Category Archives: Google

Beverly Kim owns two restaurants in Chicago and is no stranger to the ups and downs of reviews and criticism. But a series of one-star reviews posted to her restaurant Parachutes Google business profile in early July raised an alarm.

My initial reaction was, are they being racist? This is a Korean restaurant; maybe people arent understanding it, she said.

As it turned out, it wasnt a racist attack, but it was a coordinated one. A new scam targeting independent restaurants across the country emerged a few weeks ago. First, scammers left multiple one-star ratings on restaurants Google listings. Then they emailed the restaurants to demand small cash payments in exchange for deleting the reviews.

Hello. Unfortunately, negative feedback about your establishment has been left by us. And will appear in the future, one review a day. We sincerely apologize for our actions, and would not want to harm your business, but we have no other choice, the emails read, before asking for $75 gift cards to be sent to an encrypted email address. The fact is that we live in India and see no other way to survive.

It was extortion by Google rating.

Parachute was just one of the Chicago restaurants targeted by scammers in attacks that spanned the country from San Francisco to Houston to New York.

This was going to be a story about Googles inaction in response to the organized and widely publicized scam. As of last week many of the fraudulent ratings still appeared in search results and on Google Maps. Though Google encourages business owners to report suspicious reviews, the platform was slow to respond to frantic restaurant owners, and in some cases even said that reviews didnt go against company policy. Now, weeks later, some targeted restaurants, including Parachute, have found the one-star reviews are finally gone.

Still, the scammers found an easy target in independent restaurants that faced headaches as they tried, unsuccessfully at first, to have the reviews removed. Weeks after the scam began, its revealed just how reliant restaurants are on review platforms like Google, and how little power they have to respond to bad actors. Its a fragile system that restaurant owners rely on heavily to succeed, and one that has few checks and balances to ensure they arent being taken advantage of or extorted.

Some restaurant owners, Kim included, reported all the offending reviews and received responses saying that the reviews didnt violate Googles policies and would remain on the site. (The response asked business owners to consider replying to the customer directly to resolve the issue.) Despite having proof of extortion in hand, restaurants, stuck in a loop of technological customer service, were left to ignore the fake ratings, or worse, engage their extortionist, hoping they wouldnt pile up and hurt business.

Google also recommends, obviously, that restaurants dont pay the scammers. In an emailed statement provided on July 25, a Google spokesperson said the company was aware of the extortion scam and that its team was working around the clock to thwart the attacks, take down fraudulent reviews, and protect affected restaurants profiles, without elaborating further. Our policies clearly state reviews must be based on real experiences, and we use a combination of human operators and industry-leading technology to closely monitor 24/7 for fraudulent content, the spokesperson said. We encourage users and business owners to flag suspicious activity to us, which helps us keep the information on Maps accurate and reliable.

Read the rest here:

Restaurant Owners are at the Mercy of Google Review Scammers - Bon Appetit

Every major tech company is working on computer glasses. None of them really want to go first.

They all remember how Google Glass, and the Glassholes who wore them in public, became the laughingstock of the world. So theyve been waiting, biding their time, refining their prototypes, and every so often making sure investors know that, no, theyre not going to let the first potentially iPhone-sized opportunity since the iPhone slip by.

But now, Google itself is taking the next step. And whether youve been dreading the moment when Big Techs all-seeing eyes reappear on peoples heads or merely counting the days until you can own a hands-free camera-computer, you should know were on the verge of contending with them once again.

Last Tuesday, Google revealed that it will begin testing camera-equipped augmented reality glasses in public, and the companys blog post contains numerous statements designed to assure you that this wont be the era of Glassholes all over again. Google claims its starting with a few dozen testers, and the cameras and microphones on its glasses dont support photography and videography. They do collect visual data, but Google wants you to imagine use cases like translating the menu in front of you not recording someone across from you at a bar.

The companys support page also contains an entire list of FAQs like What is image data used for?; How long is it stored?; and How will I know if Im in close proximity to products being tested? Turns out theres an LED that lights up if Google decides to save images for analysis, and it promises to delete them 30 days later.

