Monthly Archives: September 2021

September 09, 2021

RENO,Nev. Google isproviding 10,000 Certified Educator Level 1 vouchers at no cost across the State.Throughsupport for the Nevada Department of Education, the certifications will be offered to teacherswho want to grow and demonstrate their proficiency in Google Workspace toolsfor classroom teaching.

The programconsists of a Fundamentals Course and a Level 1 Academy to help educators learnvaluable technology skills useful in both hybrid and virtual environments. Onceachieved, the certification is valid for three years.Our goalis to provide educators with opportunities to develop the digital skills theyneed in any tech-driven classroom, said Kate Franko, Googles Regional Head ofData Center Public Affairs. We hope this training will make their work easier,even more impactful, and create ripple effects across Nevada that benefit bothteachers and students."The programis available to many groups of educators working with Nevadas studentsincluding: licensed Nevada teachers and Alternative Route to Licensure (ARL)teachers, teacher preparation faculty at Nevada universities and ARL programs, contractededucational technology specialist computer teachers, pre-service teachersaccepted to a Nevada teacher preparation program, school librarians and mediaspecialists.Nevadaseducators are the key to fostering students who are globally prepared andfuture-ready, said Jhone Ebert, State Superintendent of Public Instruction. Asthe technology of our world continues to rapidly evolve, it is critical to buildour educators capacity to support our students and I thank Google for providingthis opportunity.Applicationsto join the initial cohort of 2,500 educators to receive training this year inthe Level 1 Certification are open starting today online. The remaining 7,500 certification voucherswill be available in 2022 and beyond. In addition to training teachers, acohort of educators already achieved Google Certified Trainer status. Thesenewly Certified Trainers will be able to assist with the monumental undertakingof certifying up to 10,000 educators in the Level 1 program in the future.Theeducators who will take this Level 1 course, and those who have already becometrainers, are extremely dedicated individuals who will develop their skills tobenefit themselves, their students, and their peers, says Amy Mayer, CEO andFounder of friEdTechnology, the Google for Education Professional Developmentpartner delivering the training.This dedication combined withnewly-minted tech skills will support their efficiency and effectiveness in theclassroom.###

AboutGoogle in NevadaIn July2019, Google broke ground on its first $600 million data center in Henderson,Nevada, with a second $600 million expansion following in 2020. In 2020 Googlealso announced a new $600 million investment in Storey County, bringing itstotal investment in Nevada to $1.8 billion. Once fully operational, all siteswill employ many people in a variety of fields including computer technicians,engineers, and various service, maintenance, and security roles.

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Google Offering 10,000 Free Educator Certifications to Support Nevada Teachers - Nevada Governor

With help from Leah Nylen and John Hendel

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Ready for round 2? The Justice Department is preparing yet another suit against Google, and it could happen before DOJ antitrust nominee Jonathan Kanter is confirmed.

230 watch: Theres no shortage of bills that would tighten social media content moderation rules now working their way through Congress. But which ones stand a chance, and which are just for show?

Eyes on Texas: The states abortion restrictions could cause trouble for ride-sharing companies, and a separate law waiting to be signed could ensnare social media platforms if theyre accused of censoring conservative viewpoints.

ITS TUESDAY, SEPT. 7. WELCOME BACK TO MORNING TECH. Im your host, Benjamin Din. Huge thank you to everyone who weighed in on headphone suggestions. The pair I ordered arrived last week, and they have been incredible.

Got a news tip? Email me at [emailprotected] and find me on Twitter @benjamindin. Got an event for our calendar? Send details to [emailprotected]. Anything else? Team info below. And don't forget: Add @MorningTech and @PoliticoPro on Twitter.

DOJ READIES ANOTHER GOOGLE SUIT An actual filing against the search giant still isnt imminent, two people familiar with the probe tell POLITICO antitrust maven Leah Nylen, but Googles odds of avoiding a fifth major antitrust suit arent good. Prosecutors have spent months crafting a complaint focusing on one of the crown jewels in the companys business model: its huge share of the $70.2 billion spent last year on online display and video advertising, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau.

After Aon and Willis Towers Watson called off their deal to build the worlds biggest insurance brokerage and risk management service in July, DOJ antitrust reassigned the lawyers gearing up for trial in that case to the probes into Google and Apple. Their marching orders: Wrap up those probes by the end of the year.

But the Google ad tech probe is the closest to the finish line, and the Justice Department wont be waiting on Kanter, the presidents pick for assistant attorney general for antitrust, to get the OK from the Senate. Attorney General Merrick Garland and Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta will make the final call on whether to sue Google if Kanter still isnt confirmed by the time prosecutors are ready. Their involvement as the decision-makers could also help assuage tech industry concerns about possible conflicts of interest posed by Kanters former clients, many of whom have complained about the search giants dominance.

