Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly: In an unexpected move, the DOJ may be considering busting Google up /Bloomberg/
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☑️ #150 Oct 12, 2024
An AI Startup Acquired By Google Just Won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
inverse.com: [Excerpt] The researchers used machine learning to tackle one of biology’s biggest challenges.
In 2024, DeepMind launched AlphaFold3, an upgraded version of the AlphaFold program that not only predicts protein shapes but also identifies potential binding sites for small molecules. This advance makes it easier for researchers to design drugs that precisely target the right proteins.
Google bought Deepmind for reportedly around half a billion dollars in 2014. Google DeepMind has now started a new venture, Isomorphic Labs, to collaborate with pharmaceutical companies on real-world drug development using these AlphaFold3 predictions.
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☑️ #149 Oct 8, 2024
The United States Department of Justice is exploring the possibility of breaking up Google
U.S. and Plaintiff States v. Google LLC [2020]courtlistener.com: [Excerpt] Citation: UNITED STATES OF AMERICA v. GOOGLE LLC, 1:20-cv-03010, (D.D.C.)
Notice (Document 1052)
Similarly, Plaintiffs are considering behavioral and structural remedies that would prevent Google from using products such as Chrome, Play, and Android to advantage Google search and Google search-related products and features—including emerging search access points and features, such as artificial intelligence—over rivals or new entrants. Such consideration is faithful to the Court’s findings. As the Court recognized, Google’s longstanding control of the Chrome browser, with its preinstalled Google search default, “significantly narrows the available channels of distribution and thus disincentivizes the emergence of new competition.”
🔹Related content:
justice.gov: U.S. and Plaintiff States v. Google LLC [2020]
blog.google (update; 10/9/24): [Excerpt] DOJ’s radical and sweeping proposals risk hurting consumers, businesses, and developers.
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) today shared a broad outline of radical changes it may demand as part of its lawsuit over how we distribute Search. This is the start of a long process and we will respond in detail to the DOJ's ultimate proposals as we make our case in court next year. However, we are concerned the DOJ is already signaling requests that go far beyond the specific legal issues in this case.
This case is about a set of search distribution contracts. Rather than focus on that, the government seems to be pursuing a sweeping agenda that will impact numerous industries and products, with significant unintended consequences for consumers, businesses, and American competitiveness. The DOJ’s outline also comes at a time when competition in how people find information is blooming, with all sorts of new entrants emerging and new technologies like AI transforming the industry. Read more
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☑️ #148 Oct 8, 2024
Vodafone and Google Deepen Strategic Partnership with Ten Year, Billion+ Dollar Deal including Cloud, Cybersecurity and Devices Across Europe and Africa
vodafone.com: [Excerpts] Partnership aims to bring new generative AI (gen AI) powered devices through Google’s Gemini models to millions of Vodafone's customers across Europe and Africa.
LONDON, England – 8th October, 2024 – Vodafone and Google today announced a ten year strategic expansion of their existing partnership to bring new services, devices, and TV experiences to millions of Vodafone’s customers across Europe and Africa, supported by Google Cloud and Google’s Gemini models.
The agreement will bring storage, security, and AI assistance to Vodafone’s customers in 15 countries, as well as its partners in an additional 45 markets worldwide, while Google will use Vodafone’s fixed and mobile connectivity services to improve workforce productivity.
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☑️ #147 Oct 7, 2024
Why we’re appealing the Epic Games verdict
https://blog.google/outreach-initiatives/public-policy/epic-games-verdict-appeal/ : [Excerpt] The Epic verdict missed the obvious: Apple and Android clearly compete. We will appeal and ask the courts to pause implementing the remedies to maintain a consistent and safe experience for users and developers as the legal process moves forward.
Today, the court overseeing our ongoing U.S. legal proceedings with Epic Games ordered changes to Android and Google Play, requested by Epic. As we have already stated, these changes would put consumers’ privacy and security at risk, make it harder for developers to promote their apps, and reduce competition on devices. Ultimately, while these changes presumably satisfy Epic, they will cause a range of unintended consequences that will harm American consumers, developers and device makers.
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☑️ #146 Oct 4, 2024
Can't wait to collaborate with such a talented team
@_tim_brooks: I will be joining @GoogleDeepMind to work on video generation and world simulators! Can't wait to collaborate with such a talented team.
I had an amazing two years at OpenAI making Sora. Thank you to all the passionate and kind people I worked with. Excited for the next chapter!
⚡️
@JeffDean: Welcome!
🔹Related content:
timothybrooks.com: [Excerpt] I am a research scientist at OpenAI where I co-lead Sora, our video generation model. My research investigates large-scale generative models that simulate the physical world.
I received a PhD at Berkeley AI Research advised by Alyosha Efros, where I invented InstructPix2Pix. I previously worked on AI that powers the Pixel phone's camera at Google and on video generation models at NVIDIA. Read more
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☑️ #145 Oct 3, 2024
Dismantling Google is a terrible idea
economist.com: [Excerpt] Despite its appeal as a political rallying cry.
An order to force Google to make public some of the technology that enables its search engine to work, such as its index of web pages and search-query logs, could make it easier for rivals to try. The trial revealed that it costs an estimated $20bn to build a search engine, plus $3bn-4bn per year in annual research and development. Reducing those costs would let smaller companies compete, too.
Another reason to avoid a remedy as drastic as a breakup is that technology moves far faster than any legal system can. Add in the appeals process and any action against Google is still years away. Yet already there is emerging evidence that Google’s grip on search is slackening as generative-ai tools gain ground. A survey by Evercore, a bank, found that Chatgpt is the “go-to search engine” for 8% of Americans. Innovation dramatically weakened Microsoft’s dominance a quarter-century ago, too. The firm was swiftly left behind as mobile technology took off.
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☑️ #144 Sep 30, 2024
Filing Suit Against Google and Samsung for Illegally Colluding to Block Competition in App Distribution and Undermining the Epic v Google Jury Verdict
epicgames.com: [Excerpt]: What Epic is asking for.
We are asking the court to prohibit Samsung’s and Google’s anti-competitive and unfair conduct and mandate that Samsung eliminate the Auto Blocker by default and enable competition.
The jury’s decision was unanimous and clear; Google’s agreements with OEMs to block competition are illegal. This applies not only to Google, but to the device manufacturers that collude with them. We will take all necessary steps to ensure this decision is fully upheld.
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☑️ #143 Sep 27, 2024
Prosecution of Google
@realDonaldTrump: It has been determined that Google has illegally used a system of only revealing and displaying bad stories about Donald J. Trump, some made up for this purpose while, at the same time, only revealing good stories about Comrade Kamala Harris. This is an ILLEGAL ACTIVITY, and hopefully the Justice Department will criminally prosecute them for this blatant Interference of Elections. If not, and subject to the Laws of our Country, I will request their prosecution, at the maximum levels, when I win the Election, and become President of the United States!
