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☆ Google reaches deal with Canada to keep news content on its platform
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-29 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —Google has agreed to pay Canadian publishers for their news content, backing down from a high-stakes threat to block all news content produced in the country on its platforms after the tech giant and the Canadian government announced a deal Wednesday to avert the looming crisis. The agreement resolves tensions between Google and Canada over a controversial law known as C-18 requiring digital platforms to compensate news publishers for their work. The Google agreement marks a departure from the path taken by Instagram-parent Meta, which opted to pull news content from its platforms in Canada in response to C-18. The option for Google to negotiate with a single collective helps address one of the tech giant’s main objections to the law. But how the agreement with Google plays out could potentially shape the course of those policies.

Persons: ”, Pascale St, Onge didn’t, Bill C, Global Affairs Kent Walker, Andy Stone, Meta Organizations: CNN, Google, Canadian, Canadian Heritage, St, of, Global Affairs, Meta Locations: Canada, of Canada

☆ Landmark Google trial opens with sweeping DOJ accusations of illegal monopolization
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-12 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

Also being called anticompetitive are Google’s contracts to ensure that Android devices come with Google apps and services — including Google search — preinstalled, the Justice Department claimed. For Google’s opening statement, attorney John Schmidtlein said that Apple’s decision to make Google the default search engine in its Safari browser demonstrates how Google’s search engine is the superior product consumers prefer. The Google case “could not be more different” from the historic Microsoft litigation at the turn of the millennium, Schmidtlein continued. Google has previously said that consumers choose Google’s search engine because it is the best and that they prefer it, not because of anticompetitive practices. Google’s search business provides more than half of the $283 billion in revenue and $76 billion in net income Google’s parent company, Alphabet, recorded in 2022.

Persons: Sundar Pichai, Google’s, Kenneth Dintzer, ” Dintzer, John Schmidtlein, Apple, ”, Schmidtlein, Bing, General Merrick Garland, Anna Moneymaker, ” Schmidtlein, “, Kent Walker, Ken Buck, Trump, Global Affairs Kent Walker, Biden, Amit Mehta, Mehta Organizations: CNN, Google, Justice Department, Microsoft, Apple, Samsung, DOJ, Netscape, Gmail, U.S, The Justice Department, Global Affairs, Court, District of Columbia, Eastern, of Locations: United States, Washington, Apple . WASHINGTON, DC, Washington ,, California , New York , Colorado, Virginia, Colorado, of Virginia

☆ Google heads to court in a landmark trial that puts its search business in the crosshairs. Here's what's at stake.
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-11 | by ( Hugh Langley | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

It revolves around how Google pays partners to promote its search engine on their products. A law expert said the DOJ has a "pretty strong" case but has big hurdles to prove Google is liable. Much of the trial's outcome will be predicated on whether the deals Google made to promote its search engine excluded healthy competition. It's easy to switch your default search engine – we're long past the era of dial-up internet and CD-ROMs," Google's Walker said in a statement. It could also mirror a European Union decision to make Google give Android users a choice of search engine when they first set up their devices.

Persons: Harry First, Global Affairs Kent Walker, Amit Mehta, Google's Walker, William E, Kovacic, David Olson, Bing, Judge Mehta, Eddy, John Giannandrea, Adrian Perica, Sundar Pichai, Olson Organizations: Google, Department of Justice, DOJ, Service, Apple, Microsoft, NYU Law School, Global Affairs, George Washington University, Boston College, Reuters, Union, Street Locations: Wall, Silicon

☆ What to expect when Google faces the DOJ in the first major tech monopoly trial in decades
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-11 | by ( Lauren Feiner | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +13 min

While the trial marks the tech sector's first major anti-monopoly proceeding in decades, Google is squarely in the middle of its antitrust battles. What the trial is aboutA key focus of the trial will be on two kinds of agreements Google has made with other companies. "The cases have very compatible theories, and the core message from both is that Google's monopoly power has been abused, harming competition and hurting consumers," Weiser said. Walker wrote that the abundance of places where consumers can use online search shows that Google hasn't foreclosed competition. In addition to experts like economists, expect to see Google executives called to the stand, potentially including CEO Sundar Pichai.