For now, Google says its testers wont be using them in schools, hospitals, churches, playgrounds, and the like though it says nothing about restaurants and bars, where Glass famously got wearers in trouble years ago.

If you hate this idea, theres probably nothing I can say to convince you otherwise, nor would I necessarily want to; Im not going to pretend to know whether such a gadget should exist in the world. I just think you should realize that if Googles test doesnt end in utter disgust, it wont be long before Apple, Microsoft, and others throw their long-awaited glasses into the ring as well.

And in 2022, I wouldnt actually bet on disgust, mainly because weve had a decade of pointing phones at things in public, documenting every element of our lives, to prepare us for whats to come.

Since the day in 2012 when a team of Google skydivers landed on Moscone Center with the first public Google Glass prototypes, mobile camera use has exploded. Not only have phone cameras utterly destroyed point-and-shoots but theyve also changed social norms. In 2012, it was still a little weird to whip out a camera in a bar or restaurant; now, itd be weird not to nab a selfie with friends or snap some shots of a particularly tasty-looking meal. And the fear you might accidentally capture a stranger in your shot? Its such a normal everyday occurrence that Google uses a magic background person eraser as a selling point for its Pixel phones.

Besides, mobile cameras arent just filming when someone thinks to pull their smartphone out of their pocket; theyre flying through the air. Anyone can now buy a self-flying camera from Snap for $230 to film public places robotically, and weve had most of a decade to get used to the idea that another persons camera might be looking down on you from above. The vast majority of the consumer drone revolution occurred after Google Glass the DJI Phantom wasnt released until 2013.

Google Glass also predated the wide adoption of 4G LTE, which brought livestreaming and instant video publishing to the masses. Its the reason you can record the police and maybe possibly hold them accountable. (Remember when Google Glass pundits wrote about the concept of sousveillance, a form of reverse surveillance where people use their own cameras to watch the watchers? Phones already took us partway there.)

Public spaces are full of cameras pointed in every direction now, and theres very little expectation of privacy outside of your home. Society hasnt mounted many successful challenges to the proliferation of cameras, either. And even if filming were illegal, how would you police it? Its not easy to tell if someone is actually recording, checking TikTok, or even just getting work done on the go.

As my former colleague Ellis Hamburger put it in 2014, we are all Glassholes now. And I feel thats only become more true through the pandemic, as even technology holdouts have begun to rely on pocket computers for bare necessities like socialization and food. In the last couple of years, Ive seen people who swore off technology for things they could do in person begrudgingly turn to Amazon, DoorDash, Facebook, Instacart, and more. And I suspect some of them will be more open-minded about the benefits of tech now.

Even headsets may not carry quite the stigma they did due to the pandemic. VR usage exploded during the 2020 lockdowns, even if the overall sales numbers are still relatively small. The modern rise and fall and rise of virtual reality is, again, something that happened after Google Glasss fateful 2012 launch.

The pandemic might also wind up resetting some of our social norms like masking, which has the handy side effect of obscuring your identity from cameras while also lessening the spread of germs. Its not too hard to imagine countries that would tolerate citizens wearing a Bane-like mask tolerating other head-worn gadgets as well. You might remember a time when Bluetooth headsets were considered too dorky and rude to wear in public, and those have been thoroughly normalized now.

Besides, Google isnt the first to dip a toe back in these waters. Snapchat is now on the fourth generation of its Spectacles camera glasses, Meta has its Ray-Ban Stories, and you could argue Metas Project Aria test is pretty similar to what Googles doing now. None has yet generated the kind of stink that Google Glass experienced a decade ago.

Sure, that could change if a future pair of glasses proves to be more intrusive than our existing phones and drones. There are definitely going to be serious questions about data collection and privacy, particularly given the track record of some of the companies building them.

But in 2022, I think the bigger challenge facing Apple, Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Snap is figuring out how to build AR experiences wed actually pay for experiences more compelling or convenient than what phones already offer. As we wrote in May when Google teased some real-time language translation glasses, the company does have an intriguing idea there:

Its very hard to watch that video and see a Glasshole. But its also too easy to spot the vaporware.

More here:

Google is trying to fix the mistakes of Google Glass - The Verge

Google projects like the North Bayshore Master Plan aim to bring thousands of new homes to Mountain View, though it's going to take decades to come to fruition. Courtesy Google.

