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Tag: Sundar Pichai

  • Those Viral Photos of Elon and Zuck Are AI. But Google Launched a New Way to Check for Fakes

    Photos appearing to show Elon Musk and several other Big Tech CEOs have gone viral in the past week on X and Bluesky. The mundane environments, including humble apartments and McDonald’s parking lots, should have given everyone a hint that they’re fake. But there’s a new way for the average person to check for themselves whether the images were made with AI. And it’s actually really useful.

    Right off the bat, it should be said that the vast majority of AI image detectors are not reliable. Many people think you can use tools that are openly available on the web and figure out if a given image is AI. But they’re not good. For example, people often ask Grok on X whether a photo was created with generative artificial intelligence. And it frequently gets the answer wrong. Sometimes in amusing ways.

    Google developed an AI watermark called SynthID a couple of years ago, but the company didn’t allow the average user to check whether an image had the watermark. That changed just a few days ago. Now anyone can upload an image to Gemini and ask if it has the SynthID watermark, which is invisible to the naked eye.

    The watermark is embedded in the pixels and every image created with Google’s AI creation tools will have it. Checking for the watermark is now easy for anyone who opens up Gemini.

    From Google’s announcement:

    If you see an image and want to confirm it has been made by Google AI, upload it to the Gemini app and ask a question such as: “Was this created with Google AI?” or “Is this AI-generated?”

    Gemini will check for the SynthID watermark and use its own reasoning to return a response that gives you more context about the content you encounter online.

    Obviously Gemini is less equipped to tell you if an image is AI if it wasn’t made with Google tools like Nano Banana Pro. And that’s the entire reason the company appears to be launching SynthID detection in Gemini in this moment. Nano Banana Pro launched last week and it’s allowing users to make incredibly realistic images, including images of Elon Musk and other tech CEOs that look very real.

    Some of those images have recently gone viral, like one that racked up nearly 9 million views on X before migrating to other platforms like Bluesky. The image shows Musk, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg all standing together in a small apartment.

     

    Other versions of the image include OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, with the men standing around in a parking lot, pictured at the top of this article. For some reason, Musk is seen smoking a cigar in a couple of them. Another image showed the men in the parking lot from a different angle. And still another had the men eating McDonald’s on the ground with a Cybertruck in the background.

    If you run any of these images through Gemini it confirms they all have the SynthID watermark. If you’re wondering whether an image appears too weird to be true, it’s probably a good idea to check with Gemini.

    Did you see that viral image of President Donald Trump with Bill “Bubba” Clinton in a very compromising position? Running that image through Gemini confirms it was made with Google’s AI image generator. Gemini won’t necessarily be able to ID every AI image with certainty. But if you run an image through Gemini and it tells you the “photo” has the SynthID watermark, you know it’s not real.

    Fake images are still going to be everywhere in the current social media environment. But at least Google has given the average user a new tool to identify at least some of the fakes for themselves. It’s only going to get harder and harder to recognize AI-generated content as the years progress. Sometimes you just need to apply some common sense. For example, do you think Elon Musk and Sam Altman would be hanging out in a parking lot together? Given their very public conflicts, that seems very unlikely.

    Then again, it seemed very unlikely that Musk and President Trump would become friendly again after the Tesla CEO accused Trump of being in the Epstein files. Weirder things have happened when billions of dollars are at stake.

    Matt Novak

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  • These are the 37 donors helping pay for Trump’s $300 million White House ballroom

    WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump says his $300 million White House ballroom will be paid for “100% by me and some friends of mine.”

    The White House released a list of 37 donors, including crypto billionaires, charitable organizations, sports team owners, powerful financiers, tech and tobacco giants, media companies, longtime supporters of Republican causes and several of the president’s neighbors in Palm Beach, Florida.

    It’s incomplete. Among others, the list doesn’t include Carrier Group, which offered to donate an HVAC system for the ballroom, and artificial intelligence chipmaker Nvidia, whose CEO, Jensen Huang, publicly discussed its donation.

    The White House hasn’t said how much each donor is giving, and almost none was willing to divulge that. Very few commented on their contributions when contacted by The Associated Press.

    A senior White House official said the list has grown since it was first released in October, but some companies don’t want to be publicly named until required to do so by financial disclosure regulations. No foreign individuals or entities were among the donors, according to the official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details that haven’t been made public.

    Here’s a look at the divulged donors:

    Tech giants (8):

    Amazon Background: Trump was once highly critical of company founder Jeff Bezos, who also owns The Washington Post, but has been much less so lately. Amazon donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration, an event attended by Bezos. Its video streaming service paid $40 million to license a documentary about first lady Melania Trump. Its cloud-based computing operation, Amazon Web Services, is a major government contractor.

    Apple Background: After an up-and-down relationship during Trump’s first term, CEO Tim Cook has sought to improve his standing with the president this time. Before returning to the White House, Trump hosted Cook at his Palm Beach estate, Mar-a-Lago, and said he had spoken with Cook about the company’s long-running tax battles with the European Union. Cook also donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund. In the spring, Trump threatened the computing giant with tariffs after Apple announced plans to build manufacturing facilities in India. In August, Cook presented the president with a customized glass plaque with a gold base as the CEO announced plans to bring Apple’s total investment commitment in U.S. manufacturing over four years to $600 billion.

    Google Background: During his first term, Trump’s administration sued Google for antitrust violations. While a candidate last year, Trump suggested he might seek to break up the search engine behemoth. Once Trump won the election, Google donated $1 million to his inauguration, and its CEO, Sundar Pichai, joined other major tech executives in attending the ceremony. Google’s subsidiary, YouTube, agreed in September to pay $24.5 million to settle a lawsuit with Trump after it suspended his account following the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. According to court filings, $22 million of that went to the Trust for the National Mall, which can help pay for ballroom construction.

    HP Background: An original Silicon Valley stalwart, the company donated to Trump’s inaugural fund. HP ‘s CEO, Enrique Lores, participated in a White House roundtable event in September. Lores also previously met with President Joe Biden at the White House on multiple occasions as top CEOs endorsed that administration’s economic plans.

    Meta Background: Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg had been critical of Trump going back to 2016, and Facebook suspended Trump for years after the Jan. 6 insurrection. This time around, Meta contributed $1 million to Trump’s inauguration, and Zuckerberg attended.

    Micron Technology Background: The producer of advanced memory computer chips announced an April 2024 agreement with the Biden administration to provide $6.1 billion in government support for Micron to make chips domestically. Then, in June, Micron pledged $200 billion for U.S. memory chip manufacturing expansion under Trump. But at least $120 billion of that involved holdovers first announced during Biden’s administration.

    Microsoft Background: The company donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration, twice what it spent for Biden’s or for Trump’s first inauguration. CEO Satya Nadella has also met with Trump numerous times, as Microsoft has supported the administration’s relaxation of regulations on artificial intelligence. He met previously with Biden, too. Trump has called for Microsoft’s president of global affairs, Lisa Monaco, to be fired because she was a deputy attorney general under Biden when the Justice Department led several investigations against Trump.

    Palantir Technologies Background: Co-founded by billionaire libertarian Peter Thiel, the firm concentrates on artificial intelligence and machine learning. It has seen profits soar thanks to lucrative defense and other federal contracts.

    Crypto (5):

    Coinbase Background: The major cryptocurrency exchange was founded by Brian Armstrong, a top donor to a political action committee that helped Trump and other pro-crypto candidates in 2024. Armstrong attended the first crypto summit at the White House in March. Coinbase also hired Trump’s co-campaign manager, Chris LaCivita, to its Global Advisory Council.

    Ripple Background: In March, the Securities and Exchange Commission dropped a lawsuit filed during Trump’s first term, which accused the company of violating securities laws by selling XRP crypto coins without a securities registration. In his second term, Trump has eased regulations on digital assets, repealing an SEC accounting rule and a previous presidential executive order mandating more federal study and proposed changes to crypto regulations.

    Tether Background: A cryptocurrency company and major stablecoin issuer, Tether paid fines for misleading investors. CEO Paolo Ardoino has been to Trump’s White House, and, in April, the company hired former Trump administration crypto policy official Bo Hines to lead its domestic expansion efforts.

    Cameron Winklevoss and Tyler Winklevoss Background: Each Winklevoss twin is listed as a separate donor. Best known as Zuckerberg’s chief antagonists in “The Social Network,” the brothers founded the Gemini cryptocurrency exchange. Biden’s SEC sued Gemini for selling unregistered securities, but the case has been paused under Trump.

    Energy and industrial (4):

    Caterpillar Background: The equipment maker ‘s PAC has donated to candidates from both parties, but given more to Republicans. It has also said publicly that Trump’s tariffs, some of which the administration has now eased, could increase its costs and hurt earnings.

    NextEra Energy Background: NextEra is the world’s largest electric utility holding company. Trump says he’ll work to ensure tech giants can secure their own sources of electricity to power data centers, especially as they expand energy-hogging artificial intelligence operations. Google recently entered into an agreement to buy power from a shuttered nuclear power plant in Iowa owned by NextEra, which the company plans to bring back online in 2029.

    Paolo Tiramani Background: An American industrial designer who has donated to Trump’s political campaigns. Tiramani, with his son, runs BOXABL, a firm specializing in modular, prefabricated homes.

    Union Pacific Background: Trump has endorsed the company’s proposed $85 billion acquisition of Norfolk Southern, which would be the largest-ever rail merger. It also will be up to the president to appoint two more Republican members of the Surface Transportation Board, who will ultimately decide whether to approve the merger. In August, Trump fired one of the two Democratic members of the board.

    Philanthropy (3):

    Adelson Family Foundation Background: Founded to strengthen the state of Israel and the Jewish people, the foundation was created by Miriam Adelson, the majority owner of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, close Trump ally and longtime GOP megadonor. She’s also the widow of Sheldon Adelson, the billionaire founder and owner of Las Vegas Sands.

    Betty Wold Johnson Foundation Background: Based in Palm Beach, the foundation supports health, arts and culture initiatives, as well as environmental and educational programs. It’s named in honor of the mother of New York Jets owner Woody Johnson, who served as Trump’s ambassador to the United Kingdom during his first term.

    Laura & Isaac Perlmutter Foundation Background: The nonprofit based in Lake Worth Beach, near Palm Beach, focuses on promoting health care, social justice, the arts and community initiatives. Isaac is an Israeli American businessman and financier and former chair of Marvel Entertainment. He and his wife have donated to Trump’s presidential campaigns and affiliated PACs.

    Trump administration officials (3):

    Benjamin Leon Jr. Background: The Cuban American founder of Miami-based Leon Medical Centers is Trump’s nominee for U.S. ambassador to Spain.

    Kelly Loeffler and Jeffrey Sprecher Background: A former Republican senator from Georgia, Loeffler heads Trump’s Small Business Administration. Her husband is CEO of the energy market Intercontinental Exchange Inc. and chairs the New York Stock Exchange. The couple faced scrutiny in 2020 for dumping substantial portions of their portfolio and purchasing new stocks, including in firms making protective equipment, after Congress received briefings on the severity of the coming coronavirus pandemic.

    Lutnick Family Background: Howard Lutnick is Trump’s commerce secretary. A crypto enthusiast, he once headed the brokerage and investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald.

    Communications/entertainment (3):

    Comcast Background: The mass media and telecom conglomerate has often been criticized by Trump, including in April, when the president posted that Comcast was a “disgrace to the integrity of broadcasting.” The company owns NBC and is spinning off MSNBC. It could be interested in acquiring Warner Bros. Discover, and that would leave Comcast looking for government approval.

    Hard Rock International Background: A Florida-based gaming and tourism concern owned by the Seminole Tribe, the company operates a number of casinos, including the former Trump Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Trump has for decades criticized federal exemptions allowing tribes to operate casinos.

    T-Mobile Background: The wireless carrier is indirectly linked to Trump Mobile, which the president’s family controls and offers gold phones and cell service in a licensing deal. Trump Mobile uses Liberty Mobile Wireless, a small, Florida-based network that T-Mobile says runs its operations on T-Mobile’s network. T-Mobile says that is unrelated to its decision to donate to Trump’s ballroom, which it says is meant to “restore and enrich the historic landmarks that define our nation’s capital.”

    Big Tobacco (2):

    Altria Group Background: The tobacco giant controls Philip Morris USA, maker of Marlboro. It has pressed for federal crackdowns on counterfeit and illegal vaping products. The company donated $50,000 to Trump’s inauguration.

    Reynolds American Background: With brands including Lucky Strike and Camel, the company has been active in lobbying to steer the Trump administration away from a Biden-proposed ban on menthol cigarettes.

    Defense/national security (2):

    Booz Allen Hamilton Background: A major defense and national security technology firm with extensive government contracts, it paid fines to settle lawsuits with the Justice Department under Biden. Booz Allen Hamilton agreed to pay more than $377 million in 2023 to settle allegations that it improperly billing costs to its government contracts. In January, it paid nearly $16 million to settle allegations that it submitted fraudulent claims in connection with government contracts.

    Lockheed Martin Corporation Background: The massive defense contractor has huge government contracts. It said in a statement that it “is grateful for the opportunity to help bring the President’s vision to reality and make this addition to the People’s House.”

    Individuals (7):

    Stefan E. Brodie Background: A biotech entrepreneur and co-founder of the chemical manufacturing company Purolite, Brodie and his family donated to Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign and affiliated committees. Brodie and his brother, Donald, were convicted in 2002 of circumventing U.S. sanctions on Cuba.

    Charles and Marissa Cascarilla Background: Charles Cascarilla is co‑founder of the blockchain firm Paxos. He and his wife are philanthropists who have advocated for financial technology sector deregulation.

    J. Pepe and Emilia Fanjul Background: Longtime Republican donors and Palm Beach residents, the couple controls U.S. sugar refining interests that includes the Domino brand.

    Edward and Shari Glazer Background: Members of the family that owns the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers and has a controlling stake in the Manchester United football club, the couple donated to Trump’s campaign. Edward is the founder and CEO of US Property Trust, which operates shopping centers, and the car dealership company US Auto Trust.

