Category Archives: Google

The patient had just undergone a cesarean section, and now was struggling to put words to her pain in her native Taiwanese. The physician making rounds, Natasha Mehandru, was used to communicating with patients who didnt speak English as a first language at her county hospital in Phoenix. But this time, calling in an interpreter by phone wasnt working.

The service was not really good, she said and soon, she realized the patient and the interpreter werent even speaking the same dialect. It was difficult to communicate, even with the interpreter.

So Mehandru turned to a familiar tool: Google Translate. Typing translations back and forth Taiwanese to English, English to Taiwanese she and the patient slowly came to an understanding with the help of the interpreter still on the line. Her pain wasnt from the C-section, in her abdomen, but from a separate and long-standing issue, lower in her body. That changed how I managed her that day, said Mehandru, who was at the time a gynecological resident and is now a surgeon at Kaiser San Jose Medical Center. With the help of the machine translation tool, we changed around medications, and then over the course of a couple days she ended up feeling better.

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Like many health systems, the hospital complied with federal requirements for meaningful access to language services by staffing in-person interpreters for frequent needs like Spanish, and could call up interpreters for less commonly spoken languages. But it was an imperfect system there were sometimes delays, or a dialect that it was difficult to track down a translator for and Google Translate came to serve as a fallback.

Google Translate has become a ubiquitous, if under-examined, part of patient care. Its sort of [used] under the table, said Elaine Khoong, an internist and assistant professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. The practice is hidden in part because it is formally discouraged by health systems and state medical registration boards that see it as a liability. Theres a growing push by Khoong and other researchers to bring it to the surface both to study Google Translates use and risk in the clinic, and to build better versions to backstop traditional language services.

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I do think it is the future, said Breena Taira, a clinical emergency medicine researcher at UCLA Health whose recent study evaluated Google-translated discharge instructions in seven languages. Tech giants like Google and Microsoft, which have invested heavily in voice recognition software, have expressed interest in exploring medical translation.

We just have to be really aware of what the limitations are, Taira said, including significantly lower accuracy rates for languages that arent widely spoken. Machine translation could fill an especially large gap in services to provide personalized written instructions for non-English speakers. Sanjana Rao, a doctor at a family medicine practice in Tacoma, Washington, said shes seen colleagues provide patients with after-visit notes theyve translated in full with Google Translate with no vetting, a practice she doesnt trust.

We have to do the work to make sure that we can convey written information in non-English languages in a safe way, said Taira.

Research from Khoong, Taira, and others has highlighted that Google Translate can specifically be unsafe to use to translate emergency room discharge instructions, delivering inaccurate results that could lead to serious errors. While the tool has gotten more accurate since Google switched its algorithmic approach, mistakes are still common when the acronym- and jargon-filled lexicon of clinical communication collides with an algorithm trained on everyday language.

Obviously, Google Translate wasnt built for health care applications, said Nikita Mehandru, a Ph.D. student in clinical artificial intelligence at the University of California, Berkeley and the sister of Natasha. Maybe something should be.

Along with fellow student Samantha Robertson and human-computer interaction researcher Niloufar Salehi, Mehandru recently surveyed 20 health care providers about their interpretation and translation resources, aiming to understand the scope of communication challenges before trying to design something like a Google Translate for doctors starting with the written instructions emergency doctors give patients when theyre discharged.

They plan to train their tool on the text it aims to translate: more than 1,500 emergency discharge records from UCSF, accessed in collaboration with Khoong. One of the things that makes it a hard problem is that almost none of these black box deep learning models are trained on medical data, said Salehi. Theyre mostly trained on web form data, so they dont work really well with medical information.

But theyre not simply turning neural networks loose on a new clinical corpus. Discharge instructions are often very structured and modeled after a template, so it doesnt really make sense to use a black box deep learning model, said Salehi. Instead, theyre trying to combine deep learning with a pre-translated dictionary of common phrases, making certain results highly reliable and leaving the potential to show providers where uncertainty remains. We could say, 80% of this discharge info is verified translation, and we could even mark the parts where were not so sure, said Salehi.

Like other clinical decision support tools, such a system could nudge clinicians toward smarter actions rather than providing a pat solution. A tool could prod doctors to write their English instructions in simpler ways, for example, making the machine translation more likely to be accurate, said Khoong.

