Larry Page and Sergey Brin announced this afternoon that current Google CEO Sundar Pichai is also taking on the role of Alphabet chief executive. This is described by the co-founders as a move to simplify management.
Google has historically maintained an open internal culture since its founding. Recent years have changed that and one source of leaks has been the weekly company-wide meetings hosted by Sundar Pichai and other top executives. The CEO announced today that the weekly TGIF is becoming a monthly occurrence next year.
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.
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.
This morning, Google CEO Sundar Pichai testified before the United States House Judiciary Committee, and fielded a wide variety of their questions on subjects like user privacy and Google’s Dragonfly project. Let’s take a minute to look at the numbers Pichai shared in his testimony.
Back in September, Google/Alphabet declined to testify to Congress about Russian meddling during the 2016 elections. The company was widely criticized, offering to send its SVP of Global Affairs to testify alongside Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. Today, Google CEO Sundar Pichai is finally testifying, but on the different matter of alleged anti-conservative bias in Search.
Sundar Pichai is set to appear before Congress tomorrow morning and face a broad spectrum of questions ranging from alleged political bias in Search to privacy concerns. Beforehand, the Google CEO will give written testimony, which has just been posted by the House Judiciary Committee.
Over the past two weeks, Google has been grappling with its poor handling of sexual misconduct cases, especially involving senior executives. Following last week’s Google Walkout, management promised changes and today CEO Sundar Pichai announced them in full.
Yesterday, Googlers around the world staged a walkout to protest several issues that were catalyzed by an expose into the company’s handling of sexual misconduct. According to organizers, over 20,000 employees participated, with Sundar Pichai and leadership planning to address the demands for structural change, transparency, and accountability.
Following last week’s publication of a report that tied several high-ranking current and former Google executives to incidents of sexual misconduct, the company’s employees have been organizing in protest. Sundar Pichai today voiced support for the upcoming “women’s walk,” while one Googler named by the New York Times has left.
Made by Google just announced its 2018 lineup and only just began sales of those products recently. While the new hardware is not yet reflected in the Q3 earnings that Google reported today, analysts asked about the progress in consumer hardware, with Sundar Pichai summarizing that “everything is progressing well.”
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.
A video of a Google all-hands meeting from right after the 2016 presidential election has leaked, unsurprisingly showing many Google leaders expressing their distaste toward the outcome…
Apple’s Tim Cook yesterday described the Trump administration’s new policy of separating children from the parents of asylum speakers and suspected illegal immigrants as ‘inhumane’ – and the leaders of a long list of other tech companies are expressing similar views …
Last November, the Securities and Exchange Commission asked Alphabet to further clarify its unique corporate governance structure. Implemented in 2015 as part of a massive reorganization, the SEC wanted insight into the decision-making process within the parent company and its “Other Bets.”
With the 2018 World Economic Forum underway in Davos, Switzerland, Sundar Pichai took to the stage for a one-on-one interview. Artificial intelligence and its impact were unsurprisingly big areas of discussion, with the Google CEO offering ways to mitigate risks. Meanwhile, data and taxes were also brought up.
Not everyone loves Google’s emojis, but the company has gone to great lengths to clean up the design of its emoji library and continually make it better. Sometimes it comes down to the little details, and most recently someone pointed out that Google’s cheeseburger emoji wasn’t quite right…
The third quarter of 2017 saw Google acquire 2,000 HTC engineers and intellectual property, as well as the launch of their second Made by Google line of products. During today’s earnings call, Sundar Pichai talked more about that deal, as well as their broader hardware business.
Google is a massive company that does a lot of things. Because of that, it is in the spotlight for a lot of issues, and one that continues to come up is privacy. In a recent interview, Google’s CEO discussed how the company intends to keep improving privacy, as well as several other matters.
In an email to employees today, Sundar Pichai condemned the extremism in Charlottesville and spoke out against the terrorism that took place in Barcelona only a few hours ago. In response to the more recent event, Google activated its SOS Alert feature, while Pichai made note that Googlers in Spain are safe today.
The latest fallout over the Googler-written anti-diversity document took place yesterday as a company-wide meeting was canceled over online harassment and doxxing fears. While Sundar Pichai did not get to express his thoughts at that event, later on in the evening he addressed a coding event for girls hosted at the Googleplex and reached out to reaffirm their place at Google.
Coinciding with Monday’s firing of the Googler behind the anti-diversity document, Sundar Pichai announced an all-hands meeting set for today. The Town Hall on gender, expression, and other issues was abruptly canceled this afternoon over fears of online harassment.
The author of the viral anti-diversity document has been fired from Google and comes after Sundar Pichai’s first address on the issue. Following statements over the weekend from the VP of Diversity and others at the company, Google CEO Sundar Pichai penned a memo to employees that surfaced today. It notes that portions of the anti-diversity document violate Google’s Code of Conduct, with the CEO returning from vacation to hold a town hall later this week.
Ahead of Q2 2017 earnings this afternoon, Alphabet has announced that Sundar Pichai is joining its board of directors. This move gives Google — the key revenue maker — a second seat on the now 13 member committee responsible for overseeing the sprawling Alphabet conglomerate.
