Arthur Hanson
Well-known member
I just got done listening to Andy Jassy (AWS) and Toni Ried (Alexa) on Bloomberg and the rapidly increasing capabilities, depth and breadth of both and it seems to becoming to much power in one place, especially put together. Just like the trust busters of old with the oil and steel industries, it might be time to break a few companies up. To much power in one place can actually stifle and smother competition that will have the power to hurt innovation and lead to too much concentration of wealth, which has its own set of serious problems. The combination of power in just Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google has become literally staggering with a combine cash pile and business the size of many governments/countries. The question is when is too much power, too much? When does it actually start to do more harm than good? Innovation is key and even though all three of these companies are innovation leaders, are there technologies outside their box/boxes being hurt, buried or stifled or is this combination actually driving competition and technology? Should partnerships between the three even be allowed at all, because of the added danger? Giants do fall and we have seen IBM go from dominant giant to an also ran. Seattle and the SF Bay Area combined have become the core of the tech world. Maybe China will keep these giants on their toes and there is no need for action? The growth of power, knowledge and wealth of Apple, Google, Amazon, Microsoft with Facebook added is unprecedented and the ultimate results unknown. If partnered with the Chinese giants this would take us into an area the likes of which our world has NEVER seen. AI only adds to the possible terror/benefit and do we know which? Comments and Thoughts on this solicited and wanted, I do believe in the power of the Crowd.