Even if machine translation tools prove accurate enough for clinical use, there are still significant regulatory and legal hurdles for companies to make them and for health systems to embrace them. The tools would have to be HIPAA compliant, and providers and developers would have to sort out who is liable for failed translations that cause harm potentially in very public ways.

Were already using ML and AI tools in health care, but its usually hidden on the backend where people dont see it for image interpretation, risk stratification tools, said Khoong. But when you bring it up to the front end where patients can see it, the legality issues and the liability issues are a lot more concerning.

Thats one reason why Khoong is calling to advance the type of research done on medical machine translation systems. In a paper she recently penned with Jorge Rodriguez, a hospitalist and technology equity researcher at Brigham and Womens Hospital, they lay out a framework for analysis that focuses not just on translation accuracy, but patient outcomes.

The viability of machine translation, they argue, should be judged not just by comparing it with gold-standard interpretation, but current practice which sometimes is nothing at all.

For a lot of patients who have non-English language preference, what actually happens is either the clinical team doesnt talk to them, or they use sign language, or they try to mime, said Khoong. Interpretation can be especially scarce in safety net facilities, which often end up paying higher rates for call-in services. And physicians can be reticent to call in an interpreter for anything but the most mission-critical moments in a patients stay, like surgical consent, because it can take away precious minutes from their interaction with a patient.

That leaves out many of the small moments that make up a patients care. If you want to ask the patient, Are you cold? Open your eyes, take a deep breath, the time it can take to prepare for those two sentences can be untenable, said Won Lee, an anesthesiologist at UCSF who is investigating Google Translates accuracy in those interstitial moments of care. Research consistently shows that patients who do not share a language with their provider fare more poorly.

Is [machine translation] better than whats going on there? asks Khoong. I think we dont have a good sense, and thats what we should evaluate.

Understanding patient outcomes is especially critical because of the potential for machine translation to introduce new disparities in health care. If a validated but imperfect technology makes it easier for health systems to avoid calling on interpreters, non-English speaking patients could still get shortchanged on care and communication. I dont want it to feel like once we have Google Translate validated, interpreters will go by the wayside, said Rodriguez. Research will be necessary to understand how to use the tools without undermining patient care and when human interpreters are needed.

Thats why, once Salehi and her team finishes building their discharge translation tool, they hope to conduct a randomized controlled trial of patient outcomes, testing to see whether giving people information in their own language is more helpful, she said.

Its the kind of expensive research that commercial developers with their deeper pockets and broad reach could help conduct. The technology is there to be able to build these algorithms, said Rodriguez. Its just a matter of getting all the right players in the room, and incentivizing it.

For Nuance Communications, the voice recognition company that was acquired by Microsoft earlier this month for $16 billion, the incentives may already be in place. The company has a tool, DAX, that listens into doctors appointments and produces automatic English transcriptions to feed into visit records. Machine translation of those transcripts into other languages is a leading request from its users, said Peter Durlach, chief strategy officer for Nuance.

Its one of the first things were going to be looking to integrate with Microsoft, since they have world class machine translation, he said. Since DAX is already recording the conversation, it already identifies the different speakers, why couldnt it automatically translate in real time? Its not a massive technical lift to do it.

For patients and providers still wrestling to understand each other, validated clinical machine translation could be a boon. Weve wanted this for so long, and its just not there, said Rao. Were doing last resort things like Google Translate because different providers have to make different calls, knowing that theyre underserving many patients who speak less common languages. This technology is absolutely imperative to be launched and be used as soon as possible.

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Doctors often turn to Google Translate. They want a better option - STAT

An app produced by the Malaysian government that promised to help the LGBTI community return to nature has been removed from the Google Play store, after it was found to be in breach of the platforms guidelines.

The app was first released in July 2016, but attracted fresh attention after it was shared on Twitter by the Malaysian governments Islamic development department. It claimed the app would enable LGBTI people to return to a state of nature or purity, and that it included an e-book detailing the experience of a gay man who abandoned homosexual behaviour during Ramadan.

When approached by the Guardian, Google said in a statement: Whenever an app is flagged to us, we investigate against our Play store policies and if violations are found we take appropriate action to maintain a trusted experience for all.

