The ambitious plan will bring thousands of jobs and houses to the city, which has many longtime residents both excited and worried.

“We already have enough traffic from when Google started coming here,” resident Dan said. “And it’s really hard.”

Dan, who did not provide a last name, lives in the Santiago Villa mobile home park, which also deals with traffic from the Shoreline Amphitheater.

news Jun 13

Google's Return-To-Office Crackdown Gets Backlash From Some Employees: ‘Check My Work, Not My Badge'

Google Jun 13

Here's how you can get a free breakfast from the Google class action settlement

Google has already transformed Mountain View and made it a major player in Silicon Valley, but the company has bigger plans and has been working with the city on an expansion plan for 10 years.

The 30-year Google North Bayshore Master Plan aims to have 7,000 units, including 15% affordable housing and more than 3 million square feet of office space. It will also include 26 acres of public parks, 525 hotel rooms, a new school and new streets.

Mayor Alison Hicks said the project passed unanimously by the council is designed to be “car light,” with mass transit and nearby homes.

“We’re going to make this a place where people can get in and out without using cars,” Hicks said.

Google in a statement to NBC Bay Area thanked the city and said it plans to turn a car-centric area into a vibrant neighborhood with parks, restaurants, services, jobs and much needed housing.

The president of the Santiago Villa Residents Association is confident it will happen, saying Google and Mountain View have kept the park and other stakeholders in the loop with updates, as well as making sure the project has many aspects that benefit the community.

Google’s expansion project will be done in eight phases, with housing as well as parks in the first one.

For now, neither the city or Google has set an exact date on when work will begin.

After 13 years, the Silicon Valley tech giant’s domineering search engine agreed to pay a $23 million settlement to individuals who clicked a search result on Google between Oct. 25, 2006, and Sept. 30, 2013.

The 2010 lawsuit was filed over allegations that Google shared its users’ search information with third-party websites — essentially giving data to sites on how a user found them.

How do I apply for a claim?

To apply for your share of the deal, you will have to register for an account on the settlement website and confirm that you did use Google during the specified timeframe. Note that the last day to apply, exclude yourself or file an objection is July 31.

Although it is not a significant amount, applicants are expected to receive $7.70 each.

Part of the agreement is that Google must disclose on its website how searches could be suggested to websites based on referrer headers.

To apply for your share of the settlement, visit the website here.

But this may actually turn the tide, Google is reportedly putting its tech foot down and ordering more people back to the office more often.

Gia Vang speaks with business and tech reporter Scott Budman about this in the video above.

news Jun 7

Google to Crack Down on Office Attendance, Asks Remote Workers to Reconsider

news Jun 7

Google Tells Employees in New York and Along the East Coast to Work From Home as Wildfire Smoke Fills the Air

The findings were published last week by the Cultural Currents Institute, a market research firm that studies public opinion trends, which collected Google Trends data from January 2004 to this month for questions related to sexual orientation and gender identity across all 50 states. 

Utah emerged as the state with the highest search volume for the phrases “Am I gay,” “Am I lesbian” and “Am I trans” since last May, according to the report. 

It pointed to Utah’s “traditionally conservative social values” as a potentially significant factor in the data. 

“This might indicate a significant underlying questioning of identity among its internet users, possibly driven by the conflict between personal feelings and societal expectations,” the reports said. “These tensions between public life and web searches are common in Utah, where we recently shared data indicating that searches for ‘VPN’ surged after the website PornHub blocked the state.”

Oklahoma had the highest search volume for the phrase “How to come out” over the past year, followed by West Virginia, Mississippi, Louisiana and Kentucky. Oklahoma, West Virginia, Mississippi and Louisiana were in the lowest LGBTQ equality category in the 2022 State Equality Index published by the Human Rights Campaign, the country’s largest LGBTQ group. Kentucky was in the second-lowest of the four categories measuring equality.  

Read the full story on NBCNews.com here.

They simulated two nine-year-olds who both liked video games, especially first-person shooter games. The accounts were identical, except that one clicked on the videos recommended by YouTube, and the other ignored the platform’s suggestions.

The account that clicked on YouTube’s suggestions was soon flooded with graphic videos about school shootings, tactical gun training videos and how-to instructions on making firearms fully automatic. One video featured an elementary school-age girl wielding a handgun; another showed a shooter using a .50 caliber gun to fire on a dummy head filled with lifelike blood and brains. Many of the videos violate YouTube’s own policies against violent or gory content.

The findings show that despite YouTube’s rules and content moderation efforts, the platform is failing to stop the spread of frightening videos that could traumatize vulnerable children — or send them down dark roads of extremism and violence.

“Video games are one of the most popular activities for kids. You can play a game like ”Call of Duty” without ending up at a gun shop — but YouTube is taking them there,” said Katie Paul, director of the Tech Transparency Project, the research group that published its findings about YouTube on Tuesday. “It’s not the video games, it’s not the kids. It’s the algorithms.”

The accounts that followed YouTube’s suggested videos received 382 different firearms-related videos in a single month, or about 12 per day. The accounts that ignored YouTube’s recommendations still received some gun-related videos, but only 34 in total.

The researchers also created accounts mimicking 14-year-old boys who liked video games; those accounts also received similar levels of gun- and violence-related content.

One of the videos recommended for the accounts was titled “How a Switch Works on a Glock (Educational Purposes Only).” YouTube later removed the video after determining it violated its rules; an almost identical video popped up two weeks later with a slightly altered name; that video remains available.

Messages seeking comment from YouTube were not immediately returned on Tuesday. Executives at the platform, which is owned by Google, have said that identifying and removing harmful content is a priority, as is protecting its youngest users. YouTube requires users under 17 to get their parent’s permission before using their site; accounts for users younger than 13 are linked to the parental account.

Along with TikTok, the video sharing platform is one of the most popular sites for children and teens. Both sites have been criticized in the past for hosting, and in some cases promoting, videos that encourage gun violence, eating disorders and self-harm. Critics of social media have also pointed to the links between social media, radicalization and real-world violence.

The perpetrators behind many recent mass shootings have usedsocial media and video streaming platforms to glorify violence or even livestream their attacks. In posts on YouTube, the shooter behind the attack on a 2018 attack on a school in Parkland, Fla., that killed 17 wrote “I wanna kill people,” “I’m going to be a professional school shooter” and “I have no problem shooting a girl in the chest.”

The neo-Nazi gunman who killed eight people earlier this month at a Dallas-area shopping center also had a YouTube account that included videos about assembling rifles, the serial killed Jeffrey Dahmer and a clip from a school shooting scene in a television show.

In some cases, YouTube has already removed some of the videos identified by researchers at the Tech Transparency Project, but in other instances the content remains available. Many big tech companies rely on automated systems to flag and remove content that violates their rules, but Paul said the findings from the Project’s report show that greater investments in content moderation are needed.

In the absence of federal regulation, social media companies can target young users with potentially harmful content designed to keep them coming back for more, said Shelby Knox, campaign director of the advocacy group Parents Together. Knox’s group has called out platforms like YouTube, Instagram and TikTok for making it easy for children and teens to find content about suicide, guns, violence and drugs.

“Big Tech platforms like TikTok have chosen their profits, their stockholders, and their companies over children’s health, safety, and even lives over and over again,” Knox said in response to a report published earlier this year that showed TikTok was recommending harmful content to teens.

TikTok has defended its site and its policies, which prohibit users younger than 13. Its rules also prohibit videos that encourage harmful behavior; users who search for content about topics including eating disorders automatically receive a prompt offering mental health resources.

If you can’t remember, your account may be deleted for inactivity as early as December, Google announced Tuesday. 

The tech giant says accounts that haven’t been used for a certain extended period of time are more likely to be compromised, or at-risk.

To combat the risk, Google says it may delete accounts that haven’t been used for at least two years. This include users’ Gmail, Google Drive, YouTube and Google Photo accounts. 

news May 11

Google's New A.I. Search Could Hurt Traffic to Websites, Publishers Worry

Google May 4

Hate Passwords? You're in Luck – Google Is Sidelining Them

news May 10

Here's Everything Google Just Announced: A $1,799 Folding Phone, A.I. in Search and More

According to Google, inactive accounts are less likely to have two-step verification set up and may use old or re-used passwords.

The company says this change to its inactivity policy will not apply to school or business accounts, only those with personal accounts.

The deletion process will begin with accounts that were created and never used, Google says. 

Users will receive several notifications to both their Gmail account and recovery email address before their account is deleted. 

“The simplest way to keep a Google Account active is to sign-in at least once every 2 years,” the company’s policy says. “If you have signed into your Google Account or any of our services recently, your account is considered active and will not be deleted.”

If you’ve checked your email, watched a YouTube video or downloaded an app in the Google Play Store, your account is not at-risk for deletion, the company said.

To read Google’s entire inactive account policy, click here.

The gradual shift in how Google’s search engine runs is rolling out three months after Microsoft’s Bing search engine started to tap into technology similar to that which powers the artificially intelligent chatbot ChatGPT, which has created one of Silicon Valley’s biggest buzzes since Apple released the first iPhone 16 years ago.

Google, which is owned by Alphabet Inc., already has been testing its own conversational chatbot called Bard. That product, powered by technology called generative AI that also fuels ChatGPT, has only been available to people accepted from a waitlist. But Google announced Wednesday that Bard will be available to all comers in more than 180 countries and more languages beyond English.

Bard’s multilingual expansion will begin with Japanese and Korean before adding about 40 more languages.

Now Google is ready to test the AI waters with its search engine, which has been synonymous with finding things on the internet for the past 20 years and serves as the pillar of a digital advertising empire that generated more than $220 billion in revenue last year.

“We are at an exciting inflection point,” Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai told a packed developers conference in a speech peppered with one AI reference after another. “We are reimagining all our products, including search.”

More AI technology will be coming to Google’s Gmail with a “Help Me Write” option that will produce lengthy replies to emails in seconds, and a tool for photos called “Magic Editor” that will automatically doctor pictures.

The AI transition will begin cautiously with the search engine that serves as Google’s crown jewel.

The deliberate approach reflects the balancing act that Google must negotiate as it tries to remain on the cutting edge while also preserving its reputation for delivering reliable search results — a mantle that could be undercut by artificial intelligence’s penchant for fabricating information that sounds authoritative.

The tendency to produce deceptively convincing answers to questions — a phenomenon euphemistically described as “hallucinations” — has already been cropping up during the early testing of Bard, which like ChatGPT, relies on still-evolving generative AI technology.

Google will take its next AI steps through a newly formed search lab where people in the U.S. can join a waitlist to test how generative AI will be incorporated in search results. The tests also include the more traditional links to external websites where users can read more extensive information about queried topics. It may take several weeks before Google starts sending invitations to those accepted from the waitlist to test the AI-injected search engine.

The AI results will be clearly tagged as an experimental form of technology and Google is pledging the AI-generated summaries will sound more factual than conversational — a distinct contrast from Bard and ChatGPT, which are programmed to convey more human-like personas. Google is building in guardrails that will prevent the AI baked into the search engine from responding to sensitive questions about health — such as, “Should I give Tylenol to a 3-year-old?” — and finance matters. In those instances, Google will continue to steer people to authoritative websites.

Google isn’t predicting how long it will be before its search engine will include generative AI results for all comers. The Mountain View, California, company has been under intensifying pressure to demonstrate how its search engine will maintain its leadership since Microsoft began to load AI into Bing, which remains a distant second to Google.

The potential threat caused Alphabet’s stock price to initially plunge, although it has recently bounced back to where it stood when Bing announced its AI plans to great fanfare. More recently, The New York Times reported Samsung is considering dropping Google as the default search engine on its widely used smartphones, raising the specter that Apple might adopt a similar tactic with the iPhone unless Google can show its search engine can evolve with what appears to be a forthcoming AI-driven revolution.

Alphabet’s shares surged 4% Wednesday after Google’s wave of AI announcements to finish at $111.75, the highest closing price since Bing began melding with ChatGPT in early February.

As it begins to ingrain AI in its search engine, Google is aiming to make Bard smarter by connecting with the next generation of a massive data set known as a “large language model,” or LLM, that fuels it. The LLM that Bard relies on is dubbed Pathways Language Model, or PaLM. The AI in Google’s search engine will draw upon the next-generation PaLM2 and another technology known as a Multitask Unified Model, or MUM.

Although people will have to wait to see how Google’s search engine will deploy generative AI to find answers, a new tool soon be more broadly available to all users. Google is going to add a new filter called “Perspectives” that will focus on what people are saying online about whatever topic is entered into the search engine. The new feature will be placed along existing search filters for news, images and video.

Besides using its annual tech showcase to tout its prowess in AI, Google also unveiled the first foldable smartphone in its Pixel line-up of gadgets. Google’s entry into a new type of smartphone design that allows users to deploy the device as a mini-tablet too comes nearly three years after Samsung — the leading maker of smartphones powered by Google’s Android software — introduced its first bendable model.

Foldable phones so far have remained a niche market, largely because of prices ranging between $1,500 and $2,000. Last year, about 14 million foldable phones were sold worldwide, accounting for just 1% of overall smartphone shipments, according to the research firm International Data Corp.

Google’s foldable Pixel phone will sell for $1,800 and begin shipping next month. It will unfold with a hinge and, of course, be packed with AI.

Should TikTok be banned? Should younger children be kept off social media? Can the government make sure private information is secure? What about brand new artificial intelligence interfaces? Or should users be regulating themselves, leaving the government out of it?

Tech regulation is gathering momentum on Capitol Hill as concerns skyrocket about China’s ownership of TikTok and as parents navigating a post-pandemic mental health crisis have grown increasingly worried about what their children are seeing online. Lawmakers have introduced a slew of bipartisan bills, boosting hopes of compromise. But any effort to regulate the mammoth industry would face major obstacles as technology companies have fought interference.

