Larry Ellison: "Citizens will be on their best behavior because we’re recording"

hootz

And of course, the best behavior will be the behavior that poses zero threat to the people in power. What a great future we have ahead of us, my colleagues.

wiradikusuma

I'm 100% sure a man like him, with lots of money, will have "interesting" life. The fact that he's willing to be recorded, is he an exhibitionist? Oh wait, he's exempted?

lucasmullens

> Ellison's warning came during an hour-long Q&A at an Oracle financial analyst meeting in September 2024. AI has been moving too fast to care about what some billionaire's opinion on it was 2 years ago.

pstuart

Look how well it worked for cops! I'm not suggesting we get rid of their bodycams, but it's easily gamed. It's one thing to be rich and enjoy the luxuries afforded by that, but to buy dominance over the very lives of others is when the angry mob retaliation is entirely justifiable.

twoodfin

If anyone managed to stick around through the later, lesser seasons of HBO’s Westworld , they were rewarded with a shockingly plausible view of the world Ellison is describing. And at a time when most of the computing technology required still seemed like sci-fi. I remember kind of chuckling at the idea that the machine intelligence had made and saved a recording of a random conversation Aaron Paul’s character had with his mother in a diner a decade prior. I have never been a privacy zealot, but it seems inevitable barring major political action that the panopticon will emerge comprehensive, actionable, and cheap.

shawnhermans

What really gets to me is how big tech isn't even pretending anymore to serve society. They clearly feel superior to the rest of us and entitled to rule.

bell-cot

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four#Thought_m... ADD: A local press story about Oracle's CEO and Altman "celebrating" a new DC in my part of the country, with sounds-less-creepy language: https://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/2026/06/openai-oracle-l...

Yokohiii

Larry should be a good example and publicize all his communication. Pretty sure he is on his best behavior all the time.

jqpabc123

In other words, "We're evil so you can't be".

ikonoklast

Is Larry confessing that he's not in his best behavior whenever he's not being recorded?

jimt1234

Reminds me of an old Boogie Down Productions song, "Illegal Business": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHeBotnrwEI Everything's legal, if the government can see you.

jrochkind1

I think when we look back in 10-20 years, mass nearly universal surveillance will be seen as one of the largest social impacts of AI, or perhaps the largest. We have barely scratched the surface, and I don't think most people have thought it through. I guess I appreciate Ellison is educating people about what's going on...

Patrax

"best behaviour" doing a lot of work here. Best as defined by the oppressor of course.

speak_plainly

To be charitable to Ellison, it worked well in China.

ChrisArchitect

Quote from 2024 OP. Some discussion then and since: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41562750 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42825097 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45413090

happytoexplain

Reject Larry Ellison from civilization.

doitLP

Sounds pretty bad, but what’s the context? We should be skeptical of a quote out of context with some dogpile parallels without any other context. When did he say it? Where did he say it?

sumoboy

He forgot to mention we'll need 1000 more data centers and 3000 new prisons to manage the chaos. So confused by this billionaire behavior with wanting to control society.

sometimelurker

uh... in a very literal sense upvoting this helps Ellison. I think

standardUser

Sometimes I wonder, if we were actually allowed to engage in the consensual drugs and sex that constitutes 95% of the activity people want to "get away with", would our societal response to infringements on our privacy be even weaker than it currently is?