The app has since been removed from the Play store. Its guidelines do not allow apps that attempt to deceive users or enable dishonest behavior including but not limited to apps which are determined to be functionally impossible.

Malaysias Islamic development department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Rachel Chhoa-Howard, Amnesty Internationals Malaysia researcher, said such material was dangerous and hateful.

Conversion therapy is a deeply discriminatory and harmful practice which can cause long-lasting damage to those who are subject to it. It has been criminalised in many countries. We call on the Malaysian authorities to immediately abandon its use of Hijrah Diri, and instead ensure respect and protect LGBTI rights in the country, she said.

Numan Afifi, the founder of LGBT+ rights group Pelangi Campaign, said Google and other platforms should improve the moderation of content they host on their platforms. Community groups that try to counter harmful material already face an uphill battle, he added, including the risk of surveillance, censorship and raids on in-person gatherings.

Now that the general election is looming I am pretty sure that the demonisation of the LGBT community is going to get more intense, especially among those who are trying to [win] conservative votes, he said.

Malaysias LGBTI community faces widespread discrimination, including laws that ban same-sex relations and non-normative gender expression.

The Play store has previously removed an app from a US-based group Living Hope Ministries that promoted so-called conversion therapy. The app, which suggested that users could pray away the gay, was removed in 2019.

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Malaysian governments gay conversion app pulled by Google Play - The Guardian

Many Google employees dont see their pay packages as fair or competitive, according to an annual worker survey of the company that was obtained by CNBC.

Googles Googlegeist survey, which was released to employees last week, found that compensation, promotions and an ability to meet career goals were among the top concerns for workers. Employees were largely happy with the companys ability to carry out its mission and values.

A Google executive said employees receive top compensation. But according to the survey results, the percentage of employees who think their compensation is competitive, the percentage who think their pay is fair and equitable and the percentage who say their performance is reflected in their pay all dropped from the previous year. Less than half of workers said their compensation is competitive compared to similar jobs elsewhere, down 12 points from the prior year.

A survey released earlier this month found that part of the reason workers are quitting en masse is because of pay dissatisfaction. Still, Google executives announced late last year they wouldnt raise pay to match inflation even as its revenue continued to rise.

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. Thats why weve always provided top of market compensation across salary, equity, leave and a suite of benefits.

CEO Sundar Pichai received a favorable rating of 86%, while about three-quarters of workers said Pichai inspires them.

Pichai said Google's annual survey is one of the most important ways the company measures employee satisfaction. Other large tech companies survey their workers through surveys, too: Meta conducts a semi-annual Pulse Survey, and Microsoft workers take an annual companywide poll.

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Google employees don't think their pay is competitive - Protocol

The latest Android Auto update adds a diagnostic feature that checks if your USB cable or port isnt working as expected, as shown by former XDA Developers editor-in-chief Mishaal Rahman on Twitter. If your phone isnt connecting to your car, the diagnostic tool might be able to help pinpoint if the USB connection is where the issue lies.

In images shown by Rahman, the tool, seemingly called USB Startup Diagnostics, will check if a USB cable connects and checks the cable quality. On a support page, Google recommends using connecting to your car with the cable that came with your phone or one thats less than three feet long and doesnt use USB hubs or cable extensions.

Having the right cable might be easier said than done, though. USB cables can be of wildly varying quality, meaning it can be tough to know which have the right specifications to support Android Auto. And you may not be able to assume that the cable that came with your phone will work with Android Auto, either, as most newer phones come with USB-C cables, but not many cars have USB-C ports. Hopefully, this diagnostic tool makes it easier to know if you need to get a different cable.

Rahman says the tool is available in Android Auto 7.5.121104 if you dont have that version yet, you might want to check if you have an update available. In a Twitter DM, Rahman noted that if you have the feature, you can find it under Android Autos settings > Connection help > USB startup diagnostics. Its worth noting that Google will sometimes slowly roll out features, so if youre not seeing the diagnostic tool, you might just have to wait for it to become available.

Update March 16th, 6:27PM ET: Added context about which version appears to have the feature.

