[leoc]

Your periodic reminder that Google is still under the full control of two guys, Page and Brin. They have (IANAL) substantially unlimited ability to impose whatever changes they want on the company. And in fact they are willing to pop up again when some challenge they care about, like "winning" AI, arises. Worse, Google escaped onerous regulations in its first decade or so partly because Google successfully sold the public and decision-makers on the idea that Page and Brin were decent guys who would be responsible stewards for Google. More fool the rest of us? Sure, but that's not much of an excuse for them. If Page and Brin got even ~7% of the rage and indignation and obsessive public attention that Musk gets the world would be a saner place. But Musk is constantly jumping up and down and jangling his keys for attention, while Page and Brin are out of sight, and we are failing this object-persistence challenge.