Alarms are blaring about artificial intelligence deepfakes that manipulate voters, like the robocall sounding like President Biden that went to New Hampshire households, or the fake video of Taylor Swift endorsing Donald Trump. Yet there’s actually a far bigger problem with deepfakes that we haven’t paid enough attention to: deepfake nude videos and photos that […]
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E.U. Removes Russian Tech Tycoon From Sanctions List
The European Union has lifted sanctions against a Russian technology tycoon, in a rare break from a policy of punishing the country’s elites for the invasion of Ukraine. Arkady Volozh, who co-founded Russia’s largest tech company, Yandex, was taken off the list of sanctioned individuals after condemning the invasion of Ukraine and taking public steps […]
Read MoreBig American Tech Profits From Chinese Ad Spending Spree
The trade relationship between China and the United States has plenty of friction. But at least one area is booming: Chinese start-ups looking to establish a presence in the West are spending billions of dollars for advertisements on services owned by some of Silicon Valley’s biggest technology companies. Temu, the international arm of the Chinese […]
Read MoreForced to Change: Tech Giants Bow to Global Onslaught of Rules
By Thursday, Google will have changed how it displays certain search results. Microsoft will no longer force Windows customers to use its Bing internet search tool. And Apple will give iPhone and iPad users access to rival app stores and payment systems for the first time. The tech giants have been preparing ahead of a […]
Read MoreCan This A.I.-Powered Search Engine Replace Google? It Has for Me.
For my entire adult life, whenever I’ve had a question about the world or needed to track down something online, I’ve gone to Google for answers. But recently, I’ve been stepping out on Google with a new, A.I.-powered search engine. (No, not Bing, which is dead to me after it tried to break up my […]
Read MoreBrowser alternatives Brave, Arc, add new AI integrations
Generative AI isn’t just for making content — it’s also here to upend web browsing. That’s according to two privacy-focused web browser startups, Arc and Brave, both of which this week announced new generative AI powered features for their browsers. Arc adds Perplexity as a default browser search bar option Arc, the minimalistic browser created […]
Read MoreMicrosoft, Amazon and Google Face F.T.C. Inquiry Over A.I. Deals
The Federal Trade Commission launched an inquiry on Thursday into the multibillion dollar investments by Microsoft, Amazon and Google in the artificial intelligence start-ups OpenAI and Anthropic, broadening the regulator’s efforts to corral the power the tech giants can have over A.I. These deals have allowed the big companies to form deep ties with their […]
Read MoreHe Died in a Tragic Accident. Why Did the Internet Say He Was Murdered?
It was the kind of tragic accident that reverberates through a community: a first-year college student, out late in New York City on New Year’s Eve, falls onto the subway tracks and is killed by an oncoming train. Word of the 19-year-old’s death spread quickly among the people who knew the young man, Matthew Sachman, […]
Read MoreGoogle’s Antitrust Loss to Epic Could Preview Its Legal Fate in 2024
Google’s loss was swift after a monthlong antitrust trial in a San Francisco federal court. A little more than three hours after a jury had begun deliberating on Monday, they returned with their verdict. There were 11 antitrust claims that Epic Games, the maker of the hit videogame Fortnite, had brought against Google’s Play Store […]
Read MoreOne Year of ChatGPT: How A.I. Changed Silicon Valley Forever
At 1 p.m. on a Friday shortly before Christmas last year, Kent Walker, Google’s top lawyer, summoned four of his employees and ruined their weekend. The group worked in SL1001, a bland building with a blue glass facade betraying no sign that dozens of lawyers inside were toiling to protect the interests of one of […]
Read MoreHow Companies Like Google Control Our Privacy and Our Data
“Inside the app, click on the Me tab, tap the settings icon and select Privacy. Under default privacy settings, select Private,” he explained. “Then, under the ‘More’ section in Privacy, click ‘Past Transactions’ and make sure to set that to ‘Change All to Private.’” Got all that? I did, and changed my settings, too, as […]
Read MoreFormer Angi CEO launches new startup Keychain to revolutionize consumer goods manufacturing
VentureBeat presents: AI Unleashed – An exclusive executive event for enterprise data leaders. Hear from top industry leaders on Nov 15. Reserve your free pass Angi, formerly Angie’s List, remains one of the most well-known startups to break it big, becoming the go-to place for many people when searching for home services such as repair […]
Read MoreWhat Google Argued to Defend Itself in Landmark Antitrust Trial
Over the past two and a half weeks, Google has called a dozen witnesses to defend itself against claims by the Justice Department and a group of state attorneys general that it illegally maintained a search and advertising monopoly, in a landmark antitrust case that could reshape tech power. Google’s lawyers are set to wrap […]
Read MoreGoogle C.E.O. Says Tech Giant Has Improved the Web for All Consumers
As Google’s chief executive, Sundar Pichai, tells it, his company has always been on the side of consumers. It has paid billions to other industry giants, like Apple and Samsung, he said, to make sure Google’s internet search engine worked as well as it should on those companies’ devices. Testifying on Monday in Google’s landmark […]
Read MoreGoogle Search Boss Says Company Invests to Avoid Becoming ‘Roadkill’
The Justice Department has spent weeks arguing in a federal antitrust trial that Google has built an impenetrable barrier around its search business with strong-arm tactics and multibillion-dollar deals. But a Google executive said on Thursday that he didn’t see it that way. He sees a world of threats that could humble his company at […]