See more here:

Google's Android Auto app can tell you if your USB cable is bad - The Verge

The news: At the HIMSS conference this week, Google Health announced a partnership to integrate Googles Care Studio with Meditechs electronic health record (EHR) platform, per a Google blog post.

How does Googles Care Studio work? It essentially serves as a clinical search tool that lets clinicians quickly access patient information in their personal health record.

For example, providers can type a word like diabetes or hemoglobin into the Care Studio search bar, and the tool will pull up all relevant patient info across the health systems multiple clinical softwares.

Quick access to a patients clinical information could be handy for physicians already overburdened with paperwork, since patient information is often buried across multiple platforms. Some hospitals have a patients MRI results and medical history on two different softwares requiring separate logins, for instance. Toggling between both takes valuable time away from patient care.

Heres what the partnership means for Google: Its Care Studio has had one-off partnerships with health systems, but partnering with Meditech means reaching multiple new hospital clients.

Last year, Googles Care Studio inked a deal with major health system Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIMDC) to let clinicians try the tech giants clinical search tools.

BIMDC wasnt its first health system-tie up, though.

Now, the expanded Meditech partnership means Google will eventually get its Care Studio in the hands of physicians at various new health systems: Meditech boasts over 623 hospital clients, per its website.

Whats next? If Care Studios partnership is a hit with Meditechs hospital clients, it would be a jumpstart to Google partnering with larger EHR vendors like Epic and Oracles Cerner.

That would help Googles Care Studio scale more rapidly than with a Meditech partnership alone:

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Google Health's Care Studio ties up with Meditechhere's why Epic could be its next target - eMarketer

Its been two years since the vast majority of people started working from home due to COVID-19. As we move into a more flexible future of work, a hybrid approach will be the new norm for many companies, including Google. At its core, this means bringing people back together in ways that can work for everyonegiving employees more choice and flexibility, while ensuring teams are being set up for success.

As hybrid work continues to gain popularity, companies must be mindful of the challenges it can present if not done inclusively. A recent survey found a strong preference for remote or hybrid work among employees of color, caregivers, and women. Working in the office shouldnt overshadow the impact an employee makes wherever they may be. We have a responsibility to make sure every employee continues to feel included and has the same opportunity to advance as their colleagues who may be in the office more frequently.

At Google, weve learned some valuable lessons over the past two years about how to put flexibility and inclusion first in a hybrid work environment, while also improving productivity and collaboration. Three key themes have emerged from our research and experiences.

Maintaining virtual connections will remain important as more companies embrace hybrid work long-term. In a hybrid workplace, it is imperative that teams build collaboration equity, in which all employees have the tools, access, and information they need to work together with their teams and be effective at their jobs. Heres a few examples:

As companies continue to become more distributed, it is critical to provide employees with the tools and support they need to build spaces where they can feel connected to others over a shared sense of identity. At Google, our Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) bring together workers who share interests, backgrounds, or experiences, and provide a sense of community for employees to share their experiences as they navigate the changing work landscape in different ways.

To continue building community in a remote and hybrid environment, Googles ERGs have hosted virtual yoga, career development sessions, and even global summits. One of the most significant ways one of our ERGs is building connections is also one of the simplest: Our Asian Google Network ERG created designated office hours, opportunities for Googlers to sign up for a time slot to talk with a peer about anything thats on their mind in an open and safe space. These virtual office hours help employees across different schedules, locations, and work arrangements remain connected and have been adopted by other ERGs at Google because of their effectiveness in strengthening a support network.

As companies continue to develop hybrid work plans, they should lead with inclusive tools and behaviors to build new, creative ways for employees to be productive, connected, and collaborative from anywhereespecially the days when they are in the office.

For example, were experimenting with more flexible space types at some of our offices, featuring adaptable furniture and partitions that employees can adjust for focused individual work, collaboration, or a mix of both. Google also has a history of incorporating natural green spaces inside and around our offices, and as we redesign our offices over time for hybrid work, well explore ways to offer more spaces to support employees looking to work outdoors instead of being inside an office all day.

The pandemic has certainly presented many uncertainties and challenges, but it has also presented an ongoing opportunity to make our workplaces more accessible and inclusive. And that opportunity is one we should all take seriously as a way to continue listening to, learning from, and supporting our employees to thrive.

