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Alphabet paid $20 billion to Apple in 2022 to maintain its status as the default search engine on Safari, Apple’s web browser. As per a report by Bloomberg, the amount Google paid in 2021 was around $15 billion.

The numbers were disclosed through documents which are a part of the US Department of Justice’s antitrust lawsuit against Google. One of the main premise of the antitrust case is how Google’s deal with Apple has monopolised online search business.

The amount paid by Google to Apple has increased in the last couple of years. It was $15 billion in 2021 and the recent increase shows the growing importance of maintaining a default position in a world where search engines drive significant advertising revenue — especially for Google, as per rpeorts.

Apple does give users a choice to change the search engine on all of its devices. There are options like Bing, DuckDuckGo available to users. However, by default, Google Search is set as the primary search engine in Safari on iPhones, iPads and Macs. Google does get a readymade vast customer base as Apple has billions of activated devices.

The deal also highlights the competitive landscape of the tech industry, where companies like Microsoft have attempted to negotiate similar agreements with Apple, albeit unsuccessfully. In fact, it was reported that Microsoft wanted to sell Bing to Apple. The DOJ has argued that the deal stifles competition and give an unfair advantage to already dominant players in the market.




Alphabet paid $20 billion to Apple to maintain its status as the default search engine

The entire automotive industry is ripe for disruption with the marriage of various advanced capabilities from electric drive train and AI-driven autonomous driving to advanced HMI, real-time HD maps and infotainment systems. All of these capabilities require an active, stable, low latency and high-bandwidth cellular connectivity. This is where 5G steps in, adding another technology dimension to tie these capabilities together.

Over the last decade, 4G was the major cellular connectivity embedded in car via NAD modules focusing on telematics, safety and emergency call use-cases. However, the use-cases for the cars rolling out over the next decade will warrant 5G connectivity to satisfy the new advanced mobility use-cases. According to Counterpoint’s latest Smart Automotive research report on the Global Connected Car Forecast by Technology, Regions and Brands, two out of every three cars sold already feature embedded connectivity and this will grow to almost 100% connectivity by end of the decade. The cumulative sales of 5G embedded cars will account for almost half of the total connected cars sold between 2024 and 2030.

At present, Germany leads in terms of connectivity penetration, but China is expected to achieve 100% connectivity penetration by 2028. This development positions China to lead the global connected car sales market by 2030, with USA, India, Japan, and Germany following suit. These top five countries are projected to collectively account for over two-thirds of global connected car sales by 2030.

Commenting on the regional dynamics, Senior Analyst Soumen Mandal said, “China is poised to dominate the connected car market, fueled by the rapid adoption of EVs, C-V2X and other connected infotainment features. Domestic EV manufacturers such as BYD, NIO, Xpeng and Li Auto are striving to differentiate their offerings from traditional players and expand into international markets.”

Mandal added, “In the US, the world’s second-largest connected car market, growth will be driven primarily by the adoption of advanced safety features such as Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) communication and Level 2+ autonomy. Telecom giants like AT&T are at the forefront of the connected car space, while competitors like Verizon and T-Mobile are striving to capitalize on revenue opportunities through features like predictive maintenance, service scheduling, remote diagnostics, live maps and content platforms.”

“India is set to experience the fastest growth in connected car sales between 2023 and 2030. Indian automakers are gradually catching up with their international counterparts and enhancing their digital offerings to improve the driving experience,” Mandal said.

Commenting on the connectivity trends, Senior Analyst Parv Sharma said, “Currently, more than 96% of connected cars are powered by 4G while 5G is still picking up. The higher price of 5G telematics devices, lack of 5G infrastructure and unavailability of killer use cases have been the major reasons for 5G’s slow growth earlier in the decade.”

“However, with increasing 5G coverage and the introduction of L3+ ADAS, 5G adoption in connected cars will be swift for the rest of the decade. The availability of 5G RedCap in 2026 will also find application in lower-tier cars, driving mass-market adoption sooner rather than later. We forecast that by 2030, almost 90% of cars sold will have 5G connectivity.”



