ReportWire

Tag: Google

  • Doodle for Google 2022: Kolkata’s Shlok Mukherjee brings ‘India on the center stage’ in winning creation

    Doodle for Google 2022: Kolkata’s Shlok Mukherjee brings ‘India on the center stage’ in winning creation

    [ad_1]

    US-based search engine Google announced the winner of its Doodle for Google 2022 competition in India. Kolkata’s Shlok Mukherjee won the contest this year for his doodle titled ‘India on the center stage’. The doodle can be seen on the Google homepage. Mukherjee’s creation focuses on the advancement of technology and sustainability.

    Mukherjee wrote, “In the next 25 years, my India will have scientists develop their own eco-friendly robot for humanity’s betterment. India will have regular intergalactic travels from Earth to space. India will develop more in the field of Yoga and Ayurveda, and will get stronger in coming years.”

    Mukherjee is a student at Delhi Public School in Kolkata’s NewTown. Commenting on all the doodles received, Google said in its blog that they were “especially heartened” that the advancement of technology and sustainability are the common themes across many of them.

    Sapna Chadha, Vice President Marketing, Google India and Southeast Asia said, “The Doodle for Google competition aims to encourage creativity and celebrate imagination in young people, and we continue to be inspired by the immense talent across the country. Keep on doodling, and we look forward to seeing what you share with us in the next competition!”

    The judging panel for this year’s Doodle for Google contest comprised actor, filmmaker, producer, and TV personality Neena Gupta, Tinkle Comics Editor-in-Chief Kuriakose Vaisian, YouTubers Slayypoint and artist and entrepreneur Alika Bhat apart from the Google Doodle team. They also selected four group winners besides the national winner.

    The group winners included Kanakal Shrinika (Joyful Learning), Divyanshi Singhal (The Solution To Natural Disasters), Pihu Kachhap (Green Energy is Clean Energy), and Puppala Indira Jahnavi (Soil- The Serum of Life).

    Also read: Anna Mani Google Doodle: Google commemorates ‘Weather Woman of India’

    Also read: Angelo Moriondo Google Doodle: Google pays tribute to inventor of espresso machine 

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Former Google exec Caesar Sengupta’s fintech startup raises $90 mn from Eric Schmidt, Sequoia and others

    Former Google exec Caesar Sengupta’s fintech startup raises $90 mn from Eric Schmidt, Sequoia and others

    [ad_1]

    Caesar Sengupta, former vice president and general manager of payments and Next Billion Users initiative at Google, has raised $90 million for his fintech start-up Arta Finance which aims to open up advanced financial opportunities, the kind that family offices offer to the ultra-rich, to the masses.

    Besides venture capital giants Sequoia Capital India, Ribbit, and Coatue, 140 angel investors including well-known technologists and finance professionals such as former Google CEO Eric Schmidt; FinTech V Chairman Betsy Cohen; Mastercard CEO Michael Miebach; and Jeff Dean, SVP, Google Research and Health have participated in the round.

    Like family offices that help the ultra-wealthy craft their visions of the future, Arta will break down barriers to sophisticated finance with technology to help people aggregate all their assets, build a personal collection of investments and access expert services to shape their financial future, the company wrote in a blog post.

    “We got rid of the admin overheads, salesy calls, clunky UIs, and eye-watering fees. And we’ve harnessed AI to enable intelligent investing in public markets and opened access to alternative assets such as private equity, venture capital, and real estate funds. And we plug you into our ecosystem of financial and lifestyle professionals who can help you protect and enjoy your wealth,” the blog post read.

    The company will help its customers invest in asset classes such as private equity, venture capital, private debt, and real estate funds. Users can start with $10,000 for certain funds and choose to pay based on performance. Arta’s proprietary AI-Managed Portfolios (AMPs) will enable members to create personalized, automated portfolios using stocks, bonds, options, and leverage. It also offers verified and private spaces where members can discover new financial opportunities, benchmark themselves and learn from what their peers are doing.

    The service is currently open to accredited investors in the US and the company said it will expand to other countries after obtaining the necessary approvals.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Poor earnings reports from Microsoft and Alphabet shake Nasdaq

    Poor earnings reports from Microsoft and Alphabet shake Nasdaq

    [ad_1]

    Poor earnings reports from Microsoft and Alphabet shake Nasdaq – CBS News


    Watch CBS News



    The tech-heavy NASDAQ dropped Wednesday after Microsoft and Alphabet released less-than-stellar earnings reports on Tuesday. CBS News anchor Lana Zak spoke with Simeon Hyman, global investment strategist at ProShares, about the larger impact on the markets.

    Be the first to know

    Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.


    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • CCI slaps Rs 936.44 cr fine on Google, 2nd time in less than a week

    CCI slaps Rs 936.44 cr fine on Google, 2nd time in less than a week

    [ad_1]

    The Competition Commission of India (CCI), on Tuesday, fined Rs 936.44 crore on Alphabet Inc’s Google for abusing its dominant position concerning its Android Play Store policies. The Commission also issued a cease-and-desist order and directed Google to modify its conduct within a defined timeline.

    The CCI, in a statement, said it has imposed a penalty of Rs 936.44 crore on Google for abusing its dominant position. Interestingly, this is the second time in less than a week that India’s competition regulator imposed a penalty on Google.

    On October 20, the competition regulator imposed a penalty of Rs 1,337.76 crore on the US-based tech giant for using its dominant position in multiple markets to promote its payments app and in-app payment system. The watchdog also ordered the internet major to cease and desist from various unfair business practices.

    Google’s Play Store constitutes the main distribution channel for app developers in the Android mobile ecosystem. The app store allows its owners to capitalise on the apps brought to market.

    The regulator, in its statement, revealed that making access to the Play Store for app developers dependent on mandatory usage of Google Play’s Billing System (GPBS) for paid apps and in-app purchases constitutes an imposition of an unfair condition on app developers.

    CCI, apart from the penalty, also said that Google shouldn’t restrict app developers from using any third-party billing/ payment processing services for purchasing apps.

    Google has been given a time of 30 days to provide the requisite financial details and supporting documents, the release said. CCI has been probing Google in other cases as well, including those about alleged anti-competitive practices by the internet major with respect to news content and smart TV.

    CCI, similar to the observations made in previous its ruling against Google in the Android matter, said the penalty amount is provisional as there were glaring inconsistencies and wide disclaimers in presenting various revenue data points by Google.

    The penalty amount translates to 7 per cent of the company’s average relevant turnover. Google’s Android operating system powers 97 per cent of India’s 600 million smartphones, according to Counterpoint Research. Meanwhile, the watchdog said that recently Google has allowed rival UPI apps to be integrated with the intent flow.

    Moreover, Google has also faced criticism globally, including in South Korea, for mandating software developers using its app store to use a proprietary in-app payment system that charges commissions of up to 30 per cent on purchases made within an app. Of late, Google has begun to allow alternative payment systems in more countries.

    According to the CCI’s latest release, Google has been asked to implement various measures, including allowing and not restricting app developers from using any third-party billing/ payment processing services, either for in-app purchases or for purchasing apps.

    “Google shall also not discriminate or otherwise take any adverse measures against such apps using third-party billing/ payment processing services, in any manner,” the release said.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Google’s New Medical Imaging Suite Will Enable A Bright Future Ahead For Healthcare

    Google’s New Medical Imaging Suite Will Enable A Bright Future Ahead For Healthcare

    [ad_1]

    Earlier this month, Google Cloud announced its latest venture within the realm of healthcare: a new Medical Imaging Suite. This initiative builds on years of hard work by the Google Cloud team, aimed at creating a universally friendly, efficient, and value-providing platform, with an ode to interoperability and accessibility.

    The applications behind the platform are multi-fold:

    • Imaging Storage: the Suite will enable a more comprehensive way to store and access advanced medical imaging
    • Imaging Lab: in partnership with chip maker NVIDIA, the platform will make it easier to automate routine imaging tasks (e.g. labeling)
    • Imaging Datasets & Dashboards: the software will utilize advanced search tools to retrieve and view large sums of data
    • Imaging AI Pipelines: the Suite is built to support artificial intelligence capabilities in order to integrate machine learning systems and models
    • Imaging Deployment: the platform will provide a comprehensive and secure tool that can be curated to each organization’s needs

    Thomas Kurian, Chief Executive Officer of Google Cloud, has previously explained his overarching vision with the product line: “Our customers and partners put their trust in our team to deliver next-generation cloud technologies to help them become the best tech company in their industry. The combination of Google’s technical strengths, backed by its unique scale and deep experience in connecting that technology with consumer products and ecosystems, enables Google Cloud to put the tools of tomorrow in the hands of organizations today.”

    Established healthcare players are already using the software. Hackensack Meridian Health in New Jersey, for example, hopes to use the robust Suite for prostate cancer detection.

    But AI integration and tackling data problems in healthcare are not easy tasks. Many scholars have recently expressed criticism that the so called “digital revolution” in healthcare that was especially spurred by the Covid-19 pandemic has not delivered on the lofty promises that were made; instead, healthcare technology has been difficult to integrate in a meaningful way, especially in ways that can actually impact patient care outcomes.

    Much of the challenge with AI specifically is the need for large volumes of data to create learning sets, so as to actually “teach” the AI system how to interpret data. For many organizations, their data remains disorganized, inaccessible, or in legacy formats that simply require a significant amount of “clean up” and reconciliation before they can be used in a meaningful way.

    The purpose of solutions like Google Cloud is to eventually make data interoperable and machine learning ready, so that organizations can progress away from the previous age of information technology. Whether or not healthcare pundits like it, healthcare is amidst a revolution, one that will seamlessly integrate new and advanced technologies into patient care. Now, it is upto new and established technology leaders to create this revolution in a meaningful and safe manner.

    [ad_2]

    Sai Balasubramanian, M.D., J.D., Contributor

    Source link

  • Republican National Committee sues Google over email spam filters

    Republican National Committee sues Google over email spam filters

    [ad_1]

    The Republican National Committee has filed a lawsuit against tech giant Google, alleging the company has been suppressing its email solicitations ahead of the midterm elections in November — an allegation Google denies.

    The lawsuit, filed in the District Court for the Eastern District of California Friday evening, accuses Gmail of “discriminating” against the RNC by unfairly sending the group’s emails to users’ spam folders, negatively impacting both fundraising and get-out-the-vote efforts in pivotal swing states.