Donald Trump Truth Social 01:57 PM EST 09/27/24 @realDonaldTrump
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☑️ #142 Sep 25, 2024
Google CEO Says Antitrust Trials Could Drag On for Years
U.S. and Plaintiff States v. Google LLC [2023]bloomberg.com: [Excerpt] Company faces two separate challenges from Justice Department. Pichai said Google’s appeals will delay impact to business.
Google is embroiled in two separate antitrust trials brought by the US Justice Department, which alleges the tech leader illegally dominates the digital advertising market and online search. The ads trial kicked off in court this month. In the search case, which Google lost, Judge Amit Mehta said he aims to iron out the final issues by August.
🔹Related content:
justice.gov: U.S. and Plaintiff States v. Google LLC [2023]
justice.gov (1/24/23): [Excerpt] Justice Department Sues Google for Monopolizing Digital Advertising Technologies In 2020, the Justice Department filed a civil antitrust suit against Google for monopolizing search and search advertising, which are different markets from the digital advertising technology markets at issue in the lawsuit filed today. The Google search litigation is scheduled for trial in September 2023.
The Display Ads trial: https://www.justice.gov/atr/case-document/file/1566706/dl
The Search Ads case [Joint Status Report regarding remedy proceedings]: https://www.justice.gov/atr/media/1367481/dl
For the full interview with Google CEO Sundar Pichai, watch “The David Rubenstein Show: Peer to Peer Conversations” on Wednesday October 9 on Bloomberg Television at 9 pm New York time.
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☑️ #141 Sep 18, 2024
Google AdSense for Search: The General Court annuls the Commission’s decision
curia.europa.eu (pdf): The General Court upholds the majority of the Commission’s findings but annuls the decision by which the Commission imposed a fine of almost €1.5 billion on Google, on the ground inter alia that it failed to take into consideration all the relevant circumstances in its assessment of the duration of the contract clauses that the Commission had deemed abusive.
In 2010, an initial German undertaking lodged a complaint with the German Federal Cartel Office, which was transferred to the European Commission. Between 2011 and 2017, other undertakings, including Microsoft, Expedia and Deutsche Telekom, lodged additional complaints.
In 2016, the Commission initiated proceedings relating to three clauses contained in GSAs (referred to in the judgment as ‘exclusivity clause’, ‘placement clause’ and ‘prior authorisation clause’). It indicated that those clauses could foreclose services competing with AFS. In September 2016, Google removed or amended the said clauses.
In March 2019, the Commission found that Google had committed three separate infringements constituting, together, a single and continuous infringement, from January 2006 to September 2016. It imposed a fine of € 1 494 459 000 on Google, € 130 135 475 of which jointly and severally with its parent company Alphabet.
Judgment of the General Court in Case T-334/19 | Google and Alphabet v Commission (Google AdSense for Search)
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☑️ #140 Sep 10, 2024
Google Shopping: EU court rules Google must pay €2.4bn fine
bbc.com: [Excerpt] Europe's top court has ruled Google must pay a €2.4bn (£2bn) fine handed down for abusing the market dominance of its shopping comparison service.
The tech giant had appealed against the fine, which was originally levied by the European Commission in 2017.
It was at the time the largest penalty the Commission had ever imposed - though it has since been supplanted by a €4.3bn fine, also against Google.
Google said it was "disappointed" with the ruling.
🔹Related content:
curia.europa.eu: Press Releases
The Court of Justice upholds the fine of €2.4 billion imposed on Google for
abuse of its dominant position by favouring its own comparison shopping
service (pdf)
ec.europa.eu: Remarks by Executive Vice-President Vestager following the Court of Justice rulings on the Apple tax State aid and Google Shopping antitrust cases.
Judgment of the Court in Case C-48/22 P | Google and Alphabet v Commission (Google Shopping)
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☑️ #139 Aug 31, 2024
Here’s 22 Examples of Google Employees Trying to Avoid Creating Evidence in Antitrust Case
404media.co: [Excerpt] This article was produced in collaboration with Court Watch, an independent outlet that unearths overlooked court records. To subscribe to Court Watch, click here.
In its antitrust case against Google, the Federal Government filed a list of chats it had obtained that show Google employees explicitly asking each other to turn off a chat history feature to discuss sensitive subjects, showing repeatedly that Google workers understood they should try to avoid creating a paper trail of some of their activities.
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☑️ #138 Aug 24, 2024
Alphabet, Overlooked for Too Long
@qualitystocks: Exciting News! My latest article on Alphabet $GOOGL is now live!
🔍 In the article, I delve into Alphabet's business model, its diversification strategies, and overall corporate strategy
💡 I also cover the company's AI advancements, analyze key metrics, assess potential risks and opportunities, and provide a fair value estimation.
Don't miss out!
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☑️ #137 Aug 14, 2024
US Considers a Rare Antitrust Move: Breaking Up Google
bloomberg.com: [Excerpt] Antitrust enforcers soliciting input from outside companies Judge ruled Alphabet unit monopolized online search, ads.
The move would be Washington’s first push to dismantle a company for illegal monopolization since unsuccessful efforts to break up Microsoft Corp. two decades ago. Less severe options include forcing Google to share more data with competitors and measures to prevent it from gaining an unfair advantage in AI products, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing private conversations.
🔹Related content:
Google search monopoly US case remedies to come by December (update; 9/7/24): [Excerpt] Sept 6 (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Justice plans to issue an outline by December on what Alphabet's (GOOGL.O), opens new tab Google must do to restore competition after a judge earlier found the company illegally monopolized the market for online search, prosecutors said at a court hearing in Washington on Friday.
Prosecutors did not detail what remedy they will propose, but Justice Department attorney David Dahlquist said it should be comprehensive and take into account how Google plans to integrate artificial intelligence into search
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☑️ #136 Aug 13, 2024
The new Pixel 9 phones bring you the best of Google AI
blog.google [Excerpt] Our newest phones are loaded with advanced cameras, improved performance, helpful AI capabilities and more.
🔹Related content:
blog.google: [Excerpt] Made by Google 2024.
Here’s everything we announced across Gemini and Android — plus, how we’re bringing these new capabilities to our latest Pixel devices, including the new Pixel 9 phones, Pixel 9 Pro Fold, Pixel Watch 3 and Pixel Buds Pro 2.
Gemini makes your mobile device a powerful AI assistant
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☑️ #135 Aug 13, 2024
FTC Outlines Remedy Concerns in Amicus Brief After Jury Finds Google Illegally Monopolized App Store
ftc.gov: [Excerpt] Effective relief shouldn’t allow Google to reap the rewards of illegal monopolization, the FTC’s brief says.
The Federal Trade Commission filed an amicus brief in a case brought by online video game maker Epic Games Inc. against Google LLC’s app store, which outlines how the court should consider potential remedies when determining effective relief to restore competition after Google was found liable for illegal monopolization.
🔹Related content:
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☑️ #134 Aug 8, 2024
Google likely faces behavioral remedies in search suit loss
bloomberg.com: [Excerpt] What’s at stake?