Global connected car sales to exceed 500 million in 2024-2030; China, USA, India to lead sales

"It's difficult to educate people about sex when the content gets censored. I can't even talk about sex when its the core of my business. On Meta, terms and guidelines specifically say you cannot advertise products which talk about sexual gratification or pleasure. So the content one is viewing on Sangya Project's Instagram handle is deemed as smart or witty but the audience has to realize that its not out of choice. Meta has strong armed us into trying to say things without saying things; we are not being to explain the usage of our products fully to our audience; they are left it in the dark. It's not fair to them, nor is it fair to me," says Aashish Mehrotra, co-founder at Sangya Project, a sex-tech startup.

Aastha Vohra, co-founder of Manzuri, a sexual positivity startup says, "It is very strange that Meta doesn't allow us to advertise sexual wellness products because viagra and testosterone boosting supplements are allowed to be advertised on the platform. Somehow when the conversation occurs about women and their pleasure, the conversation is removed."

In the case of a man uploading a nude picture versus a woman uploading a nude picture on Instagram, there is more risk of the woman's picture being taken down. According to Vohra, this is common not only in the sexual wellness industry but even body positive influencers witness gender playing a massive role on Meta.

"The irony here is that initially Manzuri started as an Instagram page, and now we are not able to use the very same platform. Initially, the push for Manzuri came through word of mouth and even now it's the same."

While talking about her experience on LinkedIn, Vohra shares that two years ago, Manzuri changed the trajectory of sex related content on LinkedIn. A lot of emails went back and forth;  we were able to reverse their policies and now when you read their policies, you will see they want to encourage a lot of sex positive content as well."

Vohra points out that content creators like Seema Anand also have limited number of follower compared to fashion influencer which also plas out a role because they talk about sex related things, the chances of content going viral loses significantly.


Mehrotra points out that to understand this censorship, one needs to also understanding how the government can affect Meta in that country. The review process is different in different countries. 

Tanisha Rao, co-founder of Sangya Project says when Sangya's content has been removed, the team has written to Meta and contested. "We have gotten lucky at times, but there are glitches in that as well. Sometimes the content is getting down because of mass reporting and you don't get the opportunity to review it. If there is a product on a pillow with no human touch, you may get lucky, you have to be subtle on Instagram and lead the viewer to your website."








Sex-ed content creators discuss shadowbanning and censorship on Meta platforms

Saregama has launched Padhanisa, an AI based music learning app that aims to make Indian vocal learning simple, easy and accessible to everyone across the globe, the company said. Saregama is India’s oldest music label. "Padhanisa aims to be a personal singing teacher for those who enjoy singing but have never considered learning due to lack of access to the right resources or fear of judgement," the company said in a statement. 

The app's features include individualized class structure, where every session is tailored to address the specific needs and goals of each learner. By leveraging advanced algorithms and machine learning capabilities, the app adjusts lesson plans to accommodate each learner's progress and preferences. 

Saregama added that the personalized approach of the app ensures that every individual receives tailored recommendations based on their vocal range, suggestions on warmups and workouts focussed on the key improvement areas. A comprehensive assessment of the performance is shared after every level so that learners can keep improving.

The application not only provides a customised platform for music learning but also offers Live Masterclasses by subject matter experts that help learners acquire in-dept knowledge about music concepts and also clear their doubts through Q&A sessions.

Padhanisa also allows singers and aspirants to earn by sharing singing videos through the app and a chance to sing for Saregama under its Talent Hunt program.

Vikram Mehra, Managing Director - Saregama India Limited, “Padhanisa is an obvious extension from Saregama. The insight of the app comes from the fact that all Indians’ love to sing, be it any occasion or just to feel happy. We truly believe that there are no bad singers, but just untrained ones. So, here we are with an AI based app which trains you to sing in Sur. All you got to do is download the Padhanisa App and start your personalised music learning journey.”



Saregama launches Padhanisa, an AI-based music learning app

Zoom Video Communications has announced Zoom Workplace, its AI-powered, open collaboration platform, and introduced new AI Companion expansions to help reimagine teamwork. Zoom’s latest products and features,  including new AI Companion features for Zoom Phone and extended capabilities with Ask AI Companion, a refreshed look within the Zoom app, and more, will provide its customers with the all-in-one AI-powered platform they need to power modern work. Zoom also announced customer experience enhancements to Zoom Contact Center, so businesses can strengthen customer relationships and leverage real-time AI-powered insights to improve live agent engagements. 

