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Waymo gets approval to deploy its robotaxi service in Los Angeles
The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has given Waymo permission to expand its robotaxi operations to Los Angeles and more locations in the San Francisco Peninsula despite opposition from local groups and government agencies.
NVIDIA becomes the third most valuable US company at Alphabet's expense
NVIDIA has overtaken Alphabet and Amazon's earnings in recent days and now stands as the third most valuable country in the United States.
Alphabet is cutting dozens of jobs at its X moonshot lab
Alphabet has laid off dozens of workers from its X moonshot lab in its latest round of downsizing.
Meta is letting users uncouple Messenger and Marketplace accounts in the EU
It follows regulations in the Digital Markets Act, which goes into effect in March.
Google CEO says more layoffs expected 'throughout the year' in internal memo
Google CEO Sundar Pichai has reportedly told remaining employees to expect further layoffs throughout 2024.
Alphabet’s Wing shows off a larger delivery drone with a bigger payload capacity
Alphabet’s drone delivery company, Wing, just unveiled a larger delivery drone with a bigger payload capacity. The new drone can lift up to five pounds, fly up to 65 MPH and go 12 miles round trip.
Google is laying off hundreds of workers who sell ads to big businesses
Google’s latest cuts continue the trend of layoffs at tech companies, which shed thousands of jobs in 2023.
Google lays off hundreds of employees in its Assistant, hardware and other divisions
Google has laid off "several hundred" workers in multiple divisions each in a new round of belt tightening.
Google workers publish letter criticizing company’s Israel-Palestine ‘double standard’
A group of Google employees has published an open letter calling out an alleged double standard in the company related to freedom of expression surrounding the Israel-Hamas war. The letter condemns “hate, abuse and retaliation” within the company against Muslim, Arab, and Palestinian workers and demands it pulls out of Project Nimbus.
Google and major mobile carriers want Europe to regulate Apple's iMessage platform
The EU's Digital Market Act prohibits Apple and other tech giants from favoring their own systems.
Google extends software support for Pixel 8 phones to a full seven years
Pixel phones' potential longevity are getting a boost, hopefully saving a few more handsets from an early visit to the landfill.
Intel joins Apple, Alphabet and Samsung as an Arm investor
The company sees a bright future manufacturing low-power chips.
EU confirms the six tech giants subject to its strict new competition laws
Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, ByteDance, Meta and Microsoft now have until March to make sure certain services comply with strict EU rules around their ecosystems. The Digital Markets Act doesn't apply to Samsung for the time being.
Google tenatively settles with US antitrust probe into Play Store dominance
Attorneys general and consumers from 37 states alleged that Google held an unfair monopoly on Android devices.
Google wants an invisible digital watermark to bring transparency to AI art
Google took a step towards transparency in AI-generated images today. Google DeepMind announced SynthID, a watermarking / identification tool for generative art. The company says the technology embeds a digital watermark, invisible to the human eye, directly onto an image’s pixels. SynthID is rolling out first to “a limited number” of customers using Imagen, Google’s art generator available on its suite of cloud-based AI tools.
Wing and Walmart will offer six-mile drone deliveries over Dallas
Wing, Alphabet’s aviation subsidiary, is partnering with Walmart to kick off drone deliveries from the retail chain in the Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) metro area. The flights will begin taking off “in the coming weeks” from a Walmart Supercenter in Frisco, TX, and the companies plan to expand to a second DFW location before the end of the year. The companies say the coverage area from both stores will cover 60,000 homes.
Google's latest bid to push hybrid work is a $99 rate at its on-campus hotel
Google is trying to entice hybrid workers back to the office by offering 'cheap' stays at its campus hotel.
Tech giant 'gatekeepers' must comply with all of the EU's new digital market rules
Seven companies, mostly made up of American tech giants, have notified the European Commission that they meet the criteria to be classified as "gatekeepers" under the Digital Markets Act (DMA).
Google Search's new Perspectives tab will highlight forum and social media posts
Google's Search will soon include a tab or carousel of content sourced from social media and forums. If the potential benefits seem heavily outweighed by the obvious pitfalls, you're not alone.
Google’s Duet AI brings more generative features to Workspace apps
After OpenAI’s ChatGPT caught the tech world off guard late last year, Google reportedly declared a “code red,” scrambling to plan a response to the new threat. The first fruit of that reorientation trickled out earlier this year with its Bard chatbot and some generative AI features baked into Google Workspace apps. Today at Google I/O 2023, we finally see a more fleshed-out picture of how the company views AI’s role in its cloud-based productivity suite. Google Duet AI is the company’s branding for its collection of AI tools across Workspace apps.