GIGAZINE

2 weeks ago | gigazine.net | Gage Skidmore

May 01, 2025 14:10:00 By Gage SkidmoreElectric car maker Tesla has begun searching for a new CEO to succeed CEO Elon Musk, the Wall Street Journal reported. Musk leads the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) under President Donald Trump, but Tesla's sales have been hit hard by backlash over his involvement in government affairs and political stance.

2 weeks ago | gigazine.net | Cory Doctorow

Apr 28, 2025 07:00:00 Careless People: A story of where I used to work is an exposé of former Facebook (now Meta) executive Sarah Wynne-Williams' years in charge of global policy at the company. Meta is calling for the book to be removed from promotion and publication , citing 'false accusations,' and activist and journalist Cory Doctorow has introduced some of the shocking content of the book.

1 month ago | gigazine.net | Gage Skidmore

Apr 13, 2025 11:51:00 US President Donald Trump has announced that electronic devices such as smartphones, PCs and semiconductors will be excluded from reciprocal tariffs .

1 month ago | gigazine.net

It was announced at the Google Cloud event 'Google Cloud Next 2025' that Google Workspace, a cloud-based productivity groupware suite provided by Google, will add ' Workspace Flows ,' a tool that automates workflows without the need for code. Google Cloud Next 2025: News and updates https://blog.google/products/google-cloud/next-2025/ Turn access to Gemini for Google Workspace Alpha on or off - Business / Enterprise - Google Workspace Admin Help https://support.google.com/a/answer/14170809 Google Workspace gets automation flows, podcast-style summaries | TechCrunch https://techcrunch.com/2025/04/09/google-workspace-gets-automation-flows-podcast-style-summaries/ Google Workspace Flows is a new code-free workflow automation tool added to Google Workspace. This feature allows you to combine apps such as Gmail, Google Drive, Calendar, Spreadsheets, and Chat to efficiently automate your daily work without any programming knowledge. For example, you can set up a series of steps on the screen to automatically save a file to Drive when you receive an email under certain conditions and notify your team about it via Chat. It also works with Gemini, Google's multimodal AI, so that by simply saying in natural language, 'I want to automate this kind of task,' the AI ​​will read the content and suggest the optimal flow, allowing users to intuitively work on improving their business operations even without specialized knowledge. Google Workspace Flows is designed to streamline routine tasks that occur daily, such as internal approval processes and notification tasks, and is expected to be used not only by managers but also by general employees. At the time of writing, a preview is being provided to some users, and it is scheduled to be officially released in the future. In addition, Google announced that Gemini 2.5, announced in March 2025, will be fully integrated into the Google Cloud product lineup, creating an environment in which it can be used by businesses. The company also announced that it will begin offering a public preview of Gemini 2.5 Pro on Vertex AI, will announce integration with new Vertex AI features such as Model Optimizer, Live API, and multi-region support, and will support use in on-premise environments (Google Distributed Cloud). Gemini 2.5 on Vertex AI: Pro, Flash & Model Optimizer Live | Google Cloud Blog https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/ai-machine-learning/gemini-2-5-pro-flash-on-vertex-ai/ In addition to Gemini 2.5 Pro , which was released at the time of writing, a lighter model, Gemini 2.5 Flash , was also announced. Gemini 2.5 Flash is a model that emphasizes low latency and cost efficiency, and is suitable for high-frequency processing such as customer support and real-time summarization. In addition, Gemini 2.5 Flash is equipped with a function that automatically adjusts the AI ​​'thinking budget' according to the complexity of the query, allowing users to explicitly tune the balance between speed, accuracy, and cost. Google said that this flexibility can be expected to provide optimal performance even in applications that require large-scale processing. At Google Cloud Next 2025, it was also announced that an 'agent function' will be added as a preview version to Gemini Code Assist , Google's AI coding assistant. This function will enable developers to connect with external services within their IDE (integrated development environment) to retrieve tasks and summarize design documents. An application-centric, AI-powered cloud | Google Cloud Blog https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/application-development/an-application-centric-ai-powered-cloud/ In particular, the newly introduced 'Application Development Environment (ADE)' integrates various Google Cloud services with the power of AI, providing a space where applications can be developed and deployed flexibly and quickly without worrying about infrastructure. In addition, Duet AI's development support functions have been unified with 'Gemini,' making it a more powerful multimodal AI that can handle not only code but also infrastructure configuration and document generation. Google Cloud has also announced that it will work with online message board site Reddit to provide generative AI technology for some of Reddit's new features, 'Reddit Answers.' Google Cloud Powers Part of Reddit Answers, On-Platform Search Experiences with Generative AI https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/google-cloud-powers-part-of-reddit-answers-on-platform-search-experiences-with-generative-ai-302423847.html By using Google Gemini, Reddit will be able to provide summaries of related threads and comments in response to questions posted by users, allowing users to quickly find the information they are looking for among the vast number of posts. The collaboration is based on a contract between Reddit and Google signed in February 2024 worth approximately $60 million per year, and Reddit will use Google's Vertex AI to improve search results.

1 month ago | gigazine.net | Gage Skidmore

Apr 09, 2025 12:28:00 By Gage SkidmoreReuters reported that Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is using AI to monitor the communications of federal employees, with the aim of uncovering anti-Trump and anti-Musk employees.