“We have seen the positive impact that Zoom AI Companion has had on our business and our customers, transforming how we work by freeing up precious time for collaborative teamwork,” said Smita Hashim, chief product officer at Zoom. “Zoom Workplace with AI Companion will help solve real customer problems by bringing the core collaboration solutions into a single AI-powered platform to help improve productivity, efficiency, and the overall workday, all within the Zoom experience users trust and love.”

Drive Impact with AI Companion

Zoom’s latest AI Companion innovations will include Ask AI Companion, an enhancement of the digital assistant that will help users prepare for their workday across Zoom Workplace, plus AI Companion for Zoom Phone and additional capabilities for Team Chat and Whiteboard. All AI Companion features will continue to be included at no additional cost with the paid services in eligible Zoom user accounts. 

Ask AI Companion will provide a new way to interact with AI Companion across the Zoom platform. Users can enhance their productivity and be better prepared for their workday with Ask AI Companion, which will gather, synthesize, and share information from Zoom Meetings, Mail, Team Chat, Notes, Docs, and more. Ask AI Companion will also help prepare users for and recap meetings, show relevant action items, draft agendas, and summarize chat and email threads, as well as documents. In a later release after the initial launch, Ask AI Companion will be able to pull relevant content from select third-party applications (if the customer chooses to enable them) to be even more helpful.

 Other AI Companion innovations across the platform will include new Team Chat and Whiteboard capabilities. In Team Chat, AI Companion now helps users save time with smart scheduling that automatically detects the intent for a meeting in chat and suggests a meeting time, and in the future will provide sentence completion and will expand to support 38 languages (in preview) for the chat compose and thread summary features. Zoom Whiteboard users are now able to generate and refine whiteboard flowcharts and mind maps using a simple prompt to kick-start ideation and creativity. 



Zoom unveils AI-powered collaboration platform, Zoom Workplace, to reimagine teamwork

In the run-up to elections, people need useful and relevant information to help them navigate the electoral process. Google is aiming to bridge the gap between reliable information and voters by showing data from reliable organizations across its products.

Google is collaborating with the Election Commission of India (ECI) to enable people to easily discover critical voting information on Google Search - such as how to register and how to vote - in both English and Hindi. During election season, YouTube surfaces a variety of election information panels, including on how to register to vote, how to vote and candidate information.

For news and information related to the election, YouTube’s recommendation system prominently surfaces content from authoritative sources on the YouTube homepage, in search results, and the “Up Next” panel. YouTube highlights content from authoritative news sources during key moments, through its Top News and Breaking News shelves, and news watch page. Moreover, Google has information panels that indicate funding sources from publishers that receive public or government funding, and information panels giving topical context for topics prone to misinformation. For example, at the top of relevant search results and under videos related to electronic voting machines, we append an information panel directing viewers to the Election Commission of India’s FAQs on the technical and administrative safeguards on electronic voting.

Read More:<a href="https://www.storyboard18.com/brand-marketing/indian-elections-2024-google-supports-voters-navigate-ai-generated-content-26163.htm" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Indian elections 2024: Google supports voters navigate AI-generated content</a>

Google collaborates with Election Commission to enable voters to discover critical voting information

With millions of eligible voters in India heading to the polls for the General Election in the coming months, Google is supporting the election process by helping people navigate AI-generated content. With more people using artificial intelligence to create content, Google is building ways to help audiences identify AI-generated content through several new tools and policies.

Ads disclosures: Last year, Google launched new disclosure requirements for election ads containing synthetic content. As more advertisers leverage the power and opportunity of AI, Google aims to make sure to continue to provide people with greater transparency and the information they need to make informed decisions. Google's ads policies prohibit the use of manipulated media to mislead people, like deepfakes or doctored content.

