Not the tech we thought we were getting

Look all around and we’re seeing a very different side of tech that we once admired. Overhyped AI, X in tatters, Facebook without moderation, Amazon breaking laws, and even AT&T taking credit for providing us what we paid for.

As one that’s spent much of his career in consumer technology, including twenty years in SIlicon Valley, it’s truly embarassing. Many of the leaders that once inspired are displaying a lack of spine, setting poor examples, and ignoring what’s best for their customers and the country.

This is not the tech we thought we were getting.

I remember when Silicon Valley founders struggled to get venture funding to start their company based on a premise of an idea or a crude prototype. They were hard working and we were happy to read about the one in ten or twenty that succeeded. As early adopters, we flocked to buy their products.

But the industry matured quickly and moved from fledging startups to huge monoliths led by CEOs that never seem to be rich or powerful enough. Their greed appears limitless, and they are shameless about displaying it. Rarely is the customer a priority any longer, with the result that we no longer get the tech we were once promised.

Putting customers first means shipping products and selling services that work well, solve a useful problem, are safe to use and tested to insure they cause no harm or danger. We expect that in the pursuit of these goals, the companies play fair, don’t lie or cheat, and don’t break the law.

But just this week Mark Zuckerberg displayed a new low in poor judgement, a cowardness, and a hollowness to the core, that gives his users a more dangerous product that will even lead to death or injury.

From Kevin Roose of the New York TImes:
“On Tuesday, Mr. Zuckerberg — wearing a $900,000 wristwatchand an air of strained enthusiasm — announced in an Instagram Reel that Meta was replacing its fact-checking program with an X-style “community notes” feature. The company is also revising its rules to allow more criticism of certain groups, including immigrants and transgender people, letting users see more “civic content” in their feeds and moving its content review operations from California to Texas to avoid, he said, the appearance of political bias.”

“Mr. Zuckerberg’s stated reason for these changes — that Meta had realized that its old rules had resulted in too much censorship and that it should return to its roots as a platform for free expression — was nonsense.” (For starters: Which roots? Facebook was inspired by a hot-or-not website for Harvard students, not a Cato Institute white paper.)”

From The Guardian, Dan Milmo Global technology editor writes,

“The Nobel peace prize winner Maria Ressa has said Meta’s decision to end factchecking on its platforms and remove restrictions on certain topics means “extremely dangerous times” lie ahead for journalism, democracy and social media users.

“The American-Filipino journalist said Mark Zuckerberg’s move to relax content moderation on the Facebook and Instagram platforms would lead to a “world without facts” and that was “a world that’s right for a dictator”.

Want a preview of what no moderation looks like? Check out Musk’s X. It’s filled with conspiracy theories, anti-LGBT postings, antisemitic rants, medical misinformation, and recruiting by anti-government militias and hate organizations. It’s a showcase of the worst of the worst. 

(As an aside, my wife who has been using Facebook since its inception immediately closed her account in disgust. Between the two of us, we closed a total of four Meta accounts across Instagram, Facebook and Threads. A tiny drop of water in a vast ocean, but it’s the least we can do.)

Jeff Bezos is another entrepreur once widely admired. Yet he, too, has also has shown he can be bought and puts profits ahead of his customers. He’s taken a heavy hand to his Washington Post by removing reporting that is critical of the new administration and himself, destroying one of the country’s most esteemed newspaper.

While Bezos is no longer CEO, his influence continues in Amazon’s ruthless pursuit of greater profits at the expense of its customers. Not satisfied to profit from selling other’s products on its site, they use the sales data from their sellers to clone the best selling products and then sell them under the Amazon brand at a lower cost. Dana Mattaioli’s explosive new book. “Amazon’s Everything War,” provides evidence that contradicts Amazon’s sworn testimony before Congress denying that they do this.

Meanwhile, Amazon has now become the third largest advertiser in the world by charging sellers for placement on their site, making it harder for users to find and make the best selection.

Remember how most companies competed to provide the best product or service? That’s when there was not just a handful of companies monopolizing their areas, but competitors trying to earn our business.

Finally, I thought I was reading the Onion when a friend sent me a press release from AT&T titled, “AT&T to credit qualifying customers after service outages: Who is eligible?”

Basically, they might give us what we paid for:

“AT&T made a “bold promise” to customers on Wednesday, telling them that the company plans to issue credits to consumers who lose phone service or fiber connectivity. (AP)”

“Specifically, AT&T’s new “Guarantee” promises customers that if they lose phone service for more than an hour, or lose fiber connectivity for 20 minutes, the company will credit the customer with the cost of a day’s service, which can be used in an upcoming billing cycle. AT&T says it is the first and only carrier that offers such a guarantee for wireless and fiber networks.”

Even when they do something we assume we expect, they need to brag about it.

These tech billionaires have most everything: fame, wealth, power. But no matter how much they have, they want more, all at the expense of society and the very same country that allowed them to become so successful. Sad times.