Jaron Lanier once told me why he chose to work with Microsoft rather than Google or Facebook. “It’s because,” he said, “Microsoft charges for the use of its products and services. In contrast, everything on Google and Facebook is ad driven.”
“Their revenue model is based on selling your personal data, so they have no choice but to be evil.
Some time later, I was talking with Yann LeCun. He told me why, as an A.I. reseaercher, he chose to work with Facebook rather than Google. “Both,” he explained, “gather people’s data. But Facebook is better, because people who use Facebook annotate their own data.”
I am fascinated by the way these two conversations are related.