    “Enough is enough — we are suing Google for their blatant bias against Republicans,” said RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel in a statement to The Associated Press. “For ten months in a row, Google has sent crucial end-of-month Republican GOTV and fundraising emails to spam with zero explanation. We are committed to putting an end to this clear pattern of bias.”

    Google issued a statement denying the charges. “As we have repeatedly said, we simply don’t filter emails based on political affiliation. Gmail’s spam filters reflect users’ actions,” said spokesperson José Castañeda, adding that the company provides training and guidelines to campaigns and works to “maximize email deliverability while minimizing unwanted spam.”

    The lawsuit focuses on how Google’s Gmail, the world’s largest email service with about 1.5 billion users, screens solicitations and other material to help prevent users from being inundated by junk mail. To try to filter material that account holders may not want in their inboxes, Google and other major email providers create programs that flag communications likely to be perceived as unwelcome and move them to spam folders that typically are rarely, if ever, perused by recipients.

    The suit says Google has “relegated millions of RNC emails en masse to potential donors’ and supporters’ spam folders during pivotal points in election fundraising and community building” — particularly at the end of each month, when political groups tend to send more messages. “It doesn’t matter whether the email is about donating, voting, or community outreach. And it doesn’t matter whether the emails are sent to people who requested them,” it reads.

    Google says that its algorithms are designated to be neutral, but a study released in March by North Carolina State University found that Gmail was far more likely to block messages from conservative causes. The study, based on emails sent during the U.S. presidential campaign in 2020, estimated Gmail placed roughly 10% of email from “left-wing” candidates into spam folders, while marking 77% from “right-wing” candidates as spam.

    Gmail rivals Yahoo and Microsoft’s Outlook were more likely to favor pitches from conservative causes than Gmail, the study found.

    The RNC seized upon that study in April to call upon the Federal Election Commission to investigate Google’s “censorship” of its fundraising efforts, which it alleged amounted to an in-kind contribution to Democratic candidates and served as “a financially devastating example of Silicon Valley tech companies unfairly shaping the political playing field to benefit their preferred far-left candidates.”

    Since then, the commission has approved a pilot program that creates a way for political committees to get around spam filters so their fundraising emails find their way into recipients’ primary inboxes. Gmail is participating in the ” Verified Sender Program, ” which allows senders to bypasses traditional spam filters, but also gives users the option of unsubscribing from a sender. If the unsubscribe button is hit, a sender is supposed to remove that Gmail address from their distribution lists.

    As of Friday evening, the RNC had not signed up to participate in the pilot program.

    Republicans who have tried to cast doubt on the outcome of the 2020 election without parroting the most extreme and baseless claims about corrupted voting machines and stolen votes have often tried to blame big technology companies like Twitter and Facebook that they allege were biased against former President Donald Trump. A long list of state and local election officials, courts and members of Trump’s own administration have said there is no evidence of the mass fraud Trump alleges.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Massive Zelda Wiki Reclaims Independence Six Months Before Tears of the Kingdom

    Massive Zelda Wiki Reclaims Independence Six Months Before Tears of the Kingdom

    [ad_1]

    Link holds his ground against a ferocious monster in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild's DLC, The Master Trials.

    Earlier this month, the wiki-hosting company Fandom scooped up several games sites, including Giant Bomb and GameSpot, in an acquisition worth $50 million. And that exorbitant price of the sale, coupled with what the website calls “questionable staffing decisions” at the company, has led the Zelda Wiki to break free from “corporate consolidation” and claim its independence from Fandom.

    Opened in 2005 and independent up until its transfer over to Gamepedia hosting in 2017, the Zelda Wiki is one of the biggest fan-run games wikis around. With thousands of entries from games across the entire franchise, you could spend days or weeks scrolling through the digital encyclopedia and probably still not finish it in its entirety. It’s my go-to resource when looking up information on a specific enemy or weapon in Nintendo’s popular franchise, and it hosts 11,199 articles. However, now you’re gonna have to visit a brand-new website if you have bookmarked and/or frequented the old Zelda Wiki.

    Staff at the website announced on Twitter this week that, “after many months of preparation,” the website is now totally independent from Fandom or any other entity.

    “For over a decade, from its creation in 2005 to its transfer to Gamepedia in 2017, the Zelda Wiki was a fully independent site,” the wiki’s EIC wrote. “Even after the transfer, and Gamepedia’s subsequent acquisition by Fandom, Inc., the site sought to continue its mission of curating an editorially independent, high-quality wiki operated by fans. However, we have come to believe that these ideals are incompatible with Fandom.”

    There was a reason for such a scathing statement. Citing Fandom’s “recent buyouts and questionable staffing decisions,” the Zelda Wiki staff said it wants to “keep the internet free from corporate consolidation” and “hegemonic control.” As such, the team moved the wiki to a new home, though the Fandom one is still up and running.

    Responses to the news have been overwhelmingly positive online. Multiple folks have called this a big win for the Zelda Wiki, while others are looking forward to fewer ads and a better layout on the site. Even the Twitter account for the Fallout Wiki, one of the few publicly feuding with Fandom over intrusive videos and ads on the site, congratulated the Zelda Wiki team for breaking from the company. Generally, there’s some public wariness about Fandom’s growing influence over fan-led Wikis that have provided useful free resources to the community about big franchises. As such, there are now even resources shared for alternatives to Fandom Wikis, and some encouragement in the comments from this announcement to get more Wikis to do the same. While independent Wikis do exist, over the years Fandom has become the more dominant website when people Google for certain topics.

    In Discord messages with Kotaku, community staff member ModdedInkling said the old Fandom wiki will “continue to be updated” by a few volunteers that have chosen to remain there. Just about everyone else, however, will move to the website’s new domain. ModdedInkling also explained what this independence means for the staff.

    “Being ‘editorially independent’ means having full creative control over the wiki’s content under its own policies as opposed to Fandom’s policies,” ModdedInkling said. “This also includes the wiki’s overall appearance (user interface, templates, etc.), which has been one of the main subjects discussed by many independent wikis splitting away from Fandom. Another topic of interest involves avoiding mandated censorship. Certain wikis also have content that involves socio-politics and ethics that are often restricted by Fandom, but are deemed relevant by the community.”

    ModdedInkling extrapolated on the nature of Fandom’s alleged censorship. He said that while nothing has been blocked on the Zelda Wikia (to his knowledge, anyway), there have been some alterations made to entries post-publication on other wikis.

    “Basically, Fandom’s policies may invoke a level of censorship on certain sensitive topics, even if it is relevant towards a work of fiction, if it is deemed to go against their policy,” ModdedInkling said. “Sometimes it may involve altering one’s information as well even if it is less accurate. This can happen through a variety of topics, such as discussions involving the retroactive change of a character’s traits, even if it was historically inaccurate to change it.”

    ModdedInkling brought up one instance where Fandom’s policies got in the way of making what they consider accurate information available. On Wookieepedia, the digital encyclopedia for Star Wars, there were allegedly complications around changing the name of someone who later came out as trans.

    “There was debate involving the naming conventions of someone identifying later as trans,” ModdedInkling said. “The mandate was to retroactively change any of the names displayed for the person or character, even though that was not how they were referred to at the time. I don’t remember if it was a real-life person or a fictional character. It did not cause them to fork, but it was one concern that NIWA had in potential examples involving character pronouns like Vivian from Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, Sheik from Ocarina of Time, or Vilia from Breath of the Wild.”

    ModdedInkling clarified the example to Kotaku, saying it isn’t representative of his or the rest of the Zelda Wiki team’s beliefs. He noted the Nintendo Independent Wiki Alliance, a network of other wikis for Nintendo games, has a goal to “handle sensitive topics with care to prevent any sort of misrepresentation.” This, he noted, aligns with the Zelda Wiki teams’ ideals.

    Kotaku has reached out to Fandom for comment.

    The Zelda Wiki is just the most recent digital encyclopedia to split from its parent company and the third to break away from Fandom specifically in recent memory. Earlier this year, the team behind the Terraria Wiki announced on Steam that it’ll host a new site separate from Fandom. Meanwhile, the Runescape Wiki went indie years ago in response to corporate mandates forcing autoplaying videos in posts. The Zelda Wiki can now be found in the NIWA database, which includes other independent, volunteer-run websites like Bulbapedia (the digital encyclopedia dedicated to all things Pokémon) and SmashWiki.

    Update, 10/21/22, 6:30 p.m. ET: Added a clarifying statement from ModdedInkling.

    [ad_2]

    Levi Winslow

    Source link

  • Facebook shuttle bus drivers are losing their jobs as Meta slashes costs and employees stay home

    Facebook shuttle bus drivers are losing their jobs as Meta slashes costs and employees stay home

    [ad_1]

    A car passes by Facebook’s corporate headquarters location in Menlo Park, California, on March 21, 2018. 

    Josh Edelson | AFP | Getty Images

    Facebook’s plans to cut costs combined with the company’s relaxed remote work policies set the stage for a bunch of shuttle bus staffers to lose their jobs.

    WeDriveU, a key vendor that Meta uses for its commuter shuttles, said it will be reducing staff in and around the social media company’s Silicon Valley headquarters by nearly 100 people beginning in November, according to an employment filing viewed by CNBC. Most are drivers, and some are dispatchers, operations managers and supervisors.

    Meta shuttle vendor Hallcon Corporation, meanwhile, said it’s laying off 63 staffers from its San Francisco location around Nov. 25, due to a “significant draw down of client services,” according to a separate filing.

    “Some employees may be maintained or recalled to work,” a human resources director at Hallcon wrote in the filing. “However, no Hallcon Company employee who is being laid off should count on being recalled.”

    Meta has cut shuttle staffers from other contractor firms as well, according to Stacy Murphy, vice president of Teamsters Bay Area Local 853, a union with over 15,000 members in industries including transportation. Murphy said all of the layoffs are coming from one company: Meta.

    Meta janitorial staff protests job cuts.

    Silicon Valley Rising

    “All four vendors are losing people,” Murphy said, referring to the companies that work with Meta.

    The layoffs are landing as Meta looks to cut costs by 10% or more over the coming months in response to macroeconomic challenges and the company’s general underperformance. Meta reported its first-ever revenue decline in the second quarter and is expected to record another drop when third-quarter numbers land next week.