Melonie Parker is Googles chief diversity officer.

Originally posted here:

Google executive on lessons learned about diversity and inclusion - Fast Company

Juan Garzon/CNET

You've probably interacted with Google Assistant before, especially if you have a Google Pixel or another Android phone. Maybe you've asked what the weather is going to be like or how to get directions to a restaurant for date night. But Google Assistant can do a lot more, including controlling your entire smart home.

Whether you're using Google's Pixel phone, Nest Audio or Nest Mini smart speakers, Nest Hub smart display or any of a slew of other Google Nest devices, you already have everything that you need in order to start controlling your house. All you need to do is connect your devices so you can control them through Google Assistant. Here are some of the best tips and tricks for how to get the most out of the Google Assistant smart home experience.

Before you can control your light bulbs or pull up the live feed of your Nest Video Doorbell, you'll need to connect them, and whatever smart speaker or display you'd like to use, to your Google Home account. Doing so is easy, and if you're using Nest brand devices, you'll almost certainly have already done it. If your smart speaker or display is connected to the same account, you'll be able to control the device with straightforward commands, like, "Hey, Google, turn off the kitchen lights."

If your devices are Google Home-compatible, but you haven't connected them to the Google Home app, doing so is easy. Open the app and tap the + (plus sign) in the top left corner. Then tap Set up device > Works with Google. Select the device maker from the list (Wyze, for instance), and follow the directions to connect your gadget.

Google Assistant plus a smart thermostat like this one from Nest can even help you save money by conserving energy.

Once you've got a device that uses Google Assistant, the sky is the limit for smart home control. You can improve your home security with everything from smart locks and security cameras to connecting with professionally installed security services like ADT. You can control your lights, thermostatandapplianceswith a voice command. But that's only scratching the surface. Here's how you can get even more out of these integrations.

Your day has a rhythm to it, and interruptions to that routine can seriously derail your plans. Your smart home can help to facilitate those patterns, accomplishing recurring tasks that you find yourself needing to tackle day in and day out. All you need to do is set up a Routine.

Setting up Routines with Google Assistant is easy. Open the Google Home app and tap on Routines. There you'll find a number of ready-made routines that can be tweaked to your own personal needs and triggered with a predetermined command.

If you want to wake up to a specific song or have certain lights and appliances turned on for you when your start your day, for example, set up the Good Morning routine. Once you've customized the Routine, hit save. Now any time you say, "Hey, Google, good morning," it will automatically run your Routine.

You can also build custom Routines. To do this, open the Google Home app, select Routines, and tap the + button to create a new Routine. From here, you can set your trigger -- a voice command, a particular time of day or a specific action -- and tell Google Assistant what you want to happen within the routine. Under "This Routine will," use the + button to add new actions to the Routine.

Hit save and Google Assistant will perform your new routine anytime that you trigger it.

Tile trackers can help you keep track of easy-to-misplace personal effects -- and Google Assistant can help you find them with a simple voice command.

We've all experienced that panicked feeling of not being able to find our keys, phone, wallet or other important item when we're already running late for an event. You don't have to give yourself the full pat-down to see if you have the item on you or start ripping up couch cushions trying to find it. Just ask Google Assistant for help.

There are two ways to keep track of those items that just always seem to get misplaced. First, use a Tile tracker -- a small fob that connects to your keyring, your phone or whatever else you want. Then, if you've misplaced your keys, just say, "OK, Google, ring my keys," and you'll get a little chirpy ringtone to help you find them.

If you don't have a Tile tracker, Google can still help you out: When you want to remember where you're stashing something, say, "OK, Google, remember that I put my keys in the top drawer," or wherever else you're putting it. Google Assistant will remember for you. Then, when you can't find that object, just say, "OK, Google, where are my keys?" and Google Assistant will remind you exactly where you left them.

You can think of the Google Assistant as the universal remote for your smart home -- but it can be your actual television remote, too. If you have a smart TV with Google TV built in -- or just a Chromecast connected to your regular TV -- you can play your favorite movies and shows with simple voice commands. Just say, "OK, Google, play Stranger Things on [your preferred TV]," and Google Assistant will queue up the show. You can change what you're watching, control the volume and even tell Google Assistant to switch to another TV if you're changing rooms.

