Posts Tagged: "Sundar Pichai"

Congress Members Ask to Grill Google in Roundtable on Content ID Tool

Eight members of Congress have sent a letter to Google Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai requesting that the company participate in “a roundtable with Congressional offices and members of the creative community” to discuss its responses to a series of questions relating to Google-owned YouTube’s Content ID tool. The tool is meant to prevent copyright infringing material from appearing on YouTube but has come under scrutiny for its failings in recent years. In the letter sent September 3, the Congress members questioned whether the tool was effective for all users. “We have heard from copyright holders who have been denied access to Content ID tools, and as a result, are at a significant disadvantage to prevent the repeated uploading of content that they have previously identified as infringing,” said the letter.

Google Downplays Importance of STEM Education Despite Increased Job Opportunities and Wage Prospects for Workers

Looking at the results of multi-year studies conducted by Google into its own employment practices, including hiring standards and team productivity, Davidson noted Google’s own findings that a hard skills from a STEM education were not as important as softer skills such as curiosity, empathy and emotional intelligence… On January 18th, NBC News THINK published a thought piece penned by Google CEO Sundar Pichai in which Pichai argues that the traditional stance on education, whereby students would graduate from academic institutions with the assumption that they had learned lifelong career skills, is no longer tenable given the rapid changes posed by technology. Pichai argued in favor of moving away from “code and intensive degrees” towards a more “lightweight, focused model” featuring apprenticeship and certification programs, some of which can be completed in less than one year.

Are Corporate Employees Protected by the First Amendment?

As it related to the Google incident, it was first reported that a memo authored by a Google employee, titled “Google’s Ideological Echo Chamber”, was being circulated among Google employees. Later that day, the memo was obtained by the media and made public. The memo’s author was identified in the press as a senior employee named James Damore. In the memo, Damore criticized the efforts of tech companies, Google included, to employ programs and hiring practices concentrating on diversity. Specifically, Damore was critical of tech company initiatives which had the goal of recruiting and employing female engineers.

Google’s conversion to Alphabet highlights far-flung operations in biotech, venture capital funding

Google recently announced that it would be undergoing a major corporate restructuring, folding itself into a new corporation called Alphabet Inc. The move has been marketed as a means by which Google can remain more innovative insofar as it allows Larry Page and Sergey Brin to continue to make technological bets that have long odds while affecting search engine revenues less. Aside from the Internet division, there are as many as 80 other divisions where it is hoped that R&D development will continue while they grow into services with the billion+ level of users claimed by Google’s Internet services. This article takes a look at some of those divisions and how they stand to gain.