    Harold Hamm Background: The billionaire oil tycoon and pioneer of hydraulic fracturing heads the oil producer Continental Resources. He’s praised the Trump administration for aggressively moving to purchase oil to replenish the Strategic Petroleum Reserve stockpile.

    Stephen A. Schwarzman Background: A Palm Beach resident and chair and CEO of the Blackstone Group, a global private equity firm he helped establish in 1985. Schwarzman has donated to Trump and his PACs previously and led his first-term President’s Strategic and Policy Forum.

    Konstantin Sokolov Background: Born in Russia, he immigrated to the U.S. and now heads the Chicago-based private equity firm IJS Investments. Sokolov has donated to many educational and charitable causes in the past, and to Trump’s political campaigns.

    ___

    Associated Press writer Darlene Superville contributed to this report.

    ___

    This story has been updated to correct the first name of an individual who donated to the White House ballroom. He is Harold Hamm, not Howard Hamm.

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  • YouTube to start bringing back accounts of creators banned for misinformation

    YouTube creators whose accounts were banned for violating previous policies against COVID-19 and election misinformation will be given the chance to rejoin the platform, said Alphabet, YouTube’s parent company, on Tuesday.

    In a letter submitted in response to subpoenas from the House Judiciary Committee, attorneys for Alphabet said the decision to bring back banned accounts reflected the company’s commitment to free speech. 

    “No matter the political atmosphere, YouTube will continue to enable free expression on its platform, particularly as it relates to issues subject to political debate,” the letter read, noting that a number of accounts were kicked off the platform between 2023 and 2024 for violating misinformation rules that don’t exist anymore. Now, it said, “YouTube will provide an opportunity for all creators to rejoin the platform if the Company terminated their channels for repeated violations of COVID-19 and elections integrity policies that are no longer in effect.”

    The company in its letter also said it “values conservative voices on its platform and recognizes that these creators have extensive reach and play an important role in civic discourse” and added that YouTube “recognizes these creators are among those shaping today’s online consumption, landing ‘must-watch’ interviews, giving viewers the chance to hear directly from politicians, celebrities, business leaders, and more.”

    The move is the latest in a cascade of content moderation rollbacks from tech companies, who cracked down on false information during the pandemic and after the 2020 election but have since faced pressure from President Trump and other conservatives who argue they unlawfully stifled right-wing voices in the process.

    It comes as tech CEOs, including Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, have sought a closer relationship with the Republican president, including through high-dollar donations to his campaign and attending events in Washington.

    YouTube in 2023 phased out its policy to remove content that falsely claims the 2020 election, or other past U.S. presidential elections, were marred by “widespread fraud, errors or glitches.” Claims of fraud in the 2020 election have been debunked.

    The platform in 2024 also retired its standalone COVID-19 content restrictions, allowing various treatments for the disease to be discussed. COVID-19 misinformation now falls under YouTube’s broader medical misinformation policy.

    Among the creators who have been banned from YouTube under the now-expired policies are prominent conservative influencers, including Dan Bongino, who now serves as deputy director of the FBI. For people who make money on social media, access to monetization on YouTube can be significant, earning them large sums through ad revenue.

    House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan and other congressional Republicans have pressured tech companies to reverse content moderation policies created under former President Joe Biden and accused Biden’s administration of unfairly wielding its power over the companies to chill lawful online speech.

    In Tuesday’s letter, Alphabet’s lawyers said senior Biden administration officials “conducted repeated and sustained outreach” to coerce the company to remove pandemic-related YouTube videos that did not violate company policies.

    “It is unacceptable and wrong when any government, including the Biden Administration, attempts to dictate how the Company moderates content, and the Company has consistently fought against those efforts on First Amendment grounds,” the letter said.

    Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has also accused the Biden administration of pressuring employees to inappropriately censor content during the COVID-19 pandemic. Elon Musk, the owner of the social platform X, has accused the FBI of illegally coercing Twitter before his tenure to suppress a story about Hunter Biden.

    The Supreme Court last year sided with the Biden administration in a dispute with Republican-led states over how far the federal government can go to combat controversial social media posts on topics including COVID-19 and election security.

    Asked for more information about the reinstatement process, a spokesperson for YouTube did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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  • President Trump Brings Tech Leaders, CEOs to White House | Entrepreneur

    President Donald Trump hosted a dinner for some of the biggest names in tech in the U.S. on Thursday, including Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.

    Tesla CEO Elon Musk was notably absent from the table but said on X that he was invited but could not attend, and sent a representative in his place.

    Trump started the event by praising every person at the table as “brilliant” and part of a “high IQ group.”

    “This is taking our country to a new level,” he stated.

    Related: President Donald Trump, Apple to Announce $100 Billion Investment in U.S.

    At the dinner, Trump asked each tech leader how much they planned to invest in the U.S. in the next few years. Zuckerberg said, “at least $600 billion by ’28 in the U.S.” Apple CEO Tim Cook made the same statement, while Pichai mentioned $250 billion overall, and Nadella stated that the figure could reach up to $80 billion per year.

    “Good,” Trump said. “Very good.”

    (Left to right) “AI and Crypto Czar” David Sacks, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, President Donald Trump, and First Lady Melania Trump at the White House dinner on Sept. 4. Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images

    The dinner guest list, which the White House confirmed to the Associated Press, included Google cofounder Sergey Brin, Oracle CEO Safra Catz, White House AI and Crypto Czar David Sacks, Scale AI founder Alexandr Wang, and Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates.

    During the meal, Trump congratulated Pichai on the recent news of the determined penalties in Google’s landmark antitrust case. The penalties were significantly lighter than what the DOJ had been seeking. For example, Google has to stop entering or maintaining exclusive distribution deals for Search, Chrome, and other products. Google’s parent company, Alphabet, added $230 billion to its market capitalization this week.

    “I’m glad it’s over,” Pichai stated at the event, sparking laughter from other guests.

    Related: The ‘Whale’ Who Bet Big on Donald Trump’s Second Presidency Actually Won $85 Million, Way More Than First Reported. Here’s How He Did It.

    Melania Trump Hosts AI Event

    Before the dinner, on Thursday afternoon, First Lady Melania Trump hosted an event focused on AI in education. The First Lady said that it was critical to teach AI literacy from a young age to make sure the U.S. stayed competitive in that field.

    The First Lady’s office started an “Age of AI” challenge last month for students to create projects using AI to address community challenges. Submissions are due in December.

    “The robots are here,” Melania Trump stated at the afternoon event. “Our future is no longer science fiction.”

    President Donald Trump hosted a dinner for some of the biggest names in tech in the U.S. on Thursday, including Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.

    Tesla CEO Elon Musk was notably absent from the table but said on X that he was invited but could not attend, and sent a representative in his place.

    Trump started the event by praising every person at the table as “brilliant” and part of a “high IQ group.”

    The rest of this article is locked.

    Join Entrepreneur+ today for access.

    Sherin Shibu

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  • Google Won’t Have to Sell Chrome Browser After All (But There’s a Catch)

    A federal judge ruled in a high-profile antitrust case against Google on Tuesday with some good news and bad news for the tech giant. The good news for Google is that it won’t have to sell off its Chrome browser, which was a very real possibility. Google’s stock soared in after hours trading on the news.

    The bad news for Google was that it will be required to share data with its rivals and can’t sign many of the exclusive contracts that helped the company become so dominant in the industry.

    The ruling, which is available on Court Listener, comes from Judge Amit P. Mehta of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, who first ruled in Aug. 2024 that Google’s search business was an illegal monopoly.

    “Google will not be required to divest Chrome; nor will the court include a contingent divestiture of the Android operating system in the final judgment,” the ruling states. “Plaintiffs overreached in seeking forced divesture of these key assets, which Google did not use to effect any illegal restraints.”

    The Chrome browser has about 3.5 billion users, which is pretty impressive when you remember that there are only about 8.1 billion people on the entire planet. And AI company Perplexity even made an unsolicited offer to by Chrome last month, though it was considered to be a stunt by many tech industry watchers. Perplexity was offering $34.5 billion but was only valued at the time at about $18 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal.

    Tuesday’s ruling explained that Google will need to share “search index and user-interaction data, though not ads data,” with “qualified competitors.” The ruling also says the company “will be barred from entering or maintaining any exclusive contract relating to the distribution of Google Search, Chrome, Google Assistant, and the Gemini app,” though there are a lot of carve outs that will allow Google to enter contracts in order to not harm downstream businesses.

    Google also won’t be required to present users with “choice screens on its products or encourage its Android distribution partners to do the same,” according to the ruling. And it won’t have to underwrite a nationwide public education campaign. The U.S. government has presented various remedies after Google was found to be a monopoly, but the judge considered some to be “improper” demands.

    Reached for comment over email, a spokesperson for Google directed Gizmodo to a statement published online:

    Earlier today a U.S. court overseeing the Department of Justice’s lawsuit over how we distribute Search issued a decision on next steps.

    Today’s decision recognizes how much the industry has changed through the advent of AI, which is giving people so many more ways to find information. This underlines what we’ve been saying since this case was filed in 2020: Competition is intense and people can easily choose the services they want. That’s why we disagree so strongly with the Court’s initial decision in August 2024 on liability.

    Now the Court has imposed limits on how we distribute Google services, and will require us to share Search data with rivals. We have concerns about how these requirements will impact our users and their privacy, and we’re reviewing the decision closely. The Court did recognize that divesting Chrome and Android would have gone beyond the case’s focus on search distribution, and would have harmed consumers and our partners.

    As always, we’re continuing to focus on what matters — building innovative products that people choose and love.

    At least one of Google’s competitors was unhappy with the ruling for being too lenient on the tech company. “We do not believe the remedies ordered by the court will force the changes necessary to adequately address Google’s illegal behavior,” a spokesperson for DuckDuckGo told Gizmodo in an email Tuesday.

    “Google will still be allowed to continue to use its monopoly to hold back competitors, including in AI search,” the spokesperson continued. “As a result, consumers will continue to suffer. We believe Congress should now step in to swiftly make Google do the thing it fears the most: compete on a level playing field.”

    It seems very likely that Google will engage in some lobbying of the Trump administration behind the scenes as this case is appealed. President Trump has made no secret of the fact that he regularly meets with powerful people in the business world, whether it’s behind closed doors like he did with Intel CEO Lip Bu-Tan or more publicly like he did with Apple CEO Tim Cook.

    Trump publicly lambasted Bu-Tan but then met with the head of Intel, leading to the U.S. government taking a 10% stake in the company. The move shocked many on Wall Street, even among people who support the president. But it seems like Trump is more than willing to intervene in private businesses when he thinks it’s to his advantage.

    Will Trump make a play for Google in some way? The tech giant doesn’t need a cash injection like Intel. But there’s always something to trade when powerful interests need a favor. Google contributed $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund and Google CEO Sundar Pichai visited Trump at Mar-a-Lago not long after the election.

    Pichai was even spotted at the church service on Jan. 20, 2025 before Trump’s inauguration, right there behind Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Tim Cook, and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.

    Meta and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg (L) CEO of Apple Tim Cook, Founder of Amazon and Blue Origin Jeff Bezos attend services as part of Inauguration ceremonies at St. John’s Church on January 20, 2025 in Washington, DC. © Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

    It should be very interesting to see what happens as Google appeals this one.

    Matt Novak

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  • Is Google Lying To Us? Google’s Algorithm Secrets Revelead – Southwest Journal

    Is Google Lying To Us? Google’s Algorithm Secrets Revelead – Southwest Journal

    Google has been accused of bias in its search algorithms. Recently, CEO Sundar Pichai was called to Congress to address these allegations.

    Conservatives, including former President Donald Trump, have claimed that Google and other tech platforms favor left-leaning views.

    Trump tweeted in March 2019 that Google, Facebook, and Twitter support the Radical Left Democrats.

    Other users have also reported potential biases impacting their websites.

    Concerns include Google possibly penalizing their sites or favoring competitors with better user experience practices.

    This raises the question: Is Google impartial in its algorithmic treatment of different viewpoints?

    What Makes Google Biased?

    What Makes Google Biased

    Google’s operations cannot be considered entirely neutral due to the inherent value judgments they must make regarding search engine results pages (SERPs). One significant bias is against thin content and anything potentially harmful to users as per Gotch SEO.

    Google prioritizes content that meets users’ needs effectively, and if a website fails in this aspect, its rankings will suffer. This bias is favorable as it promotes high-quality content that benefits users.

    Another aspect of Google’s bias stems from its dual role as a search engine and an advertising platform. Google’s primary goal is to serve users to maintain its position as the leading search engine. However, it also seeks to monetize this user traffic through its advertising services. This duality results in a bias towards the interests of paid advertisers.

    In early 2020, Google made a change to how paid search results were displayed. Paid search results were placed at the top of the SERPs, making them nearly indistinguishable from organic results. This change underscored the importance of businesses utilizing effective tools to navigate the evolving landscape of search engine results.

    The new ‘Ad’ label introduced by Google closely resembled a favicon, making it harder for users to differentiate between paid and organic results. This modification faced significant backlash, and Google eventually reversed the change. However, the intent behind the adjustment highlighted Google’s tendency to prioritize paid advertisers’ interests over those of users and organic search results.

    Aspect Description
    Content Bias Prefers high-quality, user-friendly content over thin or harmful content.
    Advertising Bias Places interests of paid advertisers above organic search results.

    Moreover, the necessity for Google to monetize its services is clear. The search engine’s strategy to accommodate paid advertisers indicates how businesses must adapt. Utilizing membership management software and other tools becomes crucial for businesses navigating these biases.

    Strategic Steps to Navigate Google’s Bias

    A Man Navigating Google's Bias on His LaptopA Man Navigating Google's Bias on His Laptop
    This Image Is Generated by Midjourney

    Google’s preference for high-quality content that benefits users highlights the importance of focusing on valuable and relevant information. Here are some steps to effectively navigate this landscape:

    1. Create User-Centric Content: Developing content that addresses user needs and questions can enhance visibility in search results. Emphasize authenticity and usefulness. 
    2. Engage in Ethical Link-Building: Establishing reputable and organic link-building efforts can significantly boost your content’s standing. Avoid engaging in black-hat SEO techniques that can harm your site’s reputation. 
    3. Adopt a Balanced Paid Advertising Strategy: While pursuing organic reach, remain aware of Google’s alignment with advertisers. Leverage paid advertising judiciously to complement your overall strategy. 
    4. Monitor Industry Actions and Legal Proceedings: Stay informed about ongoing legal issues involving Google, such as allegations of market consolidation. This awareness helps you understand potential shifts in the landscape. 
    5. Advocate for Search Neutrality: Encourage transparent practices by tech giants. Actively engaging in discussions about search neutrality can help maintain a fair online environment. 
    6. Analyze and Adapt to Algorithm Changes: Regularly review updates to Google’s algorithms and adjust your strategies accordingly. This proactive approach ensures ongoing alignment with search engine preferences.