    The stock is trading near its lowest since early 2019 and is one of the worst performers this year in the S&P 500.

    Bus drivers who shuttled Facebook employees around the Bay Area as the company expanded at a rapid clip over the past decade are in a particularly precarious position. Not only is the company now pulling back on costs but it’s also maintaining more flexibility than its tech peers in allowing employees to work from wherever they want.

    The company opened its office back up to employees in March but gave staffers the option to work remote permanently or in a hybrid model. Many of San Francisco’s small businesses are struggling to stay afloat because of the changes in the workplace.

    Murphy, along with union members, plan to protest Facebook’s cuts, saying it’s “the worst time” to reduce staff as blue-collar workers face rising costs in a market that remains among the priciest in the country. “It’s crazy,” she said of the rising prices.

    Hallcon and WeDriveU did not return requests for comment.

    In July, CNBC reported that Meta had canceled a contract with custodial workers at its headquarters, resulting in job cuts. Earlier this month, janitorial service workers rallied outside of Meta Shop, a retail space in Burlingame, California, to protest working conditions as well as the cuts. The rally was organized by a labor coalition called Silicon Valley Rising and South Bay coalition. Workers held up signs that read “Justice for Janitors” and alleged the company isn’t treating its essential workers fairly.

    Meta janitorial staff protests job cuts.

    Silicon Valley Rising

    Murphy said Meta has cut dozens of shuttle staff over the last three months but that the latest notification of layoffs represents “the biggest we’ve ever seen.”

    Teamsters organized a rally for Thursday afternoon at the busiest intersection around Facebook’s headquarters to protest Meta’s cutbacks. Murphy said one of the union’s efforts is to put pressure on the company to ask employees to return to offices.

    “Other tech companies are demanding they come back — why haven’t they?” Murphy said. “They want to stay at home and that impacts all of the people that support the company’s overall performance.”

    WATCH: Big Tech faces concerning headwinds

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • AG Sues Google For Allegedly Capturing Face And Voice Data Without Consent

    AG Sues Google For Allegedly Capturing Face And Voice Data Without Consent

    [ad_1]

    Topline

    Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against Google on Thursday, alleging the tech giant violated state consumer protection laws by capturing millions of users’ facial and voice data without their consent, as facial recognition technology comes under increased scrutiny.

    Key Facts

    The lawsuit, filed in federal district court in Midland, Texas, claims the company’s Google Photos and Google Assistant apps, as well its Nest security camera—which records people who approach a front door—unlawfully took in biometric data from millions of Texans who use Google products.

    By doing so, Google has “blatantly” violated a state law called the Capture or Use of Biometric Identifier Act since at least 2015, according to the suit.

    The lawsuit alleges features such as “face grouping,” which creates albums of certain people based on facial recognition records in the Google Photos app, are both “invasive” and “dangerous” because voice and facial data, once “stolen,” cannot be erased or replaced.

    Paxton is seeking civil penalties up to $25,000 for each violation.

    Google’s biometric data serves its own “commercial ends,” Paxton claims, arguing it allows the company to enhance its face scanning abilities, driving its technological growth.

    Google did not respond immediately to an inquiry from Forbes.

    Tangent

    Paxton filed another lawsuit against Google in January, claiming false, scripted testimonials on iHeartRadio promoting its Pixel 4 smartphone violated the state’s Deceptive Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Act by misleading consumers. He sued the company again over allegations it “systematically” tracked users’ location without consent, even when users thought they had disabled the tracking feature on their phones.

    Contra

    More than 400 police forces across the country, including 57 in Texas, had partnered with Amazon’s doorbell surveillance company Ring—a competitor to Google’s Nest cameras—in 2019, giving them access to homeowners’ front-door video footage, the Washington Post reported. Under that partnership, police departments are required to request footage from homeowners. But that practice came under scrutiny in June, when Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey (D), sent a letter to Amazon questioning policy violations from 11 instances in which he said footage was taken without homeowners’ consent. An Amazon official claimed those instances involved “imminent danger of death or serious physical injury” in a written response to Markey’s letter.

    Crucial Quote

    “Google has a new CEO and a new ethos, having tossed (former) CEO (Eric) Schmidt’s promises into the rubbish heap alongside Google’s abandoned ‘don’t be evil’ mantra,” the lawsuit argues, referencing a promise Schmidt made in 2011 not to build a database around facial recognition.

    Further Reading

    Texas sues Google for allegedly capturing biometric data of millions without consent (Reuters)

    Texas Sues Google for Collecting Biometric Data Without Consent (New York Times)

    [ad_2]

    Brian Bushard, Forbes Staff

    Source link

  • Google fined Rs 1337.76 crore in India for ‘abusing its dominant position’

    Google fined Rs 1337.76 crore in India for ‘abusing its dominant position’

    [ad_1]

    India’s fair trade regulator – the Competition Commission of India (CCI)  – has imposed a monetary penalty of Rs 1337.76 crore on Google for abusing its dominant position in multiple markets in the Android Mobile device ecosystem. The fair trade regulator has also directed the tech giant to cease and desist from unfair business practices. The CCI said it has also directed Google to modify its conduct within a defined timeline. 

    Mobile devices need an operating system (OS) to run applications (apps) and programs. Android is one such mobile operating system that was acquired by Google in 2005. The CCI examined various practices of the tech giant with regard to licensing of this Android operating system and various proprietary mobile applications of Google like Play Store, Google Search, Google Chrome, YouTube). 

    During the inquiry, Google argued about the competitive constraints being faced by Apple. The commission said Apple’s business is primarily based on a vertically integrated smart device ecosystem which focuses on the sale of high-end smart devices with state-of-the-art software components, while Google’s business was found to be driven by “the ultimate intent of increasing users on its platforms so that they interact with its revenue earning service i.e., online search which directly affects the sale of online advertising services by Google”.

    The CCI said mandatory pre-installation of the entire Google Mobile Suite (GMS) under the Mobile Application Distribution Agreement or MADA (with no option to un-install the same) and their prominent placement amounts to imposition of an unfair condition on the device manufacturers and thereby in contravention of the provisions of Section 4(2)(a)(i) of the Act. 

     

    More details awaited 

     

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Intel Reportedly Plans Major Staff Reduction—Here Are The Biggest U.S. Layoffs This Year

    Intel Reportedly Plans Major Staff Reduction—Here Are The Biggest U.S. Layoffs This Year

    [ad_1]

    Technology giant Intel plans to cut 20% of its staff, Bloomberg reported Tuesday night citing unnamed sources familiar with the proposal, making the California-based chipmaker the latest company to reassess its headcount as employers fear the economy could slide into recession.

    Oct. 12, 2022Intel could reportedly cut more than 22,000 of its 113,700 employees (roughly 20%), Bloomberg reported, following a disappointing company financial forecast in July it blamed on a “sudden and rapid” economic decline, while its shares shrank by more than half over the past year, to $25.04 (Intel declined to comment to an inquiry from Forbes).

    Oct. 11, 2022Brex’s job cuts affect 136 employees, bringing its staff to roughly 1,150, as the company adjusts to a “new macro environment” that “warrants a new level of focus and financial discipline,” CEO Pedro Franceschi wrote in a blog post.

    Oct. 6, 2022Peloton’s layoffs, which affect roughly 12% of the company, come two months after a memo to employees obtained by Bloomberg revealed the exercise equipment maker cut nearly 800 jobs, and announced plans to shut stores and raise prices for its Bike+ and Tread machines.

    Oct. 4, 2022California-based Meta plans to close its Manhattan office, unnamed sources told Bloomberg, one week after the company implemented a hiring freeze, and less than a month after the Wall Street Journal reported it’s reorganizing departments and giving some of its 83,553 staff a month to apply for different positions within the company—although a company spokesperson told the news outlet this week that Meta is “firmly committed to New York.”

    Sept. 29, 2022SoftBank is prepping to cut at least 150 of the 500 workers employed by the Vision Fund, the Japanese conglomerate’s venture capital arm, which would would affect roughly 30% of staff, according to Bloomberg, a move that SoftBank’s billionaire founder and CEO Masayoshi Son hinted at last month after a record $23 billion quarterly loss (it’s unclear whether the layoffs will affect employees at the Lond0n-headquartered fund’s two U.S. locations in Silicon Valley and Miami).

    Sept. 28, 2022San Francisco-based electronic signature company DocuSign will lay off 9% of its more than 7,400 employees (roughly 670 employees), the company announced in a Securities and Exchange filing Wednesday, saying the cuts are necessary to ensure we are capitalizing on our long-term opportunity and setting up the company for future success.”

    Sept. 26, 2022Wells Fargo reportedly announced plans to lay off 36 employees, bringing the bank’s total layoffs since April to more than 400, Iowa CBS affiliate KCCI reported, following the banking giant’s decision earlier this month to cut roughly 75 in its home mortgage division (Wells Fargo did not immediately respond to an inquiry from Forbes).

    Sept. 21, 2022In a similar move, Google also alerted about 50 employees—roughly half of those employed at the firm’s startup incubator Area 120—they need to find a new internal role within three months if they want to stay at Google, the Journal reported.

    Sept. 21, 2022Clothing outlet Nordstrom plans to lay off 231 employees at an Iowa distribution center starting next month, local ABC affiliate KCRG reported, citing a spokesperson who said the move is necessary to “better align with the current needs of our business” (Nordstrom did not immediately respond to an inquiry from Forbes).

    Sept. 20, 2022Gap could cut as many as 500 corporate jobs from its offices in New York and San Francisco, as well as offices in Asia, unnamed sources told the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday (A Gap spokesperson confirmed the layoffs to Forbes but would not provide further detail).

    Sept. 16, 2022AbbVie reportedly announced plans to lay off 99 employees while Bristol Myers Squibb plans to cut 261, according to state filings seen by Endpoints News, making them the latest pharmaceutical companies to slim down their workforces, following Biogen and Teva, which reportedly cut 300 jobs last month.

    Sept. 14, 2022Twilio CEO Jeff Lawson announced the move to cut 11% (roughly 800-900 of the company’s nearly 8,000 employees) on a company blog, saying the workforce grew “too fast” and “without enough focus” over the past two years.

