“The conclusion many colleagues are arriving at is that Google’s infra [infrastructure] and eng [engineering] culture was built to be stable and intentionally slow, and that pressures to accelerate using AI are bumping into that.”
Several things from this report from 404 media about Google employees dunking on the AI they’re being forced to use struck me, but this passage, I think illustrates an angle that’s both worrying and sad.
Software companies, if they live long enough, build up a set of internal processes and tools over time. Those processes are often created in reaction to problems: Someone notices Service X goes down in unexpected ways, so they learn to always test system changes under Scenario Y. Someone else realizes that bringing someone from Team C into a project early on means it’s more likely to get a good reception at launch.
This is how muscle memory gets built in a software org. Slowly, painfully, over time. Google is not my favourite of the tech monopolies, but there’s no denying they’ve got decades of muscle memory at this point.
That their current leadership is hell-bent on wiping out that muscle memory in the name of AI is tragic.
#tech #AI #culture