    4 Ways to Boost Page Ranking!

    1. Review Your Page Performance

    Man Reviewing His Page Performance on a LaptopMan Reviewing His Page Performance on a Laptop
    This Image Is Generated by Midjourney

    To create a successful SEO strategy, it’s important to address existing issues or concerns first. Conducting a thorough page audit helps identify areas that need attention.

    • Domain: Ensure your domain is relevant to your products and services.
    • Page Factors: Assess critical elements such as page loading time, a significant factor in Google’s ranking criteria.
    • Content: Evaluate the length and accuracy of your content, both crucial for high rankings.

    Analyzing these factors helps understand your current standing and guides the creation of an effective improvement plan.

    Additionally, staying updated with SEO trends for 2024, such as the increased importance of AI-driven search algorithms, can provide a competitive edge.

    2. Create Excellent Content

    High-quality content significantly impacts Google search rankings and helps attract and convert leads.

    • Keywords: Choose relevant keywords that align with what your target audience typically searches for. Utilize SEO tools to find effective keywords with low competition.
    • Relevant Information: Ensure your content is accurate, timely, and provides valuable solutions without being forced or overly promotional.

    Well-crafted content that meets these criteria can significantly boost your page ranking.

    3. Improve User Experience


    User experience is defined by how visitors perceive their interaction with your website. Several factors contribute to a positive user experience:

    • Page Loading Time: Optimize loading times by sizing images appropriately, reducing user frustration.
    • Navigation: Simplify navigation to make elements easily accessible, preventing visitors from leaving your site.
    • Mobile Responsiveness: Adapt your website for mobile devices, considering different screen sizes and layouts.

    Enhancing these elements can keep visitors engaged and improve your rankings.

    4. Continuously Update Content

    In the fast-evolving digital world, regularly updating content ensures it stays accurate and relevant. This practice prevents the spread of outdated information and helps identify opportunities for improvement.

    Keeping your content fresh and current can significantly enhance your website’s appeal and overall ranking. Regular updates also align with how search engines prefer frequently refreshed information.

    4 Steps to Take Now that You Recognize Google’s Bias

    1. Develop a Quality Content Strategy

    Man Working on a Quality Content StrategyMan Working on a Quality Content Strategy
    This Image Is Generated by Midjourney

    Google’s preference for high-quality, user-focused content means that developing a robust content strategy is essential. This includes:

    • Creating Relevant and Valuable Content: Focus on producing articles, blogs, and other materials that provide genuine value to the reader.
    • Enhancing User Experience: Ensure that your website is easy to navigate and user-friendly, as Google favors sites that offer a good user experience.
    • Building Links: Link building remains crucial. Quality backlinks from reputable sources can significantly enhance your site’s visibility in search results.

    2. Promote Transparency in Advertising

    Given Google’s bias towards its paid advertisers, it’s important to advocate for transparency in advertising practices. This involves:

    • Monitoring Legal Developments: Stay informed about ongoing legal proceedings, such as the lawsuit alleging Google’s collusion with Facebook to dominate the online advertising market.
    • Advocating for Fair Practices: Support initiatives that push for transparency and fairness in how ads are displayed and ranked on Google.

    3. Stay Informed and Proactive

    Man Staying Informed About Google's Actions While Working on a LaptopMan Staying Informed About Google's Actions While Working on a Laptop
    This Image Is Generated by Midjourney

    Maintaining awareness of Google’s responses to public concerns and regulatory actions can help you stay ahead. Keep track of any changes in Google’s policies and practices related to their search algorithms and advertising.

    • Monitor Google’s Actions: By keeping an eye on Google and other major tech companies, you can better advocate for search neutrality.
    • Advocate for Change: Encourage efforts aimed at ensuring that search engines do not unfairly favor paid advertisers over organic, user-focused content.

    Frequently Asked Questions

    Can Search Results Be Manipulated on Google?

    Search results on Google can potentially be influenced through various means. This includes search engine optimization (SEO) techniques where websites employ specific strategies to rank higher in search results. Additionally, there are concerns about the potential for bias in Google’s algorithms, which some argue may favor certain types of content over others.

    What Measures Does Google Have to Ensure Truthfulness in Their Search Results?

    Google uses a variety of methods to verify the accuracy of information presented in search results. This includes algorithm updates, fact-checking partnerships with reputable organizations, and continuous refinement of their ranking criteria to reduce the spread of misinformation. 

    Has Google Been Known to Provide Inaccurate Historical Data?

    Instances of Google presenting incorrect historical information have been reported. These inaccuracies can stem from errors in the source data or limitations in Google’s algorithmic understanding. 

    Do Google’s Services Include Any Form of Espionage on Users?

    There have been concerns about Google’s data collection practices and their implications for user privacy. Google collects vast amounts of user data to improve service personalization and ad targeting. While there is no definitive proof of espionage, these practices have sparked debates over privacy and surveillance.

    Are There Ways to Detect Inaccuracies in Information Provided by Google?

    Detecting inaccuracies in Google search results involves cross-referencing information with multiple reputable sources. Users are encouraged to read critically, verify facts against authoritative publications, and use fact-checking websites. Additionally, Google’s transparency report provides insights into how they handle requests for information removal, offering some level of oversight.

    How Does Google Ensure the Reliability of The Information It Provides?

    Google invests heavily in artificial intelligence and machine learning to enhance the reliability of search results. This includes updates to their core search algorithms and collaborations with industry experts to improve content quality. The goal is to prioritize high-quality, authoritative sources in search results, though this system is not foolproof and continues to evolve to better address misinformation.

    Final Thoughts

    Does Google Lie?

    While Google does not actively manipulate its biases, these biases favor websites with high-quality content and strong user experience. The steps highlighted above, such as creating superior content and advocating for transparent advertising practices, are effective strategies for aligning with Google’s preferences.

    These methods can lead to a better chance of your content being favored by Google’s algorithms, thereby improving your website’s visibility and reach.

    Srdjan Ilic

    Source link

  • Is Google Lying To Us? Google’s Algorithm Secrets Revealed – Southwest Journal

    Is Google Lying To Us? Google’s Algorithm Secrets Revealed – Southwest Journal

    Google has been accused of bias in its search algorithms. Recently, CEO Sundar Pichai was called to Congress to address these allegations.

    Conservatives, including former President Donald Trump, have claimed that Google and other tech platforms favor left-leaning views.

    Trump tweeted in March 2019 that Google, Facebook, and Twitter support the Radical Left Democrats.

    Other users have also reported potential biases impacting their websites.

    Concerns include Google possibly penalizing their sites or favoring competitors with better user experience practices.

    This raises the question: Is Google impartial in its algorithmic treatment of different viewpoints?

    What Makes Google Biased?

    What Makes Google Biased

    Google’s operations cannot be considered entirely neutral due to the inherent value judgments they must make regarding search engine results pages (SERPs). One significant bias is against thin content and anything potentially harmful to users as per Gotch SEO.

    Google prioritizes content that meets users’ needs effectively, and if a website fails in this aspect, its rankings will suffer. This bias is favorable as it promotes high-quality content that benefits users.

    Another aspect of Google’s bias stems from its dual role as a search engine and an advertising platform. Google’s primary goal is to serve users to maintain its position as the leading search engine. However, it also seeks to monetize this user traffic through its advertising services. This duality results in a bias towards the interests of paid advertisers.

    In early 2020, Google made a change to how paid search results were displayed. Paid search results were placed at the top of the SERPs, making them nearly indistinguishable from organic results. This change underscored the importance of businesses utilizing effective tools to navigate the evolving landscape of search engine results.

    The new ‘Ad’ label introduced by Google closely resembled a favicon, making it harder for users to differentiate between paid and organic results. This modification faced significant backlash, and Google eventually reversed the change. However, the intent behind the adjustment highlighted Google’s tendency to prioritize paid advertisers’ interests over those of users and organic search results.

    Aspect Description
    Content Bias Prefers high-quality, user-friendly content over thin or harmful content.
    Advertising Bias Places interests of paid advertisers above organic search results.

    Moreover, the necessity for Google to monetize its services is clear. The search engine’s strategy to accommodate paid advertisers indicates how businesses must adapt. Utilizing membership management software and other tools becomes crucial for businesses navigating these biases.

    Strategic Steps to Navigate Google’s Bias

    A Man Navigating Google's Bias on His LaptopA Man Navigating Google's Bias on His Laptop
    This Image Is Generated by Midjourney

    Google’s preference for high-quality content that benefits users highlights the importance of focusing on valuable and relevant information. Here are some steps to effectively navigate this landscape:

    1. Create User-Centric Content: Developing content that addresses user needs and questions can enhance visibility in search results. Emphasize authenticity and usefulness. 
    2. Engage in Ethical Link-Building: Establishing reputable and organic link-building efforts can significantly boost your content’s standing. Avoid engaging in black-hat SEO techniques that can harm your site’s reputation. 
    3. Adopt a Balanced Paid Advertising Strategy: While pursuing organic reach, remain aware of Google’s alignment with advertisers. Leverage paid advertising judiciously to complement your overall strategy. 
    4. Monitor Industry Actions and Legal Proceedings: Stay informed about ongoing legal issues involving Google, such as allegations of market consolidation. This awareness helps you understand potential shifts in the landscape. 
    5. Advocate for Search Neutrality: Encourage transparent practices by tech giants. Actively engaging in discussions about search neutrality can help maintain a fair online environment. 
    6. Analyze and Adapt to Algorithm Changes: Regularly review updates to Google’s algorithms and adjust your strategies accordingly. This proactive approach ensures ongoing alignment with search engine preferences.

    4 Ways to Boost Page Ranking!

    1. Review Your Page Performance

    Man Reviewing His Page Performance on a LaptopMan Reviewing His Page Performance on a Laptop
    This Image Is Generated by Midjourney

    To create a successful SEO strategy, it’s important to address existing issues or concerns first. Conducting a thorough page audit helps identify areas that need attention.

    • Domain: Ensure your domain is relevant to your products and services.
    • Page Factors: Assess critical elements such as page loading time, a significant factor in Google’s ranking criteria.
    • Content: Evaluate the length and accuracy of your content, both crucial for high rankings.

    Analyzing these factors helps understand your current standing and guides the creation of an effective improvement plan.

    Additionally, staying updated with SEO trends for 2024, such as the increased importance of AI-driven search algorithms, can provide a competitive edge.

    2. Create Excellent Content

    High-quality content significantly impacts Google search rankings and helps attract and convert leads.

    • Keywords: Choose relevant keywords that align with what your target audience typically searches for. Utilize SEO tools to find effective keywords with low competition.
    • Relevant Information: Ensure your content is accurate, timely, and provides valuable solutions without being forced or overly promotional.

    Well-crafted content that meets these criteria can significantly boost your page ranking.

    3. Improve User Experience


    User experience is defined by how visitors perceive their interaction with your website. Several factors contribute to a positive user experience:

    • Page Loading Time: Optimize loading times by sizing images appropriately, reducing user frustration.
    • Navigation: Simplify navigation to make elements easily accessible, preventing visitors from leaving your site.
    • Mobile Responsiveness: Adapt your website for mobile devices, considering different screen sizes and layouts.

    Enhancing these elements can keep visitors engaged and improve your rankings.

    4. Continuously Update Content

    In the fast-evolving digital world, regularly updating content ensures it stays accurate and relevant. This practice prevents the spread of outdated information and helps identify opportunities for improvement.

    Keeping your content fresh and current can significantly enhance your website’s appeal and overall ranking. Regular updates also align with how search engines prefer frequently refreshed information.

    4 Steps to Take Now that You Recognize Google’s Bias

    1. Develop a Quality Content Strategy

    Man Working on a Quality Content StrategyMan Working on a Quality Content Strategy
    This Image Is Generated by Midjourney

    Google’s preference for high-quality, user-focused content means that developing a robust content strategy is essential. This includes:

    • Creating Relevant and Valuable Content: Focus on producing articles, blogs, and other materials that provide genuine value to the reader.
    • Enhancing User Experience: Ensure that your website is easy to navigate and user-friendly, as Google favors sites that offer a good user experience.
    • Building Links: Link building remains crucial. Quality backlinks from reputable sources can significantly enhance your site’s visibility in search results.

    2. Promote Transparency in Advertising

    Given Google’s bias towards its paid advertisers, it’s important to advocate for transparency in advertising practices. This involves:

    • Monitoring Legal Developments: Stay informed about ongoing legal proceedings, such as the lawsuit alleging Google’s collusion with Facebook to dominate the online advertising market.
    • Advocating for Fair Practices: Support initiatives that push for transparency and fairness in how ads are displayed and ranked on Google.

    3. Stay Informed and Proactive

    Man Staying Informed About Google's Actions While Working on a LaptopMan Staying Informed About Google's Actions While Working on a Laptop
    This Image Is Generated by Midjourney

    Maintaining awareness of Google’s responses to public concerns and regulatory actions can help you stay ahead. Keep track of any changes in Google’s policies and practices related to their search algorithms and advertising.

    • Monitor Google’s Actions: By keeping an eye on Google and other major tech companies, you can better advocate for search neutrality.
    • Advocate for Change: Encourage efforts aimed at ensuring that search engines do not unfairly favor paid advertisers over organic, user-focused content.

    Frequently Asked Questions

    Can Search Results Be Manipulated on Google?

    Search results on Google can potentially be influenced through various means. This includes search engine optimization (SEO) techniques where websites employ specific strategies to rank higher in search results. Additionally, there are concerns about the potential for bias in Google’s algorithms, which some argue may favor certain types of content over others.