Three years after pledging to invest $1 billion toward increasing the Bay Area's housing supply and supporting organizations that combat homelessness, Google released an update on how this commitment is unfolding.

So far, the tech behemoth has allocated $128 million of a $250 million investment fund to 18 organizations, which resulted in the development of 23 affordable housing projects across the Bay Area, according to a July 25 statement. The other chunk of the $1 billion commitment will be in the form of land the company is pushing forward a number of housing projects on Google-owned land worth $750 million.

"We've worked closely with elected officials and residents to propose plans where residential units, offices, retail spaces and open space will coexist on our land," Google said in the statement.

All together, Google aims to build close to 13,000 units of housing across the south Bay Area, the majority of which are planned for Mountain View. The San Jose City Council approved Google's Downtown West project in May 2021, which calls for 4,000 housing units. The company has also submitted plans for two mixed-use developments in Mountain View the Middlefield Park and North Bayshore master plans which together will generate nearly 9,000 housing units in the coming decades.

"While we've made progress across the Bay Area through funding and land allocation, we know that's only part of the solution," the July 25 statement said. "Fighting the housing crisis requires innovation and collaboration across the community. So today, we're also sharing how we're using philanthropy to test new methods of intervention with trusted nonprofit leaders."

Excerpt from:

Google gives an update on its $1B commitment to combat Bay Area housing crisis - The Almanac Online

26 July 2022, 15:27

A new animation, served to millions today on Googles homepage, tells the fascinating history of a great percussion instrument the steelpan.

Today, Google has published a new Doodle (watch above) in celebration of the steelpan, a popular percussion tool and the national instrument of Trinidad and Tobago.

Trinidad & Tobago-based artist Nicholas Huggins, who illustrated the Doodle, said he hopes people can take away the sense of the industriousness and creativity of the people of Trinidad & Tobago.

We are a small country on the global stage but the fact that we have given the world such a beautiful instrument is something to be held in the highest regard.

A steelpan is a big, silver metal drum, often supported on a stand and played with two straight sticks.

The instrument was created by Trinbagonians people of Trinidad & Tobago in the 1930s and is recognised today as one of the only major acoustic musical instruments to be invented in the 20th century.

On this day, 26 July, in 1951, the Trinidad All-Steel Pan Percussion Orchestra (TASPO) performed at the Festival of Britain, and in doing so introduced the steelpan and a new music genre to the world.

Read more: Who was Oskar Sala, electronic composer celebrated in Google Doodle?

While the steelpan in its modern form was created in the 1930s, the instruments origins lie in the 18th century.

In the 1700s, when enslaved Africans were brought over to Trinidad by colonialists, they brought their long-standing musical drumming traditions with them. And when slavery was abolished in the 1830s, they brought the sound of their drums to the harvest festivals that would take place in Trinidad.

Then came a succession of bans on the percussion instrument. In 1877, government officials feared that steelpan-playing would drum up rebellion in the local communities. In protest, musicians started to make music by pounding tuned bamboo tubes on the ground.

In 1930, claims of disturbance led to a second ban. This time, musicians started using metal objects such as car parts, paint pots, dustbins, biscuit tins to make music instead and so, the idea of the pan was born.

The pan was banned once again during World War II, for security reasons. Musicians used the time to find ways to improve the sound quality, forming a range of dents in the surface that would sound different notes.

Google adds on its website: In 1948, after the war ended, the musicians switched to using the 55 gallon oil drums discarded by the oil refineries. In addition to changing the shape of the drum surface, they found that changing the length of the drum allowed complete scales from bass to soprano. This formed the basis for the modern version of the pan.

Pioneers and innovators such as Winston Spree Simon, Ellie Mannette, Anthony Williams and Bertie Marshall, helped grow the steelpan into a legitimate and respected instrument, with the soothing sound its known for in the 21st century.

Usually played using a pair of straight sticks tipped with rubber at the end, steelpans can often be heard in groups known as steelbands or steel orchestras, and are enjoyed in concert halls around the world, from the Royal Albert Hall in the UK to Carnegie Hall in the United States.