As things slow down in the evening -- and the kids finally get to bed -- sounds that at other times seem normal can seem startlingly loud. That includes Google Assistant's voice. If you're finding the voice assistant is just louder than you want as you're starting to settle in for your nighttime routine, you can turn on Night Mode and have everything automatically made quieter.

Open the Google Home app, tap Settings >Notifications > Digital Wellbeing. From here, you can enable Night Mode. This will lower the volume of any smart device and dim the lights of any smart lighting that you have connected to your Google Assistant.

There is so much that you can do with your Google Nest devices and Google Assistant to control your Google smart home. We've just scratched the surface of all the capabilities that the smart assistant brings to controlling everything throughout your connected living space.

For more information about using a Google Home device, check out:

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Control Your Google Smart Home With These Easy Tips and Tricks - CNET

JAKARTA, INDONESIA - MAY 31: A boy plays with a makeshift flagpole on a beach covered in plastic ... [+] waste at a fishing village on the northern coast on May 31, 2018 in Jakarta, Indonesia. Indonesia has been ranked the second biggest marine polluter in the world behind only China with reports showing that the country produces 187.2 million tonnes of plastic waste each year. Like many developing countries Indonesia lacks the infrastructure to effectively manage their waste and the problem has become so severe that the nation's army has been called in to help clean-up when its rivers and canals were clogged with dense masses of bottles, bags and other plastic packaging. According to studies there could be more plastic in the sea than fish by 2050, while actual plastic particles might be in our seafood as fish consume bits of plastic which are coated in bacteria and algae, mimicking their natural food sources. (Photo by Ed Wray/Getty Images)

The Google-AFARA Plastic Circularity report on which I wrote a few months back has now been released in full. One of the key findings from the report is that investment is crucial to creating a circular economy for plastics and that there are significant opportunities for investors, particularly at the nexus of climate and plastics. With a recycling value chain that is under pressure like never before, the need for investor engagement has never been greater. But thanks in part to this study, one thing is now clearer than ever the current challenges facing the value chain present investors with a really unique opportunity to use their capital to steer the recycling industry back towards growth. The time to act and invest in solutions is now.

I recently sat down with Mike Werner, Googles Lead for Circular Economy, and Dan Zilnik, AFARA's President, to discuss their collaboration, insights, and recommendations to accelerate a circular economy for plastics and maximize investment opportunity. Below is an excerpt from our conversation.

RK: Mike, Google is known for being a data-driven organization. Why did you partner with AFARA to collect data on the plastic circularity gap, and what was the biggest surprise for you?

MW: At Google, we believe that realizing a sustainable world means that we all must accelerate the transition to a safe, equitable, and circular economy where people, the planet, and businesses thrive. However, reaching a circular economy for any resource, especially plastics, is a large and complex global challenge. Before conducting this study, what I saw in the public dialogue were data and reports on the 50 or 100 different things we all ought to do to end plastic waste, but there lacked a clear list of prioritized interventions that would have the greatest impact on creating a circular economy of plastics. Dan and his team at AFARA helped us dig into the economics and develop an intervention model that established a clear set of low-risk and no-risk interventions that would be economic under multiple future scenarios toward creating a circular economy for plastics. AFARA has been an ideal partner because of their deep expertise in the economics of oil, gas, and plastics value chains and the myriad of sustainability issues surrounding those resources.

Two big things stand out to me about the data. First, the data suggest that the circularity gap is likely going to grow significantly over the next two decades. Under a business as usual scenario, it is projected that 7.7 billion metric tons of plastics will be mismanagedlandfilled, incinerated or leaked into the environmentbetween now and 2040. That volume of plastic is equivalent to roughly 16x the weight of the entire human population on earth today! Second, while there needs to be a portfolio approach that includes plastic reduction efforts, the biggest intervention we need to capitalize on is building better recycling infrastructure. As the world transitions from linear to circular, supply chains need to be rewired and the requisite infrastructure needs to be put in place to ensure these resources are kept in the economy and out of the environment.

RK: This work takes on a big question that not many folks are paying attention to: How can we create irreversible momentum towards a circular economy for plastics and simultaneously end our reliance on fossil fuel feedstocks? Dan, how far did you get in answering this question and what solutions did the analysis reveal?