    What Measures Does Google Have to Ensure Truthfulness in Their Search Results?

    Google uses a variety of methods to verify the accuracy of information presented in search results. This includes algorithm updates, fact-checking partnerships with reputable organizations, and continuous refinement of their ranking criteria to reduce the spread of misinformation. 

    Has Google Been Known to Provide Inaccurate Historical Data?

    Instances of Google presenting incorrect historical information have been reported. These inaccuracies can stem from errors in the source data or limitations in Google’s algorithmic understanding. 

    Do Google’s Services Include Any Form of Espionage on Users?

    There have been concerns about Google’s data collection practices and their implications for user privacy. Google collects vast amounts of user data to improve service personalization and ad targeting. While there is no definitive proof of espionage, these practices have sparked debates over privacy and surveillance.

    Are There Ways to Detect Inaccuracies in Information Provided by Google?

    Detecting inaccuracies in Google search results involves cross-referencing information with multiple reputable sources. Users are encouraged to read critically, verify facts against authoritative publications, and use fact-checking websites. Additionally, Google’s transparency report provides insights into how they handle requests for information removal, offering some level of oversight.

    How Does Google Ensure the Reliability of The Information It Provides?

    Google invests heavily in artificial intelligence and machine learning to enhance the reliability of search results. This includes updates to their core search algorithms and collaborations with industry experts to improve content quality. The goal is to prioritize high-quality, authoritative sources in search results, though this system is not foolproof and continues to evolve to better address misinformation.

    Final Thoughts

    Does Google Lie?

    While Google does not actively manipulate its biases, these biases favor websites with high-quality content and strong user experience. The steps highlighted above, such as creating superior content and advocating for transparent advertising practices, are effective strategies for aligning with Google’s preferences.

    These methods can lead to a better chance of your content being favored by Google’s algorithms, thereby improving your website’s visibility and reach.

    Srdjan Ilic

    Source link

  • Generative AI ‘FOMO’ is driving tech heavyweights to invest billions of dollars in startups

    Generative AI ‘FOMO’ is driving tech heavyweights to invest billions of dollars in startups

    Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, right, greets OpenAI CEO Sam Altman during the OpenAI DevDay event in San Francisco on Nov. 6, 2023.

    Justin Sullivan | Getty Images News | Getty Images

    Tech giants aren’t doing much acquiring these days, due mostly to an unfavorable regulatory environment. But they’re finding other ways to spend billions of dollars on the next big thing.

    Amazon’s $2.75 billion investment in artificial intelligence startup Anthropic, announced this week, was its largest venture deal and the latest example of the AI gold rush that’s prompting the biggest tech companies to fling open their wallets.

    Anthropic is the developer behind the AI model Claude, which competes with GPT from Microsoft-backed OpenAI, and Google’s Gemini. Along with Meta and Apple, they’re all racing to integrate generative AI into their vast portfolios of products and features to ensure they don’t fall behind in a market that’s predicted to top $1 billion in revenue within a decade.

    In 2023, investors pumped $29.1 billion combined into nearly 700 generative AI deals, an increase of more than 260% in value from the prior year, according to PitchBook.

    A significant chunk of that money was strategic, in that it came from tech companies rather than venture capitalists or other institutions. Fred Havemeyer, head of U.S. AI and software research at Macquarie, said a fear of missing out is one factor driving their decisions.

    “They definitely don’t want to miss out on being part of the AI ecosystem,” Havemeyer said. “I definitely think that there’s FOMO in this marketplace.”

    The hefty investments are necessary because AI models are notoriously expensive to build and train, requiring thousands of specialized chips that, to date, have largely come from Nvidia. Meta, which is developing its own model called Llama, has said it’s spending billions on Nvidia’s graphics processing units, one of the many companies that’s helped the chipmaker bolster year-over-year revenue by more than 250%.

    Whether going the building or investing route, there are a finite number of companies that can afford to play in the market. In addition to developing the chips, Nvidia has emerged as one of Silicon Valley’s top investors, taking stakes in a number of emerging AI companies, partly as a way to make sure its technology gets widely deployed. Similarly, Microsoft, Google and Amazon sometimes offer cloud credits as part of their investments.

    In the Amazon-Anthropic deal announced on Wednesday, the two companies said they’ll work closely together in a variety of ways. Anthropic will be using Amazon Web Services for its computing needs as well as Amazon’s chips. Anthropic’s models will be distributed by Amazon to AWS customers.

    Earlier this month, Anthropic launched Claude 3, its most powerful model and one that it says lets users upload photos, charts, documents and other types of unstructured data for analysis and answers.

    Microsoft got into the business of generative AI investing earlier, putting $1 billion into OpenAI in 2019. The size of its investment has since swelled to about $13 billion. Microsoft heavily uses OpenAI’s model and offers open source models on its Azure cloud.

    Alphabet is playing the part of builder and investor. The company has refocused much of its product development on generative AI, and its newly rebranded Gemini model, adding features into search, documents, maps and elsewhere. Last year, Google committed to invest $2 billion in Anthropic, after previously confirming it had taken a 10% stake in the startup alongside a large cloud contract between the two companies.

    In this photo illustration, Gemini Ai is seen on a phone on March 18, 2024 in New York City. 

    Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images

    Havemeyer said tech giants aren’t just throwing money into the “hype cycle,” as these investments in AI startups align with their product road maps.

    “I don’t think it’s frivolous,” he said.

    Havemeyer said that alliances with big cloud providers not only bring much-needed cash to startups but also help them sign up customers.

    The cloud companies are saying, “Come to us, work on our platform, have native access to the latest and greatest AI models, and also use our infrastructure,” Havemeyer said. “It’s also part of a much larger ecosystem play.”

    “We’re seeing a lot of alliances appearing among those hyperscalers that have substantial scale, infrastructure and very deep pockets,” he added.

    ‘Shape the next decade’

    In recent earnings calls, tech execs reiterated their focus on generative AI, making it clear to investors that they have to spend money to make money, whether it’s on internal development or through investing in startups.

    Microsoft Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood said last year the company was adjusting its “workforce toward the AI-first work we’re doing without adding material number of people to the workforce.” She said Microsoft will continue to prioritize investing in AI as “the thing that’s going to shape the next decade.”

    Leaders of Google, Apple and Amazon have also suggested to investors that they’re willing to cut costs broadly across departments in order to redirect more funding toward their AI efforts.

    Startups are among the beneficiaries.

    Microsoft has taken stakes in Mistral, Figure and Humane, in addition to OpenAI. The company invested in Inflection AI before the startup essentially dissolved and joined Microsoft this month. Mistral is an open source-focused company that uses Azure’s cloud and offers its service to Azure clients.

    Startup Figure AI is developing general-purpose humanoid robots.

    Figure AI

    Figure, a startup seeking to build a robot that walks like a human, has raised money from Microsoft, OpenAI and Nvidia and was valued last month at $2.6 billion.

    Amazon’s biggest bet is Anthropic, pouring in a total of $4 billion so far. The company has also invested in open source AI platform developer Hugging Face.

    Google’s investments include Essential AI, which is developing consumer AI programs and is backed by AMD and Nvidia. Alphabet and Nvidia are also investors in Runway ML, a generative AI company known for its video-editing and visual effects tools. Others in Nvidia’s portfolio include Mistral, Perplexity and Cohere.

    Meanwhile, many of the Big Tech companies continue to spend internally on developing their own models.

    Microsoft has invested in many of the techniques underpinning generative AI through its Microsoft Research division. Amazon reportedly has plans to train a bigger, more data-hungry model than even OpenAI’s GPT-4.

    Apple researchers recently published details of their work on MM1, a family of small AI models that can take both text and visual input. Apple is in a different position that its peers in that it doesn’t sell a cloud service. Still, the tech giant is reportedly looking for AI partners, including potentially Google in the U.S. and Baidu in China. An Apple representative declined to comment on AI partners.

    Creativity in dealmaking

    Daniel Newman, CEO of technology analysis firm Futurum Group, said tech companies are having to get clever when it comes to investing in AI.

    For example, OpenAI’s investment from Microsoft included profit sharing in a nonprofit wing, as well as credits to use Microsoft’s cloud service. Microsoft’s deal for Inflection AI amounted to an expensive acquihire, with some reports putting the total outlay at $1 billion. As part of the transaction, Microsoft hired Inflection AI founder Mustafa Suleyman to lead Copilot AI initiatives.

    “I think we’re starting to see some some creativity and dealmaking,” said Newman. With respect to Amazon’s agreement with Anthropic, he said an acquisition would be “a lot harder than investing.”

    That’s because regulators across the globe are cracking down on Big Tech, making it more difficult to do sizable acquisitions. Even the investments are attracting scrutiny.

    In January, the Federal Trade Commission announced it will conduct an extensive inquiry into the field’s biggest players in AI, including Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft, Anthropic and OpenAI.

    FTC Chair Lina Khan described the probe as a “market inquiry into the investments and partnerships being formed between AI developers and major cloud service providers.” The regulator has the authority to order companies to file specific reports or answer questions in writing about their businesses.

    “We know regulators are becoming increasingly focused on the traditional path of closing an acquisition,” Newman said. “Right now, the game is having access to the most fundamental IP.”

    Don’t miss these stories from CNBC PRO:

    AI hype drives valuations higher as Anthropic looks to raise funding

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  • Perplexity’s Founder Was Inspired by Sundar Pichai. Now They’re Competing to Reinvent Search

    Perplexity’s Founder Was Inspired by Sundar Pichai. Now They’re Competing to Reinvent Search

    Aravind Srinivas credits Google CEO Sundar Pichai for giving him the freedom to eat eggs.

    Srinivas remembers the moment seven years ago when an interview with Pichai popped up in his YouTube feed. His vegetarian upbringing in India had excluded eggs, as it had for many in the country, but now, in his early twenties, Srinivas wanted to start eating more protein. Here was Pichai, a hero to many aspiring entrepreneurs in India, casually describing his morning: waking up, reading newspapers, drinking tea—and eating an omelet.

    Srinivas shared the video with his mother. OK, she said: You can eat eggs.

    Pichai’s influence reaches far beyond Srinivas’ diet. He too is CEO of a search company, called Perplexity AI, one of the most hyped-up apps of the generative AI era. Srinivas is still taking cues from Pichai, the leader of the world’s largest search engine, but his admiration is more complicated.

    “It’s kind of a rivalry now,” Srinivas says. “It’s awkward.”

    Srinivas and Pichai both grew up in Chennai, India, in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu—though the two were born 22 years apart. By the time Srinivas was working toward his PhD in computer science at UC Berkeley, Pichai had been crowned chief executive of Google.

    For his first research internship, Srinivas worked at Google-owned DeepMind in London. Pichai also got a new job that year, becoming CEO of Alphabet as well as Google. Srinivas found the work at DeepMind invigorating, but he was dismayed to find that the flat he had rented sight unseen was a disaster—a “crappy home, with rats,” he says—so he sometimes slept in DeepMind’s offices.

    He discovered in the office library a book about the development and evolution of Google, called In the Plex, penned by WIRED editor at large Steven Levy. Srinivas read it over and over, deepening his appreciation of Google and its innovations. “Larry and Sergey became my entrepreneurial heroes,” Srinivas says. (He offered to list In the Plex’s chapters and cite passages from memory; WIRED took his word for it.)

    Shortly afterwards, in 2020, Srinivas ended up working at Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, California, as a research intern working on machine learning for computer vision. Slowly, Srinivas was making his way through the Google universe, and putting some of his AI research work to good use.

    Then, in 2022, Srinivas and three cofounders—Denis Yarats, Johnny Ho, and Andy Konwinski—teamed up to try and develop a new approach to search using AI. They started out working on algorithms that could translate natural language into the database language SQL, but determined this was too narrow (or nerdy). Instead they pivoted to a product that combined a traditional search index with the relatively new power of large language models. They called it Perplexity.

    Perplexity is sometimes described as an “answer” engine rather than a search engine, because of the way it uses AI text generation to summarize results. New searches create conversational “threads” on a particular topic. Type in a query, and Perplexity responds with follow up questions, asking you to refine your ask. It eschews direct links in favor of text-based or visual answers that don’t require you to click away to somewhere else to get information.

    Lauren Goode

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  • Big Tech Earnings Recap: The Numbers and What CEOs Are Saying About 2024

    Big Tech Earnings Recap: The Numbers and What CEOs Are Saying About 2024


    Big Tech companies closed 2023 with a blowout quarter. Getty Images/Observer

    This week, five of the stock market’s “Magnificent Seven”—Alphabet (GOOGL), Microsoft (MSFT), Apple (AAPL), Amazon (AMZN) and Meta (META)—reported financial results for the last quarter of 2023. Big Tech companies closed a year full of bold headlines: Alphabet’s YouTube reached 100 million subscribers; Microsoft launched a suite of A.I. products and finalized its acquisition of gaming behemoth Activision Blizzard; Apple debuted the iPhone 15 and released its Vision Pro VR headset (It’s available in stores today (Feb. 2)); Meta began paying its first ever cash dividend; and Amazon further expanded its e-commerce offerings and upped its game in video streaming.

    Here is a recap of Big Tech’s overall blowout Q4 and what their CEOs said on earnings calls.

    Alphabet

    • Quarterly revenue: $86.3 billion, up 13 percent from a year ago
    • Net income: $20.69 billion, or $1.64 per share
    • Advertising revenue: $65.52 billion

    Google (GOOGL)’s ad revenue for the December quarter included $48 billion from Google Search and approximately $9.2 billion from YouTube. On a call with analysts on Jan. 30, CEO Sundar Pichai touted the rapid growth of YouTube, calling it a “key driver of our subscription revenue.”

    The tech giant also reported the first time that YouTube had more than 100 million paid subscribers at the end of 2023. The video platform plowed in as much revenue as Google’s cloud business, which also saw strong growth in the fourth quarter.