Today, its a symbol of pride and resilience for the citizens of Trinidad and Tobago. Miami-based musician Etienne Charles, who composed music for the Doodle video, said: Id like people to feel the magic in the steelpan. An instrument born out of Afro-descendant resistance in Trinidad. A symbol of community, artistic excellence, and scientific innovation.

Hopefully this makes people more inclined to come hear pan in its birthplace and feel the energy that comes from it. Its really like nothing else.

See the original post here:

Why is the steelpan being celebrated in todays Google Doodle and whats the instruments history? - Classic FM

By Tom Westbrook

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Better-than-expected results at Microsoft and Google helped soothe a nervous mood in stock markets on Wednesday, while a cut in Russian gas flow dragged on the euro and a Federal Reserve meeting due later in the day kept bonds and the dollar on edge.

Nasdaq 100 futures bounced 1.4% and S&P 500 futures were up 0.8% in Asia after Microsoft forecast steep revenue growth and Google parent Alphabet posted strong search engine ad sales.

Alphabet shares rose 5% after hours and Microsoft shares rose 4% to cut through some of the gloom cast over Tuesday by a profit warning at retailer Walmart and some soft U.S economic data.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 0.6% and Japan's Nikkei fell 0.3%.

The Federal Reserve is expected to announce a 75 basis point rate hike at 1800 GMT but investors are wary of a surprise in either direction and have preferred safe assets such as dollars.

"The market is trying to convince itself that peak inflation has happened," which would be a basis for more clarity and confidence about future rates and growth, said ING economist Rob Carnell, but that means a Fed that is staying the course.

"(The Fed) does need to give the sense that fighting inflation is their number one priority, otherwise the sense is that inflation will stay higher for longer," he said.

Australian data sounded something of a warning on Wednesday, with headline consumer prices rising at their fastest pace in two decades.

In the United States a 75 bp hike is fully priced on Wednesday, but futures imply about a 15% chance of a 100 bp hike. The Treasury market is already anticipating that near-term hikes will hurt longer-run growth.

Benchmark 10-year Treasury yields were steady at 2.8068% on Wednesday, below two-year yields at 3.0528%. [US/]

EUROPE, CHINA WOBBLY

On top of worries about interest rates damaging economies, Europe faces an energy crisis and China is beset by restrictive COVID-19 policies and fresh fears of a property market collapse.

The euro had its worst session in a fortnight on Tuesday, sliding 1%, as Russia's Gazprom said it would further cut westbound gas flow and energy prices zoomed higher.

It steadied at $1.0145 in Asia. The Australian dollar was marginally lower at $0.6923. The Japanese yen steadied at 136.96 per dollar.

China's yuan was under pressure and property stocks fell as investors have been spooked that a widening boycott of mortgage repayments on unfinished apartments can ricochet around the development and banking industries.

The onshore CSI real estate index fell 2% and a Hong Kong index of mainland developers fell more than 5%, dragged down by large developer Country Garden announcing a discounted share sale.

"China's housing sector is in the midst of a depression and the recent mortgage boycott is a sign of the severity of the downturn," said analysts at Societe Generale.

"The extent of this boycott, as it is now, is not unmanageable, but there is a risk of escalation."

Europe's soaring gas prices kept oil firm. Brent crude futures were steady at $104.30 a barrel. U.S. crude futures rose 0.1% to $95.14 a barrel.

Gold was steady at $1,717 an ounce.

(Reporting by Tom Westbrook; Editing by Christopher Cushing)

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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See the article here:

Google gives jittery stocks a lift ahead of Federal Reserve meeting - Business Standard

Prepping for a summer cookout? If you head over to Amazon right now, you can pre-order the retailers hottest new charcoal grill: the Google Pixel Buds Pro.

Yes, that sentence you just read didnt make a lot of sense, but Amazons search engine thinks it does! The algorithm has apparently decided that not only do the new charcoal colored earbuds count as a charcoal grill, theyve apparently been the best-selling product in that category for over 24 hours now (via Reddit and Mishaal Rahman) without Amazon doing anything about it.

