#Google

#Google

It may sound like a trip through the produce aisle, but leading AI companies have something much more important on their lists. Meta, OpenAI, and Google have all relied on food-related names for their sometimes secretive plans for future AI models. Thinking with your stomach is nothing new for Silicon Valley, just look at the assortment of desserts Android assembled over the years before Google had its fill.

Alphabet, parent company of Google, has been one of the best-performing stocks of the year, up nearly 70%, and now has a market capitalization of $3.8 trillion. The company also happened to make what could turn out to be one of the most lucrative startup investments of all time, which could finally bear fruit next year. In 2015, Google invested around $900 million in SpaceX for a stake of around 7% in Elon Musk's space company, which was then valued at $12 billion.

Google plans to launch smart glasses powered by artificial intelligence (AI) in 2026, after its previous high-profile attempt to enter the market ended in failure. The tech giant set expectations high in 2013 when it unveiled Google Glass, billed by some as the future of technology despite its odd appearance with a bulky screen positioned above the right eye. Google pulled the product in 2015 less than seven months after its UK release, but is now planning

The investigation will notably examine whether Google is distorting competition by imposing unfair terms and conditions on publishers and content creators, or by granting itself privileged access to such content, thereby placing developers of rival AI models at a disadvantage, the commission said. It said it was concerned that Google may have used content from web publishers to generate AI-powered services on its search results pages without appropriate compensation to publishers and without offering them the possibility to refuse such use of their content.

Starbuck's claims against Google came after he filed a similar lawsuit against Meta, whose AI he claimed falsely asserted that he'd participated in the January 6th riot at the US Capitol. But Meta settled that lawsuit in August and even hired Starbuck as an advisor to help address "ideological and political bias" in its AI chatbot, The Wall Street Journal reported. The outlet noted last month that so far, no US court had awarded damages for defamation by an AI chatbot.

Alphabet Inc.'s Google was ordered to pay 573 million ($666 million) in two antitrust-damages cases brought by German price-comparison websites following on from a European Union case against the search-engine giant. In a suit brought by Axel Springer SE-owned Idealo, which sought 3.3 billion, the Berlin Regional Court awarded 374 million plus 91 million in interest. In a second case brought by Producto GmbH, another price-comparison service that sought 290 million, the judges granted 89.7 million plus 17.7 million in interest.

The European Commission on Thursday said it was launching a new investigation into US-based search engine Google amid accusations that the company buries some news sites in its search results as spam. The EU's case revolves around media outlets that include content from commercial partners, for example sponsored editorials. Google is once again facing the EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA) that regulates online competition in the 27-member bloc.

In one case, according to Starbuck, Google's AI claimed he had been a person of interest in a murder case when he was just two years old. For each source, Google's AI provides a URL, giving the impression that these are real news articles with headlines like, Robby Starbuck Responds to Murder Accusations,' he said. The only way to discover that these URLs are fake is to click on them.

The way we download apps onto our phones could be about to change after a ruling from the UK's competition regulator. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has designated the two tech giants as having "strategic market status" - effectively saying they have a lot of power over mobile platforms. This means Apple and Google may have to make changes, after the CMA said they "may be limiting innovation and competition".

Google relies heavily on online advertising, and the company has previously been criticized for the amount of data it sucked up from users in the name of targeted advertising. However, the search giant introduced the Privacy Sandbox back in 2019 in a bid to deliver a more private approach to advertising on the web. Unfortunately, Google has now announced the end of Privacy Sandbox.