    Sept. 13, 2022Warner Bros. Discovery, which formed in a merger between the two production giants in April, could reportedly cut “hundreds” of ad sales employees from the WarnerMedia and Discovery sides of the company, Axios reported, citing unnamed sources, as the company looks to downsize its advertising team representing HBO, CNN, Discovery, Turner and Warner Bros. Entertainment, according to Insider, which also spoke to unnamed sources.

    Sept. 12, 2022Goldman Sachs usually lays off 1% to 5% of its workers each year as a part annual performance reviews, but suspended this program during the Covid-19 pandemic—the investment bank suggested earlier this year it would reinstate the cuts, which are expected to be closer to 1% of workers across all sectors and could happen some time this month, the New York Times reported, citing people familiar with the plans.

    Sept. 9, 2022Beaumont-Spectrum, which formed earlier this year out of a merger between Beaumont and Spectrum, cut 400 corporate positions as the health care network struggles with “significant financial pressures from historic inflation, rising pharmaceutical and labor costs, COVID 19, expiration of CARES Act funding and reimbursement not proportional with expenses.”

    Sept. 2, 2022Banking giant Citigroup reportedly made layoffs in its home mortgage division that a source told Bloomberg encompassed fewer than 100 positions as the housing market continues to cool in the wake of rising inflation and the Federal Reserve’s recent rounds of interest rate hikes.

    Sept. 2, 2022SoftBank, the Tokyo-based investment management giant, reportedly plans to cut up to 20% of the roughly 500 staffers at its Vision Fund three weeks after the fund posted a record loss in the fiscal quarter ending in June.

    Sept. 2, 2022Investment banking giant Credit Suisse could reportedly cut as many as 5,000 jobs as the scandal-hit bank seeks to turnaround its reputation and reduce costs, according to Reuters.

    Aug. 31, 2022Snap, the California-based developer of mobile app Snapchat, announced plans to lay off more than 1,200 employees (roughly 20% of its staff), in its second round of job cuts this summer, according to an internal memo obtained by CNN.

    Aug. 31, 2022Bed Bath & Beyond unveiled plans to lay off 20% of its workforce and take out $500 million in new financing, as the struggling retail giant closes 150 “lower-producing” stores amid continuing issues with low sales.

    Aug. 31, 2022VF Corporation, the parent company of brands such as Vans, Timeberland and the North Face, reportedly cut 300 employees and eliminated 300 open positions (less than 1% of its global workforce), with CEO Steve Rendle writing in an internal letter to employees obtained by the Denver Business Journal that the cuts come amid an environment that will “likely continue to be marked by volatility” (VF confirmed the layoffs to Forbes but would not provide further details).

    Aug. 30, 2022Snap CEO Evan Spiegel announced in a company memo that the company will lay off 20% of its than 6,400 workers (1,280 employees), the Verge reported, saying the company is facing a “lower rate of revenue growth”—the company’s stock price has plummeted nearly 80% since earlier this year.

    Aug. 26, 2022Online mortgage lender Better.com reportedly announced its third round of layoffs this year and its fourth in the past 12 months, laying off close to 250 employees, an unnamed worker told TechCrunch—bringing the company’s total layoffs since December to roughly 4,000 as the company struggles amid a precipitous downturn in the housing market (Better.com did not immediately respond to an inquiry from Forbes).

    Aug. 25, 2022Artificial intelligence startup DataRobot interim CEO Debanjan Saha announced the Boston-based company’s second round of job cuts since May in a move “to adapt to changing market dynamics,” and even though the company did not specify the number of employees leaving, LinkedIn reported it will affect 26% of its staff, which, according to the site TechTarget, would mean roughly 260 of its 1,000 employees.

    Aug. 25, 2022Tennessee-based trucking company U.S. Xpress cut 5% of its corporate workforce, a spokesperson confirmed to local ABC affiliate WTVC, bringing its total layoffs this summer to roughly 140, following a round of cuts in May that slashed another 5% of the company’s corporate staff, reported at the time to be around 70 employees.

    Aug. 22, 2022Ford announced it will let go about 3,000 office and contract employees as the carmaker moves to cut spending as it transitions to producing electric vehicles, according to the Wall Street Journal.

    Aug. 19, 2022Boston-based online furniture retailer Wayfair slashed 870 jobs (nearly 5% of the company’s 18,000 employees), according to an internal memo from CEO Niraj Shah obtained by the Boston Globe, which stated the company was rebuilding after the Covid-19 pandemic but that their “team is too large for the environment we are now in.”

    Aug. 18, 2022Software company New Relic laid off 110 employees, including 90 in the U.S. (roughly 5% of its workforce), CEO Bill Staples posted in a statement on the company’s website, writing the cuts are essential in light of “current information on growth trends and market expectations.”

    Aug. 16, 2022Philadelphia-based Audacy, the second biggest radio company in the United States, cut 5% of its workforce (estimated to be roughly 250 employees), Inside Radio reported, with CEO David Field saying the cuts come “in light of current macroeconomic headwinds.”

    Aug. 16, 2022Apple, the world’s most valuable company, laid off 100 contracted recruiters amid a hiring slowdown, Bloomberg reported (Apple did not respond immediately to an inquiry from Forbes).

    Aug. 15, 2022HBO Max cut 70 jobs (14% of its workforce) in a cost-cutting effort that comes four months after Discovery’s $43 billion acquisition of HBO Max parent company WarnerMedia, and a week after the company announced plans to combine the streaming service with Discovery+ as soon as next year, Deadline reported.

    Aug. 12, 2022Texas-based home health services company Signify Health laid off 489 employees, a cost-cutting move that comes weeks after health care giant CVS made a bid to purchase the company, multiple outlets reported.

    Aug. 11, 2022Meditation app Calm CEO David Ko announced plans to lay off 90 employees (20% of the company’s workforce) in a memo to employees, saying, “we as a company are not immune to the impacts of the current economic environment.

    Aug. 10, 2022California tech startup Nutanix announced plans to cut 270 (4% of its workforce) by the end of October, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, in an effort to reduce expenses.

    Aug. 10, 2022Microsoft reportedly laid off 200 employees, less than a month after the Redmond, Wash.-based tech giant announced it would cut 1% of its 180,000 workers, Business Insider reported, with the cuts coming in the company’s modern life experiences team.

    Aug. 10, 2022Fast casual salad shop Sweetgreen cut 5% of its corporate workforce, attributing company losses to a slow return to the office and lingering Covid-19 cases, in a conference call, CNBC reported.

    Aug. 9, 2022Website design company Wix.com made its second round of layoffs this year, cutting 100 employees as company President and COO Nir Zohar told Israeli newspaper Calcalist, “the world has experienced an economic crisis and we have seen U.S. GDP fall without growth.”

    Aug. 9, 2022Canadian social media management company Hootsuite reportedly announced plans to cut 30% of its estimated 1,000 employees.

    Aug. 8, 2022Groupon unveiled plans to lay off 15% of its workforce (500 employees), primarily in the company’s technology and sales departments, with CEO Kedar Deshpande writing in a message to employees obtained by Forbes, “our cost structure and our performance are not aligned.”

    Aug. 8, 2022Snap started laying off an undisclosed number of its 6,000 employees, following a disappointing earnings report released last month, The Verge reported, citing anonymous sources.

    Aug. 5, 2022iRobot, the maker of Roomba, cut 10% of its workforce (140 employees), as the company restructures after being purchased by Amazon for $1.7 billion, the company told Forbes, adding the job cuts were not related to the acquisition.

    Aug. 4, 2022California-based video game developer Jam City laid off between 150-200 employees — roughly 17% of its workforce — VentureBeat reported, stating the cuts come “in light of the challenging global economy and its impact on the gaming industry.”

    Aug. 3, 2022Walmart—the largest private employer in the United States—plans to cut 200 of its corporate employees as the company seeks to restructure, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing anonymous sources.

    Aug. 2, 2022Online brokerage Robinhood cut 23% of its staff, with CEO Vlad Tenev citing a drop in trading activity, high inflation and a “broad crypto market crash”—the move comes after Robinhood laid off 9% of its full-time employees in April, a set of cuts Tenev says “did not go far enough.”

    Aug. 1, 2022Texas-based data technology giant Oracle started laying off an undisclosed number of its estimated 143,000 employees, as part of a larger plan to cut thousands, The Information reported, citing an unnamed source (rumors of job cuts at Oracle have been speculated for nearly a month).

    July 27, 2022Fitness company F45 Training laid off 110 employees, or 45% of its workforce, as CEO Adam Gilchrist stepped down.

    July 26, 2022E-commerce company Shopify became the latest company to lay off employees, cutting ties with 1,000 (10% of its workforce), CEO Tobi Lutke announced, saying skyrocketing demand for online shopping during the pandemic has leveled off, and that the company made a bet that “didn’t pay off.”

    July 22, 2022Boston tech-watch company Whoop slashed 15% of its workforce, telling the Boston Globe it now has 550 employees (meaning it cut close to 97) adding in a statement, “given how negatively the macro environment has evolved, we need to grow responsibly and control our own destiny.”

    July 21, 20227-Eleven, which operates 13,000 convenience stores across North America, cut 880 U.S. corporate jobs, just over a year after it completed a $21 billion deal to purchase Speedway.

    July 20, 2022Seattle real estate startup Flyhome axed 20% of its staff, reported to be close to 200 workers, as the company navigates “uncertain economic conditions.”

    July 20, 2022Ford plans to lay off up to 8,000 employees as the automaker seeks to pivot away from gas-powered cars and toward electric vehicle production, Bloomberg reported.

    July 19, 2022Vimeo CEO Anjali Sud announced on LinkedIn the online video company is cutting 6% of its workforce to “come out of this economic downturn a stronger company.”

    July 19, 2022Ohio-based automated health software startup Olive laid off 450 employees, nearly 35% of the company, as CEO Sean Lane admitted the company’s commitment to “act with urgency” led to a hiring spree that proved to be too much to handle, prompting him to “rethink this approach.”

    July 18, 2022Crypto exchange Gemini cut 68 employees—or 7% of its staff—less than two months after it let go of 10% of its workforce, according to TechCrunch.

    July 14, 2022OpenSea, the New-York based non-fungible token (NFT) company, announced in a tweet it laid off 20% of its staff over fears of “broad macroeconomic instability” with the possibility of “prolonged downturn.”

