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☆ Internet providers have to start using this 'nutrition facts' label that breaks down fees
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-10 | by ( Grace Eliza Goodwin | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

"Nutrition facts" style labels for internet plans are finally a reality. As of Wednesday, the FCC now requires internet providers to break down costs and services for customers. That includes companies that provide both home, or fixed, internet services, as well as mobile broadband. AdvertisementAnd the labels aren't just designed for new customers — internet service providers must also make them available to current customers in their online account portals and provide the label when a customer asks for it. "The labels are modeled after the FDA nutrition labels and are intended to help consumers comparison shop for the internet service plan that will best meet their needs and budget."

Persons: — Organizations: FCC, Service, Federal Communications Commission, Reuters, Google, Verizon

☆ Google is nixing the thumbs-down reaction from an internal forum after employee spats over Gaza
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-09 | by ( Kelsey Vlamis | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Google said the changes are in response to employee feedback, but some staffers are upset. The changes, which Google confirmed to The New York Times, include removing the option to thumbs-down a post. AdvertisementThe Times also reviewed an internal Google memo in which moderators said they thought collective thumbs-down votes were a "bullying tactic." In 2021, more than 250 Google employees called on the company to terminate contracts with Israel after IDF forces carried out strikes in Gaza. Shortly after, over a hundred Google employees gathered to protest Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion cloud-computing contract with Israel.

Persons: —, Memegen, Israel Organizations: Google, Service, The New York Times, Times, Business, IDF, Israel Locations: Israel, Gaza, Israeli, Palestine, New York City

☆ Google sues crypto scammers for allegedly uploading fake apps to Android app store
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-04 | by ( Talia Kaplan | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Google filed a lawsuit on Thursday against a group of crypto scammers, alleging they defrauded more than 100,000 people across the globe by uploading fraudulent investment and crypto exchange apps to Google Play. Google says it's the first tech company to take action against crypto scammers, and is doing so as a way to set a legal precedent to establish protections for users. The lawsuit claims the defendants made "multiple misrepresentations to Google in order to upload their fraudulent apps to Google Play, including but not limited to misrepresentations about their identity, location, and the type and nature of the application being uploaded." Sun, Cheung and their agents designed the apps to appear legitimate, showing users that they were maintaining balances on the app and earning returns on their investments, the lawsuit said. However, users couldn't withdraw their investments or purported gains.

Persons: Halimah DeLaine Prado, Sun, Alphonse Sun, Hongnam Cheung, Zhang Hongnim, Stanford Fischer, Cheung, couldn't Organizations: Google, CNBC Crypto, of Locations: Southern, of New York, U.S, Canada

☆ AI Is Upending Google's Search Business. a Lady Gaga Query Shows How.
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-19 | by ( Kali Hays | Hugh Langley | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +16 min

Search versus SGESince December, Business Insider has plugged the same queries into Google's traditional search engine and its generative AI version to see how information is presented differently. Mark Mahaney, a top internet analyst at ISI Evercore, has been testing SGE alongside generative AI rivals like Perplexity and OpenAI's ChatGPT. Ray has spotted answers in SGE results that are not sourced from websites that rank in the top 100 positions for that query in traditional Search results. Neither query produced any sort of generative AI response — although a search for "common cold" did. They've already got billions of people using Chrome and using Google search," Shmulik told BI.

Persons: It's, Mark Mahaney, Mahaney, SGE, Adweek, Alan Antin, Google's SGE, Gaga's, Gaga, Tiffany, Kali Hays, Google's, Sundar Pichai, Lily Ray, Ray, Mark Shmulik, Bernstein, Susan Orlean, Evercore's Mahoney, we're, Bernstein's, Shmulik, he's, ChatGPT Organizations: Google, Business, Microsoft, Gartner, ISI, New York Magazine, BI, GitHub, LinkedIn, SGE, Bing Locations: SGE, OpenAI

☆ Google fires employee who protested Israel tech event, as internal dissent mounts
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-08 | by ( Jennifer Elias | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

Ahead of an International Women's Day Summit in Silicon Valley on Thursday, Google's employee message board was hit with an influx of staffer comments about the company's military contracts with Israel. The event on Monday in New York featured an address from Barak Regev, managing director of Google Israel. A Google spokesperson said the employee was fired for "interfering with an official company-sponsored event" in an email to CNBC on Thursday. Unfortunately, before the event a series of off-topic and divisive questions and comments were posted to internal forums. WATCH: Google vs. Google

