On the latest Core Intuition, Daniel and I talk about Apple’s new external linking rules and their attempt to audit developers for 27% of revenue. From the show notes:
They talk about what Apple’s balance of priorities with money-making vs. world-changing should be, and whether they are on the right track. Finally, they ask whether Apple is destined to gradually lose its soul over time…
@manton As you pointed out Apple has a better than average track record in some areas of conduct but even so it still a multinational corporation operating for profit above all else. Any ethical behavior is likely self-serving in the context of capitalism and the external conditions/rules/regulations of operation. They're not losing a soul they never had. They've just gotten much better at maximizing profit in the short term.
That said, I'm happy to see when Apple engages in what I deem to be ethical conduct. On many social and environmental issues they've done far, far better than most. At least in the past 12 or so years. One might say that they've behaved better in these years than in previous years when they were a smaller company.
The sad truth seems to be that many or most people don't care much about ethics or social or environmental justice unless they are directly affected by bad conduct. I could also point to how the nerd culture that surrounds Apple is sometimes a bit goofy in it's priorities both in the discussion of Apple as well as larger tech ethics. To illustrate, much of the discussion of AI in the most popular podcasts has been focused on the scraping of copyright and ownership of content. What's hardly been discussed are issues related to how AI is being used in warfare.
I suppose my point is there's a much larger conversation of ethical conduct in tech that should be discussed more than it is. But cultural and economic context limits discussion and focus and what's considered safe or allowable discussion. I'll stop there because I'm dipping into a much larger topic!