    Microsoft

    • Quarterly revenue: $62 billion, up 18 percent from a year ago
    • Net income: $21.9 billion, or $2.93 per share
    • Cloud revenue: $33 billion, up 24 percent from a year ago

    Microsoft drew headlines throughout 2023 for its many initiatives, from deepened collaboration with OpenAI to legal progress in its $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

    On the earnings call on Jan. 30, CEO Satya Nadella emphasized the company’s transition from experimenting with A.I. to applying the technology at scale, with A.I. capabilities being integrated across Microsoft’s product offerings, from Microsoft Copilot to Azure AI to GitHub Copilot, the popular A.I. developer tool.

    “We’re using this A.I. inflection point to redefine our role in business applications,” Nadella told analysts.

    Apple

    • Quarterly revenue: $119.6 billion, up 2 percent from a year ago
    • Net income: $33.9 billion, or $2.18 per share
    • iPhone revenue: $69.7 billion, up 6 percent from a year ago

    iPhones continued to dominate Apple’s revenue makeup, accounting for roughly 60 percent of its Q4 sales. The Mac segment generated $7.8 billion in revenue, returning to growth, while iPad revenue fell 25 percent from the previous year to $7 billion. The sharp decline was in part due to Apple’s lack of new iPad models in 2023. 

    Apple’s revenue in the “Wearables, Home, and Accessories” business fell 11 percent year-over-year to $12 billion. This decline was offset by a 11 percent growth in the “Services” unit, which includes Apple TV+, Apple News+ and Apple One bundles. The unit reported $23.1 billion in revenue in the December quarter, a record high. 

    Apple reported earnings a day before its Vision Pro headset arrived in stores in the U.S. On yesterday’s earnings call, CEO Tim Cook called the Vision Pro “the most advanced personal electronics device ever. We can’t wait for people to experience the magic for themselves.”

    Amazon

    • Quarterly revenue: $169.9 billion, up 14 percent from a year ago
    • Net income: $10.6 billion, or $1.00 per share
    • e-Commerce revenue: $70.54 billion, up 8 percent from a year ago
    • AWS revenue: $24.2 billion, up 13 percent from a year ago

    Amazon saw record user acitivites during last quarter’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping events, where customers purchased over 1 billion items on Amazon globally. In the U.S., over 500 million items were ordered from independent sellers, attracting millions of new Prime memberships. Throughout 2023, Amazon provided its fastest-ever global delivery to Prime members, delivering over 7 billion units the same or the next day.

    “This Q4 was a record-breaking Holiday shopping season and closed out a robust 2023,” CEO Andy Jassy said on the earnings call yesterday.

    Amazon plans to increase capital expenditures in 2024, particularly in expanding its A.I. efforts. The company just launched Rufus, an A.I.-powered shopping assistant. In addition, its recent move to display ads on Prime Video aims to leverage Amazon’s massive audience for advertising expansion. In the fourth quarter, Amazon generated $14.7 billion in ad revenue, up 26.7 percent from a year ago.

    Meta

    • Quarterly revenue: $40.1 billion, up 25 percent from a year ago
    • Net income: $14 billion, or $5.33 per share (up 300 percent from a year ago)

    Meta tripled profits in the December quarter, in part thanks to aggressive cost-cutting in the previous months. The tech giant also announced its inaugural cash dividend of $0.50 per share during the earnings call yesterday. 

    Meta’s family of social media apps, including Facebook, Instagram, Threads and WhatsApp, had 3.19 billion daily active users at the end of 2023. Threads, Meta’s answer to Elon Musk’s X, had 130 million monthly active users at the end of last year. CFO Susan Li said on the earnings call Meta would no longer report Facebook-specific numbers, suggesting a shift away from its legacy social media platforms. Altogether, revenue from the total family of apps came at $39 billion during the quarter, a 24 percent increase from the previous year. 

    Looking into 2024, CEO Mark Zuckerberg promised significant investments in A.I. for foundational research and product development, expecting capital expenditures to be between $30 billion and $37 billion this year. “Moving forward, a major goal will be building the most popular and most advanced A.I. products and services,” Zuckerberg said on yesterday’s earnings call.

    Big Tech Earnings Recap: The Numbers and What CEOs Are Saying About 2024





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  • Alphabet misses expectations on Google ad revenue, sending stock lower

    Alphabet misses expectations on Google ad revenue, sending stock lower


    Google parent company Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL) reported its fourth quarter earnings after the bell on Tuesday, missing analysts’ expectations on ad revenue, the heart of the tech giant’s business.

    The stock slid 4% lower in extended trading.

    Revenue, excluding traffic acquisition costs for the third quarter, was $72 billion versus expectations of nearly $71 billion. That’s higher than the $63.12 billion the company generated during the same period in the prior year. But investors seemed to focus on the advertising miss.

    The company reported continued growth in its cloud business, which has grown in importance to investors because of its usefulness in the development of AI. Google Cloud revenue beat expectations, crossing $9 billion, amounting to a 26% jump from a year ago. The company has been pushing to claim additional market share in the cloud computing market, where it currently sits in third place behind competitors Amazon (AMZN) and Microsoft (MSFT).

    Here are some of Alphabet’s most significant metrics compared to what Wall Street was expecting in the company’s fiscal fourth quarter, according to data from Bloomberg:

    • Revenue, excluding traffic acquisition costs: $72.32 billion vs. $70.97 billion expected ($63.12 billion in Q4 2022)

    • Adjusted earnings per share: $1.64 vs. $1.59 expected ($1.05 in Q4 2022)

    • Cloud revenue: $9.19 billion vs. $8.95 billion expected ($7.32 billion in Q4 2022)

    • Ad revenue: $65.5 billion vs. $65.8 billion expected ($59.04 billion in Q4 2022)

    During a call with analysts, both CEO Sundar Pichai and CFO Ruth Porat noted the importance of streamlining the business to achieve cost savings and efficiency.

    “Across different teams we have wound down some non-priority projects which will help us invest and operate well in our growth areas,” said Pichai.

    Porat said the company is focused on removing organizational layers to boost efficiency, which has resulted in a slower pace of hiring. But she added that the company will continue to invest in top talent.

    The earnings report arrives just weeks after Google laid off hundreds of workers across multiple divisions as the company aims to cut expenses and focus on growth areas, including AI. The tech giant joins several of its peers and others across corporate America that have relied on layoffs to boost efficiency in the wake of significant expansions in the COVID era.

    Google’s executives also responded to concerns that the advancement of AI may disrupt the company’s search products since generative AI chatbots change the way people interact with the web.

    Pichai said that AI tools expand Google’s arsenal, which offers a breadth and depth of information to users who crave a diversity of sources online.

    Google has been widely seen as playing catch-up to Microsoft, which was among the first in the tech world to reap the cultural excitement around consumer AI chatbots. Microsoft invested in OpenAI, the company behind the popular chatbot ChatGPT.

    Google has embarked on a host of efforts to both augment its search tools with AI (Bard and Search Generative Experience) and to offer new, advanced large language models, like Gemini.

    Hamza Shaban is a reporter for Yahoo Finance covering markets and the economy. Follow Hamza on Twitter @hshaban.

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  • Sundar Pichai warns Google staff more layoffs are coming | TechCrunch

    Sundar Pichai warns Google staff more layoffs are coming | TechCrunch

    After laying off over 1,000 workers across multiple divisions last week and cutting 100 jobs at YouTube, Google CEO Sundar Pichai sent a memo to its staff warning more layoffs are expected this year.

    Pichai’s memo said the company will have to make “tough choices” to meet its ambitious goals, as reported by The Verge.

    The CEO said this year’s cuts won’t be at the scale of last year’s job cuts, where the company let go 12,000 people or 6% of its workforce.

    “These role eliminations are not at the scale of last year’s reductions, and will not touch every team. But I know it’s very difficult to see colleagues and teams impacted,” he said in an email to staffers.

    “Many of these changes are already announced, though to be upfront, some teams will continue to make specific resource allocation decisions throughout the year where needed, and some roles may be impacted.”

    Last week’s Google layoffs impacted several teams including hardware, engineering, ads, and services, with over 1,000 staffers laid off. At the time, the company also confirmed to TechCrunch that Fitbit co-founders James Park and Eric Friedman were leaving the organization.

    On Wednesday, Google laid off 100 YouTube staffers as part of reorganization.

    “To best position us for these opportunities, throughout the second half of 2023, a number of our teams made changes to become more efficient and work better, and to align their resources to their biggest product priorities. Some teams are continuing to make these kinds of organizational changes, which include some role eliminations globally,” a Google spokesperson said in a statement in response to YouTube layoffs.

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  • Tech companies like Google and Meta made cuts to DEI programs in 2023 after big promises in prior years

    Tech companies like Google and Meta made cuts to DEI programs in 2023 after big promises in prior years

    Shortly after the murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police in 2020, Google was among many tech companies that set up new programs aimed at supporting Black employees. The goal, CEO Sundar Pichai wrote, was “to build sustainable equity for Google’s Black+ community, and externally, to make our products and programs helpful in the moments that matter most to Black users.”

    Google’s vocal commitments included improving representation of underrepresented groups in leadership by 30% by 2025; more than doubling the number of Black workers at nonsenior levels by 2025; addressing representation issues in hiring, retention and promotions; and establishing better support for the mental and physical health for Black employees.

    The move was part of a broader trend in the wake of the Floyd killing, which sparked societal unrest and drew attention to the power imbalances in corporate America and the tech industry specifically. Corporations pledged to invest millions of dollars to improve diversity in their ranks and support external groups doing work on diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI.

    But in 2023, some of those programs are in retreat.

    By mid-2023, DEI-related job postings had declined 44% from the same time a year prior, according to data provided by job site Indeed. In November 2023, the last full month for which data was available, it dropped 23% year over year.

    That’s a sharp contrast with the period from 2020 to 2021, when those postings expanded nearly 30%.

    In line with this broader trend, both Google and Meta have cut staffers and downsized programs that fell under DEI investment.

    The year’s cuts have also impacted smaller, third-party organizations who counted on big tech clients for work, despite the continued growth of those tech giants.

    “Whenever there is an economic downturn in tech, some of the first budgets that are cut are in DEI, but I don’t think we’ve seen such stark contrast as this year,” said Melinda Briana Epler, founder and CEO of Empovia, which advises companies and leaders to use a research-based culture of equality. 

    “When George Floyd began to become the topic of conversations, companies and executives doubled down on their commitments and here we are only a couple years later, and folks are looking for opportunities to cut those teams,” said Devika Brij, CEO of Brij the Gap Consulting, which works with tech companies’ DEI efforts. Brij said some of her clients had cut their DEI budgets by as much as 90% by midyear.

    However, more than just broken promises are at stake, experts told CNBC in a series of interviews.

    The cuts come at a time when technology companies are forging ahead on the biggest technology shift in a decade: artificial intelligence. If diverse people are not included in AI development, that may result in even greater power imbalances for both corporate workers, as well as consumers who will use their products.

    “Our commitment to DEI remains at the center of who we are as a company,” a Meta spokesperson wrote in a statement to CNBC. “We continue to intentionally design equitable and fair practices to drive progress across our people, product, policy and partnerships pillars.”

    “Our workforce reductions and company-wide efforts to sharpen our focus span the breadth of our business,” said a Google spokesperson, saying that the company remains committed to underrepresented communities and DEI work. “To be absolutely clear, our commitment to that work has not changed and we invested in many new programs and partnerships this year.”

    The Google spokesperson did not dispute any specifics in this story, but pointed to new investments in partnerships this year, including committing more than $5 million to historically Black colleges and universities to help build a stronger pipeline to the tech industry for underrepresented talent, and launching the Google for Startups Women Founders Fund to help women entrepreneurs.

    Cuts to internal teams and programs

    In 2021, after facing complaints about pay equity in its Engineering Residency program, Google said it would be sunsetting the program and replacing it with a new one called Early Career Immersion, or ECI, which is aimed at helping underrepresented talent develop skills. (Google said sunsetting Engineering Residency was an unrelated business decision.)

    But Google decided not to hire a 2023 cohort of ECI software engineers, citing an uncertain hiring outlook, according to correspondence viewed by CNBC. It also laid off some staffers associated with the program.

    Participants in a separate Google program called Apprenticeships also lodged complaints about a lack of pathways and pay inequities in the last year, CNBC found.

    “Apprentices become part of our mission to build great products for every user, and their different experiences help ensure that our products are as diverse as our users,” Google’s Apprenticeships website states.

    But Apprenticeships participants complained they were getting paid less than other engineers during the course of the 20-month program despite doing similar work. They said they were doing “Level 3” work with L3 expectations and contributing significantly to Google’s codebase while earning half of full-time L3 software engineers’ base salary, according to internal correspondence seen by CNBC.

    The apprentices even confronted the executive sponsor of the program, Aparna Pappu, vice president of Google Workspace, pointing out the executive’s prior stated goal “to increase representation of underrepresented talent across Google.”

    The company said that apprentices are paid a salary for the learning and training they receive as part of the program, and that it reviews compensation annually to ensure alignment with the market.

    The Apprenticeships program, which included real-work job training for underrepresented backgrounds, followed other failed efforts to improve diversity. In 2021, for instance, Google said it shut down a long-running program aimed at entry-level engineers from underrepresented backgrounds after participants said it enforced “systemic pay inequities.” That same year, CNBC found the company’s separate program that worked with students from historically Black colleges, suffered extreme disorganization, racism and broken promises to students.

    Google and Meta also made cuts to personnel who were in charge of recruiting underrepresented people, according to several sources and documentation.

    Nearly every member of Meta’s Sourcer Development Program, more than 60 workers, was let go from the company as part of its layoff of over 11,000 workers, CNBC learned. They claimed to have received inferior severance packages compared with other workers who were laid off in the same time period. Meta’s Sourcer Development Program was intended to help workers from diverse backgrounds obtain careers in corporate technology recruiting.

    Google also cut DEI leaders who worked with Chief Diversity Officer Melonie Parker, while Meta made cuts to several DEI managers — some of whom it hired in 2020.

    Layoffs at Google and Meta also included employees who held leadership roles in their respective Black employee resource groups, known as ERGs.

    “There’s a lowering of physiological safety with layoffs or impending layoffs, and holding ERGs accountable for that is not fair and can lead to even more burnout,” Epler said.