Persons: “, Sundar Pichai, Barak Regev, Regev, Boycotters, Dory, Gemini, Mai Ubeid, Ubeid, didn't Organizations: Google, CNBC, Israel, Defense Department, Amazon Web Services, Hamas, Palestinian enclave's Health Ministry, Tech, Google Israel, Starbucks, Workers United Locations: New York, Israel, Gaza, Silicon Valley, U.S, France

The new missionDeveloping and scaling this cookie replacement has become the new mission for The Trade Desk, one of adtech's greatest independent success stories. While many other adtech companies offered this service, The Trade Desk over the years proved it could do it better. The Trade DeskWith cookies disappearing, The Trade Desk is approaching its first big test. These deals are typically cut with major advertising agency holding companies and don't usually include adtech platforms like The Trade Desk. "These next 12 months for The Trade Desk are going to be difficult and not the experience that you're used to," this person said.

Persons: Jeff Green, Andrew Casale, Brian Wieser, Samantha Jacobs, hasn't, There's, Tom Triscari, It's, they're, Greg Doherty, Jeff, Green, Criteo, Megan Clarken, Dan Salmon, they've Organizations: Trade, Universal, Google, Business, Exchange, Company, BI, Disney, The Washington Post, Yahoo, Wall Street, Projects, CTV, CBS, The, Arete Research, Intelligence, Variety, Street Research

☆ Google quietly launches internal AI model named 'Goose' to help employees write code faster, leaked documents show
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-14 | by ( Hugh Langley | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

It is designed to assist with building new products, according to internal documents reviewed by Business Insider. “It can answer questions around Google-specific technologies, write code using internal tech stacks and supports novel capabilities such as editing code based on natural language prompts,” an internal summary of Goose reads. The documents note that the creation of Goose was a collaborative effort between Google Brain, DeepMind, and Google's internal infrastructure teams. And Goose isn't the only example of Google using AI to be more efficient. AdvertisementAnd if Googlers have specific development questions while using Goose, they're encouraged to turn to the company's internal chatbot, named Duckie.

Persons: —, it’s, Gemini, “, Ruth Porat, Goose, TKTKTK Goose, DeepMind, ”, Philipp Schindler, Business Insider’s, they're Organizations: Service, Business, Google, Microsoft

☆ Google's AI product lead explains why the company is doing a 'clean-up' and renaming everything 'Gemini'
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-08 | by ( Hugh Langley | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Google is renaming its AI assistant Bard to Gemini. It's also finally giving users access to Gemini Ultra, its most powerful AI model yet. "It's all sort of a clean-up and embracing of Gemini as our AI brand," Hsiao told BI on Wednesday. It's like, there's a Gemini model, but the product is Bard. A version of Gemini has powered the Bard chatbot since then, although Google stopped short of releasing the most powerful Gemini model, known as Ultra.

Persons: Bard, Gemini, It's, Sissie Hsiao, —, Hsiao, Bard chatbot, OpenAI's ChatGPT, it's Organizations: Google, Gemini, Service, Business

☆ YouTube has become one of the biggest pay TV services in the US
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-06 | by ( Peter Kafka | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

YouTube TV is now the fourth-biggest pay TV service in the US. It's here now: Its YouTube TV offering has become one of the biggest pay-TV services in the US. YouTube TV — which, like conventional pay TV, sells a bundle of dozens of channels — now has "more than 8 million" subscribers, YouTube CEO Neal Mohan announced Tuesday morning. Now comes the other part of the equation: As YouTube TV has grown, conventional pay TV has shrunk. And it's partly because some pay TV providers — like Comcast — have stopped trying to convince customers to keep or get pay TV.

Persons: —, Neal Mohan, there's Organizations: Google, YouTube, Service, Charter, Comcast, DirecTV, NFL

☆ Google is rolling out new AI models for health care. Here's how doctors are using them
▼ + stars: | 2023-12-13 | by ( Ashley Capoot | In | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

Google said it also plans to introduce health-care-specific versions of Gemini , the company's newest and "most capable" AI model, to MedLM in the future. For instance, HCA Healthcare , one of the largest health systems in the U.S., has been testing Google's AI technology since the spring. Google's MedLM suite can then take those transcripts and break them up into the components of an ER provider note. "What I would say right now, is that the hype around the current use of these AI models in health care is outstripping the reality," Schlosser said. "We're being very cautious with how we approach these AI models," he said.

