Google co-founder Sergey Brin, one of the richest men in the world, has spent more than $100 million backing a group seeking to stop a popular California ballot initiative that would impose a one-time tax on the wealth of the state’s billionaires. New filings reported by The Los Angeles Times detail Brin’s role in funding Building a Better California, which is pushing two ballot measures that…
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A lot of AI technology may not work very well, but providing consumers with reliable information was never its major commercial promise. Investors have poured billions into generative AI because of the promise that it will eliminate jobs on a massive scale. Tech journalist Brian Merchant joins Movement Memos host Kelly Hayes to discuss how the AI boom is being used to displace workers…
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Google made an announcement last month that could turn the journalism world upside down, accelerating the internet’s shift toward an overwhelmingly AI-driven landscape and serving the Trump agenda of media suppression. At its developer conference in May, the company announced the most disruptive changes to Google Search in over 25 years. Google Search will further demote its index of the web…
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On Tuesday, May 5, Google AI workers in the U.K. launched a unionization bid, as part of an attempt to end the use of their technology by Israel and the U.S. military. Workers at Google DeepMind — Google’s AI research laboratory, based in London — sent a letter to management Tuesday requesting recognition of the Communication Workers Union (CWU) and Unite the Union as official…
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Lawmakers and privacy advocates are demanding answers from the Trump administration about its weaponization of digital tools and popular web platforms to spy on critics and activists. Targets have included a student who attended a pro-Palestine protest and anonymous web users posting about President Donald Trump’s violent immigration crackdown, but the administration’s secret systems of…
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It’s becoming something of a theme: Two massive companies are fighting to take over another massive company, in a deal that will enrich a variety of shareholders but leave the rest of us worse off. The news that Netflix struck a bid to take over movie powerhouse Warner Bros. earlier this month likely horrified entertainment workers: Two Goliaths of the industry combining is no good for pay…
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