Behavioral remedies are likely, we believe, though difficult to craft. The most apparent options aren’t great: a ban on paying for default status might hurt Apple and Mozilla more than Google, though Google has modeled a $28-$33 billion loss from losing default status on iOS devices (but $26 billion in traffic acquisition costs would also decrease). Adding screens to Android devices to give users a search choice hasn’t had much impact in the EU, and forced data sharing could raise complications and privacy issues.
The Justice Department is likely to pursue a breakup of Alphabet, such as the sale of its Chrome browser, but we believe the effort would probably fail. Though the judge called Google an illegal monopolist, he also commended the company’s continued investments and innovation. He could be concerned that a structural change could upset that dynamic. Further, his apparent cautious approach, as well as adherence to an appellate court’s 2001 decision against Microsoft probably helps Alphabet. The appeals court vacated a lower court’s ruling that Microsoft should be broken up, despite agreeing with many of the findings against the software giant on liability.
The court counseled against adopting “radical” structural relief, noting that a remedy should be tailored to fit the harm, and divestitures imposed only with great caution.
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☑️ #133 Aug 5, 2024
Google is a Monopolist
platformer.news: [Excerpt] Google has a search monopoly, judge rules.
Europe never found a remedy that increased search competition. Will the United States fare any better?
Almost four years after the case was originally filed, and three months after both sides presented their closing arguments, the Department of Justice succeeded in making its case that Google illegally exploited its monopoly in search to eliminate competitors and smother innovation. In a 277-page ruling, Judge Amit P. Mehta found that the massive payments that Google makes to Apple, Mozilla, and other companies to be the default search engine on their devices and browsers represents an unfair restriction on competition.
🔹Related content:
justice.gov/opa: [Excerpt] Justice Department Statements on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia's Decision in U.S. v Google.
The Justice Department issued the following statements from Attorney General Merrick B. Garland and Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division, regarding the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia’s decision in United States v. Google:
“This victory against Google is an historic win for the American people,” said Attorney General Garland. “No company — no matter how large or influential — is above the law. The Justice Department will continue to vigorously enforce our antitrust laws.”
“This landmark decision holds Google accountable. It paves the path for innovation for generations to come and protects access to information for all Americans,” said Assistant Attorney General Kanter. “This victory is a reflection on the tireless efforts of the dedicated public servants at the Antitrust Division and our state law enforcement partners whose work made today’s decision possible.”
justice.gov/atr: [Excerpt] U.S. and Plaintiff States v. Google LLC [2020] The U.S. filed suit to stop Google from protecting its search and advertising monopolies through a series of exclusionary agreements designed to lock up the primary avenues through which users access search engines. Trial began on September 12, 2023. Trial exhibits and documents are available on the case page.
Source: Antitrust Division - U.S. Department of Justice
sherwood.news: [Excerpt] Antitrust expert: here’s what’s going to happen to Google next. You can read the full ruling here, but the main finding from US District Judge Amit Mehta’s ruling Monday was, “Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly,”.
@BenRemaly: JUDGE MEHTA FINDS GOOGLE VIOLATED SECTION 2 OF THE SHERMAN ACT MY MAINTAINING ITS MONOPOLY OVER GENERAL SEARCH.
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☑️ #132 Jul 23, 2024
Waymo: $5B
@TechTekedra: Alphabet has committed up to $5B to @Waymo. We are grateful for their immense vote of confidence in our team and recognizing the amazing progress we’ve made with our technology, product, and commercialization efforts.
💲 EARNINGS ANNOUNCEMENT: Jul 23, 2024
Alphabet Announces Second Quarter 2024 Results (pdf)
⇢ Some reactions(Before and After):
☑️ #131 Jul 22, 2024
Fast, accurate climate modeling with NeuralGCM
research.google: [Excerpt] Today we report on NeuralGCM, a model that can rapidly, efficiently, and accurately simulate Earth’s atmosphere.
NeuralGCM currently models just Earth’s atmosphere. We hope to eventually include other aspects of Earth’s climate system, such as oceans and the carbon cycle, into the model. By doing so, we’ll allow NeuralGCM to make predictions on longer timescales, going beyond predicting weather over days and weeks to making forecasts on climate timescales.
NeuralGCM presents a new approach to building climate models that could be faster, less computationally costly, and more accurate than existing models.
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☑️ #130 Jul 18, 2024
Introducing the Coalition for Secure AI (CoSAI) and founding member organizations
blog.google: [Excerpt] The new industry forum will invest in AI security and leverage Google's Secure AI Framework. Here are the first 3 areas of focus.
Today at the Aspen Security Forum, alongside our industry peers, we’re introducing the Coalition for Secure AI (CoSAI). We’ve been working to pull this coalition together over the past year, in order to advance comprehensive security measures for addressing the unique risks that come with AI, for both issues that arise in real time and those over the horizon.
CoSAI includes founding members Amazon, Anthropic, Chainguard, Cisco, Cohere, GenLab, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, NVIDIA, OpenAI, Paypal and Wiz — and it will be housed under OASIS Open, the international standards and open source consortium.
🔹Related content:
coalitionforsecureai.org: [Excerpt] Making AI Systems Secure for All. The Coalition for Secure AI (CoSAI) is an open ecosystem of AI and security experts from industry leading organizations dedicated to sharing best practices for secure AI deployment and collaborating on AI security research and product development.
oasis-open.org (7/18/23): Introducing the Coalition for Secure AI, an OASIS Open Project.
Source: OASIS Opeb (“OASIS Open”)
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☑️ #129 Jul 16, 2024
Navigating the EU AI Act: Google Cloud's proactive approach
cloud.google.com: [Excerpt] Governance of AI has reached a critical milestone in the European Union: The AI Act has been published in the EU’s Official Journal, and will enter into force on August 1. The AI Act is a legal framework that establishes obligations for AI systems based on their potential risks and levels of impact. It will phase in over the next 36 months and include bans on certain practices, general-purpose AI rules, and obligations for high-risk systems. Critically, the Act’s yet-to-be-developed AI Code of Practice will establish compliance requirements for a subset of general purpose AI.
At Google, we believe in the opportunity AI can bring to society and we recognize the importance of mitigating risks. Today we’re summarizing:
How we currently support our AI customers
How we’re preparing for compliance with this new law, and,
What customers can do to prepare
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☑️ #128 Jul 14, 2024 🔴 rumor
Google Near $23 Billion Deal for Cybersecurity Startup Wiz
wsj.com: [Excerpt] Deal would be tech giant’s largest acquisition ever.
A Wiz acquisition would dwarf the size of Google’s largest deal to date, its $12.5 billion purchase of Motorola Mobility that closed in 2012. Google also spent $2.1 billion on Fitbit in 2021—a deal that hit regulatory hurdles after it was announced—and $3.2 billion on Nest Labs in 2014. Other acquisitions over the years have included YouTube, DoubleClick, Looker and Waze.