    July 13, 2022Online ordering startup ChowNow laid off 100 people, TechCrunch reported, as it reels back from a “large and ambitious” budget it couldn’t meet amid fears a stunted market could fuel a recession.

    July 13, 2022Tonal, the at-home fitness company, cut 35% of its workforce amid a worsening “macroeconomic climate and global supply chain challenges.”

    July 12, 2022Tesla laid off 229 employees, primarily in its autopilot division, and shut down its San Mateo, California, office, just weeks after CEO Elon Musk sent an email to executives, saying he had a “super bad feeling” about the economy and planned to cut 10% of his workforce, Reuters reported.

    July 12, 2022Some 1,500 employees at the international delivery startup Gopuff were let go, (10% of its staff) and 76 of its U.S. warehouses were shut down, according to a letter to investors first reported by Bloomberg, as the company moves away from a growth-at-all-costs model.

    July 12, 2022California-based mortgage lender loanDepot announced plans to lay off 2,000 workers by the end of the year, bringing its 2022 layoffs to 4,800 — more than half of the company’s 8,500 employees — as the housing market “contracted sharply and abruptly,” CEO Frank Martell said in a statement.

    July 11, 2022Electric automaker Rivian unveiled plans to lay off 5% of the company’s 14,000 employees in areas that grew “too quickly” during the pandemic and to halt hiring of non-factory workers, according to an internal email from CEO RJ Scaringe, Bloomberg reported.

    July 7, 2022Real estate firm Re/Max announced plans to lay off 17% of its workforce by the end of the year, with a goal of bringing in $100 million in annual mortgage-related revenue by 2028.

    June 22, 2022JPMorgan Chase — the nation’s largest bank — laid off and reassigned more than 1,000 of its 274,948 employees, citing rising mortgage rates and increased inflation.

    June 15, 2022Real estate companies Compass and Redfin announced plans to cut 10% and 8% of their workforces, respectively, following a 3.4% drop in home sales from April to May, according to the National Association of Realtors, amid concerns the once red-hot housing market had cooled.

    June 14, 2022Some 1,100 Coinbase employees learned they had been released after losing access to their work emails, marking an 18% reduction in the crypto company’s staff — a move that CEO Brian Armstrong called essential to “stay healthy during this economic downturn” — and a warning sign of a recession and a “crypto winter” after a 10-plus-year crypto boom.

    May 21, 2022Used car seller Carvana CEO Ernie Garcia III sent an email to 2,500 employees — 12% of the company’s workforce — informing them they had lost their jobs, one week after freezing new hiring, as the company embraced for what looked like a looming recession in car sales, and reports of a “spendthrift” business style had come back to bite the company.

    Many experts have warned the U.S. may be headed toward recession following reports the economy contracted 1.6% in the first quarter of the year. Those fears were reignited following the Federal Reserve’s announcement in June to raise interest rates by 75 basis points, its largest rate hike in 28 years. After the rate hike—the first of two from the Federal Reserve this summer—economists at S&P Global Ratings forecast a 2.4% drop in GDP by year’s end, a reverse in course from earlier forecasts of 2.4% growth. Bank of America issued a warning last month that “economic momentum has faded,” and a “mild recession” is possible by the end of the year. Then, for several months this summer, warning signs seemed to be tapering off. A report in August from the Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed an 8.5% spike in inflation from last July—a sign that the Federal Reserve’s interest rate hikes could be cooling inflation one month after a 9.1% year-over-year spike in June. By October, however, economists once again started fearing the bear market could deepen further into an unavoidable recession, even as a recent Labor Department report showed the unemployment rate hit a 50-year low of 3.5% in September—0.2% lower than expected. The number of new jobs, however, was the lowest since April 2021, with 263,000 jobs created, down from 315,000 in August. Meanwhile, new data from the Department of Commerce found the price of goods increased by a worse-than-expected 6.2% in August, a sign to economists that inflation is not letting up, with EY Parthenon predicting a recession.

    In an interview with the Washington Post this summer, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Labor Julie Su said she was optimistic the economy will rebound, citing 9 million jobs created since President Joe Biden took office, and 372,000 new jobs in June. More recent projections indicating the economy’s seasonally-adjusted annual rate could grow by 2.7% in the third quarter also assuaged some inflation fears. Orion Advisor Solutions chief investment officer Tim Holland told Forbes, “we have a hard time believing the economy is in recession today.”

    51%. That’s the share of corporate executives that have implemented or plan to implement job cuts, according to a recent PricewaterhouseCoopers survey of 722 executives. In addition to laying off employees, 52% of respondents said they’ve made hiring freezes or plan to.

    [ad_2]

    Brian Bushard, Forbes Staff

    Source link

  • Google takes on lease 4.64 lakh sq ft space at Adani data centre in Noida

    Google takes on lease 4.64 lakh sq ft space at Adani data centre in Noida

    [ad_1]

    Adani Enterprises has given on lease 4.64 lakh square feet of space at its data centre in Noida to Raiden Infotech, an entity of Google, for Rs 11 crore monthly rent, according to documents accessed by CRE Matrix.

    The documents, accessed by the data analytics firm, showed that D C Development Noida Ltd, which is part of Adani Enterprises Ltd, has leased 4,64,460 square feet of space at Adani data centre in Sector-62, Noida for a period of 10 years.

    The rental is Rs 235 per square feet per month. The starting annual rent is Rs 130.89 crore and there will be 1 per cent increase in the rental every year. The lease agreement was signed last month, the documents showed.

    Email queries sent to Adani Group’s flagship firm Adani Enterprises and Google remained unanswered.

    In February 2021, Adani Enterprises had formed an equal joint venture with leading global data centre operator EdgeConneX to develop and operate data centres throughout India.

    To start with, the JV had announced building a network of hyperscale data centres in India, starting with Chennai, Navi Mumbai, Noida, Vizag and Hyderabad.

    In July 2021, Noida Authority had allotted 34,275 square metres land at Sector 62 to Adani Enterprises for setting up a data centre with an investment of around Rs 2,400 crore.

    Adani Enterprises Ltd had in November last year divested its 100 per cent stake in DC Development Noida Pvt Ltd to AdaniConnex Pvt Ltd, which is an equal joint venture between Adani Enterprises and EdgeConneX.

    Last month, real estate consultant CBRE released a report ‘Data Centres in India: Powering Up Real Estate in a Data-High Era’, stating that there has been a surge in demand for data centres in India on growing digitalisation and policy impetus.

    The COVID pandemic has accelerated the adoption of technology and data usage has increased significantly, it said.

    Moreover, CBRE noted, OTT, online gaming, increased smartphone usage, e-commerce, online schooling by edutech platforms, location-agnostic work, along with advanced technologies, including machine learning, 5G, blockchain and artificial intelligence, have led to a multi-fold jump in data transmission and need for high spec servers.

    India’s data centre market has witnessed an investment of USD 14 billion in the last five years, and the cumulative funding could cross USD 20 billion by 2025 as investors look for assets with stable income, according to CBRE.

     

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • ‘Bought this phone just to use 5G’: Vijay Shekhar Sharma complains to Airtel, Google over 5G services

    ‘Bought this phone just to use 5G’: Vijay Shekhar Sharma complains to Airtel, Google over 5G services

    [ad_1]

    Indian digital payments and financial services company Paytm’s CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma, on Sunday, said that he was unable to use 5G in the national capital New Delhi, despite buying a new 5G phone.

    Sharma also said that he bought a new Google smartphone ‘Pixel 6a’ only to use 5G services rolled out by internet-provided Airtel but that did not help.

    Sharma, in a tweet, said, “Hello @Airtel_Presence, even the Google Pixel 6a is not showing 5G network option in Delhi. All upgrades done and I bought this phone just to use 5G!” He also tagged Airtel Cares, the telco’s customer support handle.

    Paytm CEO also attached a screenshot in his tweet, which shows that the 5G network was not displayed as the preferred network type.

    Moreover, in another tweet, Sharma explained that this was because of Google, the smartphone manufacturer that is yet to release a software update for 5G support.

    Sharma, tagging Google in another tweet, said, “Ouch! Hello @GoogleIndia do you think India should get 5G handset software upgrade soon? @GooglePixel_US”

    Paytm CEO’s tweet went viral across the social platform, with other people joining in and raising the same issue.

    Another Twitter user Mudit Mathur replied to Paytm CEO’s tweet, and said “The update will come only in December!” He also attached a cropped image of a conversation with Google support that reads “Our current target is to release 5G as part of our December feature drop.”

    Airtel launched its 5G internet services on October 6 and became the first telecom operator to officially roll out 5G services in India. It has launched Airtel 5G Plus service for 8 cities – Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Siliguri, Nagpur and Varanasi. The company also claims that its users won’t need to change their SIM card as the existing one will now be 5G-enabled.

    On the other hand, Reliance Jio is rolling out 5G service in four cities including – Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Varanasi. Reliance Jio has also launched the Jio 5G Welcome Offer under which eligible users get unlimited 5G data and 1gbps data speed free of cost until the company announces 5G plans in India.

    Here’s how to check if your phone has 5G connectivity or not:

    1. Go to the settings app on your phone
    2. Click on the ‘Wi-Fi & Network’ option
    3. Go to the ‘SIM & Network’ option
    4. A list of all technologies will appear under the ‘Preferred network type’ option
    5. If your phone supports 5G, it will be listed with other services like 2G/3G/4G/5G.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Supreme Court will hear two cases seeking to hold social media companies financially responsible for terrorist attacks

    Supreme Court will hear two cases seeking to hold social media companies financially responsible for terrorist attacks

    [ad_1]

    The Supreme Court said Monday it will hear two cases seeking to hold social media companies financially responsible for terrorist attacks. Relatives of people killed in terror attacks in France and Turkey had sued Google, Twitter and Facebook, accusing the companies of helping terrorists spread their message and radicalize new recruits.

    The court will hear the cases this term, which began Monday, with a decision expected before the court recesses for the summer, usually in late June. The court did not say when it would hear arguments, but the court has already filled its argument calendar for October and November.

