SCIENCE BOND

In 2015, the Commission on Informatics and Liberty (CNIL) said Google should respect French "right to be forgotten" rulings worldwide.  But Google said the ruling could lead to abuse by "less open and democratic" countries.  The company is now appealing against a 100,000-euro (£76,000) CNIL fine.The "right to be forgotten" refers to a landmark ruling passed by the European Union's Court of Justice (ECJ) in May 2014. It gives people the right to have results linked to their name removed from search websites, if they "appear to be inadequate" or "irrelevant".  Google says results can end up removed "even when those links point to truthful and lawfully published information like newspaper articles or official government websites".  Companies offering services to European citizens must comply with the ruling, even if their websites are not hosted in Europe.  Google said it had reviewed almost 1.5 million requests, o...

Google has no plans to expand its partnership with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV to create a self-driving car, the program chief at the Alphabet Inc unit said on Thursday, affirming that the technology company was still in talks with other potential partners.  Earlier this month, Google and Fiat Chrysler agreed to work together to build a fleet of 100 self-driving minivans in the most advanced collaboration to date between Silicon Valley and a traditional carmaker. Google said it was not sharing proprietary self-driving vehicle technology with Fiat Chrysler, and that the vehicles would not be offered for sale.  This is just FCA and Google building 100 cars together, Google self-driving car Chief Executive John Krafcik said in an interview on the sidelines of an energy conference in Washington. "We're still talking to a lot of different automakers," he added. "We've been very open about what the technology is and the problem we want to solve together. So...

Google  faces a record antitrust fine of around 3 billion euros ($3.4 billion) from the European Commission in the coming weeks, British newspaper The Sunday Telegraph said.  The European Union has accused Google of promoting its shopping service in Internet searches at the expense of rival services in a case that has dragged on since late 2010.  Several people familiar with the matter told Reuters last month they believed that after three failed attempts at a compromise in the past six years Google now had no plans to try to settle the allegations unless the EU watchdog changed its stance. The Telegraph cited sources close to the situation as saying officials planned to announce the fine as early as next month, but that the bill had not yet been finalised.  Google will also be banned from continuing to manipulate search results to favour itself and harm rivals, the newspaper said. The Commission can fine firms up to 10 percent of their annual sales, w...

Chris Urmson told a Senate hearing that the US Transport Secretary should be given authority over the matter rather than leaving it to individual states.  He also reiterated his company's view that it would be safer if passengers were not able to override a vehicle's autonomous systems.  That contrasts with the view of California's regulator.  The state's Department of Motor Vehicles published draft rules in December that said a trained human must still be able to take control.  Mr Urmson noted that 23 states had now set a total of 53 pieces of legislation relating to self-driving vehicles, some of which are at odds with each other."We currently face a growing patchwork of state laws and regulations on self-driving cars that has the potential to become unworkable," Mr Urmson said. "If every state is left to go its own way, it would be extremely impractical to operate an autonomous vehicle across state boundaries."  His view was supported a...

Anthony Foxx told that accidents were inevitable, but that the emerging technology should not be compared "against perfection".  Nobody was hurt in the crash, but it was the first time Google's on-board computer has been blamed for causing a collision.  Secretary Foxx was attending the South by Southwest Interactive festival in Austin, Texas.  He announced that seven US cities - Austin, Columbus, Denver, Kansas City, Pittsburgh, Portland and San Francisco - had reached the final stage of a competition to receive $40m in government funding for "smart" technologies. Secretary Foxx agreed that smart technologies could put some people out of work.  "Driverless technology presents a lot of potential for disruption on a number of fronts," he said.  "It's unclear to me now exactly how that future unfolds."Secretary Foxx is leading efforts to bring self-driving cars to US roads. The Obama administration has committed $4bn to that goal ...

South Korea's Lee Se-dol is playing Google's AlphaGo programme in the first of a series of games in Seoul.  In October 2015, AlphaGo beat the European Go champion, an achievement that was not expected for years.  A computer has beaten the world chess champion, but the Chinese game Go is seen as significantly more complex.  The first game between Mr Lee and AlphaGo kicked off at 13:00 local time (04:00 GMT) and is expected to last for several hours. It is being live broadcast on Youtube. The two opponents will play a total of five games over the next five days for a prize of about $1m (£700,000).The five-day battle is being seen as a major test of what scientists and engineers have achieved in the sphere of artificial intelligence.  Go is a 3,000-year old Chinese board game and is considered to be a lot more complex than chess where artificial intelligence scored its most famous victory to date when IBM's Deep Blue beat grandmaster Gary Kasparov in 1997....