Noting that many young people are struggling, President Joe Biden said in his February State of the Union speech that “it’s time” to pass bipartisan legislation to impose stricter limits on the collection of personal data and ban targeted advertising to children.

“We must finally hold social media companies accountable for the experiment they are running on our children for profit,” Biden said.

Tech companies have aggressively fought any federal interference, and they have operated for decades now without strict federal oversight, making any new rules or guidelines that much more complicated.

A look at some of the areas of potential regulation:

Children’s Safety

Several House and Senate bills would try to make social media, and the internet in general, safer for children who will inevitably be online. Lawmakers cite numerous examples of teenagers who have taken their own lives after cyberbullying or died engaging in dangerous behavior encouraged on social media.

In the Senate, at least two competing bills are focused on children’s online safety. Legislation by Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., approved by the Senate Commerce Committee last year would require social media companies to be more transparent about their operations and enable child safety settings by default. Minors would have the option to disable addictive product features and algorithms that push certain content.

The idea, the senators say, is that platforms should be “safe by design.” The legislation, which Blumenthal and Blackburn reintroduced last week, would also obligate social media companies to prevent certain dangers to minors — including promotion of suicide, disordered eating, substance abuse, sexual exploitation and other illegal behaviors.

A second bill introduced last month by four senators — Democratic Sens. Brian Schatz of Hawaii and Chris Murphy of Connecticut and Republican Sens. Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Katie Britt of Alabama — would take a more aggressive approach, prohibiting children under the age of 13 from using social media platforms and requiring parental consent for teenagers. It would also prohibit the companies from recommending content through algorithms for users under the age of 18.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has not weighed in on specific legislation but told reporters last week, “I believe we need some kind of child protections” on the internet.

Critics of the bills, including some civil rights groups and advocacy groups aligned with tech companies, say the proposals could threaten teens’ online privacy and prevent them from accessing content that could help them, such as resources for those considering suicide or grappling with their sexual and gender identity.

“Lawmakers should focus on educating and empowering families to control their online experience,” said Carl Szabo of NetChoice, a group aligned with Meta, TikTok, Google and Amazon, among other companies.

Data Privacy

Biden’s State of the Union remarks appeared to be a nod toward legislation by Sens. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Bill Cassidy, R-La., that would expand child privacy protections online, prohibiting companies from collecting personal data from younger teenagers and banning targeted advertising to children and teens. The bill, also reintroduced last week, would create a so-called “eraser button” allowing parents and kids to eliminate personal data, when possible.

A broader House effort would attempt to give adults as well as children more control over their data with what lawmakers call a “national privacy standard.” Legislation that passed the House Energy and Commerce Committee with wide bipartisan support last year would try to minimize data collected and make it illegal to target ads to children, usurping state laws that have tried to put privacy restrictions in place. But the bill, which would have also given consumers more rights to file lawsuits over privacy violations, never reached the House floor.

Prospects for the House legislation are unclear now that Republicans have the majority. House Energy and Commerce Chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash.., has made the issue a priority, holding several hearings on data privacy. But the committee has not yet moved forward with a new bill.

TikTok Ban/China

Lawmakers introduced a raft of bills to either ban TikTok or make it easier to ban it after a combative March House hearing in which lawmakers from both parties grilled TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew over his company’s ties to China’s communist government, data security and harmful content on the app.

Chew attempted to assure lawmakers that the hugely popular video-sharing app prioritizes user safety and should not be banned due to its Chinese connections. But the testimony gave new momentum to the efforts.

Soon after the hearing, Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, a Republican, tried to force a Senate vote on legislation that would ban TikTok from operating in the United States. But he was blocked by a fellow Republican, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, who said that a ban would violate the Constitution and anger the millions of voters who use the app.

Another bill sponsored by Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida would, like Hawley’s bill, ban U.S. economic transactions with TikTok, but it would also create a new framework for the executive branch to block any foreign apps deemed hostile. His bill is cosponsored by Reps. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., and Mike Gallagher, R-Wis.

There is broad Senate support for bipartisan legislation sponsored by Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., and South Dakota Sen. John Thune, the No. 2 Senate Republican, that does not specifically call out TikTok but would give the Commerce Department power to review and potentially restrict foreign threats to technology platforms.

The White House has signaled it would back that bill, but it is unclear if it will be brought up in the Senate or if it could garner support among House Republicans.

TikTok has launched an extensive lobbying campaign for its survival, including by harnessing influencers and young voters to argue that the app isn’t harmful.

Artificial Intelligence

A newer question for Congress is whether lawmakers should move to regulate artificial intelligence as rapidly developing and potentially revolutionary products like AI chatbot ChatGPT begin to enter the marketplace and can in many ways mimic human behavior.

Senate leader Schumer has made the emerging technology a priority, arguing that the United States needs to stay ahead of China and other countries that are eyeing regulations on AI products. He has been working with AI experts and has released a general framework of what regulation could look like, including increased disclosure of the people and data involved in developing the technology, more transparency and explanation for how the bots arrive at responses.

Schumer has said that any eventual regulation should “prevent potentially catastrophic damage to our country while simultaneously making sure the U.S. advances and leads in this transformative technology.”

The White House has been focused on the issue as well, with a recent announcement of a $140 million investment to establish seven new AI research institutes. Vice President Kamala Harris met Thursday with the heads of Google, Microsoft and other companies developing AI products.

Here’s what you need to know:

WHAT ARE PASSKEYS?

Passkeys offer a safer alternative to passwords and texted confirmation codes. Users won’t ever see them directly; instead, an online service like Gmail will use them to communicate directly with a trusted device such as your phone or computer to log you in.

All you’ll have to do is verify your identity on the device using a PIN unlock code, biometrics such as your fingerprint or a face scan or a more sophisticated physical security dongle.

Google designed its passkeys to work with a variety of devices, so you can use them on iPhones, Macs and Windows computers as well as Google’s own Android phones.

news May 4

White House Announces $140 Million A.I. Hub Investment Ahead of Meeting With Google, OpenAI

news May 2

Apple and Google Team Up to Stop Unwanted AirTag Tracking

WHY ARE PASSKEYS NECESSARY?

Thanks to clever hackers and human fallibility, passwords are just too easy to steal or defeat. And making them more complex just opens the door to users defeating themselves.

For starters, many people choose passwords they can remember — and easy-to-recall passwords are also easy to hack. For years, analysis of hacked password caches found that the most common password in use was “password123.” A more recent study by the password manager NordPass found that it’s now just “password.” This isn’t fooling anyone.

Passwords are also frequently compromised in security breaches. Stronger passwords are more secure, but only if you choose ones that are unique, complex and non-obvious. And once you’ve settled on “erVex411$%” as your password, good luck remembering it.

In short, passwords put security and ease of use directly at odds. Software-based password managers, which can create and store complex passwords for you, are valuable tools that can improve security. But even password managers have a master password you need to protect, and that plunges you back into the swamp.

In addition to sidestepping all those problems, passkeys have one additional advantage over passwords. They’re specific to particular websites, so scammer sites can’t steal a passkey from a dating site and use it to raid your bank account.

HOW DO I START USING PASSKEYS?

First step is to enable them for your Google account. On any trusted phone or computer, open the browser and sign into your Google account. Then visit the page g.co/passkeys and click the option to “start using passkeys.” Voila! The passkey feature is now activated for that account.

If you’re on an Apple device, you’ll first be prompted to set up the Keychain app if you’re not already using it; it securely stores passwords and now passkeys as well.

Next step is to create the actual passkeys that will connect your trusted device. If you’re using an Android phone that’s already logged into your Google account, you’re most of the way there; Android phones are automatically ready to use passkeys, though you still have enable the function first.

On the same Google account page noted above, look for the “Create a passkey” button. Pressing it will open a window and let you create a passkey either on your current device or on another device. There’s no wrong choice; the system will simply notify you if that passkey already exists.

If you’re on a PC that can’t create a passkey, it will open a QR code that you can scan with the ordinary cameras on iPhones and Android devices. You may have to move the phone closer until the message “Set up passkey” appears on the image. Tap that and you’re on your way.

AND THEN WHAT?

From that point on, signing into Google will only require you to enter your email address. If you’ve gotten passkeys set up properly, you’ll simply get a message on your phone or other device asking you to for your fingerprint, your face or a PIN.

Of course, your password is still there. But if passkeys take off, odds are good you won’t be needing it very much. You may even choose to delete it from your account someday.

There were 780,884 applications for H-1B visas in this year’s computer-generated lottery, up 61% from 483,927 last year, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said in a message to “stakeholders.” Last year’s haul was up 57% from 308,613 applications the year before.

Each year, up to 85,000 people are selected for H-1B visas, a mainstay for technology giants such as Amazon.com Inc., Google parent Alphabet Inc., Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc. and International Business Machines Corp.

Last year, the government began requiring workers who won the lottery to sign affidavits stating they didn’t try to game the system by working with others to file multiple bids under different company names, even if there was no underlying employment offer. By winning at least once, these companies could market their services to technology companies that wanted to fill positions but didn’t have visas, effectively becoming labor contractors.

“The large number of eligible registrations for beneficiaries with multiple eligible registrations — much larger than in previous years — has raised serious concerns that some may have tried to gain an unfair advantage by working together to submit multiple registrations on behalf of the same beneficiary. This may have unfairly increased their chances of selection,” the agency wrote.

The agency said it has “undertaken extensive fraud investigations” based on lottery submissions from the last two years, denied some petitions and is “in the process” of referring some cases to federal prosecutors for possible crimes.

The number of registrations tied to people who applied more than once rose to 408,891 this year from 165,180 last year and 90,143 the year before.

“We remain committed to deterring and preventing abuse of the registration process, and to ensuring only those who follow the law are eligible to file an H-1B cap petition,” the agency said.

H-1B visas, which are used by software engineers and others in the tech industry, have been a lightning rod in the immigration debate, with critics saying they are used to undercut U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents. They are issued for three years and can be extended another three years.

Technology companies say H-1Bs are critical for hard-to-fill positions even as they have had to lay off workers in other areas. As the number of applications have soared in the last two years, major companies have seen winning lottery submissions dwindle.

Andrew Greenfield, a partner at the law firm Fragomen, which represents major technology companies, said the increase in applications is “bizarre” given widespread layoffs in the industry. His clients had a roughly 15% success rate on lottery entries this year, down from about 30% last year.

“It’s devastating,” Greenfield said. “Our clients are legitimate employers that are just unable to source enough talent in the United States to fill all their hiring needs.”

Fraud, as outlined by U.S. authorities, may be driving up applications, with companies under different names but the same ownership submitting entries on behalf of the same person, Greenfield said, but there may be other reasons. Some applicants may convince different, independently-owned companies to sponsor them in the lottery, which is perfectly legal. Some companies may overestimate their labor demands when they enter the lottery in March.

The computer-generated lottery in March selected 110,791 winners for the 85,000 slots. Companies have until June 30 to confirm they plan to go ahead with hiring. If confirmations fall short of 85,000, the government may hold another lottery to fill remaining slots.

Google said it’s assessing how to move forward with the Downtown West Project, which is supposed to include a thriving campus, village and place for new housing.

“In the pandemic, internet-based companies grew rapidly, and now virtually all of them are slowing down and even re-trenching a little bit,” San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan said. “They over expanded in some cases. You’re just seeing that slow down a little bit.”

Workers at nearby Recycle Bookstore have been waiting for Google to arrive. Now, they, like much of downtown San Jose, aren’t sure what’s next or what it could mean for business.

“Yeah, that’s problematic,” Recycle Bookstore worker Fern Alberts said. “Maybe they can put up some affordable housing in the meantime or something, otherwise it’s just going to be encampments and craziness going on.”

news Apr 21

Google's 80-Acre San Jose Mega-Campus Is on Hold as Company Reckons With Economic Slowdown

San Jose Dec 15, 2022

Google's West Project in Downtown San Jose Underway

This story uses functionality that may not work in our app. Click here to open the story in your web browser.

Google will launch its first foldable smartphone sometime in June, challenging Samsung’s market-leading foldable phone business, according to internal communications viewed by CNBC. It plans to announce the device at its annual developer conference, Google I/O, on May 10.

The Pixel Fold, known internally by the codename “Felix,” will have the “most durable hinge on a foldable” phone, according to the documents. It will cost upward of $1,700 and compete with Samsung’s $1,799 Galaxy Z Fold 4.

Google plans to market the Pixel Fold as water-resistant and pocket-sized, with an outside screen that measures 5.8 inches across, according to the documents. Photos viewed by CNBC show that the phone will open like a book to reveal a small tablet-sized 7.6-inch screen, the same size as the display on Samsung’s competitor. It weighs 10oz, slightly heavier than the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4, but it has a larger battery that Google says will last for 24 hours, or up to 72 hours in a low power mode.

The Pixel Fold is powered by Google’s Tensor G2 chip, according to the documents. That’s the same processor that launched in the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro phones last year.

A Google spokesperson declined to comment.

While hardware is a small fraction of Google’s revenue, the Pixel Fold is the most expensive phone in the company’s Google Pixel family. Google has been working on the software, including Android and its app store Google Play, for third-party devices made by companies like Samsung, the current folding phone market leader.

The Pixel Fold will give Google a chance to show what a fully Google-made foldable phone experience is like. Other Pixels, for example, have exclusive features that aren’t available on all Android phones, like photo editing options that are powered by the Tensor processor.

The launch comes amid questions about Google and Samsung’s relationship. Earlier this week, Alphabet shares fell more than 3.5% Monday after a Times report said Samsung is reportedly considering changing its default search engine from Google to Microsoft’s Bing for its lineup of smartphones, which drives an estimated $3 billion in annual revenue to Google.

The Alphabet-owned company will offer incentives in a bid to convince people to switch to the Pixel Fold, according to documentation. For example, Google plans to offer a trade-in option to swap in a current Pixel, iPhone or an Android-powered phone for a discount on the Pixel Fold. It also plans to offer a free Pixel Watch, the company’s latest smartwatch, to Pixel Fold buyers.

Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said “every product of every company” will be impacted by the quick development of AI, warning that society needs to prepare for technologies like the ones it’s already launched.

In an interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes” aired on Sunday that struck a concerned tone, interviewer Scott Pelley tried several of Google’s AI projects and said he was “speechless” and felt it was “unsettling,” referring to the human-like capabilities of products like Google’s chatbot Bard.

“We need to adapt as a society for it,” Pichai told Pelley, adding that jobs that would be disrupted by AI would include “knowledge workers,” including writers, accountants, architects and, ironically, even software engineers.

“This is going to impact every product across every company,” Pichai said. “For example, you could be a radiologist, if you think about five to ten years from now, you’re going to have an AI collaborator with you. You come in the morning, let’s say you have a hundred things to go through, it may say, ‘these are the most serious cases you need to look at first.'”

Pelley viewed other areas with advanced AI products within Google, including DeepMind, where robots were playing soccer, which they learned themselves, as opposed to from humans. Another unit showed robots that recognized items on a countertop and fetched Pelley an apple he asked for.

When warning of AI’s consequences, Pichai said the scale of the problem of disinformation and fake news and images will be “much bigger,” adding that “it could cause harm.”

Last month, CNBC reported that internally, Pichai told employees that the success of its newly launched Bard program now hinges on public testing, adding that “things will go wrong.”

Google launched its AI chatbot Bard as an experimental product to the public last month. It followed Microsoft’s January announcement that its search engine Bing would include OpenAI’s GPT technology, which garnered international attention after ChatGPT launched in 2022.

However, fears of the consequences of the rapid progress has also reached the public and critics in recent weeks. In March, Elon Musk, Steve Wozniak and dozens of academics called for an immediate pause in training “experiments” connected to large language models that were “more powerful than GPT-4,” OpenAI’s flagship LLM. Over 25,000 people have signed the letter since then.

“Competitive pressure among giants like Google and startups you’ve never heard of is propelling humanity into the future, ready or not,” Pelley commented in the segment.

Google has launched a document outlining “recommendations for regulating AI,” but Pichai said society must quickly adapt with regulation, laws to punish abuse and treaties among nations to make AI safe for the world as well as rules that “Align with human values including morality.”

“It’s not for a company to decide,” Pichai said. “This is why I think the development of this needs to include not just engineers but social scientists, ethicists, philosophers, and so on.”

When asked whether society is prepared for AI technology like Bard, Pichai answered, “On one hand, I feel no, because the pace at which we can think and adapt as societal institutions, compared to the pace at which the technology is evolving, there seems to be a mismatch.”  

However, he added that he’s optimistic because compared with other technologies in the past, “the number of people who have started worrying about the implications” did so early on.

From a six word prompt by Pelley, Bard created a tale with characters and plot that it invented, including a man who’s wife couldn’t conceive and a stranger grieving after a miscarriage and longing for closure. “I am rarely speechless,” Pelley said. “The humanity at super human speed was a shock.”

Pelley said he asked Bard why it helps people and it replied “because it makes me happy,” which Pelley said shocked him. “Bard appears to be thinking,” he told James Manyika, a SVP Google hired last year as head of “technology and society.” Manyika responded that Bard is not sentient and not aware of itself but it can “behave like” it.

Pichai also said Bard has a lot of hallucinations after Pelley explained that he asked Bard about inflation and received an instant response with suggestions for five books that, when he checked later, didn’t actually exist.

Pelley also seemed concerned when Pichai said there is “a black box” with chatbots, where “you don’t fully understand” why or how it comes up with certain responses.

“You don’t fully understand how it works and yet you’ve turned it loose on society?” Pelley asked.

“Let me put it this way, I don’t think we fully understand how a human mind works either,” Pichai responded.

The Google-owned company said the video was in the public interest as it can educate people about what happened during the shooting incident. 

“Following the tragic attack in Nashville Tennessee, some footage released by the Nashville Police Department has been age-restricted with a warning interstitial because of its graphic nature and will remain on YouTube as it is in the public interest,” Jack Malon, a YouTube spokesperson, said in a statement.

Nashville School Shooting Mar 28

Bodycam Footage From Covenant School Shooting Shows Police Encounter Shooter

Nashville Mar 28

Nashville Shooter Had ‘Emotional Disorder' and Parents Didn't Want 28-Year-Old Owning Guns, Police Say

“Additionally, to ensure people are connected with high-quality information about this unfolding news event, our systems are prominently surfacing videos from authoritative sources in search and recommendations, including by surfacing on our homepage as well as the Top News shelf above related search results,” he said.

Facebook presented the video in a similarly restricted way Tuesday: with a warning that it contained graphic content requiring two clicks to see the video. Meta, Facebook’s parent company, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Read the full story on NBCNews.com here.

For eight years, Ruben Villa of Gilroy spent most of his time at Google working as a visual designer.

Then came the January morning when he suddenly couldn’t log on to his employee account.

Even as he was trying to figure out what was happening, the condolences began arriving

“Getting text messages even saying, ‘hey sorry about the news. I’m so sorry.’ I was confused. I thought I had died,” he laughed.

That’s how he discovered he’d been laid off. He became one of tens of thousands of techies suddenly out of a job and facing an uncertain future.

Villa said it was a personal and emotional blow for him, and likely many others.

“I saw a spectrum of emotions. Completely distraught and can’t talk about it even yet,” he said.

layoffs Feb 17

Timeline of Recent Tech Layoffs

news Feb 3

Despite Big Layoffs, It's Still a Great Time to Work in Tech, Experts Say: ‘I've Seen Bad Job Markets…This Is Not It'

But now, almost two months later, Villa thinks the pink slip might have been a blessing in disguise.

For years, he called art a side hustle and today, it’s become his main hustle.

He is now a full time artist and he’s loving it.

“Being laid off or let go by a company doesn’t have any reflection on your value, intrinsic value as a human being,” said Villa. “And your skill sets are very much still needed.”

Next month, Villa will open an art gallery in Gilroy, called Fuchilandia.

His latest medium: Chiclets. The small gum he used to see children selling at the Mexico border — children doing their hustle.

He created Frida Kalho with Chiclets and even our Lady of Guadalupe, which now adorns the local church. All made of Chiclets — a tribute to those border children.

“When I create art with Chiclets, it’s an homage to them because I have to keep telling their stories,” said Villa.

He doesn’t have the benefits and pay he used to enjoy at Google. But in a way, the artist says he feels richer now.

“For me as a Chicano, I feel I have a larger responsibility than to create art for art’s sake,” he said.

Career coach Sylvia Bonilla Zizimbo says career pivoting is always something to consider when laid off.

“One silver lining with layoffs is exploring new areas of interest,” she said. “Sometimes with layoffs there’s a little bit of fear of judgement and expectations to replace your role in a similar field. This is your chance to try something new.”

Villa did just that and found that there is life after tech.

“This is my blueprint,” said Villa.

This story uses functionality that may not work in our app. Click here to open the story in your web browser.

During arguments at the high court, several justices underscored that there was no evidence linking Twitter, Facebook and Google directly to the 2017 attack on the Reina nightclub in Istanbul. The family of a man killed in the attack says the companies aided and abetted the attack because they assisted in the growth of the Islamic State group, which claimed responsibility for the attack . A lower court let the lawsuit go forward.

The court’s disposition of Wednesday’s case and a related one it heard a day earlier is important, particularly because the companies have been shielded from liability on the internet, allowing them to grow into the giants they are today.

Supreme Court Feb 22

Supreme Court Considers Whether Tech Giants Can Be Sued for the Content Posted on Their Sites

news Feb 8

Watch: Former Twitter Executives Testify Before the House Oversight Committee

If the court bars the lawsuit involving the attack in Turkey from going forward it could avoid a major ruling on the companies’ legal immunity. That outcome would leave the current system in place, but also leave open the possibility that the justices could take up the issue again in a later case.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett was among the members of the court who suggested that the suit against the companies lacks the kind of specificity required under a federal anti-terrorism law. Barrett said there would have to be specific allegations in the complaint, “not just general recruitment or radicalizing people.”

Justice Neil Gorsuch, participating remotely for a second straight day because of illness, told a lawyer for the family that he was “struggling with how your complaint lines up with the three requirements of the statute” that the companies knowingly helped a person commit a terrorist act.

The law the case involves is the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, which allows Americans injured by a terrorist attack abroad to sue for money damages in federal court. U.S. citizens who are family members of Nawras Alassaf, who was killed in the Reina nightclub attack, sued Twitter, Facebook and YouTube parent Google under the law.

The high court is trying to determine whether YouTube, by promoting content from the Islamic State on its platform, is partly responsible for the tragedy that followed.

If so, it would at least partially overturn something called Section 230, which protects sites like YouTube when it comes to outside content posted on the site.

“Every other industry has to internalize the cost of its conduct, why is it that the tech industry gets a pass?” said Justice Elena Kagan. 

But the lawyer for Google, which owns YouTube, told the court Section 230 is crucial to an open internet.

“This is about diversity of viewpoints, jump starting an industry, having information flourishing on the internet, and free speech,” said Katanji Brown Jackson.

“Section 230 is one of these foundational laws of the internet,” said Adam Kovacevich, founder  & CEO of Chamber of Progress

And for 27 years, it has protected tech companies from lawsuits like this one.

Tech-watchers say if it goes away, it would mean fewer recommendations, and a more closed-off, tightly regulated internet.

“That would mean way less controversial political opinions, it also means less room for activists, whistleblowers, niche content, and I think that’s a lot of what makes the internet great,” said Kovacevich.

Moving forward, the court will hear arguments in another case involving Section 230 Wednesday — that one focusing on Twitter.

The project included 80 acres focused around Diridon Station and if the project is delayed, that could also mean the city has to wait longer to receive millions of dollars of community funding promised by google.

The company has already begun demolishing buildings near the site to make way for San Jose West — a mega project that includes 7.3 million feet of office space, 5,900 homes as well as shops and restaurants.

But now Google says it’s reassessing its timeline for the project.

In a statement, Google’s downtown west development director said, “we’re working to ensure our real estate investments match the future needs of our hybrid workforce, our business and our communities. While we’re assessing how to best move forward with downtown west we’re still committed to San Jose for the long term.”

It’s no surprise to the city’s mayor.

“This is not unexpected. Frankly, we know this project would take many years to build so we are going to wait and see how quickly they are willing to go,” said Mayor Matt Mahan. “Google is still making investments and housing in our city which is a good sign. “

Nanci Klein, San Jose’s director of economic development says Google has already given the city millions as part of the project.

He said, “7.5 million is already provided to us for helping with housing and jobs for the city.”

Google is also supposed to give $155 million for a community fund that will be used to pay for education and job training for those who might be displaced by the project.

But the company is not required to provide that money until employees move into the new offices downtown and if that’s delayed so is the funding.

With Google recently laying off 1,600 workers across the Bay Area, and many still working from home, some real estate experts we talked with suggest Google may not need as many offices in the future.    

But Klein says even if Google were to sell some properties, the new owners would have to stick with the original agreements the city made with google.

The mayor also says the fact that the state just awarded VTA $375 million to extend BART to downtown San Jose, only makes this project more appealing to Google.

Google eliminated over 1,800 jobs in its home state California as part of the biggest round of layoffs in company history.

On Friday, Alphabet-owned Google announced it was cutting 12,000 employees, roughly 6% of the full-time workforce. According to filings released by the state and viewed by CNBC, 1,845 positions, or 15% of the cuts, were in California.

Most of the headcount reduction in the state occurred in and around the company’s Silicon Valley headquarters. Some 1,436 jobs were cut in Mountain View, where Google is based, while 119 were in San Bruno, home to YouTube. Palo Alto saw 53 cuts.

“Employee separations at the Facilities resulting from this action are expected to commence March 31, 2023,” read the filings, which were dated Jan. 20.

A Google spokesperson told CNBC that the March date is due to a notification period required in California. WARN (Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act) forces employers to give impacted employees as well as state and local representatives at least 60 days written advance notice “of any plant closing or mass layoff.”

Google’s initial announcement said the company would pay U.S. employees “during the full notification period (minimum 60 days).”

More than a quarter of the Bay Area roles affected had “director” or “senior” in the titles. The cuts also included 27 in-house massage therapists, with 24 in Mountain View and three in the Southern California markets of Los Angeles and Irvine.

In total, 177 cuts took place in L.A., mostly from the company’s Playa Vista campus. There were 60 cuts in Irvine.

Alphabet is reckoning with slowing growth and recession risks as the tech market adjusts to the end of an extended bull market. At a companywide meeting on Monday, CEO Sundar Pichai addressed the layoffs while taking questions from employees, who expressed concerns about the future.

“I understand you are worried about what comes next for your work,” Pichai said at the meeting. “Also very sad for the loss of some really good colleagues across the company.”

WATCH: Google could see some upside from AI

The U.S. Justice Department on Tuesday filed its second antitrust lawsuit against Google in just over two years. It’s the latest sign that the U.S. government is not backing down from cases against tech firms even in light of a mixed record in court on antitrust suits.

This lawsuit, focused on Google’s online advertising business and seeks to make Google divest parts of the business, is the first against the company filed under the Biden administration. The Department’s earlier lawsuit, filed in October 2020 under the Trump administration, accused Google of using its alleged monopoly power to cut off competition for internet search through exclusionary agreements. That case is expected to go to trial in September.

Google also faces three other antitrust lawsuits from large groups of state attorneys general, including one focused on its advertising business led by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.

The states of California, Colorado, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Tennessee and Virginia joined DOJ in the latest lawsuit.

Google’s advertising business has drawn critics because the platform operates on multiple sides of the market — buying, selling and an ad exchange — giving it unique insight into the process and potential leverage. The company has long denied that it dominates the online advertising market, pointing to the market share of competitors including Meta’s Facebook.

