large swath of the population will draw a connection to the conspiracy stuff. I am not claiming that there is a connection - but others will.
If you're building an entirely new product and can choose any name in the world - why would you choose one that had the remote potential to be misconstrued? Seems foolish, particularly in the current political climate where fervor is building over AI regulation and a huge chunk of our politicians are in the MAGA camp.
It's a reference to the Department of Energy "Q" clearance, which, to people who don't understand anything, is an "Above Top Secret" clearance for super-duper secret deep-state nefarious activities.
Obviously it is not that, it permits one to access all classes of SNM and Restricted Data covered by the Atomic Energy Act of 1954.
Unfortunately the votes of terminally online conspiracy theorists have the same weight as the rest of ours, which can interact with the real world.
Edit: actually, I phrased this poorly in reflection. It is good that everyone gets a vote, even people I disagree with. The unfortunate thing is the influence of online weirdness on people.
They are an extreme minority. In the real world most people have no idea what QAnon is outside of maybe a weird thing they saw on the news and laughed at.