"The shift in politics is even starker. In the 2010s and early 2020s, big tech was well-liked by most people. But AI is absolutely loathed by the public. These companies have never faced real public dissatisfaction, they all imagine themselves to be the good guys, with the credibility of having created magical search engines and smartphones. But that era is gone. They are now akin to the bankers on Wall Street in 2008, and politicians are winning elections by saying they hate AI as much as the voters do."

Yeah I see this too. That we're not innovating any more also doesn't help make our industry look good

You can't claim that the tech industry isn't innovating. You can say that innovation effort has shifted away from many things that still need it. The issue I have is that the companies and products are so large and complex that they are extremely difficult to compete with.

I'm in agreement with the general point but was big tech well liked in the early 2020s?

Facebook scandals had exploded already, Google had already long abandoned "don't be evil", nobody ever liked Microsoft, and I think sentiment towards Apple is somewhat unchanged.

You got a few things wrong:

First, ChatGPT has been the most downloaded app for two years straight, the idea that AI is loathed by the general public is pure delusion, propped up by manipulated surveys and people living in a bluesky bubble.

Second, Big tech wasn't well liked by the early 2020s, that ended in the early 2010s when the NYT editorial board took a top down decision to cover big tech negatively.

Third, the idea that they were innovating before but aren't now is insane. AI is the biggest innovation in tech since the transistor and possibly the only true innovation since the GUI.

In 2014 I moved from London to SF to start a big tech job. In my first day there I accidentally wondered into a massive rally, I asked one of the participants what it was about and they said they were protesting all these foreign tech workers coming to SF. It felt a bit weird to end up in the middle of an ‘anti-me’ rally - especially one so passionate and energetic. A few protesters pressed me on where I was from and what I do, I lied and told them I was an investment banker. They told me that they suppose that was ok. I specifically told them that because not long ago it was finance being the target of protests and I curious to see if they had somehow moved on - if this was a principled stance or if it was being astroturfed.

These protests ended up getting pretty violent, people were throwing rocks through bus windows, throwing up on cars.

People began disliking big tech well before this latest bout of AI.

>But AI is absolutely loathed by the public.

by the public populating the echo chambers on reddit and bluesky, perhaps.

9.5 out of 10 normies use it daily now and have no negative opinions about it. the wholesome folx use it too, despite their incessant kvetching.

This feeling made me leave the tech industry.

It felt like I was helping the bad guys, and my conscience couldn't deal with that.

Considering the search engine company is selling a very popular self driving taxi service, they seem to be quite credible and innovative.

[dead]

People are being led around by the nose. Cui bono? 2000 years and most people still can't manage to ask that question reflexively. AI hate is a parochial narrative being pushed by people who stand to lose influence. Examined objectively, there are reasons to be cautious when adopting AI tools but a knee-jerk rejection of everything AI is a purely irrational response that has been drilled into people through repetition, conformity and media influence.

Tech companies were never the "good guys" any more than they are the "bad guys" now. Those are just colored filters thrown in front of the lime light to shift your perception. As soon as tech or AI works to their benefit then suddenly they'll be the good guys again and no one will care they were the bad guys before. People just go where the algo leads them, believe what their influencers believe, think what their peers think.