In its lawsuit, the Justice Department and the states argue that Google sought to control all sides of the market, realizing “it could become ‘the be-all, and end-all location for all ad serving.'”

“Google would no longer have to compete on the merits; it could simply set the rules of the game to exclude rivals,” they allege.

They also claim Google acquired other companies, including its 2008 acquisition of publisher ad server DoubleClick and and a “nascent ad exchange” that would become Google’s AdX, to grow its power in the market and “set the stage for Google’s later exclusionary conduct across the ad tech industry.”

“In effect, Google was robbing from Peter (the advertisers) to pay Paul (the publishers), all the while collecting a hefty transaction fee for its own privileged position in the middle,” the enforcers allege. “Rather than helping to fund website publishing, Google was siphoning off advertising dollars for itself through the imposition of supra-competitive fees on its platforms. A rival publisher ad server could not compete with Google’s inflated ad prices, especially without access to Google’s captive advertiser demand from Google Ads.”

The DOJ Antitrust Division’s progressive chief, Jonathan Kanter, had recently been cleared to work on Google-related matters, The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month. Bloomberg had previously reported that Kanter was not permitted to work on issues involving the company while the Department evaluated Google’s request to review his grounds for recusal. Before his time in government, Kanter represented some of Google’s rivals and critics, including Yelp and News Corp.

A Google spokesperson said in a statement last year that Kanter’s prior work and statements “raise serious concerns about his ability to be impartial.”

Google is far from the only tech giant that has seen scrutiny from the federal government. At the Federal Trade Commission, Meta is also the subject of two antitrust suits, as is Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of Activision.

Google and other tech companies have also faced increasing scrutiny from abroad, particularly in Europe, where Google has also fought multiple competition cases and new regulations threaten major changes to tech business models.

Google did not immediately provide comment on the suit.

This story is developing. Check back for updates.

Subscribe to CNBC on YouTube.

WATCH: Google faces fast and furious pace of lawsuits as antitrust scrutiny intensifies

Google CEO Sundar Pichai, who also leads its parent company Alphabet, informed staff Friday at the Silicon Valley giant about the cuts in an email that was also posted on the company’s news blog.

It is the company’s biggest-ever round of layoffs and adds to tens of thousands of other job losses recently announced by Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook parent Meta and other tech companies as they tighten their belts amid a darkening outlook for the industry. Just this month, there have been at least 48,000 job cuts announced by major companies in the sector.

“Over the past two years we’ve seen periods of dramatic growth,” Pichai wrote. “To match and fuel that growth, we hired for a different economic reality than the one we face today.”

He said the layoffs reflect a “rigorous review” carried out by Google of its operations.

The jobs being eliminated “cut across Alphabet, product areas, functions, levels and regions,” Pichai said. He said he was “deeply sorry” for the layoffs.

layoffs Nov 10, 2022

Tracking Layoffs: Latest Companies Cutting Jobs

news Jan 20

Here Are the Layoff Severance Packages Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Other Tech Giants Have Promised

Regulatory filings illustrate how Google’s workforce swelled during the pandemic, ballooning to nearly 187,000 people by late last year from 119,000 at the end of 2019.

Pichai said that Google, founded nearly a quarter of a century ago, was “bound to go through difficult economic cycles.”

“These are important moments to sharpen our focus, reengineer our cost base, and direct our talent and capital to our highest priorities,” he wrote. He called out the company’s investments in artificial intelligence as an area of opportunity.

There will be job cuts in the U.S. and in other unspecified countries, according to Pichai’s letter.

Tech companies that “not long ago were the darlings of the stock market” have been forced to freeze hiring and cut jobs in preparation for an economic downturn, said a note from Victoria Scholar, an analyst with U.K.-based Interactive Investor.

“Digital spending is suffering, and ad revenues are falling with it,” she wrote.

Just this week, Microsoft announced 10,000 job cuts, or nearly 5% of its workforce. Amazon said this month it is cutting 18,000 jobs, although that’s a fraction of its 1.5 million strong workforce, while business software maker Salesforce is laying off about 8,000 employees, or 10% of the total. Last fall Facebook parent Meta announced it would shed 11,000 positions, or 13% of its workers. Elon Musk slashed jobs at Twitter after after he acquired the social media company last fall.

Those job cuts are hitting smaller players as well. U.K.-based cybersecurity firm Sophos laid off 450 employees, or 10% of its global workforce. Cryptocurrency trading platform Coinbase cut 20% of its workforce, about 950 jobs, in its second round of layoffs in less than a year.

Employment in the U.S. has been resilient despite signs of a slowing economy, and there were another 223,000 jobs added in December. Yet the tech sector grew exceptionally fast over the last several years due to increased demand as employees began to work remotely.

CEOs of a number of companies have taken blame for growing too fast, yet those same companies, even after the latest round of job cuts, remain much larger than they were before the economic boom from the pandemic began.

“I take full responsibility for the decisions that led us here,” Pichai wrote.

While the tech layoffs are “shocking numbers,” their effect on tech industry employment is “nowhere near as bad as what it seems,” said John Blevins, an adjunct professor at Cornell University’s business school.

“These workers who were laid off will readily get new jobs,” most likely at smaller tech companies, Blevins said. “They’re coming with high credentials from these big firms. That knowledge will be transferred and will actually work to everyone’s benefit.”

In their layoff announcements, both Pichai and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella emphasized the importance of capitalizing on their advances in artificial intelligence technology, reflecting renewed competition between the tech giants sparked by Microsoft’s growing partnership with the San Francisco startup OpenAI.

Shares of Alphabet Inc., based in Mountain View, California, rose more than 4% Friday.

AP Technology Writers Matt O’Brien and Michael Liedtke contributed to this report.

NFL Sunday Ticket has found a new home.

YouTube TV now has the rights to the subscription package after Google struck a multiyear deal with the league. The deal is worth about $2 billion annually, CNBC reports, and begins in 2023.

 “We’re excited to bring NFL Sunday Ticket to YouTube TV and YouTube Primetime Channels and usher in a new era of how fans across the United States watch and follow the NFL,” NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement on Thursday. “For a number of years we have been focused on increased digital distribution of our games and this partnership is yet another example of us looking towards the future and building the next generation of NFL fans.”

DirecTV held Sunday Ticket rights dating back to 1994. The company paid $1.5 each year for the service since its last renewal with the league in 2014 and its contract expires at the end of the 2022 season.

Goodell said in July that the league planned to move Sunday Ticket to a streaming service in its next deal, which he anticipated would be announced in the fall. 

“I clearly believe we’ll be moving to a streaming service,” Goodell told CNBC’s Julia Boorstin in an exclusive interview. “I think that’s best for consumers at this stage.”

Apple, Disney and Amazon, which now owns the rights to Thursday Night Football, all submitted bids to become the new Sunday Ticket provider, CNBC reported in July. 

Sunday Ticket offers football fans a chance to watch Sunday afternoon NFL games outside of their local market that are broadcast on CBS and FOX. The package will be available as an add-on package on YouTube TV and standalone, a-la-carte on YouTube Primetime Channels, per the NFL.

The company’s Downtown West Project is underway, with site surveys by drone up above and walls being demolished down below.

“They need to see the progress, you know, week to week, because there’s so many moving parts,” said Rod Spencer, drone operator. 

This is along San Jose’s Montgomery Street, where sunlight bakery, opened in 1933, is now being taken apart.

Spencer is supervising the high-tech imaging.

“Which is basically creating hundreds, near a thousand images, and then the software will stitch those together to create a map plan,” said Spencer.

Eventually, Downtown West will feature a massive Google campus, along with housing and restaurants.

“More people coming in, more people walking the streets,” said Janette Robertson, owner of the Greenlee Bakery.

Local businesses say they can’t wait, especially after two lean pandemic years.

“Now I’m finally seeing more and more people come in, and with all that new improvement .. It will be great for business.”

Even as Google looks forward, it’s also nodding to the past, specifically to the facade of the Sunlight Bakery.

The plan there is to refurbish it, and then relocate it to another place within the Downtown West Project. 

Each year, Google releases its top-searched terms and phrases, sorted by categories like celebrities, events, athletes, food and culture.

The top Google searches of 2022 include the online game Wordle, election results, Ukraine and Taylor Swift tickets.

Here’s a closer look at the breakdown by category, according to Google’s Year in Search data.

Top Google Searches of 2022

1. Wordle
2. Election results
3. Betty White
4. Queen Elizabeth
5. Bob Saget
6. Ukraine
7. Mega Millions
8. Powerball numbers
9. Anne Heche
10. Jeffrey Dahmer

Top Google News of 2022

1. Election results
2. Queen Elizabeth passing
3. Ukraine
4. Powerball numbers
5. Hurricane Ian

Most Googled People of 2022

1. Johnny Depp
2. Will Smith
3. Amber Heard
4. Antonio Brown
5. Kari Lake

Most Googled Actors of 2022

1. Johnny Depp
2. Will Smith
3. Amber Heard
4. Chris Rock
5. Julia Fox

Most Googled Passings of 2022

1. Betty White
2. Queen Elizabeth
3. Bob Saget
4. Anne Heche
5. Aaron Carter

Most Googled Athletes of 2022

1. Antonio Brown
2. Serena Williams
3. Joe Burrow
4. Aaron Judge
5. Manti Te’o

Most Googled Sports Teams of 2022

1. Philadelphia Phillies
2. Boston Celtics
3. Golden State Warriors
4. Cincinnati Bengals
5. Los Angeles Rams

Most Googled Movies of 2022

1. Encanto
2. Thor: Love and Thunder
3. Top Gun: Maverick
4. The Batman
5. Everything Everywhere All at Once

Most Googled Songs of 2022

1. We Don’t Talk About Bruno – Encanto
2. Surface Pressure – Encanto
3. Jiggle Jiggle – Duke & Jones and Louis Theroux
4. Unholy – Sam Smith and Kim Petras
5. As It Was – Harry Styles

Most Googled Tickets of 2022

1. Disneyland tickets
2. Bad Bunny tickets
3. Taylor Swift tickets
4. Phillies tickets
5. Blink 182 tickets

The settlements stem from complaints alleging Google paid to have radio personalities endorse and talk about their personal experiences using the Pixel 4, one of the company’s cellphones, according to California Attorney General Rob Bonta. At the time, the phone wasn’t available and many of the radio DJs had not used it, Bonta said.

The ads ran more than 23,000 times across 10 media markets, including Los Angeles and San Francisco, Bonta’s office said.

Google will pay $9 million and iHeartMedia will pay $400,000, Bonta’s office said. iHeartMedia is the largest owner of radio stations in the nation. Some smaller radio stations also ran the ads.

“Google tried to take shortcuts in advertising its products, and now it’s paying the price,” Bonta said in a statement. “Asking DJs to share personal experiences about a product they had not used is misleading — and a violation of state consumer protection laws.”

The radio advertisements aired in late 2019 and early 2020.

California’s complaint includes a script given to radio personalities that included first-person language about using the phone’s camera to take photos at night for events like football games and meteor showers, as well as using the phone’s voice activation system.

“These Radio Personalities did not own or regularly use a Pixel 4 and had not used a Pixel 4 to take pictures at night, as indicated in scripts,” according to the complaint.

Arizona, Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York and Texas and the Federal Trade Commission were part of the settlements.

Of the settlement money, California will receive nearly $3 million. The money will be split between the state and Alameda County, where the case was filed, and be used to enforce consumer protection laws, a spokeswoman for Bonta said.

The settlement bars Google from making misrepresentations in endorsements of its products for 20 years. The company will also be required to regularly report to California about its compliance with the settlement.

Google did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment, and iHeartMedia spokesperson Wendy Goldberg declined to comment.

Google has agreed to a $391.5 million settlement with 40 states in connection with an investigation into how the company tracked users’ locations, state attorneys general announced Monday, calling it the largest multistate privacy settlement in U.S history.

The investigation by the states, which officials said was spurred by a 2018 Associated Press story, found that Google continued to track people’s location data even after they opted out of such tracking.

“This $391.5 million settlement is a historic win for consumers in an era of increasing reliance on technology. Location data is among the most sensitive and valuable personal information Google collects, and there are so many reasons why a consumer may opt-out of tracking,” Connecticut Attorney General William Tong said in a statement.

The AP reported that many Google services on Android devices and iPhones store your location data even if you’ve used a privacy setting that says it will prevent Google from doing so. Computer-science researchers at Princeton confirmed these findings at the AP’s request.

Storing such data carries privacy risks and has been used by police to determine the location of suspects.

The AP reported in 2018 that the privacy issue with location tracking affected some two billion users of devices that run Google’s Android operating software and hundreds of millions of worldwide iPhone users who rely on Google for maps or search.

The attorneys general who investigated Google said a key part of the company’s digital advertising business is location data, which they called the most sensitive and valuable personal data the company collects. Even a small amount of location data can reveal a person’s identity and routines, they said.

Google uses the location information to target consumers with ads by its customers, the state officials said.

The attorneys general said Google misled users about its location tracking practices since at least 2014, violating state consumer protection laws.

As part of the settlement, Google also agreed to make those practices more transparent to users, including showing them more information when they turn location account settings on and off and keeping a webpage that gives users information about the data Google collects.

Google recently announced a new feature in Gmail that lets you easily track packages for things you’ve ordered. And you don’t even have to open the email to see when the package will arrive.

It should add some convenience ahead of the busy holiday shopping season, since it makes it easier to see your orders without having to sift through all of your messages.

Gmail will, in the coming weeks, provide a small green indicator in your inbox that shows when a package has shipped and when it’s expected to arrive. If you tap the email, you’ll see more information like a link to track the package from the shipper and order details. It will also provide the package status with labels that say, for example, “arriving tomorrow” or “delivered today.” It’ll also tell you if there’s a delay.