🔹Related content:
@StockMKNewz: This would be the largest acquisition in Google's $GOOGL histor
Wiz is the #1 Cloud Security Company on the 2023 Forbes Cloud 100 (8/23/23): [Excerpt] Wiz is the #1 cloud security company on the list and one of the biggest movers from last year, alongside OpenAI. What an honor!
Thank you 💙
We’re almost speechless. Almost. But I can’t end this post without an expression of gratitude. We owe this amazing milestone to many individuals who help us on our journey: Wiz customers, partners, and as always, our most excellent Wizards, without whom nothing is possible. And so, in closing, I want to underscore our heartfelt appreciation to all Wiz supporters and the extended team. You enable us to make magic. Thank you.
Source: Wiz, Inc.
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☑️ #127 Jul 11, 2024
Quantinuum Launches Industry-First, Trapped-Ion 56-Qubit Quantum Computer, Breaking Key Benchmark Record
Quantum Supremacy: The 56-qubit H2-1 computer has broken the previous record set by Google’s Sycamore computer in 2019.quantinuum.com: [Excerpt] Quantinuum and JPMorgan Chase achieved a 100x improvement over the existing industry benchmark using Quantinuum’s H2-1 quantum computer.
“The fidelity achieved in our random circuit sampling experiment shows unprecedented system-level performance of the Quantinuum quantum computer. We are excited to leverage this high fidelity to advance the field of quantum algorithms for industrial use cases broadly, and financial use cases in particular,”
Marco Pistoia, Head of Global Technology Applied Research at JPMorgan Chase.
🔹Related content:
blog.research.google (10/23/19): [Excerpts] Quantum Supremacy Using a Programmable Superconducting Processor.
Physicists have been talking about the power of quantum computing for over 30 years, but the questions have always been: will it ever do something useful and is it worth investing in? For such large-scale endeavors it is good engineering practice to formulate decisive short-term goals that demonstrate whether the designs are going in the right direction. So, we devised an experiment as an important milestone to help answer these questions. This experiment, referred to as a quantum supremacy experiment, provided direction for our team to overcome the many technical challenges inherent in quantum systems engineering to make a computer that is both programmable and powerful. To test the total system performance we selected a sensitive computational benchmark that fails if just a single component of the computer is not good enough.
Today we published the results of this quantum supremacy experiment in the Nature article, “Quantum Supremacy Using a Programmable Superconducting Processor”. We developed a new 54-qubit processor, named “Sycamore”, that is comprised of fast, high-fidelity quantum logic gates, in order to perform the benchmark testing. Our machine performed the target computation in 200 seconds, and from measurements in our experiment we determined that it would take the world’s fastest supercomputer 10,000 years to produce a similar output.
nature.com (10/23/19): [Abstract] Quantum supremacy using a programmable superconducting processor.
The promise of quantum computers is that certain computational tasks might be executed exponentially faster on a quantum processor than on a classical processor. A fundamental challenge is to build a high-fidelity processor capable of running quantum algorithms in an exponentially large computational space. Here we report the use of a processor with programmable superconducting qubits to create quantum states on 53 qubits, corresponding to a computational state-space of dimension 253(about 1016). Measurements from repeated experiments sample the resulting probability distribution, which we verify using classical simulations. Our Sycamore processor takes about 200 seconds to sample one instance of a quantum circuit a million times—our benchmarks currently indicate that the equivalent task for a state-of-the-art classical supercomputer would take approximately 10,000 years. This dramatic increase in speed compared to all known classical algorithms is an experimental realization of quantum supremacy for this specific computational task, heralding a much-anticipated computing paradigm.
a, Layout of processor, showing a rectangular array of 54 qubits (grey), each connected to its four nearest neighbours with couplers (blue). The inoperable qubit is outlined. b, Photograph of the Sycamore chip. Source: Nature (Nature) ISSN 1476-4687 (online)
Hands-On with Google’s Quantum Computer [Excerpt] Google’s quantum computing chip, dubbed Sycamore, achieved its results using exactly 53 qubits. A 54th one on the chip failed. Sycamore’s aim was to randomly produce strings of 1’s and 0’s, one digit for each qubit, producing 253 bit strings (that is, some 9.700199254740992 quadrillion bit strings).Because of the way the qubits interact with one another, some strings are more likely to emerge than others. Sycamore ran the number generator a million times, then sampled the results to come up with the probability that any given string would appear. The Google team also ran a simpler version of the test on Summit, a supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, then extrapolated from those results to verify Sycamore’s output. The new chip performed the task in 200 seconds. The same chore, the researchers estimated, would have taken Summit 10,000 years.
Leveraging Secondary Storage to Simulate Deep 54-qubit Sycamore Circuits [Abstract] In a recent paper, we showed that secondary storage can extend the range of quantum circuits that can be practically simulated with classical algorithms. Here we refine those techniques and apply them to the simulation of Sycamore circuits with 53 and 54 qubits, with the entanglement pattern ABCDCDAB that has proven difficult to classically simulate with other approaches. Our analysis shows that on the Summit supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratories, such circuits can be simulated with high fidelity to arbitrary depth in a matter of days, outputting all the amplitudes.
Quantum supremacy VS "quantum advantage" “Because the original meaning of the term ‘quantum supremacy,’ as proposed by [California Institute of Technology theoretical physicist] John Preskill in 2012, was to describe the point where quantum computers can do things that classical computers can’t, this threshold has not been met,” the scientists wrote in a post on the IBM Research Blog. Perhaps, then, Google’s achievement might be better labeled “quantum advantage.”
Scott Aaronson: Quantum supremacy: the gloves are off & Scott’s Supreme Quantum Supremacy FAQ!
Q1. What is quantum computational supremacy?
Often abbreviated to just “quantum supremacy,” the term refers to the use of a quantum computer to solve some well-defined set of problems that would take orders of magnitude longer to solve with any currently known algorithms running on existing classical computers—and not for incidental reasons, but for reasons of asymptotic quantum complexity. The emphasis here is on being as sure as possible that the problem really was solved quantumly and really is classically intractable, and ideally achieving the speedup soon (with the noisy, non-universal QCs of the present or very near future). If the problem is also useful for something, then so much the better, but that’s not at all necessary. The Wright Flyer and the Fermi pile weren’t useful in themselves.
Q6. If quantum supremacy calculations just involve sampling from probability distributions, how do you check that they were done correctly?
Glad you asked! This is the subject of a fair amount of theory that I and others developed over the last decade. I already gave you the short version in my answer to Q3: you check by doing statistics on the samples that the QC returned, to verify that they’re preferentially clustered in the “peaks” of the chaotic probability distribution DC. One convenient way of doing this, which Google calls the “linear cross-entropy test,” is simply to sum up Pr[C outputs si] over all the samples s1,…,sk that the QC returned, and then to declare the test a “success” if and only if the sum exceeds some threshold—say, bk/2n, for some constant b strictly between 1 and 2.