Persons: Gupta, Aashima Gupta, MedLM, Greg Corrado, Corrado, Dr, Michael Schlosser, Google's, Schlosser, That's, " Schlosser Organizations: Google, Microsoft, CNBC, HCA Healthcare, Nurses, HCA Locations: MedLM, Med, U.S

☆ Google fined $164,000 for failing to store user data inside Russia
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-14 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

An illuminated Google logo is seen inside an office building in Zurich, Switzerland December 5, 2018. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsMOSCOW, Nov 14 (Reuters) - Google (GOOGL.O) was fined 15 million roubles ($164,000) on Tuesday for repeated refusal to store Russian users' data on servers inside Russia, a Moscow court said. Russia has repeatedly clashed with foreign technology companies over content, censorship, data and local representation in a simmering dispute that intensified after Moscow sent its armed forces into Ukraine in February 2022. Google's Russian subsidiary has been under pressure in Russia for failing to delete content Moscow deems illegal and for restricting access to some Russian media on YouTube. The technology giant's Russian unit filed for bankruptcy in summer 2022 after authorities seized its bank account, making it impossible to pay staff and vendors.

Persons: Arnd, Felix Light, Kevin Liffey Organizations: REUTERS, Rights, YouTube, Kremlin, Twitter, Facebook, Google, Thomson Locations: Zurich, Switzerland, Russia, Moscow, Ukraine

☆ Use this hidden Google feature to detect and delete your personal information in search
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-28 | by ( Jake Piazza | In | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

If you Google your name, address or phone number, you might be surprised by the number of results you see with your personal information. There's a hidden feature in Google that will alert you when it finds these results, though, allowing you to remove them. Instead, this feature proactively searches for your phone number, email and home address and will alert you when it finds something. Then, you can just tell Google to delete it from search results. Note: Google doesn't remove your information from the internet, but it scrubs it from Google Search and makes it harder for people to find.

Persons: Microsoft's Bing Organizations: Google, Yahoo

☆ 'Grandpa Google': Search head testifies that young users see it as out of style
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-26 | by ( Lauren Feiner | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

As Google fights claims that it violated antitrust law to maintain its online search dominance, the company's search lead testified Thursday that young users mock Google as old-fashioned. Prabhakar Raghavan, a Google senior vice president responsible for for products including search, ads and commerce, said that some young users have referred to the search engine as "Grandpa Google." Raghavan testified that Yahoo's search dominance at one point seemed insurmountable. For example, Google has conducted research that's led to features that let it directly answer users' questions, understand voice queries and lens queries, where users search via a photo they take. "We don't see users carrying through these journeys entirely on Google," Raghavan testified.

Persons: Prabhakar Raghavan, Google, It's, Raghavan, Bing, that's Organizations: Google Inc, Google, Department of Justice, Yahoo, CNBC, YouTube Locations: San Francisco , California

In a court filing last month, Google argued that it needed its privacy in an antitrust trial that would spotlight its dominance in online search. It was part of a pattern of Google’s pushing to limit transparency in the federal government’s first monopoly trial of the modern internet era. v. Google, enters its third week in court, it is shaping up to be perhaps the most secretive antitrust trial of the last few decades. Not only has Google argued for the landmark trial to be largely closed off to the public, but so have other companies that are involved, such as Apple and Microsoft. Apple even fought to quash subpoenas, describing them as “unduly burdensome,” to get its executives out of giving testimony.

Organizations: Google, New York Times, Apple, Microsoft

☆ Family sues Google alleging its Maps app led father to drive off collapsed bridge to his death, attorneys say
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-21 | by ( Jamiel Lynch | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

The lawsuit claims neighbors had expressed concern Google Maps had led drivers over the bridge, which allegedly has not been repaired since its partial collapse in 2013. GPS sends people down here, which is especially dangerous for emergency vehicles,” reads the report sent to Google Maps. The suit claims negligence and willful and wanton conduct by the companies and seeks an unspecified amount in punitive damages. Google has “the deepest sympathies for the Paxson family,” it told CNN in a statement. “His trust in Google Maps, and the failure of the road and bridge-keepers to do their jobs, cost him his life.”

Persons: Philip Paxson, Paxson, “, Hickory, ” Paxson, Robert Zimmerman, “ We’ve, ”, codefendants, Hinckley Gauvain, Alicia, Alicia Paxson, Philip, Larry Bendesky Organizations: CNN, Google, GPS, ” CNN, Hinckley Locations: North Carolina, Hickory , North Carolina

☆ Google recently cut 'people' from its Search guidelines. Now, website owners say a flood of AI content is pushing them down in search results.
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-20 | by ( Hugh Langley | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

"This is a joke," another person wrote on a forum for website owners . No longer is it "helpful content written by people, for people," but simply, "Helpful content written for people." She watched pages that previously ranked first for certain terms tumble to fifth, sixth, or seventh place in Google search results. Spotting AI content is impossibleIt's unclear how much of the content that has been bumped up is AI-generated, or whether this is just other content written differently by humans. AdvertisementAdvertisementGoogle continues to say that content built entirely for the purpose or ranking high in search results will be punished.