Content labels on YouTube: Google has started displaying labels for content created with YouTube generative AI features, like Dream Screen. And soon, YouTube will begin to require creators to disclose when they’ve created realistic altered or synthetic content, and will display a label that indicates for people when they’re watching this content.

A responsible approach to Generative AI products: Out of an abundance of caution on such an important topic, we have begun to roll out restrictions on the types of election-related queries for which Gemini will return responses. We take our responsibility for providing high-quality information for these types of queries seriously, and are continuously working to improve our protections.

Providing users with additional context: About this Image in Search helps people assess the credibility and context of images found online. Our double-check feature in Gemini evaluates whether there is content across the web to substantiate its response.

Digital watermarking: We’re committed to finding ways to ensure every image generated through our products has embedded watermarking with Google DeepMind’s SynthID.


Industry collaboration: Google recently joined the C2PA coalition and standard, a cross-industry effort to help provide more transparency and context for people on AI-generated content. Alongside other leading tech companies, we pledged to help prevent deceptive AI-generated imagery, audio or video content from interfering with this year’s global elections. The ‘Tech Accord to Combat Deceptive Use of AI in 2024 Elections’ is a set of commitments to deploy technology countering harmful AI-generated content meant to deceive voters.


Read More:<a href="https://www.storyboard18.com/social-media/google-collaborates-with-election-commission-to-enable-voters-to-discover-critical-voting-information-26169.htm" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Google collaborates with Election Commission to enable voters to discover critical voting information</a>

Indian elections 2024: Google supports voters navigate AI-generated content

Perfect Corp. was founded in 2015 by CEO Alice Chang as a standalone business following its spin-off from CyberLink. The genesis of Perfect Corp. stemmed from Alice Chang's recognition of the potential of merging beauty and technology. She recognized the possibility of employing augmented reality to improve the beauty purchasing experience for customers as mobile devices and AR technology gained popularity. 

Today, Perfect Corp. stands as a publicly traded company and provides SaaS artificial intelligence and augmented reality solutions in the beauty and fashion tech domain in India and beyond. 

Tanuj Mishra, Country Head, Perfect Corp takes us through Perfect Corp's journey, supporting women-owned small beauty brands and retailers, elevating the beauty tech industry and more.

Edited excerpts:

Take us through the journey of Perfect Corp. in India?

Perfect Corp. was founded in 2015 by CEO Alice Chang as a standalone business following its spin-off from CyberLink. The genesis of Perfect Corp. stemmed from Alice Chang's recognition of the potential of merging beauty and technology. She recognized the possibility of employing augmented reality to improve the beauty purchasing experience for customers as mobile devices and AR technology gained popularity. 

Today, Perfect Corp. stands as a publicly traded company, leading the industry as a provider of SaaS artificial intelligence and augmented reality solutions in the beauty and fashion tech domain in India and beyond. The company aims to transform how consumers shop by providing seamless, multichannel experiences. Dedicated to delivering sustainable solutions, interactive, and generating tangible results, Perfect Corp. is at the forefront of technology. These solutions seamlessly integrate into a brand's website, applications, and in-store Magic Mirror solutions, further elevating the shopping experience.

How is Perfect Corp. helping brands execute digital transformation and drive customer engagement?

Perfect Corp. gives brands the ability to easily incorporate beauty and fashion technology into their customer channels, which include social media, online, and offline. Several notable brand partners of ours want to offer their clients an impeccable and consistent online shopping experience on all platforms. This means providing virtual try-on experiences at the brand's physical beauty counters in addition to its e-commerce websites.

Our AI/AR beauty tech solutions have a track record of improving consumer shopping experiences and helping firms hit impressive sales conversions increases of triple digit percentages as well as lowering return rate by an average of 10%. Brands can provide their customers with realistic and personalized virtual try-on experiences by utilizing our cutting-edge technology, which will enhance customer engagement and confidence in their purchase decisions.
Our solution interact with a variety of consumer touchpoints, allowing brands to offer a seamless and enjoyable shopping experience—whether it's trying on makeup or hairstyles, or experimenting with jewelry or accessories. From the brand's website to physical beauty counters to popular social media platforms, Perfect Corp. ensures that customers can engage with the most hyper-realistic virtual try-on experiences across multiple channels, ultimately driving customer satisfaction and boosting sales.

