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Silicon Valley is troubled by moral crisis, but where are you, Page?

Editor's note: This article is from "Netease Technology". Author: Xiao Xiao

On May 25, CNBC reported that Larry Page, the co-founder of Google and CEO of Alphabet, the parent company of Google, has always been an introvert, but his silence seems inappropriate because the science and technology industry is facing unprecedented scrutiny on issues such as data privacy and artificial intelligence (AI). In these two areas, Alphabet happens to be in the lead.

Page left most decision-making power and public speaking opportunities to other executives, including Google CEO Sundar Pichai, cloud computing CEO Diane Greene and Alphabet CFO Ruth Porat. Shareholders seem to be satisfied with this arrangement, but Alphabet is so powerful that every decision it makes will have a profound impact. Page should spend more time communicating with shareholders.

Silicon Valley is troubled by moral crisis, but where are you, Page?

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Picture: On December 14, 2016, Larry Page entered the Trump Building and met with President elect Donald Trump

Who can speak on behalf of Alphabet now? Mark Zuckerberg is the symbol of Facebook, Jeff Bezos is the undisputed leader of Amazon, Tim Cook manages Apple, and Satya Nadella speaks on behalf of Microsoft.

As the CEO of Alphabet, Larry Page and Sergey Brin co founded Google in 1998. Page is always an introvert. He never liked to participate in financial report teleconferences, and stopped participating in 2013. Since 2012, he has not delivered a keynote speech at the company's annual developer conference (I/O). In addition, Page almost never gives interviews to the media or public speeches: in 2014, he gave an interview to the Financial Times, delivered a speech on TED, and had a fierce verbal confrontation with Brin and venture capitalist Vinod Khosla. In 2015, he appeared at the Fortune conference, and that was all.

However, the situation has changed since 2015. The technology industry faces more scrutiny than ever before. Page is the CEO of an enterprise group worth 740 billion dollars. Google, the main department of the group, has its own mission statement - to organize information around the world so that everyone can access and benefit from it. However, the collection, storage and analysis of massive information is exactly what people care about. How to use this information? Who decides how to use it?

Facebook and Zuckerberg bear the brunt of these problems because of the Cambridge Analytica data abuse scandal and its relationship with President Trump. But insiders tell us that many people at Google are afraid of being dragged into the mire, because Google collects as much information as Facebook, or even more. How does Page view these problems? Is he worried about it?

Pichai is the CEO of Google. This company includes all the most important and profitable businesses under Alphabet, such as search, advertising, cloud computing, enterprise software, YouTube, Android, Chrome... Basically, everything is included except for those future projects that do not make money. Pichai is also a board member of Alphabet. He often talks about turning Google into an AI company and making AI the center of all Google products and services.

But AI is not limited to Google. It is being used in Waymo's driverless cars and Verily's health technology solutions. In addition, the growth investment department CapitalG under Alphabet is sharing Google's AI technology with many portfolio companies. What does Page think of AI? What worries does he have? What safeguards would he advocate? Unlike other technology leaders such as Elon Musk and Bill Gates, Page has been silent about this.

At the same time, thousands of Alphabet employees have signed a petition protesting the company's provision of AI technical support to the US Department of Defense's UAV project Project Maven. According to Gizmodo and insiders, so far, about 12 employees have resigned. Diane Green, CEO of Google's cloud computing business and member of Alphabet's board of directors, is said to have defended Google's decision to participate in Project Maven. Does Page also support Project Maven?

In 2017, Google employees protested against Trump's proposed immigration policy reform. Both Pichai and Brin are immigrants, and they gave an exciting speech at a large-scale staff gathering. But Page didn't.

Last year, when the federal government accused Alphabet of systematically reducing women's salaries, Alphabet's spokesman was ready to make a statement, saying that these allegations were untrue. But Page said nothing.

Recently, Google has made changes to its staff's code of conduct: it has always believed in the principle of "don't be evil" since 2001, but now it rarely mentions it. In 2016, it was deleted from the company's motto and replaced by "do the right thing". However, Gizmodo noticed that Google's code of conduct for employees changed quietly in April or May. Now it has become a common corporate language, such as "the highest ethical standards" and "respect".

Pichai made decisions for Google, but Page helped create Google and its corporate culture. What did he think?

Page made Ruth Porat, CFO and former senior executive of Morgan Stanley, the company's contact person on Wall Street. He stopped talking about Google being the second largest technology company after Apple in terms of market value. In March this year, Google was behind Amazon. Now Google and Microsoft are almost in the same state, which is the first time since 2012.

Page made no statement on Eric Schmidt's resignation as executive chairman last December, although Schmidt has been the CEO of the company for 10 years, leading Google from a dynamic start-up to one of the most powerful entities in the world.

In addition, Page did not mention any controversy about technology addiction, nor did he mention the role of technology platforms such as Google News and YouTube in disseminating false information, or the role of large technology companies in media integration.

Page's last public appearance was to participate in the trial, that is, Waymo, the driverless car subsidiary of Alphabet, sued Uber, the online car hailing company, for infringing its intellectual property rights. Page released a testimony in July last year, but it seemed that he could hardly remember many details. Uber asked the judge to let Page return to the witness box.

Page may be able to ignore shareholders. He, Brin and Schmidt all have absolute voting control, which is due to the company's multiple ownership structure and the acquiescence of common shareholders. These shareholders seem to be satisfied with the company's performance. Insiders said that one of the motives behind Alphabet's restructuring was to give Page reason to stay out of the spotlight, because Pichai now leads Google, the most important subsidiary.

But as the technology industry has become the power center of the modern world, it is no longer appropriate to hide facts from the public. Technology companies such as Google are no longer start-ups, and their CEOs are no longer awkward teenagers. They should not be allowed to hide in their bedroom, and only once every few years will a letter be stuffed through the crack of the door. When the Cambridge Analytics scandal broke out, Zuckerberg of Facebook was silent, but finally apologized several times, and then spent two days to prove to Congress how his company used the collected user information.

Apple's Cook has criticized the business model collected and sold from users, and jokingly said: "If customers are our products, we can make a lot of money, but we choose not to do so." Microsoft's Nadella did not criticize the technology industry as he did with data privacy, but he often talked about the company's greater responsibility to society. Amazon's Bezos has always kept silent on information collection, but he actively donated money to relevant groups on other social issues, such as marriage equality and immigration policy.

As the leader of one of the most powerful companies in the world, what does Page believe in? Does he care about the company's impact on society? Does he believe Alphabet is a force of good will? Has he ever doubted the data-driven cash machine he created? Is the "Don't Be Evil" employee code of conduct being abandoned in the company co founded with others? We asked these questions, but Page and Google refused to respond.

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This article is written by Contributors Author, article address: https://blog.isoyu.com/archives/guiguxianzaishenshoudaodeweijikunraokepeiqinizainaer.html
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