Still under debate at DOJ: where to file. The department usually prefers D.C., but antitrust suits against Google by state attorneys general and private plaintiffs are already proceeding before Judge P. Kevin Castel in Manhattan federal court. Filing in New York would let one court decide Googles fate.

Walking down memory lane: Googles ad tech has been one of DOJs main focuses since it began investigating the company in 2019, and many observers expected the department to file suit over that issue last year. Instead, when the department sued Google in October, it zeroed in on the online search market.

An antitrust probe into Apple is also proceeding, but DOJ prosecutors who attended every day of game developer Epic Games antitrust trial against the iPhone maker in May are waiting on Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers. Her ruling in the Epic case is expected any day now and may affect both whether and where DOJ decides to sue.

SECTION 230 BILLS SPROUTING ON THE HILL Lawmakers have introduced more than 20 bills to revamp or repeal the online legal shield that protects internet platforms from liability for what their users post. Our Julia Arciga breaks them down for Pros this morning:

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are pushing for changes to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996, dissatisfied with how major tech platforms have approached their content moderation policies albeit for different reasons. Democrats are worried that platforms have used Section 230 to avoid accountability for the spread of misinformation and other dangerous content, while Republicans say those same platforms use it to discriminate against conservatives.

That disagreement could make a meaningful overhaul of the law challenging. There isnt a ton of momentum around any particular idea for changing Section 230. I dont really see a coalescing around any philosophical or legal approach to reform, said Emma Llans, director of the Free Expression Project at the Center for Democracy & Technology, a think tank that promotes democratic values in technology.

No way: GOP lawmakers are more likely to propose revoking Section 230 entirely an idea championed by former President Donald Trump, but one that will largely remain little more than political grandstanding as Democrats remain in control.

Long shot: One strategy that has worked in the past is crafting legislation that creates exceptions to Section 230. Tech policy watchers think H.R. 3184 (117), led by Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.), could become law. That bill would hold platforms liable for civil rights violations in targeted advertising.

Potentially promising: An approach with bipartisan appeal is tying Section 230 protections to platforms conduct. This would require the platforms to take certain actions, such as publishing transparency reports or clearly defining content moderation policies for the public, in order to retain their legal protections.

TECH TENSIONS WITH TEXAS Texas is facing criticism from some tech companies over its restrictive abortion law, which went into effect last week after the Supreme Court declined to intervene in a court challenge. And in another move that will irk Silicon Valley, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is expected to sign a social media bill soon, after it landed on his desk Friday.

Feeling deja vu: The Texas state legislature approved a measure late last week aimed at curbing perceived anti-conservative discrimination. (A similar law in Florida was temporarily blocked by a federal judge citing concerns over potential First Amendment violations; that ruling is under appeal.)

The Texas social media bill would require platforms with at least 50 million active monthly U.S. users to publicly release information about their content moderation practices and results, as well as put in place an appeals process for moderation decisions. It also would allow Texas users to sue the platforms over alleged censorship.

Critics of the bill including prominent tech industry coalitions like the Chamber of Progress, as well as NetChoice and the Computer and Communications Industry Association, which co-led the challenge to the Florida law say online platforms should have the right to enforce their own moderation policies and take down content they find objectionable.

Abortion blowback: Meanwhile, a number of tech companies have spoken out against Texas new ban on abortions at around six weeks, when human embryos first show detectable signs of cardiac activity. The law also criminalizes helping to facilitate an illegal abortion, which has raised concerns at Uber and Lyft that the law could affect drivers who take a passenger to get the procedure done. In response, the chief executives of the two major ridesharing services have said their companies will help cover drivers legal fees. Bumble, a dating app with headquarters in Texas, said it would create a relief fund to support reproductive rights for those seeking abortions in light of the law, and Shar Dubey, CEO of Texas-headquartered Match Group, which owns dating apps like Tinder, said in an internal memo that she would set up a fund for employees and their dependents impacted by the law to seek out-of-state care.

John Branscome, a longtime expert on telecommunications policy, is leaving his post as a majority staff director for the Senate Commerce Committee, the panel told MT. He has been a past contender for a Democratic commissioner role on the FCC. Dominic Cussatt is now the CIO and head of technology innovation for the Bureau of Intelligence and Research at the State Department. He was previously acting CIO at the Department of Veterans Affairs. Jessica Cole is now interim CEO of U.S. Digital Response, and Tina Walha will join as director of public digital. Founding CEO Raylene Yung will join the Biden administration, working on tech modernization at the General Services Administration.

