At Google I/O, the company announced even more components of what could pretty well turn into Skynet. At The New York Times, Farhad Manjoo more soberly ties the protests that interrupted the I/O keynote to fear over Google co-founder Larry Page’s perhaps tone-deaf push for “context awareness,” the ultimate goal of a system that can connect cars, watches, phones, payment systems, and more. Google’s unified health care could help save lives. It could also be completely totalitarian. “Is Google, in its globe-spanning reach, trying to do so much that it risks becoming creepy instead of helpful — the assistant who got too powerful and knows too much?” Manjoo asks.
Will Larry Page’s Google be friendly, totalitarian, or both?
is a senior tech and policy editor focused on online platforms and free expression. Adi has covered virtual and augmented reality, the history of computing, and more for The Verge since 2011.
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