I Want It To Be HAL

from Esquire

I call it the Internet of One. I want it to be mine, and I don't want to work too hard to get what I need. In a way, I want it to be HAL. I want it to learn about me, to be me, and cull through the massive amount of information that's out there to find exactly what I want.

At first blush it doesn't sound out of the ordinary for the confident new CEO of a technology company to use a classic sci-fi movie to illustrate her philosophy. HAL, from 2001: A Space Odyssey is a computer with a human psyche, and a marvel of hands-on artificial intelligence.

But Carol Bartz has forgotten the outcome of the movie, based on Arthur C. Clarke's novel. HAL malfunctions and kills the astronauts that he was supposed to be working for. Because HAL was programmed to ensure the success of the mission at any cost, the computer deemed fit to sacrifice Frank and Dave.

In this light, Google and Apple have never sounded better, since Bartz seems to be threatening her users with murder if they stand in the way of Yahoo's progress.