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Pichai Warns AI Boom Could Trigger Broad Fallout

Pichai Warns AI Boom Could Trigger Broad Fallout

November 18, 2025 8:03 am

Google chief Sundar Pichai is urging caution as the world races deeper into artificial intelligence, warning that no company — not even one of the industry’s dominant players — would escape unscathed if the AI boom abruptly cools. Speaking at Alphabet’s California headquarters, he said the current surge of investment is extraordinary but tinged with unmistakable “irrationality,” echoing the speculative fever that preceded the dot-com crash two decades ago.

The sector’s explosive growth has pushed valuations to historic heights. Alphabet’s market value has doubled in just seven months, reaching $3.5 trillion as investors rally behind its progress in AI chips …

Google Denies Altering Western Sahara Border Display

Google Denies Altering Western Sahara Border Display

November 12, 2025 9:58 am

Google has denied making any recent changes to how borders between Western Sahara and Morocco appear on its Maps platform, following media speculation that the tech company had removed the dotted lines marking the disputed territory.

In a statement to AFP on Tuesday, a Google spokesperson clarified that no modifications were made, stressing that the platform’s display of disputed borders has long followed established internal policies.

“We have not made changes to Morocco or Western Sahara on Google Maps,” the spokesperson said. “These labels follow our longstanding policies for disputed regions. People using Maps outside of Morocco see Western Sahara …

Hi-Tech Futurist Ray Kurzweil Predicts Of AI-Driven Future

Ray Kurzweil The Hi-Tech Futurist Predicts Of AI-Driven Future

October 4, 2025 6:14 am

Ray Kurzweil, renown Hi-Tech Google engineer predict humans merging with AI, digital immortality, and cloud-connected brains in the coming decades.

Ray Kurzweil, the American computer scientist celebrated for his bold technology forecasts, has issued a new series of predictions that could reshape how humanity understands life, death, and intelligence in the decades ahead.

Kurzweil, a Google engineer and author long known for his forward-looking insights, accurately foresaw the arrival of the iPhone era and the moment when computers would surpass humans in chess. Now, in his latest book The Singularity is Nearer, he outlines a far more radical vision: the …

Google Hit with $3.45B EU Fine Over Ad Tech Practices

Google Hit with $3.45B EU Fine Over Ad Tech Practices

September 5, 2025 5:34 pm

Alphabet’s Google has been slapped with a 2.95-billion-euro ($3.45 billion) fine by European regulators, marking its fourth major penalty in a decade-long antitrust battle with the European Union. The ruling targets Google’s adtech business, accusing the company of favoring its own services over competitors and harming online publishers.

The European Commission said Google’s practices, in place since 2014, demonstrated a clear abuse of market power. The company allegedly prioritized its own online display technology in a way that disadvantaged rivals, distorting competition and limiting choice for advertisers and publishers alike.

Read Also: 13 Teens Jailed For Murdering Schoolmate In Sabah

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India Fines Google $113M Over ‘Unfair’ Payment System

India Fines Google $113M Over ‘Unfair’ Payment System

October 26, 2022 7:11 am

India’s antitrust watchdog has fined Google $113 million for ‘unfair’ payment policies, a week after hitting the tech behemoth with an even bigger financial penalty for abusing its market dominance.

The company’s Android mobile operating system which is based in California is by far the dominant player in India and runs on 95 percent of all the country’s smartphones, according to research agency Counterpoint.

Independent developers distribute their own software on Android through the company’s app store, Google Play, but must use Google’s billing system to collect revenue from consumers.

This policy amounts to an “unfair condition on app developers”, …

Russia Slams $360M Fine On Google Over Ukraine Content

Russia Slams $360M Fine On Google Over Ukraine Content

July 19, 2022 3:43 am

A court in Moscow on Monday fined Google 21 billion rubles ($360 million) for not removing a number of contents concerning Russia’s military intervention in Ukraine from its space, the nation’s telecommunications regulator has disclosed. 

Roskomnadzor asserted that the Google-owned video platform YouTube had failed to block ‘false information’ on the offensive in Ukraine, ‘extremist and terrorist propaganda’ and content ‘calling on minors to participate in what was tagged unauthorised demonstrations’.

The regulator said that as this was a repeat conviction for Google the fine was based on its annual revenue in Russia.

