Search results for "google AI"

Faxes and email: Old technology slows COVID-19 response

By FRANK BAJAK AP Technology Writer On April 1, a researcher at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention emailed Nevada public health counterparts for lab reports on two travelers who had tested positive for the coronavirus. She asked Nevada to send those records via a secure network or a “password protected encrypted file” to […]

Google affiliate scraps plan for Toronto smart-city project

By ROB GILLIES Associated Press TORONTO (AP) — Google abandoned its smart-city development in Toronto on Thursday after more than two years of controversy over privacy concerns and amid economic uncertainty caused by the pandemic. A unit of Google’s parent company Alphabet had been proposing to turn a rundown part of Toronto’s waterfront into a […]

The rise of conversational AI

Facebook has released a new chatbot named Blender, which the company claims is designed to handle conversation on any topic and also to show empathy when interacting with humans. The name ‘Blender’ has been aptly used to define its capabilities of merging several conversational skills at once. The chatbot is developed from what Facebook calls […]

Virus tracing app raises privacy concerns in India

By SHEIKH SAALIQ Associated Press NEW DELHI (AP) — As India enters an extended coronavirus lockdown, the government is actively pursuing contact tracing to help control infections. At the heart of the effort in the country of 1.3 billion people is a smartphone app that evaluates users’ infection risk based on location services such as […]

Google's growth slows as pandemic infests advertising market

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE AP Technology Writer BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) — Google reported its weakest revenue growth in nearly five years as the pandemic-driven recession began to shrivel its advertising sales in the first quarter. The January-March earnings for Google parent Alphabet offer a first look at how the digital ad market has fared amid widespread […]

Digital-ad downturn may complicate life for Google, Facebook

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE and BARBARA ORTUTAY AP Technology Writers Demand for digital-ad is shriveling after a decade of explosive growth amid the pandemic-fueled downturn. That could complicate things for Google and Facebook, who for the first time may have to contend with revenues that are actually shrinking. With consumers mostly at home and unemployment soaring, […]

Australia to make Google and Facebook pay for news content

By ROD McGUIRK Associated Press CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Global digital platforms Google and Facebook will be forced to pay for news content in Australia, the government said Monday, as the coronavirus pandemic causes a collapse in advertising revenue. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission would release in late July draft […]

Ways that AI is helping the fight against COVID-19

Initial cases of COVID-19 were first declared in December 2019, in Wuhan, China. After four months, the virus has now been diagnosed in 167 countries and almost 140,000 people have died. The impact of the disease throughout the world will have unprecedented consequences for virtually all aspects of the global economy. The world seems to […]

Tech companies step up fight against bad coronavirus info

By AMANDA SEITZ and BARBARA ORTUTAY The Associated Press CHICAGO (AP) — Potentially dangerous coronavirus misinformation has spread from continent to continent like the pandemic itself, forcing the world’s largest tech companies to take unprecedented action to protect public health. Facebook, Google and others have begun using algorithms, new rules and factual warnings to knock […]

Apple, Google to harness phones for virus infection tracking

By FRANK BAJAK and MATT O’BRIEN AP Technology Writers Apple and Google fueled hopes for digital technology’s promise against a fast-moving, invisible killer, announcing a joint effort to help public health agencies worldwide leverage smartphones to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. New software the companies plan to add to phones would make it easier to use […]