It is not the first time one of Google's famed self-driving cars has been involved in a crash, but it may be the first time it has caused one.  Google is to meet with California's Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to discuss the incident, and determine where the blame lies.  On 14 February the car, travelling at 2mph (3km/h), pulled out in front of a public bus going 15mph (24km/h).  The human in the Google vehicle reported that he assumed the bus would slow down to let the car out, and so he did not override the car's self-driving computer.  The crash happened in Mountain View, near Google's headquarters.  In a statement, Google said: "We clearly bear some responsibility, because if our car hadn't moved, there wouldn't have been a collision. "That said, our test driver believed the bus was going to slow or stop to allow us to merge into the traffic, and that there would be sufficient space to do that."The company's self-driving cars...

It makes him the highest-paid chief executive in the US.  Mr Pichai became chief executive of the search engine giant following the creation of its parent, Alphabet.  The founders of Google, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, have amassed fortunes of $34.6bn and $33.9bn, according to Forbes.  Mr Pichai, 43, was awarded 273,328 Alphabet shares on 3 February, worth a total of $199m, according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The new award of shares takes Mr Pichai's total stock value to approximately $650m.  Mr Pichai's share award will vest incrementally each quarter until 2019. In other words, full control over the shares will pass to him on a gradual basis.  The Google chief executive joined the company since 2004, initially leading product management on a number of Google's client software products, including Google Chrome] and Chrome OS, as well as being largely responsible for Google Drive. He also oversaw the development of Gmai...

The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) - which sets rules and regulations on America's roads - shared its thoughts in a letter to Google made public this week.  Until now, any car without a human driver would not be considered roadworthy.  However, in light of technological advancements, the NHTSA has changed its perspective.  "If no human occupant of the vehicle can actually drive the vehicle, it is more reasonable to identify the driver as whatever (as opposed to whoever) is doing the driving," it said. "In this instance, an item of motor vehicle equipment, the Self-Driving System, is actually driving the vehicle."  It means Google's self-driving pod, which has no typical in-car controls, is one crucial step closer to being allowed on public roads.  With the NHTSA's blessing, the car now fits the key criteria required to pass the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards test.  It's the latest regulatory boost for Goo...

It comes a week after the search giant announced that AlphaGo had beaten French Go champion Fan Hui.  That was seen as a pivotal moment for AI, similar to IBM's Deep Blue beating Garry Kasparov at chess.The match will take place in Seoul, South Korea, and will be live-streamed via YouTube.  Demis Hassabis, head of Google's Deep Mind lab, announced the news in a tweet.Mr Sedol said in a statement that although AlphaGo appeared to be a strong player, he was "confident" that he could win the match.  Go is widely regarded as a more complicated game than chess, because of the larger choice of moves, making it a good measure of how AI technology is developing. Computers have played Go and beaten amateurs but, before Google's victory against the French champion, experts had predicted that it would take another 10 years until a computer could beat the world's best Go professionals. There has been a long tradition of AI software going head-to-head with h...

A transcript of court proceedings from a copyright lawsuit against Google allegedly contains reference to a deal between the Silicon Valley firms.  The alleged agreement involves Google paying Apple a percentage of revenue - as much as 34% - gained through iOS devices.  Both companies declined to comment.  Bloomberg added that the referenced document has since been removed from the web.  "The transcript vanished without a trace from electronic court records at about 15:00," the report noted. The court proceedings in question regard a lawsuit by Oracle Corp. in which the firm claims that Google used its Java software to develop Android but failed to pay for it.Analyst firms, such as Morgan Stanley, have quoted the $1bn figure in the past, but this appears to be the first time that a reference has been found in court documents.  "It's a very lucrative business to be the browser of choice on a device or the search engine on a device," Chris Green, a tech...

AVG's Web TuneUp software is marketed as a free way for users to defend themselves from "hidden threats".  But earlier this month Google's security team spotted that it was overriding safety features built into the search firm's Chrome browser.  AVG said it had addressed the problem, but it now faces repercussions.  Google's Tavis Ormandy first flagged the issue to other members of his Project Zero team on 15 December. He highlighted that Web TuneUp was "force installing" a plug-in into Chrome, meaning that users of the product had no way to opt out of it altering the browser's settings.  As a result, he said, people's internet history and other personal data could be seen by others if they knew where to look online. Furthermore, he said, the code could potentially let hackers spy on people's email and other online activities.On 15 December, he contacted the Amsterdam-based cybersecurity firm. "Apologies for my harsh...

On Wednesday, the DMV published draft regulations which outline how the technology could be used on the roads.  The regulations say truly driverless cars would be "initially excluded" from operation.  Google's director of self-driving cars, Chris Urmson, said the move was "perplexing".  "This maintains the same old status quo and falls short on allowing this technology to reach its full potential, while excluding those who need to get around but cannot drive," he wrote in his blog.  "We've heard countless stories from people who need a fully self-driving car today. People with health conditions ranging from vision problems to multiple sclerosis to autism to epilepsy who are frustrated with their dependence on others for even simple errands."Google argues that driverless cars are much safer than manually driven cars, because they eliminate the human error that causes a majority of collisions. The technology has inspired a web ga...