How is Perfect Corp. supporting women-owned small beauty brands and retailers?

Respect for others, diversity, and integrity are important to us at Perfect Corp. We genuinely care about helping small, women-owned beauty businesses and retailers. To help small and independent beauty firms use AR/AI enabled Beauty and Fashion tech solutions to revolutionize their direct-to-consumer business, we offered women's beauty brands and retailers up to 6 months of free access to Perfect Corp.’s award-winning self-service virtual try-on solution for color cosmetics through the “The Small Business Beauty Tech Accelerator Program”. 

This campaign, which ended at the end of 2023, offered up and coming female-owned beauty brands the resources they needed to reach their greatest potential, empowering them to increase sales, engagement, and personalization while enabling them to offer hyper-realistic shopping experiences to their customers. We understand the unique challenges faced by women-owned businesses and are committed to providing them with the tools and resources they need to succeed. We actively participate in industry events focused on supporting diverse beauty entrepreneurs, offering mentorship and sharing industry knowledge. Additionally, we continue to explore new ways to empower these businesses through innovative technology and collaborative initiatives.

We believe that a thriving beauty industry requires a diverse landscape of voices and perspectives. By supporting women-owned businesses, we aim to contribute to a more vibrant and inclusive beauty community for everyone.

How is Perfect Corp.’s technology elevating the beauty industry? 

Through our AI Skin Analysis, consumers can scan their faces, identifying up to 14 skin concerns. This data enables skincare brands to offer personalized product recommendations and tailored skincare routines, effectively addressing individual needs. Moreover, our AI skin simulation technology delivers a personalized visual depiction of clear skin possibilities, enhancing consumer engagement and satisfaction. 

Recently, we've expanded our advanced AI-powered skin simulation tools to include groundbreaking features. These innovations empower consumers to discern their skin types and issues, generating hyper-realistic visualizations. Brands can leverage these insights to provide personalized recommendations, fostering deeper connections with consumers. With the latest enhancements, including acne, oiliness, and radiance skin simulation technology, our expanded AI skin simulation solution now caters to 10 unique skin metrics. This comprehensive approach ensures that brands can deliver meaningful improvements in skincare outcomes, further solidifying their position as industry leaders in innovation and consumer satisfaction.

Perfect Corp.'s new 2D to 3D virtual try-on solution is a technology that eliminates the need for expensive and time-consuming 3D modeling for jewelry and watch brands. It allows these brands to create virtual try-on experiences from a simple 2D image. This innovative solution uses advanced algorithms to create realistic virtual jewelry and timepieces with lighting effects and motions, providing a shopping experience similar to those created with 3D models. This allows jewelry and watch brands of all sizes to create high-quality, immersive virtual try-on experiences quickly and cost-effectively. In simpler terms, imagine you have a picture of a ring on a white background.

Traditionally, to create a virtual try-on experience for this ring, a 3D model of the ring would need to be created. This process can be expensive and time-consuming. But, with Perfect Corp.'s 2D to 3D tool, you can simply upload the 2D image of the ring, and the tool will use its advanced algorithms to create a realistic 3D model of the ring that can be used for virtual try-on. This can save jewelry and watch brands both time and money.

What are Perfect Corp’s future plans for the Indian market?

Perfect Corp. provides AI and AR-powered beauty and fashion tech solutions to businesses of all sizes, including small, medium, and big enterprises. We hope to reach even the most remote areas of the country with our state-of-the-art AR/AI-enabled shopping experience by forging strategic partnerships with Indian fashion and beauty brands. For instance, consider a shopper residing in a remote area of Tier 2 , Tier 3 small town, or a village, who may not have access to big box outlets, high-end makeup counters or experience zone, or large jewelry stores. However, armed with a smartphone and an active 4G or 5G connection, they can effortlessly sign up for the brand's platform, virtually try on products, and make their purchase with confidence. 