Persons: Morgan Overholt, I've, –, Barry Schwartz, Overholt, they've, John Mueller, Schwartz, Mueller, Johannes Vermeer Organizations: Google, Service Locations: Wall, Silicon

☆ Alphabet moonshots are ready for launch
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-29 | by ( Anita Ramaswamy | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Alphabet logo and AI Artificial Intelligence words are seen in this illustration taken, May 4, 2023. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration Acquire Licensing RightsNEW YORK, Aug 29 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Alphabet (GOOGL.O) is poised to welcome the autumn harvest. Verily boss Stephen Gillett told employees this month that it will cut its ties to several of Alphabet’s services next year. Such a financial services business strays from Alphabet’s wheelhouse, and with artificial intelligence demanding fresh attention, it’s wise to be prudent about capital allocation. Waymo, the autonomous vehicle technology business, secured a vote of approval this month from San Francisco to operate driverless rideshares in the city.

Persons: Dado Ruvic, Ruth Porat, Morgan Stanley, ”, Stephen Gillett, wheelhouse, Chris Hohn’s, Ford, Porat, Verily, Jeffrey Goldfarb, Aditya Sriwatsav Organizations: REUTERS, Reuters, Life Sciences, Wall Street Journal, Temasek, TCI Fund Investments, Google, Sciences, Wall, Thomson Locations: San Francisco

☆ AI tools make things up a lot, and that’s a huge problem
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-29 | by ( Catherine Thorbecke | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

But as more people turn to this buzzy technology for things like homework help, workplace research, or health inquiries, one of its biggest pitfalls is becoming increasingly apparent: AI models often just make things up. Researchers have come to refer to this tendency of AI models to spew inaccurate information as “hallucinations,” or even “confabulations,” as Meta’s AI chief said in a tweet. A number of high-profile hallucinations from AI tools have already made headlines. Cracking down on AI hallucinations, however, could limit AI tools’ ability to help people with more creative endeavors — like users that are asking ChatGPT to write poetry or song lyrics. How to prevent or fix AI hallucinations is a “point of active research,” Venkatasubramanian said, but at present is very complicated.

Persons: Suresh Venkatasubramanian, Venkatasubramanian, ”, ” Venkatasubramanian, West, Bard, James Webb, ChatGPT, they’re, ” West, Google’s Bard, OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Sundar Pichai, Pichai, “, Sam Altman, OpenAI Organizations: CNN, Brown University, ” Companies, University of Washington, Center, Google, James Webb Space Telescope, New, CNET, CBS, Indraprastha, of Information Technology Locations: United States, New York, Delhi

☆ Tesla's value plunged nearly $200 billion since mid-July – and Elon Musk's EV maker faces a bumpy road ahead
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-23 | by ( Zahra Tayeb | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Tesla's value has fallen nearly $200 billion in just over a month. That's dragged Tesla's market cap down almost $200 billion to about $730 billion as of Tuesday's close, per Google Finance. A mix of inflation, higher interest rates, and recession fears have driven Tesla's decline. Higher interest rates tend to be bad news for high-growth stocks, including Tesla, because it eats away at company profitably through expensive borrowing costs. Investors also get deterred from piling into equities as rising interest rates tend to push up returns on bond investments, making them a safer investment compared to stocks.

Persons: Elon Musk's, That's, Jerome Powell's, Tesla, Gordon Johnson, Cathie Wood, Johnson, she'd Organizations: Elon Musk's carmaker, Service, Elon Musk's, Google Finance, Federal Reserve, Investors, CNBC Locations: Wall, Silicon

☆ Judge narrows case in Google antitrust suits brought by states and DOJ
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-04 | by ( Lauren Feiner | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

A federal judge narrowed the case that states and the Department of Justice can make in the antitrust trial against Google beginning in September, according to a newly-released decision. The cases both alleged that Google illegally maintained a monopoly by cutting off rivals from search distribution channels. The DOJ and a bipartisan group of AGs from 38 states and territories, led by Colorado and Nebraska, filed similar but separate antitrust suits against Google in 2020. In addition to the allegedly exclusionary contracts for search distribution, the states alleged that Google also violated antitrust law through its product to buy search ads and the way it designed its search results pages. But they will no longer be able to bring the claim that Google harmed competition by designing its search results to push down search engine competitors' results, the judge decided.

