[ad_1] The internet giant said it was “fully aligned” with the government and helping to fight the spread of COVID-19, although it didn’t explain the gap between its plans for a nationwide site and what Trump said. It’s not shocking that Google would have multiple projects in the works. Verily may be a sibling brand, […]
Category: alphabet
Waymo’s first outside investment round includes car industry heavyweights
[ad_1] Alphabet is also contributing, but it appears to be in the minority this time around. Waymo was vague about how it would use the funds, saying only that this would help “our people, our technology, and our operations.” One look at Waymo’s business suggests that it has plenty of need for cash, though. In […]
Alphabet’s Loon, telecoms unite to boost high-altitude internet
[ad_1] The Alliance will push for governments to adopt high-altitude internet, of course, but it’ll also work on a cooperative environment with common specs and standards. The aim is ultimately to create a single “compelling message” to sell the concept, even if the individual companies end up competing with each other. This comes roughly 10 […]
Toronto rejects some of Sidewalk Labs’ smart neighborhood ideas
[ad_1] The technical evaluation broke the four-volume MIDP into 160 distinct proposals. Sixteen of those suggestions were labeled “non-support,” which means “new solutions must be explored,” Waterfront Toronto explained in a discussion guide that will inform a second round of public consultation. The organization rejected an “efficient” and “ultra efficient” housing concept that would have […]
Alphabet quits work on its energy-generating kites
[ad_1] As Makani’s Fort Felker said, this doesn’t necessarily mean that Makani is shutting down. Its recent investor Shell is “exploring options” to continue work on wind kite technology, although Felker didn’t elaborate on what that meant. The team did make some progress while under Alphabet’s wing, launching a 20kW demo project, and growing it […]
Alphabet’s Jigsaw created a tool that detects doctored images
[ad_1] Images that are edited in apps like Photoshop may look convincing to the human eye, but there are many artifacts that can be more easily detected by a computer. For example, the clone tool creates repeated patterns in an image that may be virtually undetectable to the untrained eye, but — to a computer […]
YouTube Premium and Music have 20 million subscribers
[ad_1] The company’s live YouTube TV service fared relatively well, too, with about 2 million subscribers by the end of 2019. That makes it smaller than Hulu With Live TV’s estimated 2.7 million from November and Sling TV’s 2.69 million. However, that’s still a healthy number for a service that was comparatively late to the […]
YouTube ad revenue has almost doubled in the last two years
[ad_1] In 2019, YouTube ad revenues were $15.15 billion, which represents 86 percent growth since 2017. By contrast, the main Google search business grew by 40 percent to $98.1 billion over the last two years. Of course, Google’s search business is even more mature than YouTube, and 40 percent growth is still quite impressive. But […]
Waymo’s self-driving vans will carry UPS packages in Phoenix
[ad_1] The program kicks off this quarter (that is, no later than March). Waymo had already grown its AutoNation deal to include a car part delivery test in 2019. UPS has been busy, too, having just ordered 10,000 electric trucks from Arrival for crewed deliveries. The two see this as part of a “long-term plan” […]
Google CEO Sundar Pichai calls for ‘sensible regulation’ of AI
[ad_1] After laying out his relationship with technology and offering a few examples where innovation has had unintended negative consequences, Pichai makes the case that while AI is powerful and useful, we must balance its “potential harms… with social opportunities.” Of course, this call for “balance” leaves some questions about how tight of regulation Pichai […]