    One of the cases the justices will hear involves Nohemi Gonzalez, a 23-year-old U.S. citizen studying in Paris. The Cal State Long Beach student was one of 130 people killed in ISIS attacks in November 2015. The attackers struck cafes, outside the French national stadium and inside the Bataclan theater. Gonzalez died in an attack at La Belle Equipe bistro.

    Her friend, Cal State student Niran Jayasiri, may have been the last to see Gonzalez alive, standing next to her at the café as a terrorist opened fire.

    Nohemi Gonzalez
    Nohemi Gonzalez

    “First I thought it was firecrackers because it sounded like firecrackers,” Jayasiri told CBS News in 2015. “When I looked into the direction where the noise was coming, I saw a gunman just walking on the sidewalk, just shooting everybody.”

    Gonzalez’s relatives sued Google, which owns YouTube, saying the platform had helped the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, by allowing it to post hundreds of videos that helped incite violence and recruit potential supporters. Gonzalez’s relatives said that the company’s computer algorithms recommended those videos to viewers most likely to be interested in them.

    But a judge dismissed the case and a federal appeals court upheld the ruling. Under U.S. law — specifically Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act — internet companies are generally exempt from liability for the material users post on their networks.

    The other case the court agreed to hear involves Jordanian citizen Nawras Alassaf. He died in the 2017 attack on the Reina nightclub in Istanbul where a gunman affiliated with ISIS killed 39 people.

    Alassaf’s relatives sued Twitter, Google and Facebook for aiding terrorism, arguing that the platforms helped ISIS grow and did not go far enough in trying to curb terrorist activity on their platforms. A lower court let the case proceed.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Gold House Hosts Inaugural Gold Gala With Major Launches and the Largest Gathering of Top Asian & Pacific Islander Leaders

    Gold House Hosts Inaugural Gold Gala With Major Launches and the Largest Gathering of Top Asian & Pacific Islander Leaders

    [ad_1]

    Gold House—the leading Asian and Pacific Islander (API) changemaker community that unites, invests in, and promotes API creatives and companies— debuted its first-ever Gold Gala, a historic gathering of API leaders and allies, on May 21, 2022. 

    The Gala celebrated 2022’s A100 List, the definitive honor that recognizes the 100 APIs who have most significantly impacted American culture and society in the last year. The evening was hosted in collaboration with Meta — to further a long-standing partnership with Gold House that honors and supports the API community through innovative programming, such as Meta Gold Talks, and convenes distinguished API voices in conversation as well as trains API-led start-ups in-depth. 

    500+ API celebrities, cultural leaders, and business executives rounded out the guest list, including: Mindy KalingMichelle YeohHenry GoldingDaniel Dae KimAshley ParkStephanie HsuAuli’i CravalhoJimmy O. YangKelly Marie TranHarry Shum Jr.Bella PoarchLisa Ling, Prabal GurungJeannie Mai JenkinsPhillip Lim, Musa TariqChloe KimJay ShettyVersha Sharma, Michelle Phan, Andrew Yang, the casts of Never Have I Ever and Pachinkothe CEOs and founders of DoorDash, Match Group (Match/Tinder/Hinge), Hulu, Twitch, Classpass, Patreon, Airtable, Forbes, P&G, Brooks Brothers, Ancestry, Droga5, Publicis Groupe, Paramount, East West Bank, and more. 

    These guests are at the forefront of “The New Gold Age,” the evening’s theme, which represents unparalleled API brilliance and defiance amidst continued violence and racism against the community. The theme was embodied in the modern Asian couture attire, which featured several custom outfits created specifically for the gala.

    A100 A1 honorees Henry Golding, Simu Liu, Chloe Kim, Michelle Wu, and Payal Kadakia were recognized for being the most impactful individuals in their respective industries over the past year.

    A major highlight of the Gold Gala was Mindy Kaling accepting the A100 Legend award for her lifelong dedication to creating and embodying affirming API characters and content. Maitreyi Ramakrishnan presented the award to her mentor in a heartfelt speech.

    To round out the historic evening, A100 Legend Michelle Yeoh was the first-ever recipient of the SeeHer award at the Gold Gala for defying gender stereotypes throughout her career. SeeHer, the leading global movement of media, marketing and entertainment leaders committed to the accurate depiction of women and girls in advertising and media, presented the award along with filmmakers Jon M. Chu, Destin Daniel Cretton, and Jonathan Wang

    The awards were custom designed by artist Maia Ruth Lee, an inaugural Gold Art Prize Awardee.

    Throughout the evening, Gold House unveiled a suite of new initiatives to further its focus on uniting, promoting, and investing in API creatives and companies including:

    • Unity Marchin partnership with Asian Americans Advancing Justice, APIAVote, and a dozen other major nationwide organizations, Gold House announced a historic slate of policies and a convening event in Washington, D.C. on June 25, 2022.
    • Gold Storybook: Gold House launched the definitive guide and resource hub on authentic API portrayals in media, based on years of cultural consultation expertise with every major studio, streamer, and network. The guide was created with support from key partners like The Walt Disney Company and features additional resources through work with SeeHerP&G, and more. 
    • #WriteHerRight AAPI: SeeHer and Gold House also announced a major partnership to develop a guide focused on the importance of increasing accurate portrayals of AAPI women and girls in advertising and entertainment. A number of studios and networks, including AMC Networks and Paramount, are committed to participating in the guide, which will launch later this year.
    • Gold House Venture Networkon the heels of launching its $30M fund, Gold House Ventures, Gold House announced a new vehicle for executives, cultural leaders, and founders to invest in sought-after venture deals and procure prominent Board Director and Advisor positions.
    • Gold Rush Accelerator Food & Beverage and Women Tracks: as part of their community-leading accelerator, Gold Rush (whose alumni have raised $400 million+ in follow-on capital), presented two new tracks that provide funding, promotion, and distribution to culinary and women founders in partnership with Panda Express and Julia Gouw, respectively.

    Gold House specially recognized Meta as a long-time supporter of advancing opportunity for all, and shared updates regarding their ongoing partnership to amplify, educate and grow influential voices across the Asian diaspora with a focus on unlocking economic opportunity. This included the launch of Meta’s SMB-focused channel — Meta Prosper — a new program to empower and uplift AAPI small businesses.

    “We are proud to partner with Gold House on inspiring a new generation of API voices. It’s an honor to be a part of the inaugural Gold Gala and recognize some of the most influential change-makers in the community,” said Cat Coddington, Head of North American Gaming Creator Partnerships at Meta. 

    Onsite experiences for attendees showcased an array of cross-industry excellence, featuring: an exclusive Super Bowl Vince Lombardi trophy viewing (generously loaned by the NFL in celebration with Taylor Rapp); crafted drinks, afterparty, and a towering ice bar hosted by Hennessy X.O; curated playlists spotlighting API artists by Spotify; interactive programming and special announcements with longtime partners like Disney; and meaningful resources to highlight the importance of API names from Procter & Gamble‘s pg.com/names campaign. Guests also got to watch the 2022 APAHM video featuring A100 honorees, produced by Gold House and Google as part of Google’s efforts to put Asian community and culture in focus.

    After the gala, guests stayed on for the afterparty, hosted in collaboration with Hennessy X.O, with a curated late-night bites menu from Panda Restaurant Group and custom boba drinks from Bopomofo Cafe.

    Both the gala and the afterparty were held at the historic Vibiana in downtown Los Angeles. Accommodations for award recipients were provided by Hotel Indigo Los Angeles Downtown and exclusive rides by BMW. The gala partnered with We Can Do This to amplify their vaccine and booster resources, without which, an in-person event would have been impossible. The evening was also made possible by Nordstrom, East West Bank, Warner Bros. Discovery, AMC Networks, and other partners featured at goldhouse.org/goldgala.

    ###

    About Gold House

    Gold House is the leading Asian and Pacific Islander (API) changemaker community, fighting together for socioeconomic equity. Through a suite of innovative programs and platforms, the organization unites, invests in, and promotes API creatives and companies. To learn more, visit www.goldhouse.org or follow @GoldHouseCo on InstagramFacebookTwitter, and LinkedIn.

    Media Contact

    press@goldhouse.org

    Source: Gold House

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Modern Corporations Are Ungovernable, But DAOs Are Not The Answer

    Modern Corporations Are Ungovernable, But DAOs Are Not The Answer

    [ad_1]

    Roger L. Martin is one of the world’s foremost business strategists, serving as an advisor to the CEOs of some of the world’s largest companies including Procter & Gamble and Ford. In this interview we discuss the pitfalls with modern corporate governance and how things have become exacerbated by the rise of passive investing, proxy services and the pandemic-driven stock market boom.

    We also touch on the growing trend of major technology firms, such as Google, Facebook and even Coinbase, concentrating voting power in the hands of executives. Finally, we explore what all this means for the growth of DAOs and token prices during this period of crypto development. 

    Excerpted from our premium research service, Forbes CryptoAsset and Blockchain Advisor. Subscribe today to get first access to breaking news, trading signals, exclusive interviews, and much more.

    Forbes: What do you see today as some of the flaws in the modern incarnation of a corporation? And what are some of the key points of attention and trade off that you see between the various types of stakeholders?

    Roger Martin: I’m not sure that the modern widely held publicly traded company is governable. The problem is that there’s this notion of professional managers who run the company. And we have this notion that there’s a principal agent problem, where there is a challenge of having the management operate the company in a way that’s consistent with what the shareholders/owners want. There are two proposed solutions to the agency problem. One is to have stock-based compensation that’s supposed to align the interests of management and shareholders. There is a board of directors that works on the shareholders’ behalf to make sure that the directors or the senior management is operating in accordance with what the shareholders would want. So, here’s the question. If management are agents, and have self-control problems and interests that aren’t necessarily aligned with those of the shareholders, could you explain to me how another group of people who we call directors, who also aren’t the shareholders, would have the desire and motivation to serve those shareholders? 

