Tag: tech

For Google Maps’ trickiest challenges, AI is the answer

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Every time you ask Google Maps to provide driving directions, it considers many options and selects one as the optimum route. Naturally, getting you to your destination in an efficient manner is a primary goal. But when you set out on a trip, efficiency isn’t the single most important factor. Above all, you’d like to get there safely. That’s the premise behind a new feature that Google unveiled today during this year’s online version of its I/O developer conference . Google Maps will now identify road segments where drivers tend to slam on their brakes. It will try to route you around such areas even if they’re theoretically part of the most obvious route. Figuring out where the danger zones are so you can avoid them is “one of the most complex problems I’ve been lucky enough to tackle in my time at Google,” says director of product Russell Dicker, who’s worked on Maps off and on for seven years. The company solved it by applying AI to data, as it’s been doing with a bevy of other recent and upcoming tweaks to the world’s most popular mapping app. It’s pretty obvious why hard braking might be a sign of dangerous stretch of road: It’s evidence that drivers are reacting to something unexpected. And if everyone involved doesn’t react quickly enough, the result can be an accident. Indeed, Dicker says that the inspiration for the new Google Maps feature came from an incident a couple of years ago when a Google Maps product manager rear-ended his father’s car at “this intersection with one of those super-short yellow lights.” Everyone was okay, but the mishap led the Googler to delve into the topic of hard-braking incidents— the subject of considerable research by organizations such as the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute. We think that we’re going to have the ability to potentially eliminate around 100 million hard-braking events.” Russell Dicker, Google The more the Maps team looked into the issues that can lead to hard braking—which range from road geometry to sunlight hitting drivers in the eyes—the more comfortable it felt factoring them into its driving directions. “We’ve seen that there can be a sudden increase in hard-braking events along a segment when it’s raining extra hard,” says Dicker. “And so this was the next ‘Aha’ moment for us, because we realized that understanding environmental factors and helping people navigate them successfully was what Google Maps has done for years.” So how does one identify roadways that are prone to hard-braking incidents? Google had an obvious opportunity to collect relevant data: The Google Maps app runs on smartphones equipped with accelerometers, allowing it to detect motion or the abrupt lack thereof. But phones aren’t bolted to vehicles; they’re subject to independent movement of their own within the cabin. That meant that raw accelerometer data was of limited value. Google discovered a workaround in the fact that a decent chunk of Google Maps navigation involves Android Auto —the feature, built into many recent vehicles, that lets you project apps from your phone onto a dashboard touchscreen. A phone that’s powering an Android Auto session is at least tethered to the vehicle it’s in, and Google found that it provided more robust evidence of hard braking Read More …

Amid worker and regulator complaints, Google is facing a turning point

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By any measure, Google is a colossus of the tech industry, with a market capitalization of nearly $1.5 trillion , a massive army of lobbyists , and elite academics at its disposal . But lately, its reputation has been hurt by a highly publicized feud with well-respected ethical AI researchers, and revelations about its toxic workplace, previously hidden under NDAs , are roiling the tech giant’s PR-spun Disneyland-like facade. Now, it’s facing a multitude of challenges including talent attrition, resistance from an increasingly influential union, and increased public scrutiny. Privacy-centered competitors are nipping at its ankles, antitrust regulations loom on the horizon, and user interest in de-Googling their online activities is mounting. These headwinds are threatening the tech giant’s seemingly unassailable industry dominance and may bring us closer to a “de-Googled” world, where Google is no longer the default. At war with its workers In December 2020, the tech giant dismissed eminent scholar Timnit Gebru over a research paper that analyzed the bias inherent in large AI models that analyze human language—a type of AI that undergirds Google Search. Google’s whiplash-inducing reversal on ethics and diversity as soon as its core business was threatened was not entirely surprising. However, its decision to cover this up with a bizarre story claiming that Gebru resigned sparked widespread incredulity. Since Gebru’s ouster, Google has since fired her colleague Margaret Mitchell and restructured its “responsible AI” division under the leadership of another Black woman , now known to have deep links to surveillance technologies. These events sent shock waves through the research community beholden to Google for funding and triggered much-needed introspection about the insidious influence of Big Tech in this space . Last week, the organizers of the Black in AI, Queer in AI, and Widening NLP groups announced their decision to end their sponsorship relationship with Google in response. While the prestige and lucrative compensation that comes from working at Google is still a huge draw for many who don’t consider these issues a dealbreaker, some, such as Black in AI cofounder and scholar Rediet Abebe , were always wary. As Abebe explained in a tweet, her decision to back out of an internship at the tech giant was triggered by Google’s mistreatment of BIPOC, involvement with military warfare technologies, and ouster of Meredith Whittaker , another well-known AI researcher who played a lead role in the Google Walkout in 2018 . Abebe is not the only one who has decided to walk away from Google. In response to this latest AI ethics debacle, leading researcher Luke Stark turned down a significant monetary award , other talented engineers resigned , and Gebru’s much-respected manager Samy Bengio also left the company. A few years back this level of pushback would be unimaginable given Google’s formidable clout, but the tech giant seems to have met its match in Gebru and other workers who refuse to back down. Even with its formidable PR machinery spinning out an announcement touting an expanded AI ethics team, the damage has been done, and Google’s misguided actions will hurt its ability to attract credible talent for the foreseeable future. More ex-employees are also coming out with details of their horrifying experience s, adding fuel to the rising calls for better employee protections. These disclosures have renewed support for tech workers as hundreds of Google employees unionized after many years of activism, despite union-busting efforts by their employer. Read More …

