Would This Employee Protest Get Traction in China?
April 10, 2018
I noted this headline and variants in my newsfeeds in the last four days: “Thousands of Google Employees Protest Company’s Involvement in Pentagon AI Drone Program.” I think this may be a management challenge for the Google executives.
What interested me is that Google wants to do more work for the US government. Amazon is working on this revenue angle as well. One company uses technology to sell ads; the other uses technology to sell products to consumers.
The contrast which struck me is that smart software is a booming business.
In “Forget the Trade War, China Wants to Win the Arms Race in Computing,” the article asserts:
While overall spending by China is unknown, its government is building a US$10 billion National Laboratory for Quantum Information Sciences in Hefei, Anhui Province, which is slated to open in 2020. US-funded research in quantum is about US$200 million a year, according to a July 2016 government report, and some researchers and companies don’t believe that’s enough.
With spending chugging along at a pace which makes the hare and tortoise race seem an apt metaphor, will Chinese employees protest the use of smart software? Will China’s newspapers publicize the apparent discord which seems to challenge Google management authority?
I am not sure what to make of this employee pushback as China pushes forward. My initial reaction is this may be an issue to consider with regards to where the hot spot in smart software may be located. And that location may not accommodate public employee protests.
Stephen E Arnold, April 10, 2018
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