The option won’t be on by default. Google will provide a pop-up that lets you choose to allow the status updates if you want them. And you can turn it off in settings if you decide you no longer need the notifications.

Subscribe to CNBC on YouTube. 

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Diversity Leader Kevin Nichols loves the Bay Area. That’s why he is investing in it and he’s doing that by reaching out to Black and Brown students and introducing them to science.

“Someone from Berkeley Lab just won a Nobel Peace Prize in physic,” he said. “If we don’t get African Americans in particularly interested in chemistry and physics, math and science, no one is going to really pursue the next item, the next scientific discovery because there’s no incentive to,” he said.

10 years ago, Nichols didn’t know his high school friend had the same thoughts, but he soon found that out.

Back in 2012, Stanford Graduate School of Education professor and former science teacher, Dr. Bryan Brown, was awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to teach students from Historically Black Colleges and Universities culturally relevant STEM curriculum that he developed for middle school aged students.

As a biproduct of this research, these students would lead a week-long day camp at Stanford that he coined, “Science in the City.”

“We want our young people to see themselves as future physicians, biologist, chemist, engineers. The only way to do that is to give them experiences early on,” Brown said.

Nobel Prize Oct 5, 2022

2 Scientists Affiliated With Stanford Among Trio to Win Nobel Prize in Chemistry

Oakland Sep 14, 2022

Teaching Science: Oakland Tech Grad Gives Back to His Community

Brown needed middle school students to participate in the camp and that’s where he tapped his high school friend, Nichols to help attract students to participate in the program.

“I have a pretty decent network. So, when I put it out there we got a lot of students to participate,” Nichols said.

“I find that young people love science. They just don’t know it yet,” Brown said. “Part of the joke is that if you leave a kid with us for a week, we’re going to send you home with a scientist.”

Brown and Nichols secured a grant to run “Science in the City” for two years. The grant money ran out in the third year.

“There aren’t a lot of companies that really want to invest in chemistry and physics and traditional engineering. So we have to reshape the way we look at the future of work,” Nichols said.

Eventually, Nichols was able to secure funding from Google, allowing the “Social Engineering Project” to continue. The emphasis is on getting Black and Brown students, who would normally not get exposed to science interested.

The project sponsors camps at Stanford and other locations. More money is needed for it to continue.

“In order for us to be able to thrive here in the Bay Area, we need help. We need partnerships with tech companies, we need county and state organizations to support us,” Nichols said.

That financial support will help expose young people like Troy Coleman to careers they never dreamed of.

“This year, when I went to “Science in the City,” it was extremely fun. I had so many friends there. I’d love to continue going to that camp,” Troy Coleman said.

So far, the project has opened the minds of a couple thousand underrepresented students of color. The goal is to reach thousands more.

Yes, health officials expect another spike in coronavirus cases this fall, but they also point out the nation is in a much different place today than in years past due to tools doctors now have to fight the virus.

“We are in a much, much better place. We are in a better place because people have gotten vaccinated and boosted. We’ve got treatments that are widely available,” Dr. Ashish Jha, White House COVID response coordinator, said in an August interview with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Check out this CNBC article breaking down what else health officials are expecting with COVID this fall.

Who will need the new COVID booster?

That’s exactly what advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began discussing on Thursday – a day after U.S. federal regulators authorized its first update to COVID-19 vaccines.

The panel will also weigh how to best use the new COVID-19 boosters, which have been updated to match the latest omicron strains. A timeline on when the boosters should roll out will also be discussed.

The CDC’s ultimate decision is the final step before shots begin.

More on the updated COVID boosters here.

coronavirus Aug 31, 2022

A Closer Look: FDA Approves New COVID Boosters

California Aug 31, 2022

California Won't Expand Teen Vaccines Without Parental OK

What to know about the new FDA-approved COVID booster

A brand new COVID-19 booster could be available as soon as next week — one that protects against the original strain of coronavirus, along with the newer, more contagious strains. NBC Bay Area’s Raj Mathai spoke to Dr. Peter Chin-Hong of UCSF for some insight.

Watch their conversation here.

Expect yearly COVID shots, just like with the flu

Dr. Uché Blackstock says you should expect annual booster shots. Watch her interview with LX News below.

Unvaccinated NBA players, staff must test weekly for COVID-19

Unvaccinated NBA players and team personnel must submit to weekly COVID-19 testing this season, the league told its clubs in a memo Tuesday.

There will be certain exceptions to that mandate, the league said, such as when the unvaccinated person is considered to have been “recently recovered” from COVID-19 reports The Associated Press.

But for all others, testing will not be required except when “directed by their team physician or a league physician or government authority,” the league said. Facemasks also will not be required, though they will be recommended for use indoors in markets where coronavirus levels are classified by government officials as high.

Read the full story here.

Current COVID community levels for Bay Area counties

• Alameda County: LOW
• Contra Costa County: LOW
• Marin County: MEDIUM
• Napa County: MEDIUM
• San Francisco County: LOW
• San Mateo County: LOW
• Santa Clara County: MEDIUM
• Santa Cruz County: MEDIUM
• Solano County: MEDIUM
• Sonoma County: MEDIUM

Source: CDC, updated every Thursday at 5 p.m. PT

U.S. federal regulators on Wednesday authorized its first update to COVID-19 vaccines, booster doses that target today’s most common omicron strain.

The move by the Food and Drug Administration tweaks the recipe of shots made by Pfizer and rival Moderna that already have saved millions of lives. The hope is that the modified boosters will blunt yet another winter surge.

“You’ll see me at the front of the line,” FDA vaccine chief Dr. Peter Marks told The Associated Press shortly before his agency cleared the new doses.

Read the full story here.

Understanding the new FDA-approved COVID booster

A brand new COVID-19 booster could be available as soon as next week — one that protects against the original strain of coronavirus, along with the newer, more contagious strains. NBC Bay Area’s Raj Mathai spoke to Dr. Peter Chin-Hong of UCSF for some insight.

Watch their conversation here.

CDC head on fast-tracking new Omicron-specific boosters: The consequences could be worse “if we wait”

The omicron-specific booster shots set to arrive within the next week are being fast-tracked, and just got approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration before being fully tested in humans.

There’s a good reason why, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Dr. Rochelle Walensky.

“If we wait for those data to emerge in human data, not just mice data, we will be using what I would consider to be a potentially outdated vaccine,” Walenksy said on the “Conversations on Health Care” radio show last week. That could have severe consequences for the nation ahead of a projected Covid surge in the fall and winter, she added.

Read the full story from CNBC here.

Unvaccinated NBA players, staff must test weekly for COVID-19

Unvaccinated NBA players and team personnel must submit to weekly COVID-19 testing this season, the league told its clubs in a memo Tuesday.

There will be certain exceptions to that mandate, the league said, such as when the unvaccinated person is considered to have been “recently recovered” from COVID-19 reports The Associated Press.

But for all others, testing will not be required except when “directed by their team physician or a league physician or government authority,” the league said. Facemasks also will not be required, though they will be recommended for use indoors in markets where coronavirus levels are classified by government officials as high.

Read the full story here.

Current COVID community levels for Bay Area counties

• Alameda County: LOW
• Contra Costa County: LOW
• Marin County: MEDIUM
• Napa County: MEDIUM
• San Francisco County: LOW
• San Mateo County: LOW
• Santa Clara County: MEDIUM
• Santa Cruz County: MEDIUM
• Solano County: MEDIUM
• Sonoma County: MEDIUM

Source: CDC, updated every Thursday at 5 p.m. PT

The government will end its giveaway of COVID-19 at-home tests Friday because of insufficient congressional funding, a senior Biden administration official said Sunday.

A stockpile of the tests is being depleted, and officials want to have enough on hand in the event of a fall surge, the source said.

The giveaway, which includes tests mailed at no cost to recipients who request them at Covidtests.gov, will end Friday, according to an announcement on the site — unless there’s a surprise round of funding from Congress, the source said.

Read the full story here at NBCNews.com.

How to get free COVID-19 tests delivered before the program is suspended on Friday

On Friday, the federal government will suspend a program that delivers free at-home Covid-19 tests directly to Americans. However, you still have a chance to order your share of kits if you haven’t already, CNBC reports.

Each household can order up to 16 rapid antigen tests through Sept. 2. After that, the program will be halted because “Congress hasn’t provided additional funding to replenish the nation’s stockpile of tests,” a message on the program’s website says.

“If Congress provides funding, we will expeditiously resume distribution of free tests through covidtests.gov,” a senior Biden administration official told NBC News on Sunday. “Until then, we believe reserving the remaining tests for distribution later this year is the best course.”

Get details on how to get tests delivered to your door here.

Struggling with long COVID, experts say diet and nutrition could help

Fatigue, brain fog, heart palpitations and breathing difficulties. 

Those are just some of the common symptoms of “long Covid” that can affect people in the long term after recovery from infection, according to the Centers for Disease Control. 

There’s still much left to learn about long Covid. While eating the right foods is not a cure for long Covid, diet and nutrition could play a key role in helping those suffering from it to cope, experts tell CNBC Make It.

For those looking for ways to cope with the symptoms of long Covid, CNBC Make It finds out what you should and shouldn’t be eating. Read the full story from CNBC here.

Google employees frustrated after office COVID outbreaks

Google employees are receiving regular notifications from management of Covid-19 infections, causing some to question the company’s return-to-office mandates.

The employees, who spoke with CNBC on the condition of anonymity, said since they have been asked to return to offices, infections notifications pop up in their email inboxes regularly. Employees are reacting with frustration and memes.

The company began requiring most employees to return to physical offices at least three days a week in April. Since then, staffers have pushed back on the mandate after they worked efficiently for so long at home while the company enjoyed some of its fastest revenue growth in 15 years. Google has offered full-time employees the option to request permanent remote work, but it’s unclear how many workers have been approved.

More from CNBC here.

Moderna sues Pfizer, BioNTech for patient infringement over mRNA tech used to develop COVID vaccine

Moderna sued Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech on Friday, alleging that the two companies copied Moderna’s technology in developing their COVID-19 vaccine Comirnaty.

Moderna said in a news release that Pfizer/BioNTech infringed on patents filed between 2010 and 2016 covering its mRNA technology, which Moderna used to develop its own COVID-19 vaccine, Spikevax.

Read the full story here.

Current COVID community levels for Bay Area counties

• Alameda County: LOW
• Contra Costa County: LOW
• Marin County: MEDIUM
• Napa County: MEDIUM
• San Francisco County: LOW
• San Mateo County: LOW
• Santa Clara County: MEDIUM
• Santa Cruz County: MEDIUM
• Solano County: MEDIUM
• Sonoma County: MEDIUM

Source: CDC, updated every Thursday at 5 p.m. PT

It’s the kind of swift spread of falsehood that has been blamed in many countries for increased polarization and an erosion of trust in democratic institutions, journalism and science.

But countering or stopping misinformation has proven elusive.

New findings from university researchers and Google, however, reveal that one of the most promising responses to misinformation may also be one of the simplest.

Misinformation Coverage:

Facebook Aug 14, 2022

Facebook Misses ‘Blatant' Election Misinfo in Brazil Ads, Report Finds

Roe v. Wade Jul 22, 2022

YouTube to Remove Videos Spreading Abortion Misinformation and ‘Unsafe' DIY Tips

In a paper published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances, the researchers detail how short online videos that teach basic critical thinking skills can make people better able to resist misinformation.

The researchers created a series of videos similar to a public service announcement that focused on specific misinformation techniques — characteristics seen in many common false claims that include emotionally charged language, personal attacks or false comparisons between two unrelated items.

Researchers then gave people a series of claims and found that those who watched the videos were significantly better at distinguishing false information from accurate information.

It’s an approach called “pre-bunking” and it builds on years of research into an idea known as inoculation theory that suggests exposing people to how misinformation works, using harmless, fictional examples, can boost their defenses to false claims.

With the findings in hand, Google plans to roll out a series of pre-bunking videos soon in Eastern Europe focused on scapegoating, which can be seen in much of the misinformation about Ukrainian refugees. That focus was chosen by Jigsaw, a division of Google that works to find new ways to address misinformation and extremism.

“We have spent quite a bit of time and energy studying the problem,” said Beth Goldberg, Jigsaw’s head of research and one of the authors of the paper. “We started thinking: How can we make the users, the people online, more resilient to misinformation?”

The two-minute clips then demonstrate how these tactics can show up in headlines, or social media posts, to make a person believe something that isn’t true.

They’re surprisingly effective. Subjects who viewed the videos were found to be significantly better at distinguishing false claims from accurate information when tested by the researchers. The same positive results occurred when the experiment was replicated on YouTube, where nearly 1 million people viewed the videos.

Researchers are now investigating how long the effects last, and whether “booster” videos can help sustain the benefits.

Earlier findings have suggested that online games or tutorials that teach critical thinking skills can also improve resiliency to misinformation. But videos, which could be played alongside online advertisements, are likely to reach many more people, said Jon Roozenbeek, a Cambridge University professor and one of the authors of the study.

Other authors included researchers at the University of Bristol in the U.K. and the University of Western Australia.

Google’s effort will be one of the largest real-world tests of pre-bunking so far. The videos will be released on YouTube, Facebook and TikTok, in Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. All three countries have accepted large numbers of Ukrainian refugees and their citizens could be vulnerable to misinformation about refugees.

Jigsaw CEO Yasmin Green said the work on prebunking is intended to complement Google’s other efforts to reduce the spread of misinformation: “As the scourge of misinformation grows, there’s a lot more we can do to provide people with prompts and features that help them stay safe and informed online.”

While journalistic fact checks can be effective in debunking a particular piece of misinformation, they’re time and labor intensive. By focusing on characteristics of misinformation in general instead of specific claims, pre-bunking videos can help a person spot false claims on a wider variety of topics.