    In addition to cutting staff who worked on DEI programs and ERGs, both Meta and Google cut planned learning and development training for underrepresented talent, according to multiple sources who asked not to be named due to fear of retaliation. Meta said that learning and development programs were “merely streamlined to make them more impactful.”

    “There’s a consistent amount of folks who have completely failed, mostly because they don’t have the internal teams to keep the mission forward,” said Simone White, who is a senior vice president at Blavity, a media organization that focuses on content for the Black community, and puts on AfroTech, which became a popular tech conference for Black tech talent and companies seeking to hire them.

    Cuts impacting external organizations

    While internal DEI programs have suffered, the cuts were arguably even harder for external organizations who expected the same amount of corporate sponsorship and support from tech companies in 2023 as they had the prior few years.

    In early 2023, big tech leaders, including Google and Meta were among companies that lessened their work with third parties that were counting on projects, according to several organizations and sources who spoke with CNBC.

    Brij, CEO of Brij the Gap Consulting, explained how the steep cuts have affected her firm, which consults with companies on building an effective workforce for underrepresented workers and includes workshops and programs.

    “Right now with these budgets being entirely limited or cut, we’re just really backpedaling on so much of the work that we’ve done.”

    Brij said some companies have even asked her to provide work for free.

    “A lot of companies we worked with started to make progress before the cuts,” Epler said. “Now, it’s like some of them are essentially wiping away that work.” 

    Stefania Pomponi, founder of Hella Social Impact, said executives have blamed cost-cutting as they’ve canceled contracts with the firm, which consults with companies’ leadership to create more inclusive workplaces through programs and training.

    “I’ve been telling them, ‘look, your bottom line is also your people and these types of cuts are going to impact your business’” Pomponi said, pointing to various studies on diverse teams producing higher performance outcomes.

    “As I talk to my colleagues across the space, some of the monies that were set aside around the time of George Floyd’s murder have not been fully extended, and that says to me that organizations like ours are needed now more than ever,” said Brenda Wilkerson, CEO of AnitaB.org, which puts on Grace Hopper, the largest women’s tech conference, which took place in September.

    Some large tech companies, including Meta, pulled back from sponsorship or attendance for employees to attend Grace Hopper 2023, according to sources who asked to remain anonymous because they are not authorized to speak to the media. Some companies, including Microsoft, ended up sending some leaders to attend virtually so they wouldn’t have to pay for travel, according to two sources who wished to remain anonymous.

    Microsoft said it still sent some employees physically, and both Microsoft and Meta told CNBC that Grace Hopper’s virtual option allowed more employees to participate.

    Other companies such as Google, which still had a presence at the conference, retracted travel for some employees who had previously been approved to attend, according to several sources who asked to remain anonymous. Google is also among companies to reduce their spending with Blavity, the organization that puts on AfroTech, according to sources who asked not to be named due to being unauthorized to speak.

    “We do have a significant amount of our existing corporate partners that are telling us ‘Hey, we can’t participate this year because our DEI team doesn’t even exist anymore,’” said Blavity’s Simone White, who declined to name specific companies. “Week to week, we have new contacts at companies, and folks we worked with for years to organize this work are no longer there.”

    “To say our progress is not in peril would not be truthful,” AnitaB.org’s Wilkerson said, although she’s optimistic the tide could turn around in 2024. “We’re working with multiple challenges in our society, so we have made a lot of the progress but some of that was erased in the last year. Then you have this backlash against racial reckoning.”

    The backlash she referred to includes things like the Supreme Court’s June decision to end affirmative action at colleges, as well as backlash against DEI programs in conservative circles. “You have this ‘wokeism’ drama.” Wilkerson said, pointing to Florida legislation such as banning books and downplaying Black history, as well as laws impacting the LGBTQIA+ community.

    Because of that backlash, 2023 will be the last year the organization will hold Grace Hopper in Florida, Wilkerson said. It will be held in Philadelphia next year.

    A Meta spokesperson said that it increased its engagement with some third-party organizations such as The Executive Leadership Council, which aims to increase Black leadership in C-suites.

    DEI and AI

    Wilkerson was among experts who told CNBC that DEI work is more important than ever given the growing work on artificial intelligence, which hit breakneck speed in 2023.

    “We’re in a big technology inflection point, and what happens is as AI begins to take off and if organizations are less inclusive, the product is not reflective of the users,” Wilkerson said.

    Apple, Google and other tech giants are still grappling with displaying and identifying images accurately. A New York Times investigation this year found Apple and Google’s Android software, which underpins most of the world’s smartphones, turned off the ability to visually search for primates for fear of labeling a person as an animal.

    “We know that AI is trained on historic data and that historic data is missing critical segments of the population, and having women and noncentered folks as decision-makers is going to be critical to making sure it doesn’t happen again,” Wilkerson said.

    White said companies who made cuts this year may have a difficult time building future relationships with DEI stakeholders, and it may impact their ability to attract and retain talent, should they decide to build up again in the future.

    “Younger generations increasingly care who has a seat at the table,” White said. “And they’re going to remember who did what they said they were going to do.”

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  • Google cuts dozens of jobs in news division

    Google cuts dozens of jobs in news division

    Google headquarters in Mountain View, California, on Jan. 30, 2023.

    Marlena Sloss | Bloomberg | Getty Images

    Google cut dozens of jobs in its news division this week, CNBC has learned, downsizing at a particularly sensitive time for online platforms and publishers.

    An estimated 40 to 45 workers in Google News have lost their jobs, according to an Alphabet Workers Union spokesperson, who didn’t know the exact number.

    A Google spokesperson confirmed the cuts but didn’t provide a number, and said there are still hundreds of people working on the news product.

    “We’re deeply committed to a vibrant information ecosystem, and news is a part of that long-term investment,” the spokesperson said. “We’ve made some internal changes to streamline our organization. A small number of employees were impacted. We’re supporting everyone with a transition period, outplacement services and severance as they look for new opportunities at Google and beyond.”

    Google News presents links to articles from thousands of publishers and magazines. It’s a popular tab for people who use Google search, allowing them to find top-ranked stories on a particular topic.

    The layoffs come amid a war between Israel and Hamas that has claimed thousands of lives in both Israel and Gaza since Oct. 7, and 20 months after Russia invaded Ukraine. Both wars have spawned a surge in the spread of misinformation across the web, heightening the importance of Google and other sites that users count on to find up-to-date news.

    Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., on Tuesday asked for information on how Google; X, formerly known as Twitter; Meta; and TikTok were trying to stop the spread of false and misleading content about the Israel-Hamas conflict on their platforms.

    European Union industry chief Thierry Breton demanded that companies, including Google, take stricter steps to battle disinformation as the conflict escalates. Breton specifically addressed letters to Google CEO Sundar Pichai and YouTube CEO Neal Mohan, reminding them of the content moderation requirements under the EU’s Digital Services Act.

    Google’s spokesperson said, “These internal changes have no impact on our misinformation and information quality work in News.”

    Some tech companies said they’ve staffed up on content moderators as they scramble to battle misinformation.

    Meanwhile, Canada and other countries are eyeing laws that would force tech platforms to compensate publishers for their work.

    The cuts in Google News follow widespread layoffs across many parts of the company this year. In January, Google announced it was cutting 12,000 jobs, affecting roughly 6% of the full-time workforce. Last month, the company eliminated hundreds of positions from its recruiting organization.

    A staff engineer at Google News wrote a post on LinkedIn on Tuesday regarding the layoffs.

    “These are some of the best and brightest people I’ve ever worked with,” the person wrote. “We’re definitely worse off without them.”

    WATCH: Google is the ‘Magnificent Seven’ stock that has the best catalyst

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  • Israel floods social media to shape opinion around the war

    Israel floods social media to shape opinion around the war

    Press play to listen to this article

    Voiced by artificial intelligence.

    BRUSSELS — A photo with a bloody dead baby whose face is blurred has been circulating on X for the last four days. 

    “This is the most difficult image we’ve ever posted. As we are writing this we are shaking,” the accompanying message says. 

    The footage is not from a reporter covering the conflict in Israel and Gaza, or from one of the countless accounts sharing horrifying videos of the atrocities. 

    It’s a paid message from the Israeli Foreign Affairs Ministry.

    Since Hamas attacked thousands of its citizens last week, the Israeli government has started a sweeping social media campaign in key Western countries to drum up support for its military response against the group. Part of its strategy: pushing dozens of ads containing brutal and emotional imagery of the deadly militant violence in Israel across platforms such as X and YouTube, according to data reviewed by POLITICO.

    Israel’s attempt to win the online information war is part of a growing trend of governments around the world moving aggressively online in order to shape their image, especially during times of crisis. PR campaigns in and around wars are nothing new. But paying for online advertising targeted at specific countries and demographics is now one of governments’ main tools to get their messages in front of more eyeballs. 

    The Israeli government’s efforts come as Hamas has pumped out its own propaganda on platforms including Telegram and X. The group — which is designated as a terrorist organization by the European Union, United States and United Kingdom — on Monday published online a first hostage video of a young French-Israeli woman.

    The social media campaigns began shortly after Hamas militants killed more than 1,200 and abducted nearly 200 people in a surprise assault. Israel’s military responded with retaliatory strikes and a siege of the Gaza Strip, killing more than 2,330 Palestinians to date. 

    More than 2 million Palestinians trapped in Gaza have been subjected to worsening conditions ahead of an expected upcoming offensive, and Western leaders are increasingly calling on the Israeli government to exercise restraint and respect humanitarian law. 

    A barrage of ads

    In a little over a week, Israel’s Foreign Affairs Ministry has run 30 ads that have been seen over 4 million times on X, according to the platform’s data. The paid videos and photos that started appearing on October 12 were aimed at adults over 25 in Brussels, Paris, Munich and The Hague, according to the same data. 

    The ads portrayed Hamas as a “vicious terrorist group,” similar to the Islamic State, and showed the scale and types of the abuse, including gruesome images like that of a lifeless, naked woman in a pickup truck. Another paid video posted to X, with text alternating between “ISIS” and “Hamas,” has disturbing imagery that gradually speeds up until the names of the two terrorist organizations blend into one. 

    “The world defeated ISIS. The world will defeat Hamas,” the ad ends.  

    A cyclist rides past kidnap and disappearance posters, showing recently kidnapped or missing Israelis, following the Hamas attacks on Israel, in central Paris on October 17, 2023 | Kiran Ridley/AFP via Getty Images

    Over on YouTube, the Israeli Foreign Affairs Ministry has released over 75 different ads, including some that are particularly graphic. They have been directed at viewers in Western countries — including France, Germany, the U.S. and the U.K. — and have aired between the initial Hamas attack on October 7 and Monday, according to Google’s transparency database. 

    “We would never post such graphic things before,” said a spokesperson for Israel’s Mission to the EU, who was granted anonymity because of security concerns to speak candidly. “This is something that is not part of our culture. We have a lot of respect [for] the deceased,” they said, adding that “war is not only on the ground.”

    In one ad, titled “Babies Can’t Read The Text in This Video But Their Parents Can,” a lullaby plays against a backdrop of a rainbow and a unicorn flies across the screen. The ad says, “We know that your child cannot read this,” but pleads with parents to sympathize with those whose children were killed during the attack on Israel.

    Another ad notes that “Israel will take every measure necessary to protect our citizens against these barbaric terrorists.” Yet another shows images of bloodied hostages with their faces blurred. 

    Israel has largely targeted Europe with its narrative to win over support. Nearly 50 video ads in English were directed to EU countries, while viewers in the U.S. and the U.K. were pushed 10 and 13 ads, respectively. One of the videos had been seen over 3 million times as of Tuesday afternoon European time.

    Platforms’ ongoing content challenge

    The ad campaign has posed some challenges to social media companies, which have set standards for what type of content can be posted on their streams.

    Google, for example, removed about 30 ads containing violent images from its public library after POLITICO reached out for a comment on Monday — meaning there is no public record that such ads ran for several days on YouTube. The company said it didn’t allow ads containing violent language, gruesome or disgusting imagery, or graphic images or accounts of physical trauma. (Some of the graphic videos are still available on the Israeli Foreign Affairs Ministry’s YouTube channel with some warnings.)

    X did not respond to a request for comment. The tech company is currently being investigated by the European Commission over whether its handling of illegal content and disinformation connected to the Hamas attack has respected the EU’s content-moderation law, the Digital Services Act (DSA). 

    Under the DSA, companies have to swiftly remove illegal content, including terrorist propaganda, and limit the spread of falsehoods — or else face sweeping fines of up to 6 percent of their global annual revenue. 

    No similar ads were running on Meta’s Instagram and Facebook, LinkedIn and TikTok, according to the platforms’ public ad libraries as of Monday. 

    Some of the ads online have been met with some pushback by viewers who have sought ways to stop being targeted by the foreign ministry. But experts in the field say that this is simply the new reality of PR campaigns built around wars.

    “This tactic is almost as old as war … Stirring moral outrage to build support for war is a very old practice,” said Emerson Brooking, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council. “But I do not think it has collided with social media in quite this way before.”

    The EU reminded Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai last week to be “very vigilant” to ensure that YouTube respects the DSA | AFP via Getty Images

    Still, amid an onslaught of disinformation and illegal content connected to the attacks, Israel’s online push may prove more complicated. The European commissioner in charge of enforcing the DSA, Thierry Breton, has warned some online platforms to step up their efforts to protect young viewers from harmful content. The EU also reminded Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai last week to be “very vigilant” to ensure that YouTube respects the DSA. 

    As Israel amps up its war online, its army’s retaliatory airstrikes have damaged Gaza’s telecommunications infrastructure, leaving millions on the verge of a total network blackout. 

    “It is difficult to imagine a robust counter-messaging effort by pro-Palestinian groups which could make use of the same advertising medium,” Brooking said. “It’s one part of the social media battlefield in which Israel has a real advantage.”

    Hailey Fuchs contributed reporting from Washington. Liv Martin and Clothilde Goujard contributed reporting from Brussels.

    Liv Martin, Clothilde Goujard and Hailey Fuchs

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  • Google engaged in a monopolistic feedback loop to maintain search dominance, DOJ alleges in first day of trial

    Google engaged in a monopolistic feedback loop to maintain search dominance, DOJ alleges in first day of trial

    Jonathan Kanter, Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division at the Department of Justice, arrives at federal court on September 12, 2023 in Washington, DC.