Matt Gerst is now VP for legal and policy affairs and associate general counsel at the Internet Association. He previously was VP of regulatory affairs at CTIA. Troy Clair is now director of public engagement at Instacart. He previously was head of strategic public policy partnerships and senior policy manager at Amazon, and is a Hill alum. Grace Diana is now a senior manager of federal government relations at Samsung. She most recently was executive director of the National Science and Technology Council and is a Biden and Trump White House alum.

Meghan Pearce has been promoted to federal policy manager at TechNet. Mina Hsiang is now the administrator of the United States Digital Service, becoming the first woman and first Asian American to lead the agency. Jaime Teevan has been promoted to CVP at Microsoft. She is the chief scientist for the company's experiences and devices division.

Sana Sheikh has been promoted to VP of transformation, deputy general counsel and VP of strategic affairs at Granite Telecommunications. Accounting Seed announced three new hires: former Salesforce director of technical consulting Ryan Sieve as CTO; former AOL analyst Brian Wai as VP of finance and accounting; and former Oracle manager Barry Thompson as partner relationship manager.

J. Alex Dalessio is now principal for the worldwide public sector innovation studio at Amazon Web Services. He previously was senior adviser at the office of the federal CIO and director of strategic initiatives and technology adviser for the White House Council on Environmental Quality. Josh Divine is now chief counsel to Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.). He most recently was a law clerk to Justice Clarence Thomas.

Something for everyone: The Strange Tale of the Freedom Phone, a Smartphone for Conservatives. More from NYT.

Stepping in: Google locks Afghan government accounts as Taliban seek emails, via Reuters.

ICYMI: Theres a new Democratic majority at the National Labor Relations Board. That could mean a dramatic shift in power from employers to workers, POLITICOs Eleanor Mueller reports.

Pretty please: A Texas city hopes to entice Samsung into building a $17 billion chip plant there with large property tax breaks, Reuters reports.

ICYMI: Apple announced Friday it would pause its rollout of new child safety features amid scrutiny from privacy advocates, John reported for Pros. The Electronic Frontier Foundation said the company should drop the planned features altogether.

Tips, comments, suggestions? Send them along via email to our team: Bob King ([emailprotected]), Heidi Vogt ([emailprotected]), John Hendel ([emailprotected]), Alexandra S. Levine ([emailprotected]), Leah Nylen ([emailprotected]), Emily Birnbaum ([emailprotected]), and Benjamin Din ([emailprotected]). Got an event for our calendar? Send details to [emailprotected]. And don't forget: Add @MorningTech and @PoliticoPro on Twitter.

SEE YOU TOMORROW!

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DOJ preps to sue over Google's ad tech, even without its antitrust chief - Politico

Google CEO Sundar Pichai talks about the company's third-generation artificial intelligence chips.

Source: YouTube screenshot

Not content with relying on standard chips that are in high demand, some of the world's biggest tech firms are developing their own semiconductors.

Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Tesla and Baidu are all shunning established chip firms and bringing certain aspects of chip development in-house, according to company announcements and media reports.

"Increasingly, these companies want custom-made chips fitting their applications' specific requirements rather than use the same generic chips as their competitors," Syed Alam, global semiconductor lead at Accenture, told CNBC.

"This gives them more control over the integration of software and hardware while differentiating them from their competition," Alam added.

Russ Shaw, a former non-executive director at U.K.-based Dialog Semiconductor, told CNBC that custom-designed chips can perform better and work out cheaper.

"These specifically designed chips can help to reduce energy consumption for devices and products from the specific tech company, whether it relates to smartphones or cloud services," Shaw said.

The ongoing global chip shortage is another reason why big tech firms are thinking twice about where they get their chips from, Glenn O'Donnell, research director at analyst firm Forrester, told CNBC. "The pandemic threw a big wrench in these supply chains, which accelerated efforts to do their own chips."

"Many already felt limited in their innovation pace being locked into chipmaker timelines," O'Donnell said.

At present, barely a month goes by without a Big Tech company announcing a new chip project.

Perhaps the most notable example came in November 2020 when Apple announced it was moving away from Intel's x86 architecture to make its own M1 processor, which now sits in its new iMacs and iPads.

More recently, Tesla announced that it is building a "Dojo" chip to train artificial intelligence networks in data centers. The automaker in 2019 started producing cars with its custom AI chips that help on-board software make decisions in response to what's happening on the road.

Baidu last month launched an AI chip that's designed to help devices process huge amounts of data and boost computing power. Baidu said the "Kunlun 2" chip can be used in areas such as autonomous driving and that it has entered mass production.

Some of the tech giants have chosen to keep certain semiconductor projects under wraps.