See for yourself:

In general, I wouldnt read too much into any badges youd see on an Amazon product. As another example, did you know the Amazons Choice badge isnt a stamp that indicates any sort of quality whatsoever? Its algorithmically doled out to all sorts of products that you wouldnt think deserve it.

And dont get me started on Amazons user reviews though there, the company does clearly know it has a problem, and pursues large enforcement actions (like this recent crackdown on Facebook fake review groups) every year.

Last month, The Wall Street Journal wrote about the deluge of random-letter-generator Chinese brands that appear when you look for products. Its interesting to see how many of them rank in the charcoal grill list, too including such storied brands as RESVIN, Cecarol, Oilzz, YSSOA, and DOIT.

See original here:

Amazon's best-selling new charcoal grill is... the Pixel Buds Pro? - The Verge

Googles search engine is to be banned in the occupied Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk after pro-Russian authorities there accused the US tech giant of promoting terrorism and violence against all Russians.

In a statement posted to the social messaging service Telegram, Denis Pushilin, head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk Peoples Republic (DPR), said: The inhuman propaganda of Ukraine and the west has long crossed all boundaries. There is a real persecution of Russians, the imposition of lies and disinformation.

He accused Googles search engine of being at the forefront of this effort, saying it openly, on the orders of its curators from the US government, promotes terrorism and violence against all Russians, and especially the population of Donbas.

Announcing the decision to block Google, Pushilin added: This is what they do in any society with criminals: they are isolated from other people. If Google stops pursuing its criminal policy and returns to the mainstream of law, morality and common sense, there will be no obstacles for its work.

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The DPR and the Luhansk Peoples Republic (LPR) have previously banned Facebook and Instagram, which have also been restricted in Russia after a Moscow court found Facebook owner Meta guilty of extremist activity.

Russia, Syria and North Korea are the only UN member states to recognise the self-proclaimed republics in occupied Donetsk and Luhansk as legitimate authorities. The DPR and LPR were set up in 2014, and have been declared terrorist organisations by Ukrainian authorities in Kyiv.

Google has been contacted for comment.

Read more:

Google to be banned in Ukraines occupied Donetsk and Luhansk regions - The Guardian

Training materials reviewed by The Intercept confirm that Google is offering advanced artificial intelligence and machine-learning capabilities to the Israeli government through its controversial Project Nimbus contract. The Israeli Finance Ministry announced the contract in April 2021 for a $1.2 billion cloud computing system jointly built by Google and Amazon. The project is intended to provide the government, the defense establishment and others with an all-encompassing cloud solution, the ministry said in its announcement.

Google engineers have spent the time since worrying whether their efforts would inadvertently bolster the ongoing Israeli military occupation of Palestine. In 2021, both Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International formally accused Israel of committing crimes against humanity by maintaining an apartheid system against Palestinians. While the Israeli military and security services already rely on a sophisticated system of computerized surveillance, the sophistication of Googles data analysis offerings could worsen the increasingly data-driven military occupation.

According to a trove of training documents and videos obtained by The Intercept through a publicly accessible educational portal intended for Nimbus users, Google is providing the Israeli government with the full suite of machine-learning and AI tools available through Google Cloud Platform. While they provide no specifics as to how Nimbus will be used, the documents indicate that the new cloud would give Israel capabilities for facial detection, automated image categorization, object tracking, and even sentiment analysis that claims to assess the emotional content of pictures, speech, and writing. The Nimbus materials referenced agency-specific trainings available to government personnel through the online learning service Coursera, citing the Ministry of Defense as an example.

A slide presented to Nimbus users illustrating Google image recognition technology.

Credit: Google

The former head of Security for Google Enterprise who now heads Oracles Israel branch has publicly argued that one of the goals of Nimbus is preventing the German government from requesting data relating on the Israel Defence Forces for the International Criminal Court, said Poulson, who resigned in protest from his job as a research scientist at Google in 2018, in a message. Given Human Rights Watchs conclusion that the Israeli government is committing crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution against Palestinians, it is critical that Google and Amazons AI surveillance support to the IDF be documented to the fullest.

Though some of the documents bear a hybridized symbol of the Google logo and Israeli flag, for the most part they are not unique to Nimbus. Rather, the documents appear to be standard educational materials distributed to Google Cloud customers and presented in prior training contexts elsewhere.