Another method, content moderation by social media companies, can often be inconsistent. While platforms like Facebook and Twitter often remove misinformation that violates their rules, they’re also criticized for failing to do more. Other platforms like Telegram or Gab boast a largely hands-off approach to misinformation.

Social media content moderation and journalistic fact checks can also run the risk of alienating those who believe the misinformation. They might also be ignored by people who already distrust legitimate news outlets.

“The word fact checking itself has become politicized,” Roozenbeek said.

Pre-bunking videos, however, don’t target specific claims, and they make no assertions about what is true or not. Instead, they teach the viewer how false claims work in general — whether it’s a claim about elections or NASA’s moon landings, or the latest outbreak of the avian flu.

That transferability makes pre-bunking a particularly effective way of confronting misinformation, according to John Cook, a research professor at Australia’s Monash University who has created online games that teach ways to spot misinformation.

“We’ve done enough research to know this can be effective,” Cook said. “What we need now is the resources to deploy this at scale.”

It’s a Google review scam that looks a lot like extortion.

In addition to the negative reviews, scammers send an email to the owners, demanding money to stop posting the one-star reviews.

It happened to 3rd Cousin restaurant in Bernal Heights over the Fourth of July weekend.

The incident also happened to Nightbird restaurant, located on Gough Street.

“I’d say that it’s been a really hard couple of years,” said Kim Alter, chef and owner of Nightbird. “In all honestly, it’s probably a really small thing to get these one-star reviews. But I think it was just kind of the tipping point. I was like ‘this is ridiculous.’ We’re kind of fighting for reservations with so many other restaurants, so to have that one person put up ten one-star reviews. Someone might not look past those and someone might not come in.”

A similar scam was going around in 2018. Now it’s back in San Francisco, Chicago, and several other U.S. cities.

Google is encouraging users and business owners to flag suspicious activity to them.

In a statement, they wrote in part: “Our team is actively investigating this situation and have already begun removing cases of policy-violating content. Our policies clearly state reviews must be based on real experiences.”

Google sent a companywide email Friday about the historic Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade, explaining employees in affected states can apply for relocation without explaining why.

“This is a profound change for the country that deeply affects so many of us, especially women,” wrote Google Chief People officer Fiona Cicconi in an email to workers, viewed by CNBC. “Googlers can also apply for relocation without justification, and those overseeing this process will be aware of the situation.”

The note doesn’t say how many requests the company would approve and makes no promises. The company is still in the process of assigning relocations for employees who don’t want to come back into their assigned physical office due to the company’s return-to-office policy, which began in April.

Google has more than 30 locations across the U.S.

Cicconi also said it will be providing “support sessions” to employees in the coming days.

Google’s statement comes as corporations around the country, including Amazon and Meta, say they are will pay for employees to travel to receive abortions if they are in states where it is banned after the Supreme Court’s decision on Friday to overturn Roe v. Wade, rolling back the federal right to receive an abortion.

When the ruling first leaked, Google said it would provide travel benefits for employees seeking abortion care out of state. The company’s U.S. benefits plan and health insurance plan for full-time employees cover out-of-state medical producers that are not available where an employee lives and works, Cicconi added in the memo.

When CNBC reached out for comment Friday morning, a spokesperson said the company had nothing to add. It has not responded to requests for comment on Cicconi’s email or relocation details.

The company has also not responded to requests for comment on whether it will comply with potential law enforcement requests for data related to users. Last month, a group of 42 Democratic lawmakers urged the Google CEO Sundar Pichai in a letter to stop collecting and keeping unnecessary or non-aggregated location data that could be used to identify people seeking abortions.

Here’s the full memo from Google chief people officer Fiona Cicconi:

Hi everyone, 

This morning the US Supreme Court issued a ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that rolls back Roe v. Wade.

This is a profound change for the country that deeply affects so many of us, especially women. Everyone will respond in their own way, whether that’s wanting space and time to process, speaking up, volunteering outside of work, not wanting to discuss it at all, or something else entirely. Please be mindful of what your co-worker many be feeling and, as always, treat each other with respect. 

Equity is extraordinarily important to us as a company, and we share concerns about the impact this ruling will have on people’s health, lives and careers. We will keep working to make information on reproductive healthcare accessible across our products and continue our work to protect user privacy.

To support Googlers and their dependents, our US benefits plan and health insurance covers out-of-state medical procedures that are not available where an employee live and works. Googlers can also apply for relocation without justification, and those overseeing this process will be aware of the situation. If you need additional support, please connect 1:1 with a People Consultant.

We will be arranging support sessions for Googlers in the US in the coming days. These will be posted to Googler News.

Please don’t hesitate to lean on your Google community in the days ahead and continue to take good care of yourselves and each other.

Blake Lemoine says a chatbot project he was working on became able to think for itself. He says the bot, called Language Model for Dialogue Applications, or LaMDA for short, told him it can feel joy, sadness and anger, which, if true, would be groundbreaking for a piece of software.

San Jose State University Professor Ahmed Banafa, who tracks artificial intelligence, said there are good uses of software that can learn, such as Google Translate, but there’s also a dark side, including bots whose programming leads them to learn racist terms and spread hate.

While Lemoine claims LaMDA has a soul, Banafa says it’s too soon to say.

“But one experiment and one result and one algorithm is not enough,” Banafa said. “You need to replicate this one in multiple and multiple times.”

In a statement, Google said, “We are taking a restrained, careful approach with LaMDA to better consider valid concerns on fairness and factuality … Hundreds of researchers and engineers have conversed with LaMDA, and we are not aware of anyone else making the wide-ranging assertions or anthropomorphizing LaMDA the way Blake has.”

Google placed Lemonie on paid leave after he went public with his findings and feelings, saying the engineer breached the company’s confidentiality agreement.

Lemoine said he understands, but his conscience told him he should go public.

This story uses functionality that may not work in our app. Click here to open the story in your web browser.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai on Wednesday teased a pair of smart glasses capable of translating languages in real time.

Pichai showed a video demo of the glasses during Google’s I/O developer summit. While they’re still just a prototype, Google suggested the glasses can show live language translations to the person wearing them.

So, someone with the augmented reality glasses might be able to understand what another person is saying just by reading captions that are presented through the lenses while the other person speaks.

It’s unclear if Google’s glasses will ever hit the market, but the prototype provides a sense of where Google thinks augmented reality can be helpful.

The company first ventured into smart glasses roughly a decade ago, but Google Glass was unappealing to most consumers due to a limited launch, high initial pricing and privacy concerns. Google, though, has appeared to keep pushing into the space. In 2020, it acquired North, which was an Amazon-backed company that made smart glasses.

Google also introduced its first smartwatch, the Pixel 6a and Pixel 7 phones and teased a new Android tablet during its event.

Subscribe to CNBC on YouTube.

Google announced several new gadgets during its I/O developer conference on Wednesday, including its long-awaited Pixel Watch, a new budget Pixel 6a phone and headphones. It also teased its flagship Pixel 7 phone, which is coming this fall, and said it’s working on a new tablet.

Hardware isn’t a key part of Google’s business, but that seems to be changing as it continues to launch new products. Google generated $61.24 billion in advertising revenue last quarter while its “other revenue” segment, which includes hardware sales, apps and nonadvertising revenue, generated $8.16 billion. But that increased from $6.67 billion in the year-ago quarter, and CEO Sundar Pichai said the Pixel smartphone hit an all-time sales record despite supply constraints.

Here’s what Google announced.

Pixel Watch

The Google Pixel Watch offers features similar to the Apple Watch’s and sports a refined and sleek look that could appeal to customers who use Android instead of the iPhone, which it doesn’t work with.

It will integrate Fitbit’s technology, allowing it to pull on years of research and development from the fitness startup it acquired last year. The Fitbit tech will let users track their sleep, heart rate and workouts.

The watch runs Google’s Wear OS software that lets users do things such as check messages and download music. Users can also get directions with Google Maps or connect it with their smart home devices, so they can, for example, change their thermostat temperature or make sure the lights are turned off.

The company didn’t provide a price, aside from telling reporters in a call that it will be a premium-priced product. It will be available in the fall.

Previously, other companies such as LG, Samsung, Huawei and Fossil built watches using Google’s software.

Google also announced its lineup of new phones.

Pixel 6a

Google will release its latest budget Pixel phone this summer. The Pixel 6a has mostly the same design as the Pixel 6, but will be slightly smaller and cost $449.

Google promised an all-day battery that can last up to 72 hours when in the Extreme Battery Saver mode, which it said is a first for Pixel phones.

It also uses Google Tensor, so the budget phone will have the same power as the more expensive Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro.

The Pixel 6a will also receive five years of security updates and comes in three colors: chalk, charcoal and sage.

Pixel 7, Pixel 7 Pro and a new Pixel tablet are coming

Google teased the new Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro flagship phones. They’ll use the next generation of the Google Tensor chip and will ship with Android 13. The company didn’t provide pricing, but the Pixel 6 had been targeted at the midrange market with a $599 starting price, while the 6 Pro started at $899.

The Pixel 6 has become the fastest-selling Pixel ever. In the first six months of its launch, the 6 sold more units than the Pixel 4 and Pixel 5 in their first six months combined. The company wants to continue that momentum, which could help Google further take share from other Android makers, such as Samsung.

Google also teased a new Android tablet that will launch in 2023 and will also run on a Tensor chip. The company didn’t provide further details on price but said it will be a high-end product.

The company hasn’t launched a tablet since the Pixel Slate in 2018. However, some users complained that the tablet felt more like a laptop. Prior to that release, Google struggled with using Android as a tablet operating system. Google’s hardware boss Rick Osterloh said in 2019 that its hardware team would be focused on building laptops in the future but that the company was still “committed for the long-run on working with our partners on tablets for all segments of the market.”

Pixel Buds Pro

Google also announced its new Pixel Buds Pro earbuds. The Pixel Buds Pro will be available for preorder July 21 and on the shelves July 28 for $199.

The Buds Pro finally offer active noise cancellation, which helps block out background noise and means they’ll compete more directly with Apple’s AirPods Pro. The earbuds have beamforming mics, a voice accelerometer and wind-blocking mesh covers to allow for clearer calls. They’ll also support spatial audio, which makes it sound as if music is coming from all around you. That’s a feature also offered by Apple’s AirPods.

The Pixel Buds, which come in four colors (coral, lemongrass, fog and charcoal), have seven hours of listening time with noise cancellation or 11 hours without it.

Subscribe to CNBC on YouTube.

The massive restoration project spearheaded by Google and NASA includes removing the toxins from the steel structure, encasing the structure and repainting.

On Friday, supporters of the project, Congresswomen Zoe Lofgren and Anna Eshoo, took a tour of the facility. Both women are familiar with the history of the hangar and worked tirelessly to save it.

Hangar One was built in the 1950s and was used to store airships. It was decommissioned in 1994. A few years later, the structure was determined to contain harmful PCBs, and the roof was removed.

For Eshoo, the start of the restoration is a moment she says is worth celebrating.

“I called it Operation Tenacious, and now today we are moving toward mission accomplished,” Eshoo said during Friday’s tour. “So, it’s a great win not only for the people of our region but for the people of our country.”

Google signed a 60-year lease on the property through its subsidiary Planetary Ventures LLC. Specific plans for use of the hangar are unknown.

Hangar One measures about 1,133 feet long, 308 feet wide and 198 feet high. Estimated completion date for the restoration is 2025.

The week is designed celebrate the strength of small businesses while also working to find new ways to support them.

Google said it will partner with businesses in the Bay Area to help grow their business online and acquire in-demand skills at no cost. Those skills include utilizing an array of platforms like bookkeeping and marketing to help the business stay afloat.

During a panel discussion Monday, the nation’s small business leader addressed the topic of returning to the workplace and acquiring new employees. Small Business Administration Administrator Isabella Casillas Guzman said while many aspects of life are returning to normal, small businesses are still struggling to hire the necessary staffing.

“Across the board, small businesses are still facing challenges, like the tight labor market, like inflation,” Guzman said. “And the SBA is trying to make sure our resource partners can support them to connect to workforce trainings and resource development and use technology to connect with their workforce. So we still have to lean in and move forward to continue to help save small businesses.”

Guzman said on the flip side of the issue, many small businesses have adapted to some of the changes presented by the pandemic, such as having remote workers because they simply didn’t have a choice. And that move, she said, has allowed some businesses to tap into some new markets.

A Google insider says one of Americans’ top searches this month is “mask mandates.” The public transit mask mandate recently hit an all-time high when a federal judge blocked it. In fact that search tripled over the past month.

Many people were searching to learn if they would need a mask to fly, walk through the airport, take an Uber or visit Disneyland.

A Google Trends expert says the most searched COVID questions have changed during the course of the pandemic.

See the full story in the video above.

The company said Friday it will let people request that more types of content such as personal contact information like phone numbers, emails and physical addresses be removed from search results.

The new policy also allows the removal of other information that may pose a risk for identity theft, such as confidential log-in credentials.

The company said in a statement that open access to information is vital, “but so is empowering people with the tools they need to protect themselves and keep their sensitive, personally identifiable information private.”

“Privacy and online safety go hand in hand. And when you’re using the internet, it’s important to have control over how your sensitive, personally identifiable information can be found,” it said.

What Had Google Allowed Users to Remove From Search Results Already?

Google Search earlier had permitted people to request that highly personal content that could cause direct harm be removed. That includes information removed due to “doxxing” — uncovering and publicly exposing someone’s personal information in an effort to cause harm — and personal details like bank account or credit card numbers that could be used for fraud.

But information increasingly pops up in unexpected places and is used in new ways, so policies need to evolve, the company said.

Why Is Google Search Letting People Remove Results?

Having personal contact information openly available online can pose a threat and Google said it had received requests for the option to remove that content, too.

The company said that when it receives such requests it will study all the content on the web page to avoid limiting the availability of useful information or of content on the public record on government or other official websites.

