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Google ‘President’ Sundar Pichai met with Trump, U.S. military to discuss AI and China

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The U.S. military and other Washington officials are still upset over Google pulling out of Project Maven last year. However, another sticking point was Google’s work — at the time — on censored Search in China. That criticism recently reemerged with Sundar Pichai meeting President Trump and other top military brass today to allay fears about Google’s relationship with China, especially in regards to AI.


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Google reportedly halts Dragonfly development on censored search after privacy team complaints

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Sundar Pichai told Congress last week that Google has “no plans to launch Search in China.” In an interview after the hearing, the CEO suggested other non-Search areas that Google could explore in the country, like healthcare. A new report today reveals that Project Dragonfly is “effectively ended.”


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Sundar Pichai suggests other non-Search areas Google could explore in China, like healthcare

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Sundar Pichai testified in front of the House Judiciary Committee this morning during a 3.5 hour session that ranged from accusations of Search result bias, interference by foreign powers, and more. One area that Congress was particularly critical on was China and Project Dragonfly. In an interview later in the day, the Google CEO suggested other areas in China, instead of search, that the company could look into.


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Sundar Pichai calls Dragonfly a project to see what Google looks like in China after 8 years

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For the past several weeks, there has been an internal and external uproar about Project Dragonfly, Google’s rumored attempt to return to China with a censored search engine and other products. CEO Sundar Pichai this evening gave his first public comments on the matter, calling Dragonfly an exploration at what Google in China could look like after eight years.


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Google CEO says China requires trade-offs, but ‘not close’ to search engine relaunch

A report that Google is planning to relaunch its search engine in China, giving in to government demands for a censored version, has understandably triggered a huge amount of opposition to the idea – not least from its own employees.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai and co-founder Sergey Brin have responded by saying that while they are looking at how to do more business in China, the company is ‘not close’ to relaunching its search engine there …


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Googlers petition for transparency, ethical review of censored Chinese search engine

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Internally, Google is known for fostering a very open work environment that places a great deal of trust on employees. That means Googlers can affect a great deal of change as evidenced by the company backing out of Project Maven. A new petition provides insight to the employee reaction against Dragonfly — a censored search engine for China — that many believe is contradictory to Google’s principles.


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Google’s China plans include AI-curated news app as Googlers fiercely debate the issue

Multiple publications have since confirmed that Google is planning to launch a Search app that would comply with China’s censorship laws. A new report today details that Google is also working on a news-aggregation app that would similarly self-censor content in a sign of grander ambitions for the country. Meanwhile, since details first came to light yesterday, Google employees have been fiercely arguing the issue.


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Google brings ARCore to China, starting with Mi Mix 2S and Xiaomi App Store

After launching this February, Google’s platform for mobile augmented reality hit version 1.2 and received a number of new features at I/O 2018. Many flagship devices from the top OEMs feature it, but Google is now working with Xiaomi to make it available in China where its services are traditionally blocked.


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Google partners with WeChat’s Tencent on patents, future tech in latest China push

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From pushing artificial intelligence research and machine learning tools to local investments, recent weeks have seen a flurry of Google developments in China. The latest has the company partnering with WeChat developer Tencent in a patent cross-licensing deal, as well as promising to collaborate on future technology developments.


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China tightens blockade on Google, blocking email app access to Gmail [Update: restored for now]

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Update: The FT reports that access has been restored for now at least, with a slight pickup in Google’s stats appearing to confirm.

China has tightened its firewall blockade of Google services, reports Re/code and the WSJ, with email apps no longer able to access Gmail via IMAP, POP3 or SMTP. While web access to Gmail has been blocked since June – believed related to the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre – users had remained able to access mail using email apps like Apple Mail and Outlook until Friday … 
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Google’s head of (dwindling) business in China leaves after six years

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TNW reports that Dr John Liu, Google’s head of business in China since 2006, is leaving the company.

Liu — who earned his doctorate from Tekniske University in Denmark — will leave in August having presided over a period of great change for Google in China, which included the Internet giant’s controversial exit from the country in 2010 following allegations that the Chinese government hacked into email accounts belonging to activists.

Liu took on the role when Google launched its controversial China-based google.cn search-engine, which was subject to censorship by the Chinese government. This was China’s condition for allowing Google to operate in the country. Following alleged hacking of Google accounts belonging to political activists in the country, Google announced that it would be reviewing its operations in China, and soon afterwards redirected its search traffic there to Hong Kong …

As a result, Google’s share of the search market in China fell to just two percent, with very limited additional operations in web services and mobile ads.

Google issued a short statement confirming Liu’s departure:

After nearly 6 years leading our China business, Dr. John Liu has decided to pursue other opportunities. Dr. Liu has been instrumental to developing Google’s business in China and we are grateful for his contributions. We will miss him and wish him the best of luck.

Scott Beaumont, responsible for Google’s partnerships in Europe, is taking on the China role from next month.