Meet the boss: Liz Reid of Google
Who needs search engines when chatbots can scour the internet for you? When Google launched its AI Overviews last year, the new top-of-page summaries could have cannibalised clicks on the links that appeared below. The company's head of search describes how the process unfolded.
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Reuters
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Judge rejects class action for Google privacy lawsuit
June 10 (Reuters) - People who accused Google of illegally collecting their personal information, after they chose not to synchronize their Google Chrome browsers with their Google accounts, cannot sue the Alphabet (GOOGL.O), opens new tab unit as a group in a class action, a U.S. judge ruled. In a decision on Monday, U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland, California agreed with Google that it was appropriate to address case-by-case whether millions of Chrome users understood and agreed to its data collection policies. "Inquiries relating to Google's implied consent defense will overwhelm the damages claims for all causes of action," Rogers wrote. She dismissed the proposed damages class action with prejudice, meaning it cannot be brought again. The judge also said Chrome users cannot seek policy changes as a group. David Straite, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, declined to comment on Tuesday. Sandi Knight, vice president of litigation at Google, in a statement said the company appreciated the decision, and that Chrome Sync has "clear privacy controls." Class actions let plaintiffs seek potentially greater recoveries at lower cost than they could in individual lawsuits. The decision followed a ruling last August by the federal appeals court in San Francisco, which said Rogers should consider whether reasonable Chrome users consented to letting Google collect their data when they browsed online. Chrome users pointed to Chrome's privacy notice, which said they "don't need to provide any personal information to use Chrome" and Google would not collect such information unless they turned on the "sync" function. Rogers had dismissed the case in December 2022. She said she oversees two other privacy cases against Mountain View, California-based Google, but the claims in those cases differed "significantly." The appeals court ruling followed Google's 2023 agreement to destroy billions of records to settle a lawsuit claiming it tracked people who thought they were browsing privately, including in Chrome's "Incognito" mode. The case is Calhoun et al v Google LLC, 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 22-16993.
Reuters
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Exclusive: OpenAI taps Google in unprecedented cloud deal despite AI rivalry, sources say
SAN FRANCISCO, June 10 (Reuters) - OpenAI plans to add Alphabet's (GOOGL.O), opens new tab Google cloud service to meet its growing needs for computing capacity, three sources told Reuters, marking a surprising collaboration between two prominent competitors in the artificial intelligence sector. The deal, which has been under discussion for a few months, was finalized in May, one of the sources added. It underscores how massive computing demands to train and deploy AI models are reshaping the competitive dynamics in AI, and marks OpenAI's latest move to diversify its compute sources beyond its major supporter Microsoft (MSFT.O), opens new tab, including its high-profile Stargate data center project. It is a win for Google's cloud unit, which will supply additional computing capacity to OpenAI's existing infrastructure for training and running its AI models, sources said, who requested anonymity to discuss private matters. The move also comes as OpenAI's ChatGPT poses the biggest threat to Google's dominant search business in years, with Google executives recently saying that the AI race may not be winner-take-all. OpenAI, Google and Microsoft declined to comment. Since ChatGPT burst onto the scene in late 2022, OpenAI has dealt with increasing demand for computing capacity - known in the industry as compute - for training large language models, as well as for running inference, which involves processing information so people can use these models. OpenAI said on Monday that its annualized revenue run rate surged to $10 billion as of June, positioning the company to hit its full-year target amid booming adoption of AI. Earlier this year, OpenAI partnered with SoftBank (9984.T), opens new tab and Oracle (ORCL.N), opens new tab on the $500 billion Stargate infrastructure program, and signed deals worth billions with CoreWeave (CRWV.O), opens new tab for more compute. It is on track this year to finalize the design of its first in-house chip that could reduce its dependency on external hardware providers, Reuters reported in February. The partnership with Google is the latest of several maneuvers made by OpenAI to reduce its dependency on Microsoft (MSFT.O), opens new tab, whose Azure cloud service had served as the ChatGPT maker's exclusive data center infrastructure provider until January. Google and OpenAI discussed an arrangement for months but were previously blocked from signing a deal due to OpenAI's lock-in with Microsoft, a source told Reuters. Microsoft and OpenAI are also in negotiations to revise the terms of their multibillion-dollar investment, including the