Google will settle its Assistant spying lawsuit for $68 million
Google will settle its Assistant spying lawsuit for $68 million Google could owe you some money, now that it’s moving to settle a class-action lawsuit over how it handled recordings captured when its devices were activated by something other than Google Assistant’s actual trigger word, “Ok Google.” German outlet VRT NWS‘s 2019 report exposed the […]
Internal chats show how social media companies discussed teen engagement
Internal chats show how social media companies discussed teen engagement Recently released documents show the big business opportunity that social media companies saw in recruiting teens to their platforms and how they discussed risks that heavy digital engagement could pose. The documents were released last week as part of a major set of trials brought […]
2026 is the year of social media’s legal reckoning
2026 is the year of social media's legal reckoning Over the next year, top social media executives are expected to take the witness stand to defend their companies from an avalanche of claims about their failure to protect kids. The first of many trials is set to begin this month in California, when Meta, TikTok, […]
Gmail’s spam filter and automatic sorting are broken
Gmail's spam filter and automatic sorting are broken Some Gmail users have noticed that promotional emails that normally go to their own siloed tab have started flooding their inbox. Reports have been hitting the Google forums and Reddit that messages are bypassing the Updates and Promotional filters and going straight to Gmail inboxes. Some are […]
Gemini with Personal Intelligence is awfully familiar
Gemini with Personal Intelligence is awfully familiar I respect Gemini using the royal “we” here. By lots of metrics, Gemini is winning. It has raced ahead of OpenAI, become scarily good at creating convincing imagery, and even won Apple’s business. So last week’s news that it was enabling something called Personal Intelligence felt like a […]
Chromebooks train schoolkids to be loyal customers, internal Google document suggests
Chromebooks train schoolkids to be loyal customers, internal Google document suggests Internal documents revealed as part of a child safety lawsuit hint at Google’s plan to “onboard kids” into its ecosystem by investing in schools. In this November 2020 presentation, Google writes that getting kids into its ecosystem “leads to brand trust and loyalty over […]
Google won’t stop replacing our news headlines with terrible AI
Google won't stop replacing our news headlines with terrible AI This headline is false, and it’s not PCMag’s fault — Google planted this atop its story (and others). In early December, I brought you the news that Google has begun replacing Verge headlines, and those of our competitors, with AI clickbait nonsense in its content […]
Epic and Google have a secret $800 million Unreal Engine and services deal
Epic and Google have a secret $800 million Unreal Engine and services deal A judge is questioning whether Epic Games and Google are settling their long-running antitrust fight partly because of a previously unannounced partnership involving the Unreal Engine, Fortnite, and Android. In a hearing in San Francisco today, the court revealed that Epic and […]
Sen. Markey questions OpenAI about ‘deceptive advertising’ in ChatGPT
Sen. Markey questions OpenAI about 'deceptive advertising' in ChatGPT Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) is pressing OpenAI about its move to bring ads to ChatGPT, and is asking several other companies whether they have similar plans. In letters to the CEOs of OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Snap, and xAI, Markey writes that embedding ads into […]
Is this the end of Epic and Google’s feud?
Is this the end of Epic and Google's feud? Today, I am sitting in the courtroom that may decide the fate of Android. Epic CEO Tim Sweeney is here. Google Android boss Sameer Samat is here. Together, they’ll try to convince Judge James Donato that they’re no longer enemies – that Google’s illegal monopoly on […]