Admittedly, in order to apply this test, you need to calculate the probabilities Pr[C outputs si] on your classical computer—and the only known ways to calculate them require brute force and take ~2n time. Is that a showstopper? No, not if n is 50, and you’re Google and are able to handle numbers like 250 (although not 21000, which exceeds a googol, har har). By running a huge cluster of classical cores for (say) a month, you can eventually verify the outputs that your QC produced in a few seconds—while also seeing that the QC was many orders of magnitude faster. However, this does mean that sampling-based quantum supremacy experiments are almost specifically designed for ~50-qubit devices like the ones being built right now. Even with 100 qubits, we wouldn’t know how to verify the results using all the classical computing power available on earth.
(Let me stress that this issue is specific to sampling experiments like the ones that are currently being done. If Shor’s algorithm factored a 2000-digit number, it would be easy to check the result by simply multiplying the claimed factors and running a primality test on them. Likewise, if a QC were used to simulate some complicated biomolecule, you could check its results by comparing them to experiment.)
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☑️ #126 Jul 6, 2024
@glenngabe: More on AI overviews: "If Google loses the case (DOJ antitrust trial), it could lose access to the roughly 70% of searches done on iPhones, which account for about half the smartphones in the U.S. That could severely hurt its share of mobile search..."
theinformation.com/articles/google-struggles-to-lessen-reliance-on-apple-safari
🔹Related content:
usvgoogleads.com: [Excerpt] The antitrust trial of the United States v. Google, LLC. Google is accused of illegally monopolizing the digital advertising industry where they hold a mob-like control over who gets to earn revenue from ads, often depriving real journalism while allowing disinformation to profit
Screenshot. Source: https://www.usvgoogleads.com
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☑️ #125 Jul 6, 2024
@Beth_Kindig: Alphabet $GOOG excels in M&A, acquiring Maps, Android, YouTube and DoubleClick for less than $4.9B combined. The four are estimated to have contributed more than $480B to Alphabet’s market cap, a ridiculous 10,000% return. $AAPL $PYPL $META $EBAY $BKNG $DIS
🔹Related content:
abc.xyz: [Excerpt] Founders' IPO Letter.
If opportunities arise that might cause us to sacrifice short term results but are in the best long term interest of our shareholders, we will take those opportunities. We will have the fortitude to do this. We would request that our shareholders take the long term view.
wikipedia.org: List of mergers and acquisitions by Alphabet
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☑️ #124 Jul 3, 2024
Google: AI Potentially Breaking Reality Is a Feature Not a Bug
404media.co: [Excerpt] “While these uses of GenAI are often neither overtly malicious nor explicitly violate these tools’ content policies or terms of services, their potential for harm is significant.”
Much like another Google research paper about the dangers of generative AI I covered recently, Google’s methodology here likely undercounts instances of AI-generated harm. But the most interesting observation in the paper is that the vast majority of these harms and how they “undermine public trust,” as the researchers say, are often “neither overtly malicious nor explicitly violate these tools’ content policies or terms of service.” In other words, that type of content is a feature, not a bug.
🔹Related content:
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☑️ #123 Jun 26, 2024
CME Group and Google Cloud Announce New Chicago Area Private Cloud Region and Co-location Facility for CME Group's Markets
investor.cmegroup.com: [Excerpt] Key milestone paves the way for CME Group to migrate to Google Cloud's industry-first specialized platform for capital markets.
The new specialized platform will enable a number of benefits for CME Group's clients, including expanded flexibility, strengthened operational efficiencies, and increased access to cloud services, and artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities, all of which will deepen the value proposition for market users around the globe. For example, CME Group clients will be enabled to rapidly experiment, test, and deploy new strategies without impacting their production trading environments.
🔹Related content:
Leveraging cloud, data and AI to drive business transformation at CME Group (update; 7/1/24)
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☑️ #122 Jun 13, 2024
Is AI Search a Medical Misinformation Disaster?
spectrum.ieee.org: Google’s AI Overviews search tool may not be following the best policies.
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☑️ #121 June 11, 2024
Oracle and Google Cloud Announce a Groundbreaking Multicloud Partnership
oracle.com: [Excerpt] Google Cloud will offer Oracle Cloud Infrastructure database services and high-speed network interconnect with Oracle. Partnership helps customers simplify cloud migration, multicloud deployment, and management.
Oracle Interconnect for Google Cloud will be initially available for customer onboarding in 11 global regions, allowing customers to deploy general purpose workloads with no cross-cloud data transfer charges. Later this year, a new offering, Oracle Database@Google Cloud, will be available with the highest level of Oracle Database and network performance, along with feature and pricing parity with OCI.
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☑️ #120 Jun 11, 2024
Google partners with Nevada utility for geothermal to power data centers
reuters.com: [Excerpt] Duke Energy, which operates in regulated states, announced a similar agreement with Google, as well as Microsoft and Amazon, late last month.
To facilitate the deal, NV Energy executed a power purchase agreement with advanced geothermal developer Fervo Energy, which is currently supplying Google with 3.5 megawatts of power after entering into a pilot program with the technology company in 2021.
🔹Related content:
blog.google: How we're working with utilities to create a new model for clean energy.
ecms.nv.gov (pdf): Joint Application of Sierra Pacific Power Company d/b/a NV Energy and Callisto Enterprises, LLC for Approval of an Energy Supply Agreement.
NV Energy (brkenergy.com)
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☑️ #119 Jun 11, 2024
Google’s AI search setback
platformer.news: [Excerpt] The AI Overviews debacle and leaked search ranking documents tell a common story about the web's future — and it's not pretty.
But even then, Foster’s criticism will still stand: those “overviews” really are just slightly reworded versions of journalists’ copy, designed to give people ever fewer reasons to step outside Google’s walled garden. This is what I mean when I say that the web has entered a state of managed decline: one company has outsized influence over when and how people visit any websites at all, and it has told us it plans to gradually ratchet those visits down by continuing to answer more questions on the search engine results page.
🔹Related content:
An Anonymous Source Shared Thousands of Leaked Google Search API Documents with Me; Everyone in SEO Should See Them (5/27/24): [Excerpt] Big Picture Takeaways for Marketers who Care About Organic Search Traffic.
If you care strategically about the value of organic search traffic, but don’t have much use for the technical details of how Google works, this section’s for you. It’s my attempt to sum up much of Google’s evolution from the period this leak covers: 2005 – 2023, and I won’t limit myself exclusively to confirmed elements of the leak.
Brand matters more than anything else
Google has numerous ways to identify entities, sort, rank, filter, and employ them. Entities include brands (brand names, their official websites, associated social accounts, etc.), and as we’ve seen in our clickstream research with Datos, they’ve been on an inexorable path toward exclusively ranking and sending traffic to big, powerful brands that dominate the web > small, independent sites and businesses.
If there was one universal piece of advice I had for marketers seeking to broadly improve their organic search rankings and traffic, it would be: “Build a notable, popular, well-recognized brand in your space, outside of Google search.”
Experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (“E-E-A-T”) might not matter as directly as some SEOs think.