future equity stake Microsoft will hold in OpenAI. For Google, the deal comes as the tech giant is expanding of its in-house chip known as tensor processing units, or TPUs, which were historically reserved for internal use. That helped Google win customers including Big Tech player Apple (AAPL.O), opens new tab as well as startups like Anthropic and Safe Superintelligence, two OpenAI competitors launched by former OpenAI leaders. Google's addition of OpenAI to its customer list shows how the tech giant has capitalized on its in-house AI technology from hardware to software to accelerate the growth of its cloud business. Google Cloud, whose $43 billion of sales comprised 12% of Alphabet's 2024 revenue, has positioned itself as a neutral arbiter of computing resources in an effort to outflank Amazon (AMZN.O), opens new tab and Microsoft as the cloud provider of choice for a rising legion of AI startups whose heavy infrastructure demands generate costly bills. Alphabet faces market pressure to demonstrate financial returns on its AI-related capital expenditures, which are expected to hit $75 billion this year, while maintaining its bottom line against the threat of competing AI offerings, as well as antitrust enforcement. Google's DeepMind AI unit also competes directly with OpenAI and Anthropic in a race to develop the best models and integrate those advances into consumer applications. Selling computing power reduces Google's own supply of chips while bolstering capacity-constrained rivals. The OpenAI deal will further complicate how Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai allocates the capacity between the competing interests of Google's enterprise and consumer business segments. Google already lacked sufficient capacity to meet its cloud customers' demands as of the last quarter, opens new tab, Chief Financial Officer Anat Ashkenazi told analysts in April. Although ChatGPT holds a large lead over Google's competing chatbot in terms of monthly users and analysts have predicted it could reduce Google's dominant search market share, Pichai has brushed aside concerns that OpenAI will usurp Google's business dominance.
Daily Mail
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- Daily Mail
Google's £1billion London office invaded by foxes after they make for HQ's soil and 250-tree roof garden
Google 's swanky new London offices have been invaded by foxes, who have targetted its soil and roof garden. The tech giant's £1billion proposed headquarters are set to be its first completely owned and designed site outside of the US. But the whopping 11-storey building, which will be home to up to 7,000 employees when it eventually opens, has been hit with a setback from the natural world after a group of pesky creatures started using it as a playground. The foxes have swarmed on to the state-of-the-art rooftop garden at the King's Cross 'landscraper', making an impact on construction there. Google told The Guardian this impact has been 'minimal', but sources familiar with the site had caused issues over a three-year period. They corroborated an initial report issued by the London Centric newsletter and confirmed that the animals had begun digging holes in the swish gardens. One said: 'There's a little hole in the garden where one lives. 'We've seen her all around the building – one second she's on the fifth floor, the next she's on the garden floor. No one has been able to catch her.' Other people have spotted fox poo strewn across the grounds of the ultra-modern offices, which is home to 250 trees and boasts 40,000 tonnes of soil. Mosh Latifi, co-director of pest control firm EcoCare, said: 'Foxes thrive quite well on rodents – we don't live more than three metres away from the nearest rat.' He added that he had also seen animals searching for food on similar construction sites, where workers sometimes leave morsels behind. Another local pest control expert suggested that London will remain a home for foxes, due to leaky pipes and offerings from nearby businesses. Plans for the new offices were first unveiled in 2013 and construction commenced five years later. In 2022, Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, and Keir Starmer were in attendance at a topping-off ceremony. Mr Khan said: 'This project represents a real vote of confidence in London, in our communities and in our flourishing tech sector.' The site is estimated to be completed later this year. The spectacular 300-metre rooftop garden spans the length of the buildings and takes up the seventh to eleventh floors. The garden was designed to play host to birds, bats, butterflies and bees - as well as the new canine occupants. It also boasts a running track, pool, fitness area and spots for dining and deckchairs. A Google spokesperson said: 'Fox sightings at construction sites are pretty common, and our King's Cross development is no exception. 'While foxes have been occasionally spotted at the site, their appearances have been brief and have had minimal impact on the ongoing construction.' Such issues are not unusual in construction sites, with London's vast fox population sometimes wreaking havoc on developing buildings. The city's tallest building, the Shard, experienced a hiccup as it was being built in 2011, with a fox named Romeo tucking into leftovers from builders' lunches. He was eventually caught, given a checkup and then released back onto the streets.