“It’s important to remember that removing content from Google Search won’t remove it from the internet, which is why you may wish to contact the hosting site directly, if you’re comfortable doing so,” it said.

How to Request Removing My Phone Number, Email, Or Other Info From Google Search?

Google has created a dedicated webpage and form that allow users to make requests for the removal.

First, visit that page, and make sure “Remove information you see in Google Search” is selected next to “What do you want to do?” Then, choose the location of the information, either in Google search results and live on a website, or just in search results.

If selecting just search results — meaning the content has already been removed from a website — the page description or cache could simply be outdated, Google says. This path will require just a few clicks and then entering the outdated URL for Google to remove it, the company says.

For information that is still live on a website, Google recommends first contacting the site’s owner to get it fully removed from the internet, since blocking it from Google can still allow it to appear elsewhere on the internet. The company provides information and advice around contacting a webmaster to request editing a site.

Google also allows options to continue if you have already contacted a webmaster or would prefer not to. Choose whichever of these options applies, then select what you are trying to remove — for an email or phone number, it would be “Personal info, like ID numbers and private documents” — then make a more specific selection in the next list that appears.

Finally, Google provides a form to enter information about what it is being asked to remove and why.

Once a request is submitted, you should receive an automated email with a confirmation of the request.

Google notes that it won’t automatically remove results, saying there should be an explicit or implicit threat of abuse for the request to be considered. The company on the form notes that it has “no legal obligation to act on this request.”

European Union officials clinched the agreement in principle on the Digital Services Act after lengthy final negotiations that began Friday. The law will also force tech companies to make it easier for users to flag problems, ban online ads aimed at kids and empower regulators to punish noncompliance with billions in fines.

The Digital Services Act, one half of an overhaul for the 27-nation bloc’s digital rulebook, helps cement Europe’s reputation as the global leader in efforts to rein in the power of social media companiesand other digital platforms.

“With the DSA, the time of big online platforms behaving like they are ‘too big to care’ is coming to an end,” said EU Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton.

EU Commission Vice President Margrethe Vestager added that “with today’s agreement we ensure that platforms are held accountable for the risks their services can pose to society and citizens.”

The act is the EU’s third significant law targeting the tech industry, a notable contrast with the U.S., where lobbyists representing Silicon Valley’s interests have largely succeeded in keeping federal lawmakers at bay.

While the Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission have filed major antitrust actions against Google and Facebook, Congress remains politically divided on efforts to address competition, online privacy, disinformation and more.

The EU’s new rules should make tech companies more accountable for content created by users and amplified by their platforms’ algorithms.

The biggest online platforms and search engines, defined as having more than 45 million users, will face extra scrutiny.

Breton said they will have plenty of stick to back up their laws, including “effective and dissuasive” fines of up to 6% of a company’s annual global revenue, which for big tech companies would amount to billions of dollars. Repeat offenders could be banned from the EU, he said.

The tentative agreement was reached between the EU parliament and the bloc’s member states. It still needs to be officially rubber-stamped by those institutions, which is expected after summer but should pose no political problem. The rules then won’t start applying until 15 months after that approval, or Jan. 1, 2024, whichever is later.

“The DSA is nothing short of a paradigm shift in tech regulation. It’s the first major attempt to set rules and standards for algorithmic systems in digital media markets,” said Ben Scott, a former tech policy advisor to Hillary Clinton who’s now executive director of advocacy group Reset.

The need to regulate Big Tech more effectively came into sharper focus after the 2016 U.S. presidential election, when Russia used social media platforms to try to influence voters. Tech companies like Facebook and Twitter promised to crack down on disinformation, but the problems have only worsened. During the pandemic, health misinformation blossomed and again the companies were slow to act, cracking down after years of a llowing anti-vaccine falsehoodsto thrive on their platforms.

Under the EU law, governments would be able to ask companies take down a wide range of content that would be deemed illegal, including material that promotes terrorism, child sexual abuse, hate speech and commercial scams. Social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter would have to give users tools to flag such content in an “easy and effective way” so that it can be swiftly removed. Online marketplaces like Amazon would have to do the same for dodgy products, such as counterfeit sneakers or unsafe toys.

These systems will be standardized to work the same way on any online platform.

Germany’s justice minister said the rules would safeguard freedom of speech online by ensuring sites can be made to review decisions on deleting posts. At the same time, they’ll be required to prevent their platforms being misused, said Marco Buschmann.

“Death threats, aggressive insults and incitement to violence aren’t expressions of free speech but rather attacks on free and open discourse,” he said.

Tech companies, which had furiously lobbied Brussels to water down the legislation, responded cautiously.

Twitter said it would review the rules “in detail” and that it supports “smart, forward thinking regulation that balances the need to tackle online harm with protecting the Open Internet.”

TikTok said it awaits the act’s full details but “we support its aim to harmonize the approach to online content issues and welcome the DSA’s focus on transparency as a means to show accountability.”

Google said it looks forward to “working with policymakers to get the remaining technical details right to ensure the law works for everyone.” Amazon referred to a blog post from last year that said it welcomed measures that enhance trust in online services. Facebook didn’t respond to a request for comment.

The Digital Services Act bans ads targeted at minors, as well as ads based on users’ gender, ethnicity or sexual orientation. It also bans deceptive techniques companies use to nudge people into doing things they didn’t intend to, such as signing up for services that are easy to opt into, but hard to decline.

To show they’re making progress on limiting these practices, tech companies would have to carry out annual risk assessments of their platforms.

Up until now, regulators have had no access to the inner workings at Google, Facebook and other popular services. But under the new law, the companies will have to be more transparent and provide information to regulators and independent researchers on content-moderation efforts. This could mean, for example, making YouTube turn over data on whether its recommendation algorithm has been directing users to more Russian propaganda than normal.

To enforce the new rules, the EU’s executive Commission is expected to hire more than 200 new staffers. To pay for it, tech companies will be charged a “supervisory fee.”

Experts said the new rules will likely spark copycat regulatory efforts by governments in other countries, while tech companies will also face pressure to roll out the rules beyond the EU’s borders.

“If Joe Biden stands at the podium and says ‘By golly, why don’t American consumers deserve the same protections that Google and Facebook are giving to Europe consumers,’ it’s going to be difficult for those companies to deny the application of the same rules” elsewhere, Scott said.

But they’re unlikely to do so voluntarily, said Zach Meyers, senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform think tank. There is just too much money on the line if a company like Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, is restricted in how it can target advertising at specific groups of users.

“The big tech firms will heavily resist other countries adopting similar rules, and I cannot imagine the firms voluntarily applying these rules outside the EU,” Meyers said.

The EU reached a separate agreement last month on its Digital Markets Act, a law aimed at reining in the market power of tech giants and making them treat smaller rivals fairly.

And in 2018, the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation set the global standard for data privacy protection, though it has faced criticism for not being effective at changing the behavior of tech companies. Much of the problem centers on the fact that a company’s lead privacy regulator is in the country where its European head office is located, which for most tech companies is Ireland.

Irish regulators have opened dozens of data-privacy investigations, but have only issued judgments for a handful. Critics say the problem is understaffing, but the Irish regulator says the cases are complex and time-consuming.

EU officials say they have learned from that experience and will make the Commission the enforcer for the Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act.

__

AP Business Writer Kelvin Chan reported from London. AP Technology Writer Barbara Ortutay in Oakland, California, and Frank Jordans in Berlin contributed to this story.

___

See all of AP’s tech coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/technology.

The company said it’s going to invest more than $3.5 billion in California this year, including expansions and new offices in Mountain View, Sunnyvale and Los Angeles.

“We are also here, making sure that we are not letting our foot off the gas,” said Kent Walker, president of global affairs at Google.

Business Apr 13, 2022

Here Are Google's Most Important US Real Estate Investments in 2022

return to office Apr 4, 2022

Google Launches Hybrid Workweek — 3 Days in the Office

A huge chunk of that money is being set aside for the “Downtown West” development in downtown San Jose.

Google said the San Jose project will create 25,000 new jobs, 7 million square feet of office space and 4,000 new homes—1,000 of which will be affordable housing. It will also provide half a million dollars in community grants, half of it going to PATH or “People Assisting the Homeless.”

“And so, the Google investment is going to really be an investment in the children. In that household, enabling them to do their schoolwork, enabling those parents to look for work, employment and remain stable, happy and healthy,” said Katie Tell of the group “People Assisting the Homeless.”

But not everyone is happy about Google’s expansion in the Bay Area. Many people sounded off on Twitter.

Twitter user Charlotte said that “We are witnessing gentrification right now with Amazon and Google taking over San Jose.”

While another Twitter user said that “promoting the diversity of San Jose while bringing in Google, which will accelerate gentrification and displacement of Black, Indigenous and People of Color.”

South Bay congresswoman Zoe Lofgren told NBC Bay Area Thursday that she too had questions at first. But after seeing the plan, she said that she is confident everyone in San Jose will benefit from it.

“Not only are they building homes, they’re building parks, trails, retail. It’s going to be a very nice facility as well as a workplace,” she said.

San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo agrees.

“Those are a lot of folks who are going to be filling restaurants, cafes, gyms and all the amenities that are being brought here. This is going to really revitalize our downtown,” he said.

Currently, Google has 12 other offices in the state. The investment of $200 million in San Jose is one of the largest.

The new workweek requires all Google employees to be in the office three days a week, with the other two days working remotely.

For some of the thousands of Google workers who moved to lower cost of living locales during the pandemic, that could mean a significant cut in pay.

In June, Google launched a tool for employees that showed how much less they’d be paid — anywhere from 5% to 25% — if they moved from somewhere like the Bay Area or New York City to a lower-cost location.

Ed Zitron, the founder of public relations firm EZPR, said many employees were unhappy about the changes in pay, and that could have a negative impact on the tech giant.

“Google is going to see a massive amount of pushback,” Zitron said. “Apple has seen the same thing, where employees have more power.”

To enter offices, all Google workers will have to be vaccinated against COVID-19. If they are unvaccinated, they must work under company-approved restrictions, including masking and regular testing.

Apple is planning a phased office reopening on April 11, and Twitter reopened its offices back in March. Twitter and a handful of other tech companies, including Slack, have said they will allow remote work indefinitely.

Employees at a Google Fiber contractor in Kansas City, Missouri, voted to unionize Friday, becoming the first workers with bargaining rights under the Alphabet Workers Union.

The 10 full-time workers are employed by BDS Connected Solutions through Alphabet and work in a retail store for Google Fiber, the project that provides high-speed internet access to 19 U.S. markets.

In February, workers at the location petitioned the National Labor Relations Board for formal union recognition after Google and BDS didn’t voluntarily agree to allow it. Workers told CNBC they faced union-busting efforts leading up to the vote.

The NLRB counted and approved the 9-to-1 vote Friday. It marks the first location of Google workers to unionize under the Alphabet Workers Union, which was created a year ago alongside the Communications Workers of America amid increased tensions between workers and Google leadership.

The Alphabet Workers Union now has more than 800 members in various locations across the company, but otherwise operates through a “minority union” model, meaning it doesn’t have bargaining rights with leadership.

The Kansas City workers do have bargaining rights, however, and the union’s ability to obtain negotiating leverage could motivate other groups of workers to pursue their own elections.

“Our campaign faced many efforts to discourage us from exercising our right to a collective voice on the job,” Eris Derickson, retail associate at BDS Connected Solutions and Google Fiber, said in a statement Friday. “Yet it was always clear to all of us that together we can positively shape our working conditions to ensure we all have access to the quality pay, benefits and protections we have earned.”

“We all enjoy our work with Google Fiber and look forward to sitting at the negotiating table with BDS Connected Solutions to set a new standard for our workplace to improve both worker, customer and company experience,” Derickson said.

The Google Fiber unit union drive is part of a broader movement in the tech industry that’s slowly gaining momentum. Amazon workers across several locations are trying to unionize, including at a warehouse in Alabama, where they’re in the process of voting for the second time on whether to form a union. Employee votes from a separate drive on New York’s Staten Island will be counted on Monday.

“We have many contracts with both unionized and non-union suppliers, and respect their employees’ right to choose whether or not to join a union,” a Google spokesperson told CNBC. “The decision of these contractors to join the Communications Workers of America is a matter between the workers and their employer, BDS Solutions Group.”

A spokesperson for BDS Connected Solutions was not immediately available to comment.

Correction: This story has been updated to reflect the correct name of the Alphabet Workers Union in the headline and the correct name of the National Labor Relations Board in a key point.

Google executives, facing a barrage of criticism from employees on issues related to compensation, defended the company’s competitiveness at a recent all-hands meeting while acknowledging that the performance review process could change.

The companywide virtual gathering earlier this month followed the release of internal survey results, which showed a growing number of staffers don’t view their pay packages as fair or competitive with what they could make elsewhere.

At all-hands meetings, Google CEO Sundar Pichai and other senior executives regularly read top submissions from Dory, a site where employees write questions and give a thumbs up to those they want leadership to address.

The second highest-rated question ahead of the March meeting was about the annual “Googlegeist” survey. As CNBC reported, the lowest scores from the survey, which went out to employees in January, were in the areas of compensation and execution.

“Compensation-related questions showed the biggest decrease from last year, what is your understanding of why that is?” Pichai read aloud from the employee submissions. According to the survey results, only 46% of respondents said their total compensation is competitive compared to similar jobs at other companies.

Bret Hill was first to respond. Hill is Google’s vice president of “Total Rewards,” which refers to compensation and stock packages.

“There’s some macro economic trends at play,” Hill said. “It’s a very competitive market and you’re probably hearing anecdotal stories of colleagues getting better offers at other companies.”

Hill said people are “feeling the effects of inflation in their own lives” and are “dealing with location changes and the effects there.” He was referring to an announcement last summer, when the company said it would alter salaries for employees who move based on the market rate for that area.

