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A comment on Microsoft is walking back Windows 11's AI overload. Parent comment

Re:Microsoft is walking back Windows 11's AI overload by 3D30497420 on Monday February 02, 2026 @09:00AM (#46856119)
I saw a presentation awhile back which included the slide (roughly):

"Give a PM a numerical goal, and they will burn the company down to hit it."

As someone who has worked in big tech and seen decision-making in action, I 100% believe it. This is how incentives are structured.

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Re:Microsoft is walking back Windows 11's AI overload by WorldMaker on Monday February 02, 2026 @10:21AM (#46857011)
The mandate/goal went pretty far up the chain, too. Windows got moved from being under Azure to under "CoreAI" in the org structure. Incentive structures usually reflect org structure. In this case the fingers can point pretty far up on why incentives shifted the way that they did.
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Re:Microsoft is walking back Windows 11's AI overload by boltzmann-brain on Monday February 02, 2026 @09:56AM (#46856730)
That's a dramatic but fitting characterization of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodhart%27s_law
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Re:Microsoft is walking back Windows 11's AI overload by ahartmetz on Monday February 02, 2026 @05:33PM (#46862910)
Human paperclip optimizers...
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