DZ: We got most of the way there; the data show that we can close the plastic circularity gap economically by 54-62%. Put another way, more than half of the worlds plastic waste can be part of profitable value chains if we invest in the right things. We can create significant impacts to Polyethylene (plastics 2 and 4), Polypropylene (plastic 5) and PET (plastic 1). While there needs to be a portfolio approach that includes plastics reduction efforts, the biggest intervention is to build better recycling infrastructure. This infrastructure will optimize the existing mechanical recycling technologies that are commercial today and unlock the potential of chemical recycling, which well need in tandem with mechanical recycling to close the plastic gap. But we need to turn this data into action quickly. By 2040, roughly $426-544 billion USD in net present value (NPV) must be redirected from linear supply chains to circular supply chains, and this capital needs to be patient since we are talking about infrastructure and hard-tech investment which are decade-based, not annual capital turnover cycles.

RK: These findings challenge some of the conventional wisdom that recycling doesnt work and isnt economical. How robust are the data and analyses behind these conclusions?

DZ: We grounded our analysis in the economics of plastics production and recycling, brought together 20 years of supply/demand forecasts for plastics, and developed an intervention model that quantified the impacts of various potential solutions (e.g., technology, investment, procurement, and policy). Finally, we prioritized potential solutions into strategic interventions that are either low-risk or no-risk under multiple future scenarios. For sustainability solutions to scale globally it has to attract capital and has to be economic. This is among the most robust economic models for plastics that I know of.

RK: I guess that explains why it took you guys 9 months to get these 117 pages published! The story coming out is a mix of hopeful (we can do a lot of things to close the gap), and bleak (if we do nothing we are going to have a lot of mismanaged plastic). What should we start doing today to make sure we maximize the opportunity?

MW: The entire ecosystem from investors and brands to policy makers needs to unlock and mobilize the requisite capital required to massively improve recycling infrastructure and new supply chains for recycled plastics around the world. In many ways, we are in a similar moment today as we were 20+ years ago with renewable energy. In other words, it was recognized that massive investment was needed in wind, solar, hydro and geothermal projects to increase the supply of green, low-carbon energy. Acceleration in new technologies, adoption of new policies, and leadership from the private sector was also critical. Similarly, it's time for all of us to act on the recognition that we cannot create a circular economy of plastics without massive investment in recycling, recovery, and reprocessing infrastructure. Some are touting that we cannot recycle our way out of the plastic waste problem and that sounds seductive; however, we cannot eliminate, reduce, or reuse our way out of this problem either. We actually need to do all of it.

The good news is that the tide is turning and both businesses and investors are starting to get a handle on how to better support the recycling value chain. They also recognize that the investment opportunities have real potential to simultaneously address plastic pollution, reduce business risk, improve the long-term economics of the recycled plastics value chains while also tackling climate change. And thats huge!

Excerpt from:

The Time To Invest In The Circular Economy For Plastics Is Now, According To Google Study - Forbes

Telegrams experience illustrates the competing pressures. The app is popular in Russia and Ukraine for sharing images, videos and information about the war. But it has also become a gathering ground for war misinformation, such as unverified images from battlefields.

On Sunday, Pavel Durov, Telegrams founder, posted to his more than 600,000 followers on the platform that he was considering blocking some war-related channels inside Ukraine and Russia because they could aggravate the conflict and incite ethnic hatred.

Users responded with alarm, saying they relied on Telegram for independent information. Less than an hour later, Mr. Durov reversed course.

What is at the root of this invasion? Russia considers Ukraine within its natural sphere of influence, and it has grown unnerved at Ukraines closeness with the West and the prospect that the country might join NATO or the European Union. While Ukraine is part of neither, it receives financial and military aid from the United States and Europe.

Are these tensions just starting now? Antagonism between the two nations has been simmeringsince 2014, when the Russian military crossed into Ukrainian territory, after an uprising in Ukraine replaced their Russia-friendly president with a pro-Western government. Then, Russia annexed Crimeaand inspired a separatist movement in the east.A cease-fire was negotiated in 2015, but fighting has continued.

