1) https://techcrunch.com/2020/12/23/google-reportedly-tightens-grip-on-research-into-sensitive-topics/ -- OK so Google wants to closely restrict staff research on “the oil industry, China, Iran, Israel, COVID-19, home security, insurance, location data, religion, self-driving vehicles, telecoms and systems that recommend or personalize web content.”

2) On the one hand, this is no surprise -- IBM, AT&T, Microsoft and all other prior industry research powerhouses have surely had similar controls in place ... it's only natural given that companies have partners, projects and contracts to protect...

3) However the problem is that currently Big Tech is pushing toward oligopoly in AI R&D ... meaning that corporate-profit-guided research, with the restrictions it naturally involves, is at risk of becoming basically the whole AI field

4) Universities, with all their inefficiency and conservatism -- and current sometime over-woke-ism notwithstanding -- have some very clear advantages in terms of fostering open-ended R&D. Let's give them their due. They rarely micromanage tenured faculty research topics.

5) But universities are not quick or innovative enough to be the central force driving advanced AI R&D, let alone AGI. We need new, open, democratic decentralized processes for funding and guiding R&D...

6) .... elsewise our future is going to maximize shareholder value rather than general human or transhuman value ...