A Computer Can Never Be Held Accountable
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About
A Coumputer Can Never Be Held Accountable is a quote from a 1979 internal IBM document, warning against the legal and moral implications of automating decision-making. This quote has been used a lot online, both as a reaction image in its original form and as a basis for edits, especially since the normalization of LLM-type artificial intelligence. The memes associated with it talk about artificial intelligence, accountability, or both.
Origin
The picture has been identified as the photo of a presentation slide used by IBM as part of a training program in 1979. The full quote is: "A COMPUTER CAN NEVER BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE / THEREFORE A COMPUTER MUST NEVER MAKE A MANAGEMENT DECISION". It is unclear exactly when this document first appeared online, but its presence can be traced as far back as February 17th, 2017[1], in a tweet posted by a former IBM employee; this tweet gained over 5,500 likes and over 2,200 retweets.
A cleanly cut version of the photo, which became the picture used in ulterior reposts and edits, was first posted on January 20th, 2022, in a tweet[2] that gained over 39,300 likes and was retweeted over 7,200 times.
Spread
The 2022 version of the picture gained a lot of traction on social media, mostly due to the fact that artificial intelligence was booming at the time, with many applications such as OpenAI, ChatGPT or ElevenLabs threatening artists' relevance as a profession, as well as several corporations planning on using LLM programs to replace part of their workers.
At the same time, various memes used this picture as a basis, especially edits modifying its text. On February 27th, 2022, one such edit[3], posted on Tumblr and referencing robot fetishism, was liked over 13,200 times and reblogged over 10,700 times.
On Bluesky, another edit[4], made in response to a post talking about art and motivation regarding AI-generated content, and posted on January 10th, 2025, was liked over 11,500 times and reposted over 3,500 times within 3 days.
Relevant Examples
Template
External References
[1] Web Archive – This is from a 1979 presentation. We are v slow learners, it seems.
[2] Web Archive – IBM slide, 1979 ..
[3] Tumblr – ANDDD you can kiss robots and should do so frequently btw
[4] Bluesky – look i made it the 1979 ibm warning
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