Comment by ZpJuUuNaQ5

I think the ideas was to try to explain why is a problem to choose something, it is not a comparison of the intensity / importance.

I am not sure you can make an argument of "other people are doing it too". Lots of people do things that it is not in their interest (ex: smoking, to pick the easy one).

As others mentioned, I did not have the negative connotation related to the word prism either, but not sure how could one check that anyhow. It is not like I was not surprised these years about what some other people think, so who knows... Maybe someone with experience in marketing could explain how it is done.

And of course The prism

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prism_(optics)

I remember the NSA Prism program, but hearing prism today I would think first of Newton, optics, and rainbows.

When you’re as high profile as OpenAI, you don’t get judged like everyone else. People scrutinize your choices reflexively, and that’s just the tax of being a famous brand: it amplifies both the upsides and the blowback.

Most ordinary users won’t recognize the smaller products you listed, but they will recognize OpenAI and they’ll recognize Snowden/NSA adjacent references because those have seeped into mainstream culture. And even if the average user doesn’t immediately make the connection, someone in their orbit on social media almost certainly will and they’ll happily spin it into a theory for engagement.

It's likely to be an age thing too. Were you in hacker-related spaces when the Snowden scandal happened ?

(I expect a much higher than average share of people in academia also part of these spaces.)

There was a TV show called "The Mighty Isis" in the 70s. What were they thinking?! (Well, with Joanna Cameron around, I wouldn't be able to think too clearly either.)

We had a local siding company call themselves "The Vinyl Solution" some people are just tone-deaf.

Prism in tech is very well-known to be a surveillance program.

Coming from a company involved with sharing data to intelligence services (it's the law you can't escape it) this is not wise at all. Unless nobody in OpenAI heard of it.

It was one of the biggest scandal in tech 10 years ago.

They could call it "Workspace". More clear, more useful, no need to use a code-word, that would have been fine for internal use.

Is that what you think hitler was very famous for?

The extreme examples are an analogy that highlight the shape of the comparison with a more generally loathed / less niche example.

OpenAI is a thing with lots and lots of personal data that the consumers trust OpenAI not to abuse or lose. They chose a product name that matches a us government program that secretly and illegal breached exactly that kind of trust.

Hitler vegetarians isn't a great analogy because vegetarianism isn't related to what made hitler bad. Something closer might be Exxon or BP making a hairgel called "Oilspill" or Dupont making a nail polish called "Forever Chem".

They could have chosen anything but they chose one specifically matching a recent data stealing and abuse scandal.

huh.. seems like a head-scratcher why it would relevant to this argument to select objectionable words instead of benign, inert words.