Google did not respond to a request for comment.

The documents obtained by The Intercept detail for the first time the Google Cloud features provided through the Nimbus contract. With virtually nothing publicly disclosed about Nimbus beyond its existence, the systems specific functionality had remained a mystery even to most of those working at the company that built it.In 2020, citing the same AI tools, U.S Customs and Border Protection tapped Google Cloud to process imagery from its network of border surveillance towers.

Many of the capabilities outlined in the documents obtained by The Intercept could easily augment Israels ability to surveil people and process vast stores of data already prominent features of the Israeli occupation.

Data collection over the entire Palestinian population was and is an integral part of the occupation, Ori Givati of Breaking the Silence, an anti-occupation advocacy group of Israeli military veterans, told The Intercept in an email. Generally, the different technologicaldevelopments we are seeing in the Occupied Territories all direct to one central element which is more control.

The Israeli security state has for decades benefited from the countrys thriving research and development sector, and its interest in using AI to police and control Palestinians isnt hypothetical. In 2021, the Washington Post reported on the existence of Blue Wolf, a secret military program aimed at monitoring Palestinians through a network of facial recognition-enabled smartphones and cameras.

Living under a surveillance state for years taught us that all the collected information in the Israeli/Palestinian context could be securitized and militarized, said Mona Shtaya, a Palestinian digital rights advocate at 7amleh-The Arab Center for Social Media Advancement, in a message. Image recognition, facial recognition, emotional analysis, among other things will increase the power of the surveillance state to violate Palestinian right to privacy and to serve their main goal, which is to create the panopticon feeling among Palestinians that we are being watched all the time, which would make the Palestinian population control easier.

The educational materials obtained by The Intercept show that Google briefed the Israeli government on using whats known as sentiment detection, an increasingly controversial and discredited form of machine learning. Google claims that its systems can discern inner feelings from ones face and statements, a technique commonly rejected as invasive and pseudoscientific, regarded as being little better than phrenology. In June, Microsoft announced that it would no longer offer emotion-detection features through its Azure cloud computing platform a technology suite comparable to what Google provides with Nimbus citing the lack of scientific basis.

Google does not appear to share Microsofts concerns. One Nimbus presentation touted the Faces, facial landmarks, emotions-detection capabilities of Googles Cloud Vision API, an image analysis toolset. The presentation then offered a demonstration using the enormous grinning face sculpture at the entrance of Sydneys Luna Park. An included screenshot of the feature ostensibly in action indicates that the massive smiling grin is very unlikely to exhibit any of the example emotions. And Google was only able to assess that the famous amusement park is an amusement park with 64 percent certainty, while it guessed that the landmark was a place of worship or Hindu Temple with 83 percent and 74 percent confidence, respectively.

A slide presented to Nimbus users illustrating Google AIs ability to detect image traits.

Credit: Google

Vision API is a primary concern to me because its so useful for surveillance, said one worker, who explained that the image analysis would be a natural fit for military and security applications. Object recognition is useful for targeting, its useful for data analysis and data labeling. An AI can comb through collected surveillance feeds in a way a human cannot to find specific people and to identify people, with some error, who look like someone. Thats why these systems are really dangerous.

A slide presented to Nimbus users outlining various AI features through the companys Cloud Vision API.

Credit: Google

Training an effective model from scratch is often resource intensive, both financially and computationally. This is not so much of a problem for a world-spanning company like Google, with an unfathomable volume of both money and computing hardware at the ready. Part of Googles appeal to customers is the option of using a pre-trained model, essentially getting this prediction-making education out of the way and letting customers access a well-trained program thats benefited from the companys limitless resources.

An AI can comb through collected surveillance feeds in a way a human cannot to find specific people and to identify people, with some error, who look like someone. Thats why these systems are really dangerous.

Custom models generated through AutoML, one presentation noted, can be downloaded for offline edge use unplugged from the cloud and deployed in the field.

