Waves crash over a breakwater in Alameda, Calif., on Sunday. (Noah Berger/AP) Scientists are saying that climate change and El Niño, a climate pattern caused by the warming of the Pacific Ocean, are the culprits for the extreme weather that California is experiencing this winter. Here’s what USA Today reported: Multiple weather phenomena are conspiring to make these storms particularly damaging. Warm water provides energy to storms, and record-high ocean water temperatures, likely from… Source link

Eric Risberg/AP Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet, takes part in a discussion at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) CEO Summit Nov. 16, 2023, in San Francisco. Washington CNN  —  … Source link

Google is introducing an experimental feature in Google Maps that uses AI to help users discover local businesses that meet specific needs. AI-Powered Discovery The new feature utilizes large language models to analyze Google Maps’ database of over 250 million places, photos, ratings, reviews, and more. After entering a conversational search query, Google Maps will suggest personalized recommendations for businesses, events, restaurants, and activities in the area. For example, you can ask… Source link

The Netherlands-based parent company of the Yandex group is selling its Russian businesses to local investors for $5.2 billion, the company announced on Monday. Despite a mandatory discount of at least half enforced by the Kremlin, this would be the largest corporate exit from Russia since it invaded Ukraine two years ago. Yandex, often referred to as “Russia’s Google,” was founded in Russia in the late 1990s and went public on the Nasdaq in 2011 via a company called Yandex NV registered… Source link

By Mike Scarcella WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. federal judge on Monday set a Sept. 9, 2024, date for the start of a jury trial in a lawsuit the U.S. Justice Department and a coalition of states filed last year against Google that accused the company of abusing its dominance of digital advertising technology. The lawsuit, filed in January 2023, accuses Google of monopolizing the market for digital advertising and undermining competition. The government has said Google should be forced to sell… Source link

[unable to retrieve full-text content]Yandex takes a big hit to get rid of Russian assets  TechCrunch Source link

Sabrina Ortiz/ZDNET Google Bard disappointed users upon its launch with its underwhelming performance. However, Google has made several AI advancements since then, including releasing its most advanced LLM, Gemini, and rolling out an impressive image generator released last week. To follow on those upgrades, it looks like Bard is getting a rebrand. Also: The best AI chatbots On Saturday, Android developer Dylan Roussel spotted a changelog for Bard, dated February 7, 2024, that revealed… Source link

The parent firm of Russia’s most prominent technology company, Yandex, said it has agreed to sell all its assets in the country for about $5 billion, which would be one of the largest corporate exits from Russia since its invasion of Ukraine. The invasion had roiled Yandex — often referred to as “Russia’s Google” — and turned its attempts to navigate between the Kremlin’s authoritarian policies and a Western blockade of the Russian economy into the most dramatic example of the… Source link

Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell is predicting that more small banks will likely close or merge due to commercial real estate weaknesses, but that the problem is ultimately “manageable.” The central bank official made this point during a 60 Minutes interview that aired Sunday night. It was Powell’s first comments about the industry following a new bout of turmoil cascading through the stocks of many regional banks. “I don’t think there’s much risk of a repeat of 2008,” Powell said,… Source link

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — The Dutch parent of pioneering Russian tech company Yandex is selling its operations in the country at a steeply discounted price of just over $5 billion to its Russia-based managers and oil company Lukoil, one of the biggest deals for Western-held companies to exit Russia since the invasion of Ukraine. The price reflects a 50% discount that Moscow imposes on companies from “unfriendly” countries like the Netherlands as… Source link