Persons: Sundar Pichai, It's, Amit Mehta, Mehta, Google's, Kent Walker, Phil Weiser Organizations: Department, Justice, Google, D.C, Department of Justice, DOJ, AGs, Colorado and, Federal Trade Commission, FTC, Street Locations: Rayburn, Washington ,, Colorado, Colorado and Nebraska

☆ How a 23-year-old freelancer makes $48,000 in NYC without a college degree
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-03 | by ( Cheyenne Devon | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +8 min

This story is part of CNBC Make It's Millennial Money series, which details how people around the world earn, spend and save their money. While growing up in a suburb of Washington, D.C., Brunotts always expected to go to college. But after reviewing the potential costs of attending music school in NYC, she ultimately decided against pursuing higher education. She brought in around $48,000 last year and says she's on track to make more this year. When she has earned more than her weekly goal doing work for clients, Kate spends time working on personal music projects.

Persons: Kate Brunotts, Brunotts, I've, Kate, Matt, hadn't, Lauren Shamo, Maherzad Todiwala, she's, she'll, Roth, It's Organizations: CNBC, New York City, Washington , D.C, Center, Citi, Google Fi Locations: New York, Washington ,, NYC, Upwork, Venmo, Brunotts

☆ Nike CEO John Donahoe on how he manages sleep health in a hectic life
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-30 | by ( Emily Grill | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

Donahoe can't get seven hours of sleep every night, but he said that he tries to hit 70 hours of sleep every 10 days. Hitting this target, rather than exactly how much sleep he gets per night, is a sleep science workaround that the Nike CEO says has been working for him. Sleep science research has consistently shown that the average adult should aim for seven hours of a sleep each night. It's not necessarily always going to be the recommended seven hours of sleep that will ensure a good night's rest, according to sleep experts. In the long term, if you don't get enough sleep, there's health outcomes that can occur."

Persons: I've, Elon Musk, CNBC's David Faber, Bill Gates, John Donahoe, Donahoe, It's, Mark Wu, Wu, Gates, Jagdish Khubchandani, Khubchandani Organizations: Nike, CNBC, Summit, Apple Watch, Google, Johns Hopkins University, National Institute for Occupational Safety, Health, United, Blood Institute, Ball State University, New Mexico State University, Ball Locations: America, U.S, China, Santa Barbara , California, United States

Motorola announced its new Razr and Razr Plus foldable phones on June 1. Motorola's Razr Plus fixes my biggest issue with clamshell-style foldable phonesThe Razr Plus doesn't have the bottom lip that the previous model had, which makes for a cleaner look. Now, the Razr and Razr Plus have a modern clamshell design, where both halves are identical and flat. Motorola's standard Razr could be the most affordable foldable phone you can buyThe standard Razr also lacks the bottom lip of the previous Razr iteration for a cleaner overall look. Motorola Razr and Razr Plus specs

Persons: Antonio Villas, I'm, Villas, Sage, that's, You'll, That's Organizations: Motorola, Spectrum Mobile, Google, Optimum, Boas, Qualcomm, Samsung Galaxy, Samsung, Motorola hasn't, preorder Locations: 165Hz, 144Hz

☆ How to get Google's new AI tool to write your emails
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Aaron Mok | Sindhu Sundar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Google is launching "Help me write" an AI-tool that can generate responses to emails in Gmail. Users can deploy the tool to request a refund for a cancelled flight, for example. The tool also includes a "Refine" feature that can tweak the generated message's length and tone. In a demonstration of the tool, Pichai used "Help me write" to respond to an email saying that the recipient's flight got cancelled. These features, which will be available to "trusted testers," will eventually be part of Google's "Duet AI for Workspace" service, according to Pappu.

☆ Google is bringing an AI chatbot to search results. Here's what it's like
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Samantha Murphy Kelly | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

With the update, the look and feel of Google Search results will be noticeably different. Users can now sign up for a waitlist for the new Google Search, which will first launch in the United States, via the Google app or Chrome’s desktop browser. The new Google Search also offers a Perspectives feature to showcase what other people are buying or thinking about, and factoring that into results. Like ChatGPT, the new Google Search and Bard are built on a large language model. Google previously told CNN that Bard would serve as a separate, complementary experience to Google Search, and planned to “thoughtfully” add large language models to search “in a deeper way” at a later time.

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