The only mention of topical expertise in the leak we’ve found so far is a brief notation about Google Maps review contributions. The other aspects of E-E-A-T are either buried, indirect, labeled in hard-to-identify ways, or, more likely (in my opinion) correlated with things Google uses and cares about, but not specific elements of the ranking systems.
As Mike noted in his article, there is documentation in the leak suggesting Google can identify authors and treats them as entities in the system. Building up one’s influence as an author online may indeed lead to ranking benefits in Google. But what exactly in the ranking systems makes up “E-E-A-T” and how powerful those elements are is an open question. I’m a bit worried that E-E-A-T is 80% propaganda, 20% substance. There are plenty of powerful brands that rank remarkably well in Google and have very little experience, expertise, authoritativeness, or trustworthiness, as HouseFresh’s recent, viral articledetails in depth.
Content and links are secondary when user intention around navigation (and the patterns that intent creates) are present.
Let’s say, for example, that many people in the Seattle area search for “Lehman Brothers” and scroll to page 2, 3, or 4 of the search results until they find the theatre listing for the Lehman Brother stage production, then click that result. Fairly quickly, Google will learn that’s what searchers for those words in that area want.
Even if the Wikipedia article about Lehman Brothers’ role in the financial crisis of 2008 were to invest heavily in link building and content optimization, it’s unlikely they could outrank the user-intent signals (calculated from queries and clicks) of Seattle’s theatre-goers.
Extending this example to the broader web and search as a whole, if you can create demand for your website among enough likely searchers in the regions you’re targeting, you may be able to end-around the need for classic on-and-off-page SEO signals like links, anchor text, optimized content, and the like. The power of Navboost and the intent of users is likely the most powerful ranking factor in Google’s systems. As Google VP Alexander Grushetsky put it in a 2019 email to other Google execs(including Danny Sullivan and Pandu Nayak):“We already know, one signal could be more powerful than the whole big system on a given metric. For example, I’m pretty sure that NavBoost alone was / is more positive on clicks (and likely even on precision / utility metrics) by itself than the rest of ranking (BTW, engineers outside of Navboost team used to be also not happy about the power of Navboost, and the fact it was “stealing wins”)“
Those seeking even more confirmation could review Google engineer Paul Haahr’s detailed resume, which states:
“I’m the manager for logs-based ranking projects. The team’s efforts are currently split among four areas: 1) Navboost. This is already one of Google’s strongest ranking signals. Current work is on automation in building new navboost data;”
Classic ranking factors: PageRank, anchors (topical PageRank based on the anchor text of the link), and text-matching have been waning in importance for years. But Page Titles are still quite important.
This is a finding from Mike’s excellent analysis that I’d be foolish not to call out here. PageRank still appears to have a place in search indexing and rankings, but it’s almost certainly evolved from the original 1998 paper. The document leak insinuates multiple versions of PageRank (rawPagerank, a deprecated PageRank referencing “nearest seeds,”firstCoveragePageRank from when the document was first served, etc.) have been created and discarded over the years. And anchor text links, while present in the leak, don’t seem to be as crucial or omnipresent as I’d have expected from my earlier years in SEO.
For most small and medium businesses and newer creators/publishers, SEO is likely to show poor returns until you’ve established credibility, navigational demand, and a strong reputation among a sizable audience.
SEO is a big brand, popular domain’s game. As an entrepreneur, I’m not ignoring SEO, but I strongly expect that for the years ahead, until/unless SparkToro becomes a much larger, more popular, more searched-for and clicked-on brand in its industry, this website will continue to be outranked, even for its original content, by aggregators and publishers who’ve existed for 10+ years.
This is almost certainly true for other creators, publishers, and SMBs. The content you create is unlikely to perform well in Google if competition from big, popular websites with well-known brands exists. Google no longer rewards scrappy, clever, SEO-savvy operators who know all the right tricks. They reward established brands, search-measurable forms of popularity, and established domains that searchers already know and click. From 1998 – 2018 (or so), one could reasonable start a powerful marketing flywheel with SEO for Google. In 2024, I don’t think that’s realistic, at least, not on the English-language web in competitive sectors.
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☑️ #118 Jun 11, 2024
Duke Energy wants to help Big Tech buy the 24/7 clean energy it needs
canarymedia.com: [Excerpt] The utility’s new proposal would let large corporate customers fund novel technologies like long-duration storage and advanced nuclear as they try to decarbonize.
Amazon, Google, and Microsoft — all of which have goals to power their operations with clean electricity — have acknowledged that simply buying wind and solar credits isn’t enough. To authentically decarbonize their operations, they need to source enough clean energy to make it through every day and night. This principle applies to society at large: The grid won’t be rid of fossil fuels until it can get reliable, clean electricity at any time of day. The trick is figuring out how to do that in today’s electricity system.
Now mega-utility Duke Energy wants to make it happen. The power provider, which serves 8.4 million customers in the Carolinas and four other states, worked with those tech giants on a novel plan to let large corporate energy consumers purchase higher levels of clean energy than previously available, all the way up to the fabled 24/7 coverage.
🔹Related content:
investors.duke-energy.com (5/29/24): [Excerpt] Responding to growing demand, Duke Energy, Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Nucor execute agreements to accelerate clean energy options.
The proposed Accelerating Clean Energy (ACE) tariffs would enable large customers like Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Nucor to directly support carbon-free energy generation investments through innovative financing structures and contributions that address project risk to lower costs of emerging technologies. ACE tariffs would facilitate beneficial on-site generation at customer facilities, participation in load flexibility programs and investments in clean energy assets – features attractive to customers with large-scale energy needs.
The ACE framework also would include a Clean Transition Tariff (CTT) – the key feature enabling Duke Energy to provide individualized portfolios of new carbon-free energy to commercial and industrial customers. The CTT would match clean-energy generation and customer load to accelerate overall grid decarbonization. This would be a voluntary program for larger customers seeking to advance their clean energy goals, and it would include protections for non-participating customers.
Emerging Clean Energy Technology
Advanced nuclear: [Excerpt] In the U.S., dozens of companies are in various phases of developing small modular reactor and advanced reactor technologies. These technologies are expected to be available later this decade.
Small modular reactors are cooled by water like traditional nuclear reactors. Advanced reactors are cooled by molten salt, helium gas or liquid metal. Some advanced reactors also provide thermal storage that saves energy to be used when customers need it most.
Small modular reactors are one of the most promising emerging technologies capable of producing 50-300 megawatts of carbon-free energy and offering many safety, environmental and economic benefits. Advanced reactors also show promise, but they currently have more timeline uncertainty due to differences in regulatory requirements, technology maturity and fuel availability.
Duke Energy plans to build advanced nuclear technologies in the 2030s and beyond to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. Nuclear power is the only carbon-free energy source that is always on and available 24 hours a day while also complementing renewables like solar and wind power.
