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Google celebrates 25 year journey from dorm to internet dominance

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YEAR EVENT 1995-1996 Page and Brin meet at Stanford University and create a search engine named BackRub. 1998 The startup, now renamed Google, gets $100,000 in funding from Sun Microsystems co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim. 1999 Google announces $25 million in funding from Sequoia Capital and Kleiner Perkins in its very first press release, and officially announces the term “Googlers” to the world. June 2000 Google becomes the default search engine provider for Yahoo, one of the most popular websites at the time. October 2000 Launches AdWords, the online advertising platform that would become core to Google’s business. 2001 Eric Schmidt is named Google’s chief executive officer and chairman of the board of directors. April 2004 Google announces it is testing the release of Gmail, with up to 1GB of storage capacity. August 2004 Launches initial public offering of roughly 19.6 million shares, at an opening price of $85 per share. February 2005 Launches Google Maps for desktop. August 2005 Acquires mobile startup Android.
Launches Google Talk instant messaging service. 2006 Buys online video service YouTube for $1.65 billion. April 2007 Announces acquisition of web ad supplier DoubleClick for $3.1 billion. May 2007 Introduces universal search that lets users access search results across all content types, like images, videos and news, at once. September 2008 Debuts first Android phone, the T-Mobile G1 or HTC Dream.
Launches Google Chrome web browser. January 2010 Launches smartphone, Nexus One, co-developed with HTC. March 2010 Stops censoring search results in China, leading to its banning in the country. October 2010 Google tests out its first self-driving vehicles with a small fleet of Toyota Prius cars in California. June 2011 Launches Google+ social networking service, which was shut down in 2018. August 2011 Announces acquisition of Motorola Mobility, which includes Motorola’s cellphone and TV set-top box businesses, for $12.5 billion. 2012 Launches Google Glass. 2013 Announces acquisition of Israeli mapping startup Waze for about $1 billion. 2014 Announces in January that it will acquire AI firm DeepMind.
In the same month, announces a $3.2 billion deal to buy smart thermostat and smoke alarm maker Nest Labs. 2015 Announces plans to create a new publicly listed company, Alphabet, which will house Google and other units, including YouTube and research and venture capital businesses. Sundar Pichai named CEO of Google. October 2016 Launches the first Pixel smartphone. November 2016 Launches Google Home smart speaker. June 2017 The European Commission fines Google 2.42 billion euros for violating the neutrality of its search. February 2018 Google reports full-year sales of over $100 billion a year for the first time. July 2018 The European Commission fines Google 4.34 billion euros for anti-competitive practices with respect to its Android operating system. March 2019 The European Commission imposes a 1.49 billion euros fine for anti-competitive practices with respect to the company’s online advertising business. June 2019 Google announces acquisition of analytics startup Looker for $2.6 billion. November 2019 Announces acquisition of Fitbit for $2.1 billion. December 2019 Co-founders Page and Brin announce they are stepping down as CEO and president, respectively; Pichai becomes CEO of Alphabet. 2020 Alphabet hits $1 trillion in market capitalization. January 2023 The company cuts 12,000 jobs, or 6% of its workforce. February 2023 Google announces Bard, a generative AI-powered chatbot that can produce text content and fetch information off the internet. However, a factual error in the AI tool’s demo tanks Alphabet shares, erasing $100 billion from the company’s market capitalization.
Susan Wojcicki, one of Google’s first employees, steps down as YouTube CEO; Neal Mohan replaces her. March 2023 Begins rolling out Bard to some users.



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AI threatens wages, not jobs

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FRANKFURT:

The rapid adoption of artificial intelligence could reduce wages, but so far is creating, not destroying jobs, especially for the young and highly-skilled, research published by the European Central Bank showed on Tuesday.

Firms have invested heavily in artificial intelligence, or AI, leaving economists striving to understand the impact on the labour market and driving fears among the wider public for the future of their jobs.

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At the same time, employers are struggling to find qualified workers, despite a recession that would normally ease labour market pressures.

In a sample of 16 European countries, the employment share of sectors exposed to AI increased, with low and medium-skill jobs largely unaffected and highly-skilled positions getting the biggest boost, a Research Bulletin published by the ECB said.

But it also cited “neutral to slightly negative impacts” on earnings and said that could increase.

“These results do not amount to an acquittal,” the paper said. “AI-enabled technologies continue to be developed and adopted. Most of their impact on employment and wages – and therefore on growth and equality – has yet to be seen.”

The findings were in contrast to previous “technology waves,” it said, when computerisation decreased “the relative share of employment of medium-skilled workers, resulting in “polarisation”.

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Steps to avoid Google account deletion due to inactivity

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Previously, Google announced that it would delete accounts that haven’t been signed into for two years, starting from December 1, 2023.

The move to delete these accounts comes from security concerns. An account that has been inactive for a long time is more susceptible to being breached by hackers, according to Google. This could expose personal information, increase the risk of identity theft, and make users vulnerable to being targeted in scams.

If someone has a Google account that they want to keep but it’s at risk of being deleted due to inactivity, they can follow certain steps to safeguard the account and its data.

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The simplest way for them to keep their Google account is by logging into it or any associated Google services like YouTube or Gmail immediately.

Read More AI threat demands new approach to security designs

By signing in at least once every two years, they can ensure that their Google account remains active and is not subject to deletion.

Considering that security is a major concern for these policies, and with Google noting that unused accounts are far less likely to have 2-step verification, it’s advisable for individuals to enable 2-step verification on their Google accounts (and on all other accounts they possess) to significantly reduce the risk of hacking.



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AI threat demands new approach to security designs

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OTTAWA:

The potential threat posed by the rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) means safeguards need to be built in to systems from the start rather than tacked on later, a top US official said on Monday.

“We’ve normalized a world where technology products come off the line full of vulnerabilities and then consumers are expected to patch those vulnerabilities. We can’t live in that world with AI,” said Jen Easterly, director of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

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“It is too powerful, it is moving too fast,” she said in a telephone interview after holding talks in Ottawa with Sami Khoury, head of Canada’s Centre for Cyber Security.

Easterly spoke the same day that agencies from 18 countries, including the United States, endorsed new British-developed guidelines on AI cyber security that focus on secure design, development, deployment and maintenance.

“We have to look at security throughout the lifecycle of that AI capability,” Khoury said.

Earlier this month, leading AI developers agreed to work with governments to test new frontier models before they are released to help manage the risks of the rapidly developing technology.

“I think we have done as much as we possibly could do at this point in time, to help come together with nations around the world, with technology companies, to set out from a technical perspective how to build these build these capabilities as securely and safely as possible,” said Easterly.

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