How has Ukraine responded? On Feb. 23, Ukraine declared a 30-day state of emergencyas cyberattacks knocked out government institutions. Following the beginning of the attacks, Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraines president, declared martial law. The foreign minister called the attacks a full-scale invasion and called on the world to stop Putin.

Many users asked us not to consider disabling Telegram channels for the period of the conflict, since we are the only source of information for them, he wrote. Telegram did not respond to a request for comment.

Inside Meta, which also owns Instagram and WhatsApp, the situation has been chaotic because of the volume of Russian disinformation on its apps, said two employees, who were not authorized to speak publicly. Russian experts on Metas security team, which identifies and removes state-sponsored disinformation from Facebook and Instagram, have been working around the clock and communicating regularly with Twitter, YouTube and other companies about their findings, the two employees said.

Metas security team has long debated whether to restrict Sputnik and Russia Today, two of Russias largest state-run media sites, on its platforms or label their posts so they clearly state their source. Russia Today and Sputnik are critical elements in Russias disinformation and propaganda ecosystem, according to a January report from the State Department.

Meta executives had resisted the moves, saying they would anger Russia, the employees said. But after war broke out, Nick Clegg, who heads global affairs for Meta, announced on Monday that the company would restrict access to Russia Today and Sputnik across the European Union.

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Ukraine War Tests the Power of Tech Giants - The New York Times

A few days ago, Sundar Pichaiannounceda $100 million Google Career Certificates fund. It's got nothing to do with college education, and instead, focuses on giving up-and-coming data analytics, IT, project management, and UX design students the tactical tools needed to start their careers with a bang.

It follows in a long line of similar efforts by coding bootcamps across the country and online educational portals like Udemy and Coursera.

To all of this I say: Thank goodness.

Now,I'm not advocating for the dissolution of higher ed and wholesale replacement by the programs noted above, but we need to take ahard look at theprice tag -- and inaccessibility --of a college degree.

According toU.S. News & World Report, the average cost of tuition and fees to attend a ranked public college in state during the 2021-22 school year comes to roughly $10k. Out-of-staters can expect to pay closer to $23k. Those enrolled at private schools are looking at around $38k.

Over four-and-a-half years -- theaverage amount of timeit takes to complete an undergraduate degree -- total tuition comes to between $45k and $171k. Meanwhile,starting salariesare mostly in the $50k range, much of which is eaten up by housing, life essentials, and student loan payments. That doesn't leave much room to get ahead financially.

Compare this toGoogle Professional Certificates, highly regarded in the tech field, which run around $230 or so per course. For many, the choice isa no-brainer.Whilesome sourcesargue these are best used to amplify an undergraduate degree -- not replace it --the low cost to entry and Google's connection to more than 140 companies make it easy to get your foot in the tech door.

So is it just a way to hone technical skillswhile you finish your undergrad degree? Not necessarily.Many big-name tech companiesaren't even requiring a bachelor's for hire. Why? As IBM's VP of Talent Joanna Daleytold CNBCa few years back, they were more interested in candidates with hands-on experience.

Daley isn't alone. ElonMusk has famously saidthat applicants don't need a college degree to work at Tesla -- he looks for ability and a track record of achievement.Others, like formerCEO Daniel Schwartzof Restaurant Brands International (parent company of Burger King) say he's most interested in people willing and able to learn.

Companies have two roles to play in education. The first is changing hiring strategy so the door is opento those with potential but who may not have the funds to subsidize their own degrees. Financial support for completing that degree after hire goes a long way, too.

But you can also shape the educational world yourself. If you have the expertise and resources within your company, you can offer training and development that allowunder-indexed talent to enter the workforce with key skills. If you give them that foundation, you also engender loyalty -- theywill more likely stick around to help build your company.

Lay the groundwork now. Start small with seminars, labs, field training. Begin to shape cohesive programs that demonstrate competency in important skills. As you do, keep the door open to those who are willing to learn, who have a record of achievement, and the desire to succeed.

Whatever the course of higher education, your efforts to upskill talent can only empower, uplift, and support those who want to advance their careers -- without forcing them to pile on debt.

The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.

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Google's Sundar Pichai Just Announced a $100 Million Educational Fund. It Might Mean the Beginning of the End for College. - Inc.