Natrium Reactor and Energy Storage System by TerraPower
@TerraPowerLLC: The Natrium reactor is a 345-megawatt advanced nuclear reactor coupled with a grid-scale energy storage system. It provides carbon-free energy and seamlessly integrates into power networks with high levels of renewables. The Natrium technology offers enhanced safety features, minimizes waste production, uses fuel more efficiently and lowers costs with a streamlined design.
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☑️ #117 Jun 6, 2024
A soon-to-be-dividend-paying-large-cap stock
Quality Value Investing: Quality Value Investing Research Report | $GOOGL Updated Coverage | June 2024.
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☑️ #116 May 14, 2024
Google I/O
io.google/2024 > Google Keynote (Google I/O ‘24)
What’s new in Google AI? > May 16 at 8 AM PT
Source: Google
UBS Note (via X): All I want for I/O is the iPhone
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☑️ #116 May 14, 2024 🟠 opinion
Why ChatGPT feels more “intelligent” than Google Search
freethink.com: [Excerpt] We will believe in AGI when it calls on Facetime.
First, Google Search clearly derives its answers from human sources, i.e., webpages. That doesn’t count as “knowing,” we chortle, even if the algorithms behind finding and delivering relevant results are fantastically sophisticated.
And second, even if it did “know things,” intelligence is about spotting patterns in what we know, drawing inferences and acting on them, not just “recalling” something.
I’ll come back to reasoning and taking actions in the world, but there is a final, crucial reason why no one considers the search bar to be intelligent — a reason that matters just as much, if not more, to our growing sense of language models being entities, rivals even, true AIs, and not just handy tools.
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☑️ #115 May 14, 2024
Share of U.S. TV-viewing time
@WSJ: In the competition for TV time in the U.S., YouTube is ascendant
https://www.wsj.com/business/media/youtube-viewership-cable-25bf3589
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☑️ #114 May 3-10, 2024
Google Cloud accidentally deleted a UniSuper's (one of Australia's largest superannuation funds) entire cloud environment
Via @UniSuperNews (5/6/24)
⚡️
@UniSuperNews: Regarding what caused the technology outage, many members have rightly asked what exactly happened. Google Cloud continues to investigate and gather information on the nature of this incident which caused an outage to our systems.
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@UniSuperNews: Let me stress that Google Cloud has provided clear assurance that this was not the result of a malicious act or cyber-attack, and UniSuper data has not been exposed to unauthorised parties because of this issue.
⚡️
@UniSuperNews: While a full root cause analysis is ongoing, Google Cloud has confirmed this is an isolated one-of-a-kind issue that has not previously arisen elsewhere. Google Cloud has confirmed that they are taking measures to ensure this issue does not happen again.
🔹Related content:
UniSuper services update [Excerpts]
A Statement from Google Cloud (7 May 2024):
"The disruption of UniSuper services was caused by a combination of rare issues at Google Cloud that resulted in an inadvertent misconfiguration during the provisioning of UniSuper’s Private Cloud, which triggered a previously unknown software bug that impacted UniSuper’s systems This was an unprecedented occurrence, and measures have been taken to ensure this issue does not happen again.
Google Cloud sincerely apologises for the inconvenience this has caused, and we continue to work around the clock with UniSuper to fully remediate the situation, with the goal of progressively restoring services as soon as possible. We would like to stress again that this was an isolated incident and not the result of a malicious behaviour or cyber-attack, and that no UniSuper data has been exposed to unauthorised parties."
A joint statement from UniSuper CEO Peter Chun, and Google Cloud CEO, Thomas Kurian (8 May 2024)
UniSuper and Google Cloud understand the disruption to services experienced by members has been extremely frustrating and disappointing. We extend our sincere apologies to all members.
While supporting UniSuper to bring its systems back online, Google Cloud has been conducting a root cause analysis.
Google Cloud CEO, Thomas Kurian has confirmed that the disruption arose from an unprecedented sequence of events whereby an inadvertent misconfiguration during provisioning of UniSuper’s Private Cloud services ultimately resulted in the deletion of UniSuper’s Private Cloud subscription.
This is an isolated, ‘one-of-a-kind occurrence’ that has never before occurred with any of Google Cloud’s clients globally. This should not have happened. Google Cloud has identified the events that led to this disruption and taken measures to ensure this does not happen again.
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☑️ #113 May 2, 2024
Google Cloud leveraging Nvidia could bring $2 billion sales bump
bloomberg.com: [Transcription] [Excerpt] Google Cloud could see a sales boost of at least $2 billion from training and inferencing generative-AI workloads in 2025, helping drive a faster-than-expected acceleration in profitability. The company appears well positioned to leverage a higher portion of its Nvidia processing-unit allocation for its enterprise customers vs. other hyperscalers such as Meta and Amazon.com.
Google Cloud could get sales boost of 400-500 Bps
Though Alphabet has half the allocation of Nvidia’s graphics processing units (GPUs) vs. hyperscalers including Meta and Microsoft, its internal use of GPU compute for training and inferencing workloads is far lower, based on our calculation. Google Cloud is already at an annual sales run rate of $35 billion, with AI workloads poised to contribute at least 400-500 bps in growth for the segment in 2025, excluding potential revenue contribution from Duet AI copilot and Gemini licensing and subscriptions.
💲 EARNINGS ANNOUNCEMENT: Apr 25, 2024
Alphabet Announces First Quarter 2024 Results (pdf)
☑️ #112 Apr 16, 2024
Google Cloud launches new generative AI, cybersecurity, and data analytics trainings with employer partner the U.S. Department of the Treasury
cloud.google.com: [Transcription] [Excerpt]
"We are partnering with Google to provide the new Cloud Certificates training for our current and future employees to accelerate their careers in cybersecurity and data analytics,"
US Treasury Chief AI Officer Todd Conklin
🔹Related content:
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☑️ #111 Apr 9, 2024
Google Expands In-House Chip Efforts in Costly AI Battle
wsj.com: [Transcription] [Excerpt] Tech giant develops new chips to cut reliance on outside vendors as the AI arms race intensifies.
Google is making more of its own semiconductors, preparing a new chip that can handle everything from YouTube advertising to big data analysis as the company tries to combat rising artificial-intelligence costs.
The new chip, called Axion, is a type of chip commonly used in big data centers. It adds to Google’s efforts stretching back more than a decade to develop new computing resources, beginning with specialized chips used for AI work. Google has leaned into that strategy since the late 2022 release of ChatGPT kicked off an arms race that has threatened its dominant position as a gateway to the internet.
🔹Related content:
Google Research > Amin Vahdat, VP, Systems and Infrastructure at Google, told WSJ that this should be seen as a "basis for growing the size of the pie" rather than a competition.
Introducing Google Axion Processors, our new Arm-based CPUs (4/9/24): [Transcription] [Excerpt] Axion is but the latest in a long line of custom Google silicon. Since 2015 we’ve released five generations of Tensor Processing Units (TPU); in 2018 we released our first Video Coding Unit (VCU), achieving up to 33x more efficiency for video transcoding; in 2021, we doubled-down on custom compute by investing in “system on a chip” (SoC) designs, and released the first of three generations of Tensor chips for mobile devices.