However, the cautious recommendations from the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) will, initially at least, insist on a fully licensed driver being behind the wheel, ready to take over in an emergency or if the technology fails.  California has been the testing ground for most of the development, and so regulations in the state are considered to be precedent-setting.  Prospective users of self-driving cars will need to undergo special training, and manufacturers would be required to monitor the cars' use.  Answering a common query, regulators said any traffic violations or accidents would remain the responsibility of the human driver.Many firms are investing heavily in researching and creating self-driving vehicles, such as Ford, Uber and Tesla. Google, which leads the research field, has made a self-driving car without any controls such as steering wheels or pedals.But the DMV's proposals would mean such vehicles would not, for the foreseeable future at least, be ...

The company is making the broadband wireless network available to local internet providers, who will then charge customers for access.  The web giant says the network is now live in 120 key locations in Kampala.  Official statistics show Uganda has about 8.5 million internet users, making up 23% of the population.Google hopes that by improving internet capacity in the city, local telecom companies will then be able to offer faster, cheaper broadband access to their customers.  The company estimates that one day's unlimited data using the new network should cost 1,000 Ugandan shillings ($0.30, £0.20), although local providers will decide how much they want to charge for the service. Critics say it would have been better to focus on Uganda's rural areas, where high-speed internet access is very limited.The wireless network forms part of a wider project to improve web infrastructure in Africa, which has seen Google lay 800km (500 miles) of cables in Uganda to esta...

It said it had introduced the technology to help people get better results when they search.  Often, it said in a blogpost, the best answers to a query were found in an app rather than a web page.  Initially nine apps have been selected to work with the streaming system as it is tested.  Jennifer Lin, Google engineering manager, said the firm started indexing information found in apps two years ago to bolster its larger corpus of search data.  About 40% of searches done via Google now turn up content found in apps such as Facebook, Instagram, Airbnb or Pinterest, she said.  Until now, Google has only answered queries with information that is available both on the web and in apps. Now, however, it is starting to show results that are only found in apps.  One example of when these results would show up might be when someone is looking for hotels during a spur-of-the-moment trip to an unfamiliar city, wrote Ms Lin in the blog. Google said it was...

Russia's federal anti-monopoly service said that Google abused its dominant position by requiring mobile firms to install the apps. Apps for YouTube and Google's photography and maps services were at the center of the row. Google said no operator was compelled to install its apps and there was plenty of competition for its services.When it reached its decision in September, the anti-monopoly watchdog gave Google until 18 November to change its contracts with phone firms so its apps were not favored. The firm could face penalties of up to 15% of its 2014 revenue in Russia if it did not change its practices.  Google has not complied with this decision and has now published comments on its official Russian blog explaining why. "We intend to challenge the decision in court and explain why we believe it to be unfounded," said Google (link in Russian).  It laid out five reasons why it believed there was little evidence that its own Android ap...

No action was taken but it does raise questions about whether the cars, in their current form, are too cautious.  In a post on Google+, the net giant joked: "Bet humans don't get pulled over for that too often."  An accident report recently filed by the California Department of Motor Vehicles described a Google automated car as "over-cautious".  In a blogpost about this week's incident, the Mountain View police department said an officer "noticed traffic backing up behind a slow-moving car in the eastbound lane". "The officer stopped the car and made contact with the operators to  learn more about how it was choosing speeds along certain roadways and to educate the operators about impeding traffic," it added.  The car was travelling at 24mph in a 35mph zone.  In its own post about the incident, Google said: "We've capped the speed of our prototype vehicles at 25mph for safety reasons. We want them to feel friendly an...

Galaxy S6 Edge The vulnerabilities include a loophole that could have been used by hackers to gain control of a victim's phone.  Most of the issues were fixed after Google notified Samsung, but some have yet to be addressed.  One independent expert said the bugs "significantly weakened the security" of Google's operating system.  "There is definitely a tension between Google and the handset manufacturers because Google wants to protect its Android brand, and when it comes to security, Android has been quite tarnished," added Dr Steven Murdoch, a security researcher at University College London.  "Some of that is down to the extra software that handset manufacturers add." A statement from Samsung said the three remaining bugs would be  fixed via a security update later this month.  "Maintaining the trust of our customers is a top priority", said the company.Details of the bugs were disclosed by Google's Project Zero team, wh...

The court rejected claims from a group of authors that Google Books violated their intellectual property rights.  Judges sided with an earlier ruling that the digital library was "fair use" and provided a public service.  Authors Guild executive director Mary Rasenberger said the decision was disappointing.  The Authors Guild and some individual writers filed the lawsuit in 2005, claiming the project infringed on copyright protection and authors' ability to make money from their work.  Google Books is a project to scan and digitise millions of books to allow users to search and read excerpts from them. Judge Pierre Leval wrote: "Google's division of the page into tiny  snippets is designed to show the searcher just enough context surrounding the searched term to help her evaluate whether the book falls within the scope of her interest (without revealing so much as to threaten the author's copyright interests)."Google said it would have faced b...