That Nimbus lets Google clients use advanced data analysis and prediction in places and ways that Google has no visibility into creates a risk of abuse, according to Liz OSullivan, CEO of the AI auditing startupParity and a member of the U.S. National Artificial Intelligence Advisory Committee. Countries can absolutely use AutoML to deploy shoddy surveillance systems that only seem like they work, OSullivan said in a message. On edge, its even worse think bodycams, traffic cameras, even a handheld device like a phone can become a surveillance machine and Google may not even know its happening.

In one Nimbus webinar reviewed by The Intercept, the potential use and misuse of AutoML was exemplified in a Q&A session following a presentation. An unnamed member of the audience asked the Google Cloud engineers present on the call if it would be possible to process data through Nimbus in order to determine if someone is lying.

Im a bit scared to answer that question, said the engineer conducting the seminar, in an apparent joke. In principle: Yes. I will expand on it, but the short answer is yes. Another Google representative then jumped in: It is possible, assuming that you have the right data, to use the Google infrastructure to train a model to identify how likely it is that a certain person is lying, given the sound of their own voice. Noting that such a capability would take a tremendous amount of data for the model, the second presenter added that one of the advantages of Nimbus is the ability to tap into Googles vast computing power to train such a model.

Id be very skeptical for the citizens it is meant to protect that these systems can do what is claimed.

A broad body of research, however, has shown that the very notion of a lie detector, whether the simple polygraph or AI-based analysis of vocal changes or facial cues, is junk science. While Googles reps appeared confident that the company could make such a thing possible through sheer computing power, experts in the field say that any attempts to use computers to assess things as profound and intangible as truth and emotion are faulty to the point of danger.

One Google worker who reviewed the documents said they were concerned that the company would even hint at such a scientifically dubious technique. The answer should have been no, because that does not exist, the worker said. It seems like it was meant to promote Google technology as powerful, and its ultimately really irresponsible to say that when its not possible.

Andrew McStay, a professor of digital media at Bangor University in Wales andhead of the Emotional AI Lab, told The Intercept that the lie detector Q&A exchange was disturbing, as is Googles willingness to pitch pseudoscientific AI tools to a national government. It is [a] wildly divergent field, so any technology built on this is going to automate unreliability, he said. Again, those subjected to them will suffer, but Id be very skeptical for the citizens it is meant to protect that these systems can do what is claimed.

According to some critics, whether these tools work might be of secondary importance to a company like Google that is eager to tap the ever-lucrative flow of military contract money. Governmental customers too may be willing to suspend disbelief when it comes to promises of vast new techno-powers. Its extremely telling that in the webinar PDF that they constantly referred to this as magical AI goodness, said Jathan Sadowski, a scholar of automation technologies and research fellow at Monash University, in an interview with The Intercept. It shows that theyre bullshitting.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai speaks at the Google I/O conference in Mountain View, Calif. Google pledges that it will not use artificial intelligence in applications related to weapons or surveillance, part of a new set of principles designed to govern how it uses AI. Those principles, released by Pichai, commit Google to building AI applications that are socially beneficial, that avoid creating or reinforcing bias and that are accountable to people.

Photo: Jeff Chiu/AP

Israel, though, has set up its relationship with Google to shield it from both the companys principles and any outside scrutiny. Perhaps fearing the fate of the Pentagons Project Maven, a Google AI contract felled by intense employee protests, the data centers that power Nimbus will reside on Israeli territory, subject to Israeli lawand insulated from political pressures. Last year, the Times of Israel reported that Google would be contractually barred from shutting down Nimbus services or denying access to a particular government office even in response to boycott campaigns.

Google employees interviewed by The Intercept lamented that the companys AI principles are at best a superficial gesture. I dont believe its hugely meaningful, one employee told The Intercept, explaining that the company has interpreted its AI charter so narrowly that it doesnt apply to companies or governments that buy Google Cloud services. Asked how the AI principles are compatible with the companys Pentagon work, a Google spokesperson told Defense One, It means that our technology can be used fairly broadly by the military.

Google is backsliding on its commitments to protect people from this kind of misuse of our technology. I am truly afraid for the future of Google and the world.