Source: Google LLC
The chip is based on Arm Holdings plc's system of circuits.
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☑️ #110 Mar 25, 2024
Non-compliance investigations against Alphabet under the Digital Markets Act
@vestager: Today we open 1st #investigations under the #DMA. We are concerned #Alphabet, @Apple & @Meta are not meeting their obligations e.g:
#Apple & #Alphabet still charge recurring fees to #app #developers
#Meta offers no real choice for users to opt out of #data combination
🔹Related content:
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☑️ #109 Mar 14, 2024
Our work to build a more sustainable future in Arizona
blog.google: [Transcription] [Excerpt] A new agreement brings wind and solar energy to the local electricity grid. Plus, we’re supporting local programs to plant trees and increase education opportunities.
As we work to responsibly grow our infrastructure to meet the increasing demand for Google products and services, sustainability is top of mind. Last year, construction started for our first Arizona data center in Mesa, which will use air-cooled technology in line with our climate-conscious approach to minimize net environmental impact across water and energy resources. Today, we’re announcing an energy supply agreement with Salt River Project (SRP) to support more than 430 megawatts of new-to-the-grid, carbon-free energy capacity in the state. Our current projections indicate the agreement will help our operations in Arizona reach at least 80% carbon-free energy (CFE) on an hourly basis by 2026.
🔹Related content:
Google builds data center in Mesa (9/6/23): Representatives from Google say the center will use no water to cool its equipment, opting to 'air-cool' instead.
Google opening new data center in Mesa (10/11/23): All right, Apple, Meta, all opening giant digital data centers right here in the valley…
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☑️ #108 Mar 1, 2024
Inside the Crisis at Google
Big Technology: Culture war narratives give Google's organizational coherence a bit too much credit. There's more to the story.
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☑️ #107 Feb 28, 2024
Ad Tech Claim
adtechclaim.eu: [Transcription] [Excerpt] February 2024 Case
A coalition of more than 30 European media organisations from 17 countries has filed a legal action against Google, seeking damages of more than EUR 2 billion. On this page, we will share any public updates on the case.
🔹Related content:
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☑️ #106 Feb 28, 2024
I want to address the recent issues with problematic text and image responses in the Gemini app (formerly Bard).
@PiratesWires: The first internal comms on Gemini from Sundar
From: Sundar Pichai
To: Google
"Hi everyone
I want to address the recent issues with problematic text and image responses in the Gemini app (formerly Bard). I know that some of its responses have offended our users and shown bias — to be clear, that's completely unacceptable and we got it wrong.
Our teams have been working around the clock to address these issues. We're already seeing a substantial improvement on a wide range of prompts. No Al is perfect, especially at this emerging stage of the industry's development, but we know the bar is high for us and we will keep at it for however long it takes. And we'll review what happened and make sure we fix it at scale.
Our mission to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful is sacrosanct. We've always sought to give users helpful, accurate, and unbiased information in our products. That's why people trust them. This has to be our approach for all our products, including our emerging Al products.
We'll be driving a clear set of actions, including structural changes, updated product guidelines, improved launch processes, robust evals and red-teaming, and technical recommendations. We are looking across all of this and will make the necessary changes.
Even as we learn from what went wrong here, we should also build on the product and technical announcements we've made in Al over the last several weeks. That includes some foundational advances in our underlying models e.g. our 1 million long-context window breakthrough and our open models, both of which have been well received.
We know what it takes to create great products that are used and beloved by billions of people and businesses, and with our infrastructure and research expertise we have an incredible springboard for the Al wave. Let's focus on what matters most: building helpful products that are deserving of our users' trust.
-Sundar"
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☑️ #105 Feb 25, 2024
Google's First Tensor Processing Unit : Origins
The Chip Letter: Why and how did Google build the first AI accelerator deployed at scale?
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☑️ #104 Feb 1, 2024
Bard’s latest updates: Access Gemini Pro globally and generate images
blog.google: [Transcription] [Excerpts] Last December, we brought Gemini Pro into Bard in English, giving Bard more advanced understanding, reasoning, summarizing and coding abilities. Today Gemini Pro in Bard will be available in over 40 languages and more than 230 countries and territories, so more people can collaborate with this faster, more capable version of Bard.
The Large Model Systems Organization, a leading evaluator of language models and chatbots across languages, recently shared that Bard with Gemini Pro is one of the most preferred chatbots available (with or without cost), noting that it has made a “stunning leap” forward. And blind evaluations with our third-party raters identified Bard with Gemini Pro as one of the top-performing conversational AIs, compared to leading free and paid alternatives.
📌 Notes
⇢ Why Google stores billions of lines of code in a single repository (archive)
Google’s monolithic repository provides a common source of truth for tens of thousands of developers around the world. (pdf) - July 2016
☑️ #103 Feb 1, 2024
Can This A.I.-Powered Search Engine Replace Google? It Has for Me.
nytimes.com: [Transcription] [Excerpts] A start-up called Perplexity shows what’s possible for a search engine built from scratch with artificial intelligence.
A win for users, a loss for publishers
Even though I enjoyed using Perplexity, and I’m likely to keep using it in tandem with Google, I’ll admit that I got a gnawing feeling in my stomach after seeing it spit out pristine, concise summaries of news stories, product reviews and how-to articles.
Much of today’s digital media economy still relies on a steady flow of people clicking on links from Google, and being served ads on publishers’ websites.
But with Perplexity, there’s usually no need to visit a website at all — the A.I. does the browsing for you and gives you all the information you need right there on the answer page.
💲 EARNINGS ANNOUNCEMENT: Jan 30, 2024
Alphabet Announces Fourth Quarter 2023 and Fiscal Year 2023 Results
“Alphabet: Cloud Rebounds”
☑️ #102 Jan 25, 2024
Hugging Face and Google partner for open AI collaboration
huggingface.co: [Transcription] [Excerpts] Today, we are thrilled to announce our strategic partnership with Google Cloud to democratize good machine learning. We will collaborate with Google across open science, open source, cloud, and hardware to enable companies to build their own AI with the latest open models from Hugging Face and the latest cloud and hardware features from Google Cloud.
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☑️ #101 Jan 13, 2024
A Comprehensive Guide to Access Google's New Gemini AI API with AIsBreaker
aisbreaker.org: [Transcription] [Excerpt] In December 2023, Google introduced its new AI model and API, "Gemini". This article offers a comprehensive guide on accessing API through a simple JavaScript program using the AIsBreaker client library.
AIsBreaker, a developer-friendly platform, simplifies access to a variety of generative AI services including OpenAI/ChatGPT, Google Gemini AI, and more. It effectively conceals the complexity of vendor-specific APIs, in this case, allowing seamless access to Google Gemini AI API via the Google Cloud Vertex AI environment.
🔹Related content:
Welcome to the Gemini era (12/6/23): [Transcription] [Excerpt] Our largest and most capable AI model.
🟩 SP5 > Google > Latest > GOOGL 0.00%↑