    Kevin Dietsch | Getty Images

    Google pays billions of dollars to make sure its search engine runs by default on internet browsers and phones, feeding a cycle that pumps its own monopoly profits while making it harder for rivals to gain significant market share in search, the government alleged in opening arguments Tuesday at the biggest tech antitrust trial in decades.

    Lawyers for the Department of Justice and a coalition of state attorneys general led by Colorado faced Google on Tuesday, as the 10-week trial kicked off in Washington, D.C. District Court. Day one of the trial set the stage for how the government and Google would argue their opposing views of how the company has maintained a large slice of the search market for years.

    The government’s case is that Google has kept its share of the general search market by creating strong barriers to entry and a feedback loop that sustained its dominance.

    Google says it’s simply been the preferred choice of consumers. That popularity, the company says, is why browser and phone makers have chosen Google as their default search engine through revenue sharing agreements.

    The opening statements also previewed who each side will lean on to help make their arguments. In addition to economic experts that will speak to Google’s level of dominance and behavior, Google said the court would hear from several of its own executives and those from other businesses.

    The court will hear from the company’s CEO Sundar Pichai, who the DOJ’s lawyer said Google intends to call. It will also hear from Apple’s Senior Vice President of Services Eddy Cue and Mozilla CEO Mitchell Baker, Google’s lawyer said. Several other Google executives, including those who oversee advertising services and search products, are also expected to be witnesses, the lawyer added.

    Additionally, the court will hear from Sridhar Ramaswamy, a former senior advertising executive for Google who later co-founded a competitor search engine, Neeva, the DOJ said. The privacy-focused search engine founded in 2019 announced in May that it would shut down the consumer product and instead focus on artificial intelligence use cases. Neeva agreed that month to be acquired by Snowflake.

    Following opening statements, the DOJ lawyer questioned its first witness, as it begins what’s known as its “case-in-chief.” The judge has allotted about four weeks for the DOJ to present its case, after which the coalition of state AGs led by Colorado will do so, followed by Google.

    Hal Varian, chief economist at Google Inc., arrives to federal court in Washington, DC, US, on Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2023.

    Ting Shen | Bloomberg | Getty Images

    The DOJ’s lawyer walked Google’s Chief Economist Hal Varian through a series of documents, beginning with a 2003 memo he wrote called “Thoughts on Google v Microsoft.” At the time he wrote the memo, Varian said he was reporting to a boss who reported directly to the CEO.

    In the memo, Varian had raised antitrust concerns with Google leaders, urging them to “be careful about what we say in both public and private” on the subject. Varian wrote, “we should also consider entry barriers, switching costs and intellectual property when prioritizing products.” During his testimony, Varian said the best entry barrier is a superior product.

    DOJ and states’ arguments

    “This case is about the future of the internet and whether Google’s search engine will ever face meaningful competition,” the DOJ’s lawyer, Kenneth Dintzer, told the court in his opening statements.

    Dintzer alleged Google has more than 89% of the market for general search, citing an economic expert witness. General search is used by consumers as an “onramp to the internet,” Ditzner said, making it distinct from more specialized search engines. Unlike with a specialized search service, users seek out a general search engine when they don’t know the best website for an answer to their question.

    “There are no substitutes for general search,” Ditzner said.

    Google maintains its monopoly through a feedback loop that serves to strengthen its hold on the market while making it harder for rivals to enter. Google pays for defaults, which allow it to get more search queries. More queries means more data, which can be used to improve search quality, helping Google make more money. That gives Google more resources to pay for default status.

    Since the Federal Trade Commission declined to bring an antitrust case against Google nearly 10 years ago, Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler’s William Cavanaugh, who represents the states, said “Google has doubled down on its efforts to use defaults in its distribution agreements.”

    Google itself recognizes the immense value of defaults. The company pays more than $10 billion per year to maintain default status across browsers and devices, the DOJ alleged. And the company once called the idea of losing its default placement with Apple “a code red situation,” Ditzner said.

    At the same time, Google sought to “limit Apple’s ability to design products that compete with Google,” given it has the resources and foundation to build a powerful rival, Ditzner said.

    In 2013, Ditzner told the court, Apple adopted its own suggestions in its browser when users begin a search. The feature “concerned” Google, Joan Braddi vice president of product partnerships at Google, later said in an email Ditzner referenced.

    In turn, Google added to the revenue sharing agreement with Apple a stipulation that it could not “expand farther than what they were doing in Sept 2016 (as we did not wish for them to bleed off traffic),” Braddi wrote. “Also, they can only offer a ‘Siri’ suggestion exclusively for quality and not because they want to drive traffic to Siri.”

    While Google argued browser and device makers freely enter agreements to make its search engine the default, the DOJ said Google has the upper hand in getting device manufacturers to sign its agreements. For example, manufacturers consider the Play Store a “must-have app” for Android phones, Ditzner said, but the only way to get it is by signing the exclusivity agreements.

    The evidence will show device manufacturers and carriers accepted the exclusivity and revenuesharing agreements “because that was the only option,” Ditzner said.

    In 2020, Samsung and AT&T were interested in partnering with Branch Metrics, which had a search engine that could answer questions by searching apps on a phone, the DOJ said. But Google told AT&T and Branch they couldn’t do the deal. Google’s lawyer later said there’s no evidence the company told carriers they couldn’t use Branch. Google’s lawyer added that Branch’s CEO would testify that it doesnn’t compete with Google.

    The states also touched on their claims that Google used what was supposed to be a neutral ad buying tool to thwart rival Microsoft. Google will say it had no duty to deal with Microsoft, Cavanaugh said, but that doesn’t apply here because “they have chosen to deal.”

    Finally, the government said the court would hear more about Google’s alleged document destruction, saying that it taught employees to hide evidence through its “Communicate With Care” program. Google told employees to include legal on “any written communication” about revenue share agreements, the government alleged. The DOJ also shared a 2021 message from Pichai in which he asked if he and a colleague could “change the setting of this group to history off,” before deleting the request.

    Google’s argument

    Kent Walker, President of Global Affairs and Chief legal officer of Alphabet Inc., arrives at federal court on September 12, 2023 in Washington, DC.

    Kevin Dietsch | Getty Images

    Google said it faces fierce competition and that the popularity of its search engine is due to its continued innovation, rather than efforts to thwart rivals.

    In a world where search queries are increasingly entered across many different apps and websites, Google’s lawyer, Williams & Connolly’s John Schmidtlein said, “that competition has never been more real.”

    Comparing the case to the DOJ’s 1990s allegations against Microsoft is misguided, Schmidtlein said. While the government accused Microsoft in that case of forcing PC manufacturers to preload its own browser over one that was preferred by consumers, here Google competed for default status, Schmidtlein said.

    To the government, Microsoft is the supposed “victim” in this case, Schmidtlein said. But Microsoft failed to advance its position in search because it did not invest or innovate in it for a long time, Schmidtlein argued, focusing instead on its Windows desktop product.

    Google also had no duty to deal with Microsoft, a rival, on its preferred terms with its search ad tool. Schmidtlein said Google had fulfilled four out of five of Microsoft’s feature requests for the tool. The one outstanding feature, real-time bidding for ads, took years for Google to build for its own product, and a version compatible with Microsoft’s tools is now being tested, he said.

    Google also contended that advertisers are motivated by return on their investment and are very willing to switch platforms if they think they’ll get a better deal elsewhere.

    Browser and device makers actually like having default features for many reasons, Google’s lawyer argued. For browsers, search engines are a reason for consumers to use their interface, and accepting a revenue sharing agreement for a default search provider is a good way for browsers to make money, given they are usually free to consumers.

    But it’s important browsers pick the right search default, Schmidtlein said, as Mozilla learned when it switched its default from Google to Yahoo in 2014. By 2017, Mozilla terminated what was supposed to be a five-year deal, with its Chief Business and Legal Officer Denelle Dixon saying in a statement that the company “exercised our contractual right to terminate our agreement with Yahoo! based on a number of factors including doing what’s best for our brand, our effort to provide quality web search, and the broader content experience for our users,” TechCrunch reported at the time.

    Similarly, Apple has touted that Google is the default search engine on its browser.

    “Apple repeatedly chose Google as the default because Apple believed it was the best experience for its users,” Schmidtlein said.

    On the phone manufacturing side, Google argued that its revenue sharing agreements have the effect of “enhancing competition between Apple and Android, causing those two mobile platforms to invest, to develop better devices.”

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    WATCH: DOJ takes on Google in antitrust lawsuit over Google Search

    DOJ takes on Google in historic antitrust lawsuit over search dominance

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  • Google faces federal regulators in biggest antitrust trial in decades

    Google faces federal regulators in biggest antitrust trial in decades

    Google will confront a threat to its dominant search engine beginning Tuesday when federal regulators launch an attempt to dismantle its internet empire in the biggest U.S. antitrust trial in a quarter century.

    The government alleges in it complaint that the search giant illegally pays billions of dollars to Apple, Samsung, LG and beyond to make google the default search engine on smartphones and computers, shutting out rivals like Microsoft Bing and DuckDuckGo. The government also claims Google uses that dominance to charge advertisers higher prices and “favors advertising on its own platform and steers advertiser spending towards itself.” Google denies any wrongdoing.

    “We believe that people use Google because it’s helpful,” Kent Walker, Google’s chief legal officer, told CBS News’ Jo Ling Kent. “The case comes down to two important principles, competition and choice. Competition — you’ve never seen more choice, whether that’s TikTok or Reddit or Amazon or Expedia.” Walker noted that if a user doesn’t want to use Google as the default, they can change it.

    What to expect

    Over the next 10 weeks, federal lawyers and state attorneys general will try to prove Google rigged the market in its favor by locking its search engine in as the default choice in a plethora of places and devices. U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta likely won’t issue a ruling until early next year. If he decides Google broke the law, another trial will decide what steps should be taken to rein in the Mountain View, California-based company.

    Top executives at Google and its corporate parent Alphabet Inc., as well as those from other powerful technology companies are expected to testify. Among them is likely to be Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, who succeeded Google co-founder Larry Page four years ago. Court documents also suggest that Eddy Cue, a high ranking Apple executive, might be called to the stand.

    The Justice Department filed its antitrust lawsuit against Google nearly three years ago during the Trump administration, charging that the company has used its internet search dominance to gain an unfair advantage against competitors. Government lawyers allege that Google protects its franchise through a form of payola, shelling out billions of dollars annually to be the default search engine on the iPhone and on web browsers such as Apple’s Safari and Mozilla’s Firefox.

    Market rigged in Google’s favor, feds say

    Regulators also charge that Google has illegally rigged the market in its favor by requiring its search engine to be bundled with its Android software for smartphones if the device manufacturers want full access to the Android app store.


    Microsoft, Google using AI to revamp search engines

    04:07

    Google counters that it faces a wide range of competition despite commanding about 90% of the internet search market. Its rivals, Google argues, range from search engines such as Microsoft’s Bing to websites like Amazon and Yelp, where consumers can post questions about what to buy or where to go.

    From Google’s perspective, perpetual improvements to its search engine explain why people almost reflexively keep coming back to it, a habit that long ago made “Googling” synonymous with looking things up on the internet.

    25 years ago today

    The trial begins just a couple weeks after the 25th anniversary of the first investment in the company — a $100,000 check written by Sun Microsystems co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim that enabled Page and Sergey Brin to set up shop in a Silicon Valley garage.

    Today, Google’s corporate parent, Alphabet, is worth $1.7 trillion and employs 182,000 people, with most of the money coming from $224 billion in annual ad sales flowing through a network of digital services anchored by a search engine that fields billions of queries a day.

    The Justice Department’s antitrust case echoes the one it filed against Microsoft in 1998. Regulators then accused Microsoft of forcing computer makers that relied on its dominant Windows operating system to also feature Microsoft’s Internet Explorer — just as the internet was starting to go mainstream. That bundling practice crushed competition from the once-popular browser Netscape.

    Several members of the Justice Department’s team in the Google case — including lead Justice Department litigator Kenneth Dintzer — also worked on the Microsoft investigation.

    Google could be hobbled if the trial ends in concessions that undercut its power. One possibility is that the company could be forced to stop paying Apple and other companies to make Google the default search engine on smartphones and computers.

    Or the legal battle could cause Google to lose focus. That’s what happened to Microsoft after its antitrust showdown with the Justice Department. Distracted, the software giant struggled to adapt to the impact of internet search and smartphones. Google capitalized on that distraction to leap from its startup roots into an imposing powerhouse.

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  • Sundar Pichai says Google and Nvidia will still be working together 10 years from now

    Sundar Pichai says Google and Nvidia will still be working together 10 years from now

    Sundar Pichai, chief executive officer of Alphabet Inc.

    Kyle Grillot | Bloomberg | Getty Images

    Sundar Pichai said Google‘s longstanding relationship with chipmaker Nvidia isn’t going to change any time soon — in fact, he expects it to continue over the next 10 years.

    In an interview Wired published Monday, the Google CEO said the company worked “deeply” with Nvidia on Android and other initiatives for over a decade, adding that Nvidia has a “strong track record” with AI innovation.

    “Look, the semiconductor industry is a very dynamic, cooperative industry,” Pichai said. “It’s an industry that needs deep, long-term R&D and investments. I feel comfortable about our relationship with Nvidia and that we are going to be working closely with them 10 years from now.”

    In August, the two companies announced a partnership that will give Google’s cloud customers greater access to technology powered by Nvidia’s H100 GPUs. Nvidia’s stock closed at a record high after the announcement.

    Nvidia’s business has been booming because its powerful graphics processing units, or GPUs, are being sought after by cloud companies, government agencies and startups to train and deploy generative AI models like the technology underpinning OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

    Google has been jostling with the likes of OpenAI and Microsoft to be at the forefront of AI innovation, and it has introduced a number of AI solutions, like its chatbot Bard, across its business units. In the interview with Wired, Pichai described AI as “one of the most profound technologies we will ever work on.”