    It’s an article of faith that the widely held publicly traded company is constructively governable. And of course there is this notion that stock-based compensation will align the interests of management and shareholders and I’ve written extensively about that, but it actually does the opposite. Everybody thinks the stock price is somehow a real thing that really reflects the company and its operations, and they’re often baffled when earnings are up 20% and the stock goes down. The reason is that the stock price is nothing real. It’s something entirely ethereal. It is simply the culmination of what all people in the capital markets observing the company imagined its future prospects to be. We know that because the S&P 500 has traded on average at 19x or 20x across its history, which means the stock prices incorporate 1x for current earnings and the other 19x times for future expectations. So we believe that stock-based compensation provides an incentive to make the company perform better. It isn’t. You don’t get higher stock prices by making the company perform better. You get a higher than today’s stock price by making the company perform better than people think it’s going to perform today. So the only thing that actually increases stock prices is a positive surprise. Hence, the question is, can management keep on delivering positive surprises to capital markets? Executives figured out that the game is to heighten the stock price, use aggressive accounting or whatever, to get expectations up, and then get out or cash out before the expectations fall back. And that’s why you get all this manipulation. In fact, the smartest thing you can possibly do as a CEO—and lots of CEOs do this—is as soon as you take over the position, you say, oh my god, now I understand what’s really going on here; the company is an incredible disaster. By saying so you are trying to get the stock price down. Then you do a bunch of things to get it back up to the level it was when you arrived. And you’ll be rich. So a publicly traded company is not governable. That’s a fundamental problem.

    Forbes: Have any of these issues been exacerbated by the frenzied capital markets during the pandemic? 

    Martin: The worst position for management of a company to be in is to have overvalued equity. If you’ve got equity that is trading for more than you, as the manager, knows it’s worth, you can be inclined to take desperate actions; make big, gigantic risky bets to try and do something to keep a collapse of the stock price from happening. That’s when most managerial sins are committed: when your equity is overvalued. The best place to be as a manager is if your equity is mildly undervalued, which gives you room to do things to get the stock price up. Because if there isn’t room and if in fact, there’s negative room, you just know the crash is coming. These ultra-high markets, which are spurred by the Fed keeping interest rates thus far at zero and pumping the economy absolutely chock full of cash, are making equity and debt go up. But there’s a correction coming. It’s just a matter of how, when and just how brutal it will be.

    Forbes: You’ve also written about how the rise in passive index investing has disconnected shareholders from the managers, which exacerbates the problem of corporate governance. Can you touch on that, and perhaps also discuss how proxy funds fit in here?  

    Martin: I think the proxy voting firms ISS, etc., are just ideologues. They have an ideology, which has nothing to do with anything that is demonstrated, proven or the like. I think they help lazy people be able to say, oh, ISS told me that I should vote this way so I’m okay. And ISS, from my experience, has no clue what is actually good for the performance of a company. It’s one of these things where the dominant players in the capital markets are not playing with their own money. It’s not even close. Pension fund managers, BlackRock, Fidelity, State Street, Vanguard are also playing with somebody else’s money. Hardly anybody’s playing with their own money. And it’s real people actually making those decisions. So you have to analyze their incentives. The main incentive for pension fund managers, for example, is to not be fired. It’s not to make the most money possible for shareholders. I will say that I have met pension fund managers who do take on pensioners’ interests as their responsibility, but that’s the exception, not the rule. So the idea that somehow they would be paragons of great management is just far fetched. 

    Forbes: Do you have any tell tale signs for distinguishing a good money manager from a bad one? Also, are there any ways for how this broken proxy system could be improved?

    Martin: I think the improvement is going to come from much more of a return to the corporate structure of the 1920s and 1930s, where public shareholders were simply along for the ride and these were semi-public companies. Because there was somebody who owned the majority stake and or at least a controlling stake and said, “hey, if you want to come along, go ahead. But I’m managing this. My net worth is tied up with this, and I’m going to make the decisions. And I don’t basically care what you think.” Now you’ll notice there’s a new kind of firm emerging in America that has taken that form, right? Tesla and Google, etc., where the leaders pretty explicitly say, “I do not care what you think, I am uninterested completely. And I’ll do what I want.” I think we’re going to have more of that. And I think that’s a better structure than the widely held publicly traded company.

    Forbes: That is an interesting point, because even looking at crypto with firms like Coinbase where Brian Armstrong controls a majority of the voting power, we are seeing some of the major firms follow this lead.

    Martin: As long as they’re honest and clear from the outset. That’s why I liked Google. When it went public, they were super clear. It was like, we’re in charge. You are free to come along for the ride. We’re fine with that, but do not be confused.

    Forbes: Let’s now turn our attention to DAOs, decentralized autonomous organizations. What are your thoughts?

    Martin: That sounds like a phenomenally dumb idea to me. I think it’s mainly massive hype. So there’s a tool that a bunch of very geeky people have come up with, they’re totally in love with, and they’re trying to find something useful to do with it. And they’re trying to create an ideology about it—oh, it’s all about decentralization. And they’ll find things to use the tool for. NFTs (non-fungible tokens) is a good example. It created an industry because now you can prove ownership of something. I don’t doubt that it’ll have applications. Do I see it as a way of changing human nature? Which is what this is saying; that people want a kind of completely decentralized, everybody votes thing. If they wanted that, Facebook and Google wouldn’t control the internet. Remember, we had the hype back then—oh, it’s going to be the most democratizing force on the face of the planet. Everybody can contribute and everybody can be on their own. Look what happened. Way, way more centralized nodes, centralized control of a sort we’ve never seen in the history of the planet. So if people are lustful and longing for all sorts of decentralized systems where everybody participates in every decision, humans have never worked that way. And I don’t think humans want to. And they are showing us that by having fealty to Facebook and Google.

    Forbes: Do you think it’s because humans don’t want that? Or they’re just lazy and they appreciate the convenience and don’t understand the tradeoffs that come with these platforms?

    Martin: All action is designed. People do what they want and what they want is to not participate in every decision and take personal agency for fixing everything. Then they will act accordingly. I think that almost everything about blockchain is fantastical; it’s hype but as usual, there’s something real inside the hype. So the internet as of 2000 was the hype, right? You didn’t need earnings; all you need is eyeballs and everything else to follow, and we’ll vendor finance it because that’s fine because it’s eyeballs and all the rules are suspended. It’s all different. Well, what happened? The whole thing blew up. Did the internet go away? No, it bred some very useful things that have changed the world for the better. I see the same with blockchain, which has no chance of reaching all the hype. And so, if you’re a sensible, not hype-oriented blockchain person, you can probably make a legitimate buck on it. That’s the best case scenario for blockchain as far as I’m concerned. 

    Forbes: Thank you.

    [ad_2]

    Steven Ehrlich, Forbes Staff

    Source link

  • Lost in Crisis: The Vulnerable Forgotten Victims of COVID-19

    Lost in Crisis: The Vulnerable Forgotten Victims of COVID-19

    [ad_1]

    THE VULNERABLE FORGOTTEN VICTIMS OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC: Non-profit Victims’ Advocacy Group More Too Life Unveils Vigorous Action Plan to Help Human Trafficking and Abuse Victims During Worldwide Health Crisis

    Press Release



    updated: Mar 31, 2020

    ​​​​Brook Parker-Bello Ph.D, founder of More Too Life Foundation, recognizes ​​​​that the country’s forgotten victims are at risk of being lost forever as the world fights to contain the deadly coronavirus pandemic. Victims of all forms of human trafficking and sexual abuse are often overlooked, shunned, and forced to live and work in dangerous, dehumanizing conditions every day. As the rate of infection from coronavirus rises uncontrollably, young girls and boys, as well as adult-age women and men with nowhere to turn are facing these potentially deadly circumstances alone, making them fair game for purveyors of human flesh.

    Acclaimed non-profit organization More Too Life and its founder Dr. Brook Parker-Bello have worked tirelessly to offer programs and resources that get survivors off the streets by educating and empowering them to take back their lives. Today, More Too Life is taking decisive action to ensure the organization receives the support it needs to continue its vital work that has saved thousands of victims across the country.

    Through Lost in Crisis: The Vulnerable Forgotten Victims of Covid-19 Pandemic, More Too Life outlines how local, state and national leaders can apportion the vast financial resources each state will receive from the Federal government to combat the debilitating effects of the pandemic, to assist in keeping human trafficking victims safe during this worldwide health crisis. Lost In Crisis is the first program of its kind to introduce a comprehensive strategy using up-to-date analysis of the growing COVID-19 crisis, while offering a practical solution that could save hundreds and thousands of lives. Dr. Bello, a leading expert and advocate against human trafficking and a survivor herself understands firsthand how dire the situation is. “We need help. The victims need help more than ever now,” she said. “Just as regular businesses are closing and slowing down, we need to target the underground trafficking rings that freely operate. That includes unlicensed massage parlors, which also endanger lives because there are no social-distancing safeguards in place on top of the sex-trafficking dangers. There are pimp controlled home brothels. There’s even familial sex trafficking; the selling of children and teens by family members, even to online underground porn sites. These horrors must be addressed.” Please contact us for a 60-day free access to our online human trafficking prevention program for victims and also basic cost for buyers course. In addition, to our digital online college student prevention course.

    David Arkless, CEO and founder of ArkLight Consulting Ltd. and Chairman of More Too Life’s board of directors adds, “There is no safety net in place for these victims. They won’t be beneficiaries of bailouts or the government’s newly passed Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act). Where do they go? What will they do? More Too Life won’t turn its back on them, but we can’t do it alone.”

    Every day, we read dozens of headlines and hear news stories about young girls, boys, and women who go missing and are feared lost forever in the abyss of human trafficking. The United States is ranked as one of the worst countries in the world for human trafficking. According to the latest statistics by the International Labor Organization in partnership with the International Organization of Migration, an estimated 40.3 million people were victims of modern slavery in 2016—including 24.9 million people in forced labor and 15.4 million people in forced marriage. This is an issue that Dr. Brook Parker Bello and her team at the More Too Life Foundation combat every single day.

    “It is the responsibility of all Americans to participate in the prevention of child trafficking in their communities,” says Bello. “There are things that you can do to help children who are in danger.”

    To schedule an interview and to learn more about “Lost in crisis: The Vulnerable Forgotten Victims of COVID-19 Pandemic” initiative or to book Dr. Brook Parker-Bello for an interview, contact Brook Parker-Bello by email: exec_a@Moretoolife.org.

    If you or someone you know is a victim of human trafficking or abuse, contact the National Human Trafficking Hotline to connect with services and support for human trafficking survivors, or to report a tip: call 1-888-373-7888, text 233733, or chat online.