Perfect Corp. is also focused on developing solutions powered by Generative AI. This technology holds immense potential for the future of beauty and fashion experiences. By incorporating Generative AI, Perfect Corp. aims to unlock a new wave of use cases that further personalize and enhance the shopping journey for consumers. This technology makes new experiences possible and aligns with our mission of transforming the shopping experience and making it not just convenient, but also innovative and endlessly adaptable to individual needs.

Perfect Corp on beauty tech, supporting women-owned small beauty brands and retailers and more

Home Credit India, a local arm of the leading global consumer finance provider, on Tuesday launched their annual How India Borrows Survey 2023, which aims to understand the constantly evolving consumer borrowing behaviour. Since 2021, the trend in borrowing had shifted from running the household to buying consumer durable such as smartphones & home appliances (44 percent in 2023). While consumer durable loans decreased by 9 percent, business-related borrowing increased by 5 percent, making it a total of 19 percent middle class borrowing to expand or to start a new business. 

Most of the borrowers in the study are online pro, with 48 percent relying on online shopping for their personal purchases. 44 percent of these borrowers rely on online banking for financial transactions. More than half (54 percent) comfortable with mobile banking for day-to-day financial updates.

Another major highlight is the growing acceptance of digitalisation of financial services. As per the HIB 2023, over one-fourth of borrowers opted for online channel for availing loans. Loans initiated through tele calling increased by 3 percent (from 16 percent in 2022 to 19 percent in 2023), while loans through POS/ bank branches saw a decline by 4 percent (from 56 percent to 51 percent).
 
In line with the digital transition, more than half of the borrowers (51 percent) are looking forward to completing their entire future loan application on mobile App without any physical interaction with POS/ Banks. The preference for online loan mediums is primarily driven by younger and aspirational small-town borrowers, with cities like, Dehradun at 61 percent, Ludhiana at 59 percent, Ahmedabad at 56 percent, and Chandigarh at 52 percent. 


 
Embedded finance has gained traction in the recent years with 50 percent borrowers open to embrace the same during e-shopping. However, the uptake for the product among borrowers has come down by 10% from 2022 due to stringent RBI regulations on BNPL & PPI products leading to fewer offers. It is preferred as it makes borrowing faster and makes ecommerce shopping an easier process. EMI cards (49 percent) continue to be the most preferred medium for taking credit due to higher trust and faster disbursals.
 
Speaking on the consumer study, Ashish Tiwari, Chief Marketing Officer, Home Credit India, said “At Home Credit India, we are dedicated to fostering financial literacy and empowering individuals to make informed choices. The survey not only highlights the preferences of today's borrowers but also emphasizes the need for greater awareness of data privacy. As we navigate this digital era, Home Credit remains committed to providing trustworthy, transparent and accessible financial solutions, ensuring a responsible and inclusive financial future for all."

 
The HIB Study was conducted across 17 cities including Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Jaipur, Bhopal, Patna, Ranchi, Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Kochi, and Dehradun. The sample size is approx. 1842 borrowers in the age group of 18-55 years, with an average income of Rs. 31,000 per month. 
 
As India accelerates into the digital lending era, the study underlines a critical concern among borrowers regarding the usage of their personal data by loan companies. Only 18% borrowers understand the data privacy rules, majority of them (88 percent) with just the superficial understanding on the subject.  About 60 percent borrowers are worried about how their personal data is collected and used by the lending apps. 58 percent of these worried borrowers also feel that the lending apps collect more data than required. Gen Z and borrowers from smaller towns show higher concern with the amount of data being collected by lending apps. Among metros, 78 percent of borrowers from Chennai voice their concern about the amount of data collected. 
 
Less than one-fourth (23 percent) of the borrowers understand about the usage of their personal data by loan apps. Borrowers from Chennai seem to be more digitally advanced and 76 percent of them claim to understand the usage of personal data. Almost 60 percent of the borrowers in India voice out that they don’t have any control on the data being shared by them, more so by borrowers from tier 1 towns.  70 percent of the borrowers feel the need of transparent communication on the usage of personal data. This is mostly driven by males and Gen Z. Borrowers across geographies except South seem to have a similar opinion.