Africa Daily News, New York reports that …

Bullying: India Slams $113m Fine On Google Parent Company

Australian Politician Floors Google In Defamation Suit

June 6, 2022 1:34 pm

It was jubilation day for an Australian politician as Australia’s federal court ordered Google on Monday to pay more than $500,000 in damages to a politician after finding he had been defamed by a comedian’s videos which were hosted on YouTube.

John Barilaro was deputy premier of the state of New South Wales in 2020, when an Australian comedian known as friendlyjordies uploaded a series of videos to YouTube, accusing the politician of corruption and using an Italian accent to mock his heritage.

Read Also: Russia Accuses Google, Apple Of interfering In Elections

Barilaro labelled the videos racist and broke …

Google Introduces Special Feature To Aid Vaccine-Finding

Google Introduces Special Feature To Aid Vaccine-Finding

April 16, 2021 12:34 am

Google on Thursday announced that it has gone international with tools designed to help people find Covid-19 vaccination locations, as the US internet titan ramps up efforts to fight the pandemic.

The internet superpower also plans to launch a cloud-based ‘virtual agent‘ that people can use to schedule vaccination appointments or get information on the topic in some 28 languages using chat, text messages, or phone calls.

Google had last week announced that it will provide 250,000 vaccine doses to ‘countries in need‘ along with adding the ability for people to find sites for the jab …

Oracle-Google Copyright Case Heads To Top US Court

Oracle-Google Copyright Case Heads To Top US Court

October 6, 2020 5:45 pm

A decade-old legal battle between Silicon Valley giants Oracle and Google over software rights moves to the Supreme Court Wednesday, in a case with enormous implications for copyright in the digital era.

The top court scheduled oral arguments in the case which dates back to a lawsuit filed in 2010 by Oracle seeking billions from Google over its use of Java programming language in its Android mobile operating system.

Two separate jury trials ended with a determination that Google’s “software interface” did not unfairly use Java code, saving the internet giant from a possible multibillion-dollar verdict.

Read Also: Google Giving

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Google Giving $1 Billion In Ads To Non-Profits This Year

Google Giving $1 Billion In Ads To Non-Profits This Year

June 19, 2020 5:16 pm

Google on Thursday boosted to $1 billion the amount of free advertising it will give non-profits this year, taking special interest in groups combating racism and damage done by the coronavirus pandemic.

The internet titan increased its free advertising initiative by $200 million, with the added funding intended for non-profits “tackling pressing issues like COVID-19 response and recovery — especially in hard-hit developing economies — and fighting racial injustice around the world,” Google Ad Grants head Michelle Hurtado said in a blog post.

Since 2003, Ad Grants has provided non-profits with up to $10,000 per month in free ads served

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Google Takes Down Indian App Deleting Chinese Ones From Phones

Google Takes Down Indian App Deleting Chinese Ones From Phones

June 3, 2020 10:08 am
Google has taken down an Indian mobile application from its app store.

Google is owned by Alphabet Inc., an American conglomerate headquartered in California.

The controversial app was allowing users to delete Chinese apps from their phones.

Read Also: Google Rejects Call For Huge Australian Media Payout

“Remove China Apps” was top trending free app on Google’s app store in India with more than five million downloads since late May.

On deletion, a message popped up saying “You are awesome, no China app found’’.

It became popular after calls for a boycott of Chinese apps in India over the Himalayan

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Google rejects call for huge Australian media payout

Google Rejects Call For Huge Australian Media Payout

June 2, 2020 8:58 am

Google has rejected demands it pay hundreds of millions of dollars per year in compensation to Australian news media under a government-imposed revenue sharing deal.

The company’s top executive in Australia said Google made barely Aus$10 million (US$6.7 million) per year from news-linked advertising, a fraction of a government watchdog’s estimates for the sector.

In an effort being closely watched around the world, Australia is set to unveil plans to force major internet firms to share advertising revenue they earn from news featured in their services.

The country’s competition regulator, the ACCC, has estimated that Google and Facebook together earn …

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𝐀𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐚 𝐃𝐢𝐠𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝐍𝐞𝐰𝐬, 𝐍𝐞𝐰 𝐘𝐨𝐫𝐤, is a nonpartisan online news portal founded on the truth to provide you with weekly, insightful articles written with precision and current updates on current events from Africa in particular and the rest of the world in general. All of our reports undergo extensive fact-checking to ensure their veracity, and we adhere strictly to the facts, no matter whose ox is gored.

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