    About More Too Life

    More Too Life, founded in 2006 is a Voices for Florida Outreach Network provider. The organization seeks to prevent Human Trafficking, while also providing services and resources to victims in and out of foster care and at-risk youths in the state of Florida and globally. More Too Life offers survivor mentoring, mental health programs, housing, medical support, work programs and vital prevention programs alongside the Open Doors Outreach Network, providing a collective impact response to a complex problem by working with agencies in 32 counties and a multi-disciplinary framework model.

    About Dr. Brook Parker-Bello

    Dr. Bello, a survivor of child sexual exploitation and a staunch advocate for victims’ rights, has been featured on Fox News Channel, DailyMail TV, EWTN, CNN International, and OWN. Bello’s efforts toward completely eradicating all forms of human exploitation earned her the Lifetime Achievement Award from President Barack Obama and the White House in 2016, the Advocate of the Year Award in 2017 from Florida’s Attorney General Pam Bondi and that state’s Governor Rick Scott, and a coveted role as a Google Next-Gen Policy Leader. She recently traveled to the nation’s capital to serve on a Health and Human Services panel as an expert on “Trafficking in Persons”.

    ###

    Source: More Too Life Foundation

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Young Girls More Likely to Be Interested in Computer Science Careers After Watching YouTube Red Original Series ‘Hyperlinked’

    Young Girls More Likely to Be Interested in Computer Science Careers After Watching YouTube Red Original Series ‘Hyperlinked’

    [ad_1]

    New study finds that positive media portrayals of girls who code increase favorable perceptions of computer science careers among viewers

    Press Release


    Sep 1, 2017

    ​​Based on a new study released today, young girls who have seen season one of YouTube Red’s original series Hyperlinked are now 11 percent more likely to be interested in computer science (CS) careers than viewers who have not watched Hyperlinked. Conducted by Thicket Labs, the evaluation study was commissioned by Google and measures the factors that influence girls to choose computer science through a predictive model. The study focuses on the positive impact of Hyperlinked, a YouTube Red original series that shows a cool and diverse group of girls with sharp programming skills solving tech problems and everyday middle school issues.

    Based on study findings, young girls who have seen season one of YouTube Red’s original series Hyperlinked are now 11 percent more likely to be interested in computer science careers than viewers who have not watched Hyperlinked. Watching Hyperlinked is strongly associated with positive perceptions of the field of computer science and encouragement from friends — two of the four major factors that explain a young girl’s decision to pursue computer science.

    It’s crucial for us to work with subject matter experts and leverage various perspectives in order to break down stereotypes and allow underrepresented groups to see themselves reflected in mainstream media. We look forward to creating more favorable perceptions of CS across industries and demographics as we learn from this telling research and evaluation.

    Daraiha Greene, Multicultural Strategy Lead

    “Because of the complex nature of a big decision like choosing a career, a predictive decision model can provide a more accurate measurement of a future choice,” said Deepthi Welaratna, Founder & CEO of Thicket Labs. “The impact of Hyperlinked on the perceptions of its viewers is multifaceted and gives a clear indication of how positive media portrayals of computer science careers and girls who code have the potential to reshape the tech industry in the future.”

    Together with Google’s Computer Science Education in Media team and the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, the series convened an Advisory Council, consisting of: Madeline Di Nonno (CEO, Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media), Kimberly Bryant (Founder and CEO, Black Girls CODE), Rosalind Wiseman (best selling author of Queen Bees & Wannabees), Jess Weiner (CEO, Talk to Jess LLC) and Michael Cohen Ph.D. (President, Michael Cohen Group LLC [MCG]). This team served as advisers on the series, working with the production team at every stage to make sure that girls in STEM were being portrayed accurately and that the show was modeling positive messages around girls and their relationships with each other.

    “It’s crucial for us to work with subject matter experts and leverage various perspectives in order to break down stereotypes and allow underrepresented groups to see themselves reflected in mainstream media,” said Daraiha Greene from Google’s Computer Science Education in Media team. “We look forward to creating more favorable perceptions of CS across industries and demographics as we learn from this telling research and evaluation.”

    “The positive messages reinforced throughout the series are resonating with the audience and it is our hope that anyone watching ‘Hyperlinked’ leaves inspired by the power of technology and the ways it can make a difference,” said Nadine Zylstra of YouTube Red Originals.

    To evaluate the impact of Hyperlinked on its viewers and test whether the show has the potential to influence underrepresented groups to pursue CS, Google’s Computer Science Education team focused on media and evaluation worked with Thicket Labs to field two surveys before and after its premiere and reached a combined 998 TV viewers, out of which 623 had watched Hyperlinked on YouTube Red. The Thicket Labs evaluation model uses findings from Google’s study Women Who Choose Computer Science-What Really Matters (g.co/cseduresearch) to forecast the long-term impact of social programs on people’s perceptions, attitudes, behaviors, and choices.

    Key findings from the study are available at https://goo.gl/b19VAW. ‘Hyperlinked’ is available for YouTube Red subscribers through YouTube and the YouTube Kids app.

    About Google’s Computer Science Education team

    Google believes that a more inclusive workforce leads to better products for all users, and is especially committed to reversing the negative trends around underrepresented groups in computer science (CS). Part of Google’s Computer Science Education team partners with content creators and entertainment influencers to increase more inclusive portrayals of CS in media content.

    About Thicket Labs

    Thicket Labs is a technology and learning company that helps people learn about themselves and their world through data-driven experiences. Thicket’s collaborative intelligence tools use the science of decision modeling to measure and forecast the short- and long-term impact of social programs on people’s perceptions, attitudes, behaviors, and choices.

    Media Contact: 
    Deepthi Welaratna
    Phone: 415.335.0500
    Email: deepthi@thicketlabs.com

    Source: Thicket Labs

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • 13-Year-Old Girl Creates a Siri Clone in Less Than a Week

    13-Year-Old Girl Creates a Siri Clone in Less Than a Week

    [ad_1]

    Kari is a young girl of amazing talent and brilliant mind; yet, due to no fault of her own is unable to find a school place.

    Press Release



    updated: Jul 12, 2017

    Through a new interest in computer science and wanting to learn more about artificial intelligence 13-year-old Kari Lawler from Solihull, UK set herself the challenge of creating her own virtual assistant like Apple’s Siri or Amazon’s Alexa. After purchasing a few books, she very quickly taught herself the necessary programming skills and within a few days it was apparent she was making considerable progress and amazingly within just one week she had a working prototype.

    Her family has stated it’s amazing what she has achieved at her age with very little resources. The fact her personal assistant responds in a similar manner to Siri and even has the same witty attitude when asked something out of the ordinary is marvelous. It’s also especially incredible when you consider what the large technology companies have probably spent on producing something not much different to what Kari has managed to achieve in such a short amount of time.

    Looking to the future Kari does plan to expand on her prototype and does see great value in this type of technology. She is currently working on making her assistant more realistic with more human like back and forth conversation. If achievable she thinks this type of virtual human interaction would be of great benefit in areas such as social care; like providing company to the elderly or assistance for people with dementia. Similarly, she sees it been used as a learning assistant for whole class teaching or for helping individual students in a school. Realistically though, she appreciates she has a long way to go before realizing this vision. However, in the meantime she would very much like to connect and learn through maybe a mentoring role with any individuals or companies in this field.

    About Kari
    Kari, now 14 is a very bright and gifted young lady excelling in English, mathematics and science. At the age of 11 she was diagnosed with ASD. Since her diagnosis and through no fault of her own she has had great difficulty in accessing an education in a mainstream setting which has resulted in her being out of school now for just over a year. The resistance Kari is facing is solely down to a complete lack of understanding of Autism. Even though Kari has never had any learning needs, behavioral issues, communication or high anxiety issues at school, schools approached just assume the worse based on stereotypes and dismissively say no without looking at her as an individual. Overall Kari wants nothing more than to be back in school doing what she loves the most, which is learning.

    Media Contact
    Brett Lawler
    Email: brett@brettlawler.com
    Phone: +44 121 748 2468, Cell/Mobile: +44 7772 733138

    Source: Kari Lawler

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Google Boot Camp on Demand

    Google Boot Camp on Demand

    [ad_1]

    Facilitated e-Learning course prepares participants for Level 1 Google Educator Certification

    Press Release



    updated: Jun 2, 2017

    Eduscape announced today the launch of Google Boot Camp On Demand, a new e-Learning course. This facilitated e-Learning experience assists educators with gaining the knowledge and skills required to prepare for the Google Level 1 Educator exam.

    Boot Camp On Demand allows the participant to experience anytime, anywhere, Google professional development. The course is designed as a series of self-paced modules that allow the learner to follow a personalized learning path. During the online course, participants will engage in activities and experiences that will assist them with preparing to take the Google Certified Educator Level 1 Exam. The course includes activities such as completing online learning missions, engaging in discussions, participating in live webinars, and taking practice assessments. Throughout the course, Google certified instructors will be available live to answer questions, offer guidance, and collaborate with participants — a rare feature for e-Learning!

    “I enjoyed taking the course at my own pace and place, including during prep time at school and from home. The live facilitator sessions were so helpful and really supported my learning. I am now a Google Level 1 certified teacher!”

    a recent participant

    One recent participant stated, “I enjoyed taking the course at my own pace and place, including during prep time at school and from home. The live facilitator sessions were so helpful and really supported my learning. I am now a Google Level 1 certified teacher!”

    For those teachers who aren’t quite ready to pursue a Google Certified Educator certificate, Eduscape also offers professional development opportunities and hands-on workshops. These workshops include instruction and review of the following platforms: Google for Education, Office 365, SMART, Epson, Digital Citizenship, and other interactive technologies.

    For more information on the Google Boot Camp On Demand or onsite professional development, contact Eduscape at 800-781-7976, or to register for the course, visit: pd.eduscape.com

    About Eduscape

    Eduscape, based in Montvale, N.J., is a recognized leader in K-12 education. Eduscape’s team of professionals offer years of combined experience in education and professional development. The company assists with the effective integration of technology by teachers in a deliberate manner by aligning learning outcomes to selected standards, including Common Core, STEM and Next Generation Science Standards. Our expertise extends from Google Apps and Microsoft Office 365 to successful classroom implementations of one-to-one initiatives and other classroom technologies, including the design of innovative learning spaces. 

    Source: Eduscape

    [ad_2]

    Source link