Anthony Levandowski, the former Google engineer and co-inventor of the self-driving car for Waymo, is probably figuring out a way to deactivate the sensor in his ankle monitor, which he was forced to don by court order after being charged with stealing Google company secrets and exporting them to his next employer, Uber.
Nothing will stop Anthony from using AI to make things move. If he were imprisoned, I’m sure he’d invent a self-moving cell gate and attempt an escape.
Why are the feds going after this creative genius, once the darling of Google’s founder, Larry Page? Is shunting one’s inventions from one company, which claims ownership by virtue of its employment contract, to another a crime worth imprisonment? Uber, in a civil suit, has already paid Google a sum to compensate for the intellectual property.
What if Steve Jobs had signed a nondisclosure with Xerox PARC before purloining their ideas for his computers. Would he have ended up in Leavenworth?
The freedom to spread intellectual ideas – sometimes “property” – is what has spurred the growth of technology in Silicon Valley as engineers move from company to company. The more companies that develop self-driving vehicles, the better for the consumer.
Levandowski deserves a medal for his achievements. Not an ankle bracelet.
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