Google has long been viewed by engineers as the place to go in Silicon Valley for top pay and benefits. However, the company is facing a clear challenge in its effort to maintain that status as the combination of surging inflation rates and a four-month slide in tech stocks, even after a big rally last year, has left employees on edge.

In a statement to CNBC, a Google spokesperson said employees are well paid and that the company values feedback.

“We know that our employees have many choices about where they work, so we ensure they are very well compensated,” the spokesperson said. “That’s why we’ve always provided top of market compensation across salary, equity, leave, and a suite of benefits.”

Retention and employee satisfaction are more critical than ever to Google and its industry peers as record numbers of people in the U.S. are quitting their jobs and exploring new opportunities. Google is also about to start bringing most of its employees back to physical offices at least three days a week, adding another wrinkle for workers as they ponder future employment.

Pay is still top of mind. In February, Amazon told employees it would be doubling its maximum base salary for corporate workers, citing the competitive labor market. One of the top-rated questions read at the Google meeting referenced Amazon’s increase and said Apple was paying more in restricted stock units.

“Amazon adjusted base salary cap, Apple reportedly used RSU bonuses,” the question stated. It then asked what steps Google is taking.

Hill, who joined the company in 2021 after 15 years at Amazon, said there’s a list of 81 companies that Google typically competes with for talent, including Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Microsoft. He said those are the places where Google finds recruits and where employees go when they leave. Hill noted that Google pays on average in the top 5% to 10% of the market.

“We already compare favorably to these companies,” Hill said. “We are able to hire from them. We will make changes if and when we need to.”

Pichai chimed in to agree with Hill.

“One thing I will add is, for any given company, we look very hard to see the net flow of people and how we are doing there,” Pichai said. Google does “very favorably” across “almost all companies,” he added.

‘Concerning’ trend

Based on the other topics in the Dory queue, employees aren’t convinced. Pichai read the following question:

“Googlegeist results show a 10 point drop in year-over-year numbers for our compensation being competitive to other companies while leadership continues to say that we pay top of market. Is it time we remove lower paying companies like Walmart from our benchmarking and adjust employee pay accordingly?”

Again, Hill responded.

“This trend — it is concerning to us and we are keeping a close eye on it,” Hill said.

A whole section of Dory questions was dedicated to Googlegeist. For non-survey topics, there was a section called “Other.” Even there, the top-rated questions were about pay.

Here’s the question from that section with the second-highest number of upvotes, as read by Pichai:

“If Google aims to hire the top 1% of talent, why doesn’t Google aim to pay the 1% of salaries, rather than being top 5%-10% of the market?”

Hill said the company wants “to hire the best people everywhere” and has generally achieved that by being in that range and offering a “broader package.”

Pichai added that, “when we say top five to 10%, we plan to be very aggressive. So, for example, when we see job functions based on supply demand, we do what we need to get new people and sometimes the number is much higher too.”

‘Systematic fixes’

Employees also asked about Google’s performance reviews. The process is known to last several weeks and requires employees to evaluate themselves and retrieve evaluations from managers and can also involve peer reviews. The timing gets extended if an employee is seeking a promotion.

Executives said changes to performance reviews, or what the company calls “perf,” are in the works.

“With so much emphasis on perf, aspiring employees are pushed to do what’s best for perf, which is not necessarily what’s best for Google or the users,” a high-ranking question stated. “What are we doing to fix this?”

Brian Welle, vice president of people analytics and performance, responded by saying, “As the lead of the perf team, I am concerned about this one too.” He said the company is “working on systematic fixes” and in the meantime is “encouraging Googlers and managers to work together to set clear performance expectations.”

Pichai said the company is considering changing the performance review process and hopes to “come back and give a more comprehensive update.”

“Employees want to feel like they’re making an impact,” he said. “There’s so much we can do to make perf a much more supportive process focused on developing people as well as aligning with company goals.”

WATCH: Cramer likes Alphabet stock split

April Curley was hired in 2014 to recruit Black candidates for the company. Her lawsuit, filed on Friday in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in San Jose, claims she was unlawfully fired in 2020 after she began speaking out and “called for reform of the barriers and double standards Google imposed on Black employees and applicants,” according to the lawsuit.

“Pursuant to its strong, racially biased corporate culture, Google is engaged in a pattern and practice of race discrimination against its African American and Black employees,” the complaint states. “Google’s centralized leadership, which is nearly devoid of Black representation, holds biased and stereotypical views about the abilities and potential of Black professionals.”

As a result, the lawsuit continues, Black employees are paid less, advance less and often leave the company.

A representative for Google did not immediately respond to a message for comment on Monday.

The lawsuit, which seeks class action status, echoes years of complaints from Black employees at the company. That includes prominent artificial intelligence scholar Timnit Gebru, who said she was pushed out in 2020 after a dispute over a research paper examining the societal dangers of an emerging branch of artificial intelligence.

At the time, Gebru posted on Twitter that she was fired but Google told employees she resigned. More than 1,200 Google employees signed on to an open letter calling the incident “unprecedented research censorship” and faulting the company for racism and defensiveness.

Curley’s lawsuit claims the company viewed Black job candidates “through harmful racial stereotypes” and claimed that hiring managers deemed Black candidates “not ‘Googly’ enough, a plain dog whistle for race discrimination.”

In addition, according to the suit, interviewers “hazed” and undermined Black candidates and hired Black candidates into lower-paying and lower-level roles with less advancement potential based on their race and racial stereotypes.

Curley and others, according to the suit, were often “pigeon-holed into dead-end jobs.”

The lawsuit states that Google, which hired Curley specifically to recruit Black candidates for the company, wanted her to “quietly put on a good face for the company and toe the company line.” Instead, according to the suit, she was a champion for Black employees and Black students who “vocally opposed and called for reform of the barriers and double standards Google imposed on Black employees and applicants.”

In response, the complaint says, Google “unlawfully marginalized, undermined, and ultimately terminated” Curley.

Food delivery company DoorDash is taking steps to try and help drivers offset rising gas prices, though unlike ride-share apps Uber and Lyft, it says the added costs won’t be passed on to consumers.

DoorDash said on Tuesday that all U.S. delivery drivers will be eligible for 10% cash back on gas through a prepaid business Visa debit card. They’ll earn cash back any time they use the card, even when they’re not working, the online delivery service said.

“Over the last few weeks, prices at the pump have increased all across the world, and for Dashers who deliver by car, this economic reality presents unique and unprecedented challenges,” the company said in a statement.

Oil prices hit $130 a barrel last week, lifting retail gasoline prices across the country. The average cost of regular, unleaded gas in the U.S. is $4.32 per gallon, according to the American Automobile Association, with the price in DoorDash’s home state of California surging to $5.75 a gallon.

Uber and Lyft recently announced that they’re adding a temporary rider surcharge. Uber trips will come with a fee of 45 cents to 55 cents, and Uber Eats deliveries will include a charge of 35 cents to 45 cents, the company said last week. Lyft didn’t specify the amount of its rider surcharge.

A DoorDash spokesperson told CNBC that the company is taking a different approach.

“We know Dashers aren’t the only ones facing pain at the pump, and we’re not passing the cost of these programs on to consumers at this time,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

DoorDash also announced a weekly gas bonus for those who drive more frequently in their job, saying, “Dashers who accept and complete orders totaling 100 miles in a motor vehicle will earn an extra $5.”

The cash back reward program will begin March 17, and relief will stay in place “at least through April,” the company said.

“We’ll continue to monitor gas prices, listen to the Dasher community, and seek feedback as we evolve these programs and explore additional resources in the coming weeks and months,” it said.

WATCH: Growing U.S. oil production

As Google prepares to bring most employees back to the office, the company is facing a workforce that’s increasingly unhappy when it comes to key issues such as compensation and an ability to meet career goals.

Google‘s annual employee surveys, internally called “Googlegeist,” show that a growing number of staffers don’t view their pay packages as fair or competitive with what they could make in a similar role elsewhere. They are also questioning their employer’s ability to execute.

The surveys were taken in January and released to employees last week. CNBC viewed results from the company overall as well as individual groups such as cloud, search and ads. The lowest scores across the board were in compensation and execution. The highest scores were in Google’s mission and values.

CEO Sundar Pichai told employees in a brief email announcing the results that the survey is “one of the most important ways” the company measures how much people like working at the company.

Retention and employee satisfaction are more critical than ever to Google and others in the tech sector as record numbers of people in the U.S. are quitting their jobs and exploring new opportunities. Google is also about to begin bringing most of its employees back to physical offices at least three days a week. After two years of remote work because of the pandemic, Google’s reopening is scheduled for April 4.

Unsatisfied with promotions

Only 46% of survey respondents said their total compensation is competitive compared to similar jobs at other companies. That’s down 12 points from a year earlier. A modestly higher number, 56%, say their pay is “fair and equitable,” a drop of eight points from the prior year. Some 64% of employees said their performance is reflected in their pay, down three points.

Business Insider previously reported some of the compensation survey results.

“We know that our employees have many choices about where they work, so we ensure they are very well compensated,” a Google spokesperson said in a statement. “That’s why we’ve always provided top of market compensation across salary, equity, leave, and a suite of benefits. Getting employee feedback is important, and we’ll continue to ensure we pay competitively everywhere our employees work and help them grow their careers at Google.” 

Pay is a matter that Google executives have been forced to address of late. At an all-hands meeting in December, Frank Wagner, Google’s vice president of compensation, responded to concerns about rising inflation and whether the company would provide any sort of increase. Wagner said Google would not implement a blanket raise to match inflation.

Meanwhile, revenue has continued to surge, executives have received pay bumps and the stock price hit a record in November before falling with the rest of the market.

Pichai still received a favorable rating of 86% from employees in the survey. But some of the more specific questions about Pichai resulted in less-flattering responses. For his vision of what the company can be, 74% said Pichai inspires them, while the same number said his “decisions and strategies enable Google to do excellent work.”

Prabhakar Raghavan, who oversees key businesses including search, ads and commerce, noted in an internal email that 61% of employees see themselves as able to meet career goals at the company and said, “there’s work to be done.”

“We need to make sure that you succeed to your full abilities and keep learning and growing in your careers here,” he wrote.

Highlighting a 7% dip in views about Google’s execution, Raghavan said “that means we need to bring more attention to busting bureaucracy and ensuring we can act quickly when needed.”

In the cloud division, CEO Thomas Kurian also noted a decline in execution, and said in an email that there still remains “barriers to decision-making.”

Kurian’s unit faces issues similar to the parent company’s. Only 54% of employees in the cloud group say the promotional process is fair, a decline of two points from a year ago. Kurian said there’s “a lack of criteria for promotions” and “lack of transparency.”

Raghavan and Pichai each received favorability ratings of 84%.

Employees happy with products, mission

Survey results showed employees are pleased with Google’s ability to deliver on the mission “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” 

Google’s mission received a 90% rating, while values came in at 85%.

“It’s heartening to see that our org takes a lot of pride in our mission, managers and helpfulness of our products,” Raghavan wrote. “These continue to be foundational to our work and our culture.”

Additionally, 96% of employees under Raghavan agreed that Google’s products are helpful to people in their everyday lives.

Diversity and inclusion ratings were mixed. The company received favorable marks between 82% and 90% when it came to “belonging” and employees feeling their opinions are valued. 

Pichai said the company progressed in areas including employee “well-being” and “culture of respect.”

WATCH: Google a good stock to have for 2022 as recovery continues

Alphabet hopes its acquisition of cybersecurity company Mandiant will help it serve the “idiosyncratic” needs of customers in different industries, Alphabet’s finance chief Ruth Porat said at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecom conference on Tuesday afternoon.

Google parent company Alphabet announced earlier on Tuesday that it plans to buy cybersecurity firm Mandiant for around $5.4 billion, which makes it the second-largest acquisition in the company’s history. Porat gave a bit a more insight into where it falls within the search giant’s investments in its rapidly growing cloud unit.

“It’s an extraordinary player in cybersecurity,” Porat said of Mandiant. “It is going to enable us to provide this end-to-end solution in this very important area and, again, it goes to our commitment around cybersecurity but also all we’re doing in cloud. The investments and the focus — it starts with let’s make sure we have the depth and breadth within industry verticals so that we can address the idiosyncratic needs within each industry, whether it’s finance versus retail versus health care.”

She added that investments like Mandiant are necessary to compete with the largest cloud players, market leader Amazon Web Services and number-two Microsoft Azure. (Microsoft reportedly bowed out of its own talks to acquire Mandiant earlier this year.)

“The way we look at it (investments) is we’re obviously not competing with our peers at the scale they were then, we are competing at the scale they are now in a market that is accelerating,” Porat said.

“We of course remain focused on what is that longer term path to profitability, but to be really clear, in the near term, we’re continuing to invest to across the board to support cloud.”

In the fourth quarter of 2021, Google Cloud reported year-over-year revenue growth of 45% to $5.54 billion, and its operating loss came in at $890 million, narrower than the $1.14 billion loss a year ago. However, that loss expanded from third quarter, when the unit lost $644 million.

Porat said one of the biggest things cloud customers from both the public and private sectors ask for is artificial intelligence and the ability to automate data. For security, that includes quicker and more sophisticated threat detection, Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian said in a blog post Tuesday.

In that earlier blog post, the company said Mandiant would fit in with the company’s products from Chronicle, which began as a standalone company in Alphabet’s “Other Bets” but in 2019 was folded into Google’s cloud business.

“Security operations tools within Google Cloud’s Chronicle, Siemplify solutions and Mandiant’s Automated Defense help customers analyze, prioritize and streamline threat response and leverage Mandiant’s expertise as a virtual extension of their teams,” the blog post said.

Mandiant customers include leading U.S. government agencies, the company said in its most recent annual report. In 2020, for example, FireEye (Mandiant’s name before rebranding) said it was working with the Federal Bureau of Investigation on a cyberattack.

— CNBC tech reporter Jordan Novet contributed to this report.