Persons: Sundar Pichai, Jonathan Kanter, It's, it's, Google's, Microsoft's Bing, Phil Weiser, Weiser, Elijah McClain, Aaron Ontiveroz, Bing, Global Affairs Kent Walker, Walker, Rebecca Haw Allensworth, Bill Kovacic, Tim Cook, Joe Biden, Anna Moneymaker, Allensworth, conscientiously, What's, Google's Walker, Lee Hepner, Matt Schruers, Bard, OpenAI, Schruers Organizations: US Department of Justice, Getty, Department of Justice, Microsoft, DOJ, Google, of, Apple, Microsoft's, CNBC, Aurora, MediaNews, Denver, Global Affairs, Insider Intelligence, Amazon, Vanderbilt Law School, George Washington University Law School, FTC, White House, Mozilla, American Economic Liberties, Computer & Communications Industry Association Locations: U.S, Europe, Eastern, of Virginia, Colorado, Washington , DC

☆ Google stands trial against US government officials in antitrust lawsuit over the company's accused search monopoly
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-10 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Google’s search business provides more than half of the $283 billion in revenue and $76 billion in net income Google’s parent company, Alphabet, recorded in 2022. Now, the company is set to defend itself in a multiweek trial that could upend the way Google distributes its search engine to users. WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 24: U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland speaks during a news conference on a new antitrust lawsuit against Google at the Justice Department on January 24, 2023 in Washington, DC. The Justice Department and states including California, New York, Colorado and Virginia, have filed a lawsuit against Google over the company's monopolization of the market for online ads. Despite that ruling, the trial represents the US government’s furthest progress in challenging Google to date.

Persons: Trump, Eddy, ”, Global Affairs Kent Walker, Biden, General Merrick Garland, Anna Moneymaker, Amit Mehta, Mehta Organizations: CNN, Google, Microsoft, Justice Department, Samsung, Apple, Global Affairs, U.S, The Justice Department, LG, Motorola, Mozilla, Opera, Court, District of Columbia, Eastern, of Locations: Washington, WASHINGTON, DC, Washington ,, California , New York , Colorado, Virginia, United States, Colorado, of Virginia

☆ White House secures voluntary pledges from Microsoft, Google to ensure A.I. tools are secure
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-21 | by ( Lauren Feiner | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

President Joe Biden speaks as he meets with AI experts and researchers at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco, June 20, 2023. The seven companies each agreed Friday to a set of voluntary commitments in developing AI technology. Top tech companies and investors are pumping billions of dollars into the large language models behind so-called generative AI. The latest commitments are part of an effort by President Biden to ensure AI is developed with appropriate safeguards, while not hindering innovation. Vice President Kamala Harris previously hosted AI CEOs and labor and civil liberties experts to weigh in on the challenges that come with AI.

Persons: Joe Biden, Biden, Adam Selipsky, Dario Amodei, Kent Walker, Mustafa Suleyman, Nick Clegg, Brad Smith, Greg Brockman, it's, Kamala Harris Organizations: Google, Microsoft, White, Web, CNBC, YouTube Locations: San Francisco, coders, India

☆ Google to block news in Canada over law on paying publishers
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-29 | by ( Ismail Shakil | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

REUTERS/Paresh Dave/File PhotoOTTAWA, June 29 (Reuters) - Google said on Thursday it plans to block Canadian news on its platform in Canada, joining Facebook in escalating a campaign against a new law requiring payments to local news publishers. Alphabet-owned (GOOGL.O) Google will remove links to Canadian news from search results and other products in Canada when the law takes effect in about six months. Google will also end a voluntary news program in Canada operated under agreements with 150 news publications across the country. The law forces online platforms to negotiate with news publishers and pay for their content. A similar law passed in Australia in 2021 prompted threats from Google and Facebook to curtail their services.

Persons: Paresh Dave, Bill C, Pablo Rodriguez, Justin Trudeau, Rodriguez, Kent Walker, Walker, Ismail Shakil, Steve Scherer, Richard Chang Organizations: Google, REUTERS, OTTAWA, Facebook, Meta, Inc, Heritage, Thomson Locations: New York City , New York, U.S, Canada, Australia, Europe, Ottawa

Google and OpenAI, two U.S. leaders in artificial intelligence, have opposing ideas about how the technology should be regulated by the government, a new filing reveals. Google is one of the leading developers of generative AI with its chatbot Bard, alongside Microsoft -backed OpenAI with its ChatGPT bot. While OpenAI CEO Sam Altman touted the idea of a new government agency focused on AI to deal with its complexities and license the technology, Google in its filing said it preferred a "multi-layered, multi-stakeholder approach to AI governance." "At the national level, we support a hub-and-spoke approach—with a central agency like the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) informing sectoral regulators overseeing AI implementation—rather than a 'Department of AI,'" Google wrote in its filing. "There is this question of should there be a new agency specifically for AI or not?"

Persons: Bard, Sam Altman, Emily M, Bender, Brad Smith, Greg Brockman, Ilya Sutskever, execs, Global Affairs Kent Walker, he's, Helen Toner, OpenAI Organizations: Google, National Telecommunications, Washington Post, Microsoft, National Institute of Standards, Technology, NIST, AI, FDA, University of Washington's Computational, Laboratory, Twitter, International Atomic Energy Agency, Post, Global Affairs, Georgetown's Center for Security, Emerging Technology, CNBC

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