 
In terms of digital literacy, 23 percent of the middle-class borrowers have heard/seen about the chatbot service in the past. 43 percent borrowers find chatbot service as easy to use, led by Women, & Gen Z. WhatsApp is an emerging digital channel for loan with 59 percent of borrowers having received loan messages on WhatsApp. However, only one-fourth borrowers consider loan offers received on WhatsApp as trustworthy, with Gen Z showing more trust towards this.

 
As interest in financial education is growing in the country, 39 percent of borrowers said they would like a reputed organization to educate them about finance related tasks over the internet with GenZ showing maximum interest. Smaller towns like Ludhiana (57 percent), Patna (55 percent) and Bhopal (48 percent) show higher interest in financial learning. 


Only 18 percent borrowers understand the data privacy guidelines: Home Credit India survey

For more than two decades, Google has worked with machine learning and AI to make its products more helpful. In India, AI has allowed Google to enable language translations at scale, do precise flood forecasts and foster improved agricultural productivity.

Google is partnering with the government to continue the dialogue on AI. The partnership includes Google’s upcoming engagement on the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI) Summit. 

Google is addressing Advancing AI responsibly by striking a balance between maximizing its positive impact and addressing its potential risks. Google is anticipating and testing for a wide range of safety and security risks, including the rise of new forms of AI-generated, photo-realistic, synthetic audio or video content known as “synthetic media”. While this technology has useful applications - for instance, by opening new possibilities to those affected by speech or reading impairments, or new creative grounds for artists and movie studios around the world - it raises concerns when used in disinformation campaigns and for other malicious purposes, through deep fakes. The potential for spreading false narratives and manipulated content can have negative implications.

Providing additional context for generative AI outputs

Google is helping users identify AI-generated content and empowering people with knowledge of when they’re interacting with AI generated media. This is why we've added “About this result” to generative AI in Google Search to help people evaluate the information they find in the experience. We also introduced new ways to help people double check the responses they see in Google Bard by grounding it in Google Search.

Equally, context is important with images, and we’re committed to finding ways to make sure every image generated through our products has metadata labeling and embedded watermarking with SynthID, currently being released to a limited number of Vertex AI customers using Imagen, one of our latest text-to-image models that uses input text to create photorealistic images. 

In the coming months, YouTube will require creators to disclose altered or synthetic content that is realistic, including using AI tools, and Google will inform viewers about such content through labels in the description panel and video player. 

Implementing guardrails and safeguards to address AI misuse

In the coming months, on YouTube, Google aims to make it possible to request the removal of AI-generated or other synthetic or altered content that simulates an identifiable individual, including their face or voice, using our privacy request process.

Google has a prohibited use policy for new AI releases outlining the harmful, inappropriate, misleading or illegal content we do not allow, based on early identification of harms during the research, development, and ethics review process for our products.

Furthermore, Google has recently updated its election advertising policies to require advertisers to disclose when their election ads include material that’s been digitally altered or generated. This will help provide additional context to people seeing election advertising on its platforms.

Google also has long-standing policies, across our products and services, that are applicable to content created by generative AI. For instance, as part of its misrepresentation policy for Google Ads, Google prohibits the use of manipulated media, deep fakes and other forms of doctored content meant to deceive, defraud, or mislead users.

The policies for Search features like Knowledge Panels or Featured Snippets, prohibit audio, video, or image content that's been manipulated to deceive, defraud, or mislead. And on Google Play, apps that generate content using AI have always had to comply with all Google Play Developer Policies – this includes prohibiting and preventing the generation of restricted content and content that enables deceptive behavior.

Combating deep fakes and AI-generated misinformation

On YouTube, Google uses a combination of people and machine learning technologies to enforce its Community Guidelines, with reviewers across Google operating around the world. AI classifiers help detect potentially violative content at scale, and reviewers work to confirm whether content has actually crossed policy lines. AI is helping to continuously increase both the speed and accuracy of its content moderation systems.
Google has invested USD $1M in grants to the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, to establish the first of its kind multidisciplinary center for Responsible AI. This center will foster collective effort — involving not just researchers, but domain experts, developers, community members, policy makers and more – in getting AI right, and localizing it to the Indian context.

TECHNOLOGY