Instead of tech, tobacco, whatever
It's just corporations.
The food and sugar industries have tried to control or pollute scientific narrative. The car industry ("Unsafe at Any Speed"), oil and gas, mining, chemical manufacturers, and on and on.
Why do so many people seem to forget the lessons of the past with some "shiny new" industry, become enamored with it, and think "wow, these are the good guys!".
When billions upon billions, and now in some cases *TRILLIONS* of dollars are at stake, corporations will do whatever they can to protect and grow that money.
Is it finally the time for the nerds to shine?
https://ground.news/article/ai-researchers-reportedly-so-con... Etc
...
> The resulting documents reveal:
> Explicit plans by Meta to discredit psychologist Jonathan Haidt, who has been raising alarms about social media and youth mental health.
> Frustration by internal researchers because Meta lawyers were stopping them from researching youth mental health and their platforms. (Why would lawyers stop these studies? Because they risk finding something. The researchers respond by asking "“if the study only included questions about social support/positive outcomes would legal approve?”)
> Explicit plans to work with the National Academies of Sciences on social media and youth mental health with goals to “get credit” for proposing the assessment and “greatly shape the nature of the questions they will explore.”
> Alternative plans to work with another group if they cannot adequately influence NAS research, and “ensure product feature evaluations are excluded” (i.e., their product features that might be causing harm)
> Discussions of which study questions are most likely to yield benefits for the companyAs we become more democratic we can control these greedy, careless and horrid people.
Ignoring negative externalities is such a twentieth century way to get rich.
What has Meta or Google done in comparison to Dow, Bayer, and DuPont?
Just look at the products these companies have created, the common theme being plastics, they essentially defined the modern age. We sometimes call eras by the material that defines it: stone age, bronze age, etc... We are now in the plastic age: look around you, what doesn't make use some kind of synthetic polymer. Even if you actively seek to avoid plastic, you are going to find gaskets, electrical insulators, coatings, etc... and electronics of course.
If it wasn't for these companies, we would be living like we did 100 years ago, which is easy to romanticize, but look at life expectancy during that time, so, no thank you.
Did they do bad things? Of course they did, very bad things even, leaded gasoline comes to mind. But overall, I would rather be in a world where these companies exist than one where they don't. But for the tobacco industry, a world without them is, I think, unquestionably better.
Meta and Google? I'd say it is like the chemical industry, but on a lesser degree, they do good, they do bad, but overall a net positive. It means I agree with your second sentence, though in a different way.
Both are also hyper Zionist and complicit in the genocide of Palestinians.
the title should be social media. tech is also what you rely on when you travel, climb or after you break your neck.
Now AI ? The day will probably come when AI will kill on purpose without a real person's involvement. I know about the Iran School, but at that time I thought I heard the final decision was made by a person as opposed to AI.
So we really need to learn to push back should AI starts heading down that path, even if it costs you your job.
I don't think that's true. Tech kills plenty of people.
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/11/23/meta-internal-research-socia...