Read MoreInside Google’s Plan to Stop Apple From Getting Serious About Search
For years, Google watched with increasing concern as Apple improved its search technology, not knowing whether its longtime partner and sometimes competitor would eventually build its own search engine. Those fears ratcheted up in 2021, when Google paid Apple around $18 billion to keep Google’s search engine the default selection on iPhones, according to two […]
Read MoreWhat the U.S. Has Argued in the Google Antitrust Trial
Since Sept. 12., the Department of Justice and a group of state attorneys general have questioned more than 30 witnesses as they try to prove that Google broke antitrust laws, in a landmark monopoly trial that may affect the power of the technology industry. The government is now wrapping up its side in the case […]
Read MoreAlphabet Has Strong Ad Sales but Cloud Business Disappoints
A rebound in digital advertising led to an uptick in revenue and profit for Alphabet, Google’s parent company, but investors were underwhelmed by its cloud computing business, which badly trails those of rivals Microsoft and Amazon. Alphabet reported $76.7 billion in quarterly sales, up 11 percent from a year earlier, and roughly in line with […]
Read MoreSilicon Valley Ditches News, Shaking an Unstable Industry
Campbell Brown, Facebook’s top news executive, left the company this month. Twitter, now known as X, removed headlines from the platform days later. The head of Instagram’s Threads app, an X competitor, reiterated that his social network would not amplify news. Even Google — the strongest partner to news organizations over the past 10 years […]
Read MoreIn Antitrust Trial, Google Argues That Smart Employees Explain Its Success
In its antitrust confrontation with the government, the pillar of Google’s defense has been that innovation — not restrictive contracts, backed by billions in payments to industry partners — explains its success as the giant of internet search. Its competitive advantage, it says, is brilliant people, working tirelessly to improve its products. Pandu Nayak, Google’s […]
Read MoreMicrosoft C.E.O. Testifies That Google’s Power in Search Is Ubiquitous
Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s chief executive, testified on Monday that Google’s power in online search was so ubiquitous that even his company found it difficult to compete on the internet, becoming the government’s highest-profile witness in its landmark antitrust trial against the search giant. In more than three hours of testimony in federal court in Washington, […]
Read MoreMeet the A.I. Jane Austen: Meta Weaves A.I. Throughout Its Apps
In a WhatsApp text conversation this week, we asked Jane Austen — yes, the 19th-century British author — how she felt about Mr. Darcy, a character from one of her most famous works, “Pride and Prejudice.” After a few seconds, Ms. Austen responded. “Ah, Mr. Darcy. Everyone remembers him as one of my characters,” she […]
Read MoreTop Apple Executive Defends Favoring Google on iPhones
Apple’s top deal maker on Tuesday defended his company’s favoritism of Google on iPhones, a pivotal collaboration that has shaped the modern tech industry and is at the center of a federal antitrust trial against the search giant. Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of services, testified in Washington that Google’s placement as the default […]
Read More‘Unprecedented’ Secrecy in Google Trial as Tech Giants Push to Limit Disclosures
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. “Once commercially sensitive information is disclosed in open court, the resulting harm to the party’s competitive standing cannot be undone,” the internet giant wrote to the judge presiding over the […]
Read MoreA Key Question in Google’s Trial: How Formidable Is Its Data Advantage?
The federal government’s first monopoly trial of the modern internet era is less than a week old, but already a central character has emerged: data. Its role, its use and its power are key issues in the Justice Department’s case against Google. The government claims that Google bribed and bullied smartphone producers like Apple and […]
Read MoreU.S. Blasts Google Over Paying $10 Billion a Year to Cut Out Search Rivals
The Justice Department and 38 states and territories on Tuesday laid out how Google had systematically wielded its power in online search to cow competitors, as the internet giant fiercely parried back, in the opening of the most consequential trial over tech power in the modern internet era. In a packed courtroom at the E. […]
Read MoreMicrosoft, Google and Antitrust: Similar Legal Theories in a Different Era
The Justice Department argues in a federal antitrust suit that Google is a dominant tech company that has abused its market power to bully industry partners, protect its monopoly and thwart competition. That has a familiar ring. As U.S. et al. v. Google goes to trial this week, the echoes of the landmark federal suit […]
Read MoreWho’s Who in the Google Monopoly Trial
A trial to determine if Google abused its monopoly in online search, which begins on Tuesday, is set to lay bare how the internet search giant cemented its power, featuring testimony from top tech executives, engineers, economists and academics. The trial will unfold in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, where a core […]
Read MoreWhy Is the Justice Dept. Suing Google?
A federal judge will start hearing claims this week from the Justice Department and a group of states that Google abused its power as a monopoly over online search services. Google is synonymous with looking for information online and has leveraged its massively successful search tool to build a giant business spanning advertising, cloud computing […]
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