Simon Willison’s Weblog

A computer can never be held accountable. This legendary page from an internal IBM training in 1979 could not be more appropriate for our new age of AI.

A computer can never be held accountable

Therefore a computer must never make a management decision

Back in June 2024 I asked on Twitter if anyone had more information on the original source.

Jonty Wareing replied:

It was found by someone going through their father's work documents, and subsequently destroyed in a flood.

I spent some time corresponding with the IBM archives but they can't locate it. Apparently it was common for branch offices to produce things that were not archived.

Here's the reply Jonty got back from IBM:

I believe the image was first shared online in this tweet by @bumblebike in February 2017. Here's where they confirm it was from 1979 internal training.

Here's another tweet from @bumblebike from December 2021 about the flood:

Unfortunately destroyed by flood in 2019 with most of my things. Inquired at the retirees club zoom last week, but there’s almost no one the right age left. Not sure where else to ask.