AT&T’s WarnerMedia merger with Discovery could mean higher prices for you

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Here we go again. Another two media companies have decided that they can’t live with being less successful than Netflix, and so they’re merging together in hopes of creating a larger competitor. This time, the jealous parties are AT&T and Discovery, which announced plans for a $43 billion merger on Monday morning. If regulators approve, the deal would effectively undo AT&T’s previous mega-merger with Time Warner in 2018, creating a new standalone company that pools WarnerMedia’s entertainment assets—including HBO Max and cable channels like CNN—with those of Discovery. AT&T CEO John Stankey said the goal is to create “one of the leading global direct-to-consumer streaming platforms.” Never mind that Discovery’s existing streaming efforts have been going pretty well, racking up 15 million subscribers since Discovery+ launched in early January with favorites like Deadliest Catch and Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives . And never mind that HBO Max has been enjoying a growth spurt as well, with a combined 63.9 million HBO and HBO Max subscribers in the United States, up from 53.8 million a year ago. If you really want to compete with Netflix, these companies seem to say, you’ve got to be even bigger. Unfortunately for us, that probably translates more bloated TV services at higher prices. We’ve been down this road before, and it always ends the same way. TV mergers and price hikes: A brief history For an example of how big media company mergers lead to higher prices, we need only look to Viacom’s merger with CBS in 2019 Read More …

How technology is making healthcare more human

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As the world goes through digitalization at a rapid pace, fears of the dehumanizing aspect of technology are pervasive—and these fears are no exception in the healthcare industry. Certainly, no one wants robots directing their healthcare needs. With the pandemic highlighting just how vital empathy and humanity truly is, people’s reservations around adopting new, technology-driven ways of treating patients have been reinforced. But as the world turns towards more technology, we’ve uncovered something truly unexpected in healthcare. Contrary to our initial fears, digitalizing healthcare is proving to be even more human-centric than we could have imagined. Even through virtual connections, we have maintained and often intensified the human element of healthcare Read More …

Don’t buy new gadgets. Used or refurbished is just smarter—and greener

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A couple of years ago, I made a conscious decision to stop buying new phones. While I used to always stay on the cutting edge when choosing a new iPhone or Android phone, I realized that buying used or refurbished devices made more sense. These days, one- or two-year-old phones aren’t much different from the latest models, and buying them second-hand lets you save money without getting locked into long-term wireless carrier contracts. Buying used or refurbished tech also helps make a tiny dent in the world’s e-waste problems . By purchasing an older device, you’re delaying its journey to the scrap heap and reducing demand for new products. The idea seems to be catching on; a survey from February commissioned by Backmarket found that 25% of people listed environmental reasons for buying refurbished gear, up from 16% in May 2019. For me, the used phone lifestyle has been working out pretty well. I’ve been able to bounce between a few different phones before selling them back into the used market, and I never have to get AT&T involved with activation. Read More …