
Peter Thiel Reportedly Says the FBI and CIA Should Investigate Google - jonbaer
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/15/peter-thiel-reportedly-says-the-fbi-and-cia-should-investigate-google.html
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neom
"He singled out Google for agreeing to work closely with China, trying to get
its search engine back into the Chinese market, while deciding to let lapse a
U.S. defense department contract that gave the military access to its
artificial intelligence tools.

Thiel suggested the actions were “seemingly treasonous,” as he delivered the
opening speech Sunday at the National Conservatism conference in Washington.
He asked whether Google parent Alphabet Inc.’s AI research program or senior
management had been “infiltrated” by foreign intelligence agencies. “These
questions need to be asked by the FBI and the CIA,” Thiel said, “And I’d like
them to be asked in a not excessively gentle manner.”"

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gorbachev
...says a man who is a vocal supporter of a President with conflicts of
interest with multiple foreign Governments.

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burk96
Honestly I think this is a ridiculous take. Google's military contracts have
been extremely controversial both publicly and inside Google. The thing is, if
Google wants to exist in China, they must follow some orders. The US
government agencies do not force that kind of control (that we know of) so
they are more easily rejected. Project Butterfly and Project Maven are not
even directly comparable projects also, they have very different goals and
implications.

All that said I do believe Google and others need to face some sort of
regulations and audits. But hunting for Chinese intelligence officers seems
like a waste of time with little evidence to actually warrant such an
investigation.

Apologies if this is written weirdly, I desperately need sleep.

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iameli
I remember Project Maven was the drone AI targeting contract. What's Project
Butterfly?

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bradknowles
I think the FBI and CIA would be much better served if they were to
investigate Peter Thiel.

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adolph
Notes from Peter Thiel’s speech at the National Conservatism conference on
July 14, 2019

[https://medium.com/@bonniekavoussi/notes-from-peter-
thiels-s...](https://medium.com/@bonniekavoussi/notes-from-peter-thiels-
speech-at-the-national-conservatism-conference-on-july-14-2019-6a51b26b202)

Twitter thread

[https://mobile.twitter.com/foggyanabasis/status/115062882956...](https://mobile.twitter.com/foggyanabasis/status/1150628829565718528)

MarginalRevolution comments

[https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2019/07/so...](https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2019/07/some-
points-from-peter-thiel.html)

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warmfuzzykitten
He's internet rich, so we should all listen to his random political opinions.

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ralusek
His political opinions are pretty interesting in their own right.

You have to at least give him some degree of credit for anticipating many of
the conversations we're only just beginning to seriously contend with right
now, in 1996:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWKL0Xc46nQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWKL0Xc46nQ)

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mindslight
It would be disappointing, if it weren't so formulaic - despite all his
interesting views a decade ago Thiel is just yet another intellectual
prostitute who talked a good libertarian game when confined to being inert
opposition, yet given a whiff of stature he drops into repeating the bog
standard authoritarian scaremongering of his latent team.

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kodz4
:) cool phrase - "given a whiff of stature" \- 0 hits on google.

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SpikeDad
Fox News says the FBI and CIA Should Investigate Google in 3...2...1 followed
closely by Trump saying in his own words "The FBI and CIA Should Investigate
Google".

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filoleg
HN in a nutshell: everyone in the comments advocating for Google to be
investigated, right until the point when Peter Thiel suggests it. At that
point, slam the breaks and turn 180.

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burk96
What Thiel wants investigated and what the general HN user wants are very
different things I would imagine. Personally I'm more concerned with what
Google is doing with my data, and how much they are sharing with a PRISM like
program than anything involving China. Thiel's basis for this is also rather
weak. A censored search engine and sharing AI with the military are two
entirely different things. I oppose both for the record, but just because they
are both bad does not equate them.

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remarkEon
The censored search engine would be de facto controlled by the Chinese
military, so no they are not entirely different things.