Moreover, this employee added that Google lacks both the ability to tell if its principles are being violated and any means of thwarting violations. Once Google offers these services, we have no technical capacity to monitor what our customers are doing with these services, the employee said. They could be doing anything. Another Google worker told The Intercept, At a time when already vulnerable populations are facing unprecedented and escalating levels of repression, Google is backsliding on its commitments to protect people from this kind of misuse of our technology. I am truly afraid for the future of Google and the world.

Ariel Koren, a Google employee who claimed earlier this year that she faced retaliation for raising concerns about Nimbus, said the companys internal silence on the program continues. I am deeply concerned that Google has not provided us with any details at all about the scope of the Project Nimbus contract, let alone assuage my concerns of how Google can provide technology to the Israeli government and military (both committing grave human rights abuses against Palestinians daily) while upholding the ethical commitments the company has made to its employees and the public, she told The Intercept in an email. I joined Google to promote technology that brings communities together and improves peoples lives, not service a government accused of the crime of apartheid by the worlds two leading human rights organizations.

Sprawling techcompanies have published ethical AI charters to rebut critics who say that their increasingly powerful products are sold unchecked and unsupervised. The same critics often counter that the documents are a form of ethicswashing essentially toothless self-regulatory pledges that provide only the appearance of scruples, pointing to examples like the provisions in Israels contract with Google that prevent thecompany from shutting down its products. The way that Israel is locking in their service providers through this tender and this contract, said Sadowski, the Monash University scholar, I do feel like that is a real innovation in technology procurement.

To Sadowski, it matters little whether Google believes what it peddles about AI or any other technology. What the company is selling, ultimately, isnt just software, but power. And whether its Israel and the U.S. today or another government tomorrow, Sadowski says that some technologies amplify the exercise of power to such an extent that even their use by a country with a spotless human rights record would provide little reassurance. Give them these technologies, and see if they dont get tempted to use them in really evil and awful ways, he said. These are not technologies that are just neutral intelligence systems, these are technologies that are ultimately about surveillance, analysis, and control.

Read the rest here:

Google Is Selling Advanced AI to Israel, Documents Reveal - The Intercept

Google says its rolling back its decision to remove a section from the Play Store that listed which permissions an app uses. The company had more or less replaced that info with its Data Safety section, which is supposed to give you an idea of what data apps are collecting and how that data is used.

The problem, as several commentators pointed out, is that the information in the Data Safety section came from developers, whereas the app permissions section was generated by Google. By removing it, Google made it impossible for users to do a quick fact-check by comparing the two sections or to use the info from both to get a more complete picture of what an app is up to and what it has access to.

In a Twitter thread on Thursday spotted by Android Police, Google says the app permissions section will return soon and that it made the decision to bring it back because of user feedback. At time of writing, I wasnt able to see it on my device, but when the section returns, it should be available along with the Data Safety section.

Googles Data Safety section, which it announced in May 2021 and started rolling out in April this year, is similar to Apples privacy labels. Developers have to tell Google what they do with users data (such as whether its shared with third parties and what kind of data the app collects) and provide other info, like whether users can ask that their data be deleted and if the data is encrypted. While Google says that only developers know those details, it does say that it will take action against an app if it finds inaccuracies in the Data Safety info.

Go here to see the original:

Google's adding the app permissions section back to the Play Store after removing it - The Verge

In this photo illustration Google Calendar logo seen displayed on a tablet.

Igor Golovniov | Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images

Google introduced a new feature on Wednesday that will help users keep their Google Calendars free from spam.

Calendar spam occurs when random invitations and appointments appear on Google Calendar, even if the recipient never opened or accepted them. The issue has prompted complaints from users who have been flooded with spam.

The new Google Calendar feature, rolling out now, will only display events on your calendar if the invite comes from a sender you know, like people in your contact list, people you've interacted with before or colleagues. You can also choose to have all invitations appear on your alendar or just the invitations you've accepted. The default option is to show invitations from everyone.

The new feature is rolling out to all users with personal Google accounts, Google Workspace customers and legacy G Suite Basic and Business customers over the next 15 days, so you may not see it just yet.

Here's how to enable the new option once it appears:

You'll still get email invitations from unknown senders, but the events will only appear on their calendars if they are accepted.

More:

Google adds a new way to block calendar spam. Here's how to use it - CNBC