    Nvidia is reaping the benefits. As of Monday morning, Nvidia’s stock is up nearly 212% year to date. In its fiscal second-quarter earnings, the company said its quarterly revenue doubled from a year earlier, and it expects sales in the current quarter will grow 170% from the year-ago period.

    —CNBC’s Kif Leswing contributed to this report

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  • I Left Dream Job at Google Because It Wasn’t Innovative Enough | Entrepreneur

    I Left Dream Job at Google Because It Wasn’t Innovative Enough | Entrepreneur

    This as-told-to essay is based on an interview with Tyler Ashby, president at Agents Only Technologies.

    Google was a dream opportunity that offered me career validation, financial security and a sense of personal pride.

    Before joining Google, I spent 20 years in the customer service and business process outsourcing field. Specifically, I launched and ran customer contact centers around the globe. From the start of my career, I was always drawn to the people side of the business. This drove me to take a particular interest in people-first operating principles with an emphasis on creating technology and processes that make the humans involved more valuable.

    My time with Bain trained me to tackle customer experience and costs using customer journey mapping, service blueprints and people/process/technology analytics. As a result, I developed a strong passion for identifying and improving efficiency without compromising the end experience. I’ve launched projects across the world for notable companies such as Sprint, Dell, Epson, Citibank, Samsung, Telstra and Virgin.

    I joined Google somewhat circuitously. I originally interviewed with Fitbit, but during the hiring process, Google announced its plans to acquire the company. At that point, I had several job options, but I chose Fitbit, primarily because I would have the chance to work at Google down the road.

    Initially, the experience at Google was exciting; the opportunities seemed endless. I underwent onboarding from an engineering group, Noogler Training, and had unlimited access to self-paced training and experts from various skills. It seemed like everyone at the company had a “go try it” attitude and there were no restrictions on creativity.

    Related: How Do You Win the Innovation Game? Google’s ‘X’ Marks the Spot.

    However, I soon realized that Google’s innovation, particularly regarding generative AI, was limited.

    “The customer service department had limited to no access to even basic data tools — let alone any of the leading tech being developed.”

    When Rick Osterloh, senior vice president of devices and services, presented his roadmap, the priorities and core action plans laid out in it did not align with those of a tech innovator. Although our engineering groups were enabled and encouraged to experiment and developed brand-new applications for our technology through side projects, we in the customer service department had limited to no access to even basic data tools — let alone any of the leading tech being developed within Google.

    The customer service teams primarily used outdated third-party tools. Even with the perfect execution of the 18-month roadmap, we would still be technologically behind the leading industry standard. Google’s roadmap lacked any plans for generative AI in customer service.

    In 2018, Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet Inc. and its subsidiary Google, showcased Google Duplex’s AI capabilities at I/O, where it successfully called a hair salon and booked an appointment using AI voice and transcription. But in 2020, when I asked about it, no one in customer service had used it or brainstormed applications for Google customer service. In 2021, I gained access to Meena, Google’s AI chatbot, but I was the sole user within my team.

    I discussed the matter with engineering mentors and learned about Google’s unwritten stance: Google doesn’t invest in customer experience through service; the company believes in making the product better. I was given several examples from YouTube and Stadia that indicated the limited influence of the services organization within Google. Because of this, I believed Google had no intention to innovate the customer experience.

    Neither Pichai nor Osterloh explicitly stated that Meena, a generative AI, wouldn’t be part of customer service. Although Pichai has a positive vision for AI’s potential, there were no explicit plans. Most importantly, our roadmap didn’t pave the way for generative AI integration, which would require significant work on processes, tools, data management and tech stack integration. The focus was on cost reduction — not preparing for implementing this groundbreaking tech. Despite raising questions about this through Dory, Google’s internal Q&A, and other channels, they remained unaddressed.

    What’s more, I spoke to four different leaders within my organization — a Fitbit director, direct manager, director of scaled operations and CS tools/transformation director — about the opportunities with Meena and how we could go about working between the engineering org and the customer service org.

    They confirmed what I already knew: Google wasn’t innovative enough for me.

    “Google didn’t excite me or give me a sense that I was truly making a difference.”

    I decided to leave Google when presented with an opportunity at Agents Only, a gigCX platform addressing contact center issues by employing technology to link brands with seasoned gig agents, forming an instant virtual contact center. Centered around the agents, the company aims to harness top-notch talent to create the best customer outcomes.

    My choice between Google and Agents Only was a trade-off between long-term stability and personal satisfaction. Ultimately, I realized that my work at Google didn’t excite me or give me a sense that I was truly making a difference. When I resigned, I sent two of those colleagues I’d spoken with an email referencing the Meena predicament; I told them Agents Only was offering me the chance to use tech to make a difference.

    Without the Agents Only opportunity, I would have stayed at Google due to the stability and benefits that were valuable to my family. It was only the appeal of joining a startup that gave me a chance to make a real difference that could have pulled me away.

    Additionally, Agents Only’s people-centric philosophy, technological vision and innovation potential were major selling points. I also knew and trusted the founder, Ben Block: He had put his money where his mouth was many times in the past when it came to taking care of agents, so I believed him when he said the company was founded to make agents’ lives better.

    I signed on — and it was the right decision.

    Related: How to Tap Into Innovation, the Most Essential Part of Your Entrepreneurial Journey

    Agents Only is at the forefront of disrupting the contact center industry and raising the quality of life of the agents.

    There is such a huge pool of dedicated talent that cares about doing a good job for themselves, the customer and the client. I want to enable these agents to make a larger share of the money by paying them more and use our technology to remove layers of ineffective command and control management. We are currently operational in four countries, and I’m looking forward to adding agents in every country of the world and creating an OnDemand GigCX solution that will become a part of every company’s customer strategy.

    “Internally, we are using generative AI to coach the agents on behaviors that lead to better outcomes.”

    To date, we’ve handled over 12 million customer contacts, using 100 million data points to rate agents, and processed $250 million in revenue for our restaurant and hospitality clients. This was done at a cost 40% lower than normal operations while being able to pay the agents almost twice as much as the industry standard.

    We’ve also delivered incredible flexibility in terms of staffing — going from 700 agents to over 2,000 agents for a single day to handle restaurant calls during the Superbowl.

    Reliability is a key component too. When we allowed 100% of agents to choose their schedule, they successfully delivered on 98% of those hours, surpassing the industry average of 82%. We have achieved an impressively low attrition rate of less than 1% as our agents tend to remain on our platform once they join.

    As for generative AI, the access it gives to knowledge and self-learning capabilities is highly valuable. Internally, we are using generative AI to coach the agents on behaviors that lead to better outcomes. They are incentivized for these behaviors and can have in-depth coaching conversations with the AI that allows them to ask clarifying questions, get expert examples or receive objective feedback on their skills.

    Related: Why Are So Many Companies Afraid of Generative AI? | Entrepreneur

    The most exciting part of generative AI will come when used in tandem with other types of AI. Combining machine learning AI or analytic AI with generative AI will allow human interaction and development that is real-time and takes into account every piece of data available to define and optimize, as well as task automation and real-time augmentation. The result could be a learning and development loop allowing anyone to learn anything — while also putting that knowledge into practical execution via automation.

    Amanda Breen

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  • Google, Microsoft, and Meta can’t stop talking about A.I. — here’s why Apple rarely mentions it

    Google, Microsoft, and Meta can’t stop talking about A.I. — here’s why Apple rarely mentions it

    Apple CEO Tim Cook arrives for an official State Dinner in honor of India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, at the White House in Washington, DC, on June 22, 2023. 

    Stefani Reynolds | AFP | Getty Images

    The most powerful technology companies simply cannot stop talking about artificial intelligence, and in particular, the “generative AI” flavor that can create human-like text, images, and code.

    During calls after this week’s earnings reports, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai and his team said “AI” 66 times. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and his execs said it 47 times. And on Wednesday, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and the Facebook executive team said the magic phrase 42 times, according to a CNBC analysis of transcripts.

    But Apple barely talks about artificial intelligence, and you shouldn’t expect to hear much about it during the company’s earnings next week.

    Its sober approach to the new technology contrasts deeply with its rivals, which are stoking excitement and elevating expectations every chance they get.

    During May’s Apple earnings call, CEO Tim Cook only said “AI” twice, and that was in response to a question. During Apple’s two-hour software launch event in June, it never said the phrase, although it announced several new features powered with AI.

    Apple execs instead use the phrase “machine learning,” which is more popular with academics and practitioners. Apple execs also prefer to talk about what software does for the user, such as organizing their photos, improving their typing, or filling out fields in a PDF, as opposed to the technology that makes all that possible.

    Apple’s approach to AI as a core underlying component instead of the future of computing represents a way to present the technology to its consumers. Apple’s AI works in the background. And the company doesn’t yell about it the way some of the other companies do because it doesn’t need to.

    Microsoft, Google and Meta are rallying everyone around AI, even though the future is murky

    Google launched Bard AI, it’s own chatbot to rival Microsoft and OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

    Jonathan Raa | Nurphoto | Getty Images

    A closer look at executive remarks this week from earnings calls shows that while Meta, Microsoft, and Google are eager to sell the shovels for the AI gold rush, such as cloud services and developer tools, it’s still unclear how AI could change their most important products and when it could start bolstering balance sheets.

    Google, for example, has announced its plans to revamp its search engine using an AI model called Search Generative Experience. Microsoft’s biggest new initiative is a $30-per-month “Copilot” subscription that integrates generated text or code from partner OpenAI’s ChatGPT into Word, Powerpoint, and other apps. Meta’s most recent investment in AI technology is its own large language model it calls LLaMA, which could underpin new kinds of social media chatbots or automatically generate online ads.

    Meanwhile, Apple still makes the bulk of its money from iPhones, which generated $51.3 billion of its $94.84 billion in revenue during the company’s second fiscal quarter. Why talk a big AI game?

    Besides, mega-cap tech companies signaled to investors earlier this week in earnings calls that the rollout of AI products could take a while.

    In Microsoft’s case, Nadella tempered investor expectations for Copilot, signaling that growth would take time, and CFO Amy Hood said that its rollout would be “gradual.”

    It could take until next year before investors understand how the Copilot subscription affects the company’s revenue. “In the second half of the next fiscal year, we’ll start getting some of the real revenue signal from it,” Nadella said.

    Google and Pichai say that the company’s text-generating AI models will make its search engine better and could even answer questions that normal Google search can’t. From a business perspective, Pichai said, generative AI used for creating and serving ads will “supercharge” the company’s existing ads business, and there are “opportunities” for new kinds of ads with AI-generated search.

    But Pichai still said it’s still “early days” for the new AI-powered search, and later, when pressed about how SGE might increase usage of the search engine, and therefore increase revenue, he said the company was experimenting.

    “I think we are definitely headed in the right direction, and we can see it in our metrics and the feedback we’re getting from our users as well,” Pichai said.

    Zuckerberg was effusive about AI technology and its applications in virtual reality, ad targeting, and recommending content from accounts users don’t follow.

    He was particularly optimistic about a concept called “AI agents,” where software would be able to message business customers automatically without a human involved, or act as a coach, or be a personal assistant.

    Still, Zuckerberg admitted he didn’t know how many people would use the new AI features.

    “The reality is, we just don’t know how quickly these will scale,” Zuckerberg said. He said Meta was debating internally how much it should spend on servers for AI.

    The peak of the hype cycle

    Microsoft – Bing seen on mobile with ChatGPT4 on screen, seen in this photo illustration. On 12 March 2023 in Brussels, Belgium.

    Jonathan Raa | Nurphoto | Getty Images

    The slow rollout of revenue-generating AI products from Big Tech matters because many people in the technology industry believe that new foundational technologies go through a “hype cycle” based on research from analysis firm Gartner.

    When a new technology is introduced, according to the hype cycle model, it gains lots of attention and investment as it reaches a “peak of inflated expectations.” But, as the deployment of the tech moves slower than initially expected, enthusiasm and investment dry up, in a “trough of disillusionment,” before maturing and becoming productive.

    For now, shovel-makers and people seeking investment capital are benefiting from the AI boom. Nvidia stock has risen 220% so far in 2023 as investors have realized its GPUs are essential for the technology. Venture capital investment in AI startups has boomed, and many of those dollars are going to Nvidia for computer capacity, and to cloud providers for access to AI models.

    But if everyday consumer applications for AI don’t catch on, then many AI companies could slip into the trough of disillusionment again. Analysts found earlier this month, for example, that downloads for OpenAI’s iPhone app slowed earlier this month after launching in May.

    Some analysts are starting to understand that an investment opportunity based on new AI products won’t be immediate and that the costs could stack up.

    “We cautioned investors that that process of translating early demand to large-scale implementations and recognized revenue will be a multi-year trend rather than an instantaneous flip of a switch,” JPMorgan analyst Mark Murphy wrote this week.

    “We recommend investors invest elsewhere until Metaverse, Reels, Threads, Quest and Generative AI investments become accretive (if ever) to META’s [return on invested capital], rather than dilutive,” Needham’s Laura Martin wrote in a note.

    UBS analyst Lloyd Walmsley wrote this week that Generative AI was still an “overhang” over Google.

    “Management expressed optimism around the ability to solve for ‘deeper and broader’ use cases with Search Generative Experience (SGE), but we do not believe the company is out of the woods with management still describing monetization as having a ‘number of experiments in flight including (for) ads,'” Walmsley wrote.

    Apple’s a product company

    Apple iPhones are displayed at an Apple store in Chicago on Nov. 28, 2022.

    Scott Olson | Getty Images

    When Apple reports its earnings next week, analysts will likely press it on its plans for AI, given the industry-wide obsession, and especially after a recent Bloomberg report that said the company was developing a ChatGPT-like language model internally.

    Last month, Apple announced new iPhone keyboard software that uses the same transformers architecture as GPT, showing that it has substantial internal development of AI models. It just doesn’t like to talk about products that aren’t out on the market yet to stoke investor anticipation.

    Apple is unlikely to discuss AI at length next week as its mega-cap rivals did this week. During Apple’s earnings call in May, when asked about the technology, Cook quickly moved the conversation back to the company’s products and features.

    “We view AI as huge and we’ll continue weaving it in our products on a very thoughtful basis,” Cook said.

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