Google is reportedly edging closer to rolling out its own central processing units, or CPUs, for its Chromebook laptops. The search giant plans to use its CPUs in Chromebooks and tablets that run on the company's Chrome operating system from around 2023, according to a report from Nikkei Asia on Sep. 1. Google did not immediately respond to a CNBC request for comment.

Amazon, which operates the world's largest cloud service, is developing its own networking chip to power hardware switches that move data around networks. If it works, it would reduce Amazon's reliance on Broadcom. Amazon, which already designs a number of other chips, did not immediately respond to a CNBC request for comment.

Facebook's chief AI scientist told Bloomberg in 2019 that the company is working on a new class of semiconductor that would work "very differently" than most of the existing designs. Facebook did not immediately respond to a CNBC request for comment.

At this stage, none of the tech giants are looking to do all the chip development themselves.

"It is all about the design and performance of the chip," Shaw said. "At this stage, it is not about the manufacturing and foundries, which is very costly."

Setting up an advanced chip factory, or foundry, like TSMC's in Taiwan, costs around $10 billion and takes several years.

"Even Google and Apple are reticent to build these," O'Donnell said. "They'll go to TSMC or even Intel to build their chips."

O'Donnell said there's a shortage of people in Silicon Valley with the skills required to design high end-processors. "Silicon Valley put so much emphasis on software over the past few decades that hardware engineering was seen as a bit of an anachronism," he said.

"It became 'uncool' to do hardware," O'Donnell said. "Despite its name, Silicon Valley now employs relatively few real silicon engineers."

Excerpt from:

Tech giants are rushing to develop their own chips heres why - CNBC

More exterior progress on Googles 1.3 million-square-foot office at 550 Washington Street has been made in Hudson Square. Designed byCOOKFOX Architectsand developed byOxford Properties, the topped-out building is the central component of the Googleplex that willencompass a total of 1.7 million square feet across three separate structures with the other two sites being 315 Hudson Streetand345 Hudson Street.Turner Construction is responsible for constructing the 12-story steel-framed edifice that spans two full city blocks between West Street, West Houston Street, Washington Street, and the New York Department of Sanitation building.

550 Washington Street. Photo by Michael Young

550 Washington Street. Photo by Michael Young

550 Washington Street. Photo by Michael Young

550 Washington Street. Photo by Michael Young

550 Washington Street. Photo by Michael Young

Since our last update back in early March, the top floors of the structure have been enclosed in floor-to-ceiling glass and metal panels that wrap around all four sides of the massive rectangular office complex. Also seen are the industrial-style windows that line the podium of the western elevation.

550 Washington Street. Photo by Michael Young

550 Washington Street. Photo by Michael Young

550 Washington Street. Photo by Michael Young

550 Washington Street. Photo by Michael Young

550 Washington Street. Photo by Michael Young

The glass frontage for the whole ground floor is one of the last major external components currently being worked on, which largely sit behind fencing and wooden boards up against the sidewalks. Looking from above at the eastern side gives us an idea of how the first level is shaping up.

550 Washington Street. Photo by Michael Young

Solar shading louvers are only found on the shorter southern wall above the podium.

550 Washington Street. Photo by Michael Young

550 Washington Street. Photo by Michael Young

550 Washington Street. Photo by Michael Young

The northern profile of 550 Washington Street is steadily taking shape, particularly the lower half that will feature a hollow steel-framed canopy made of multiple girders at the top of the terminals original roof line. Abundant landscaping on almost every level and around the main entrance, the top of the canopy, and sidewalks will also populate this side of the superstructure. This is best depicted in the rendering below.

550 Washington Street. Photo by Michael Young

Rendering of 550 Washington Street by COOKFOX Architects)

Future occupants will have access to a number of outdoor landscaped terraces, large expansive rooftop areas that overlook the Hudson River and the Lower Manhattan and Midtown skylines, and amenities that have yet to be announced.

YIMBY last reported that 550 Washington Street is expected to be completed sometime next year.

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Google's Upcoming St. John's Terminal Office Progresses Further With Exterior Work, In Hudson Square - New York YIMBY

All financial services providers wishing to advertise on Google from today must show they are authorised by the FCA. In reality, this means they now need to provide information to Google that includes:

If a provider has not completed Google's standard verification process prior to today, they also need to do so. This includes providing Google with identity documents such as:

If you are an FCA-authorised individual or representative, as opposed to a business, you need to provide proof of identity by showing a driver's license, EU national ID, EU or UK passport, or a UK residence card.

It is only after completing both of these steps that financial providers will now be allowed to show ads on Google. This verification will be needed for all forms of advertising, includingsearch, shopping and display.

Both third parties and non-financial services advertisers also still need to provide details to Google to verify their identity.

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Google introduces new checks to tackle scam financial ads from today - but there are major exclusions - MoneySavingExpert