 |
|
|
|||||
The AI search startup Perplexity has tendered an unsolicited offer to buy Googles Chrome browser for $34.5 billion, The Wall Street Journal reports. The bid comes as the Justice Department has asked a federal judge to require Google to sell off Chrome to end an ongoing antitrust case. But its questionable that a startup valued at half that amount on paper ($18 billion) can afford to buy Chrome; and Google, of course, almost certainly has no intention of selling itat least not yet. (Google didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.) A federal court in Washington, D.C., decided last year that Google holds a monopoly in the internet search and advertising markets and is now considering a Department of Justice demand that the search giant sell off its Chrome browser. Google called the DOJ proposal wildly overbroad and part of a radical interventionist agenda (language that could draw some negative attention from the Trump administration). Perplexity testified in that same case last spring, at which time it expressed a desire to buy Chrome. OpenAI also testified, and its ChatGPT product lead, Nick Turley, testified that his company would be interested in buying Chrome if the court required Google to sell. Indeed, owning the Chrome browser would immediately catapult Perplexity from being a long shot for winning, placing, or showing in the internet search wars, to being a real contender. In theory, Perplexity could use the Chrome browser in the same way Google doesas a widely popular front door to its AI-powered search engine. “A clever publicity play” With Chrome, Google fused the ideas of web browsing and web search into one thing that could be done in one place. Chrome changed the browsers URL to act as a search bar, too (the omnibox, as it’s called). A huge portion of Google searches come from Chrome, and Google makes the lions share of its revenues from showing ads around search results. Google can place ads more effectively because of its access to all kinds of user browsing behavior in Chrome. Perplexitys bid is very likely something less than a serious strategic gambit. “This is a clever publicity play by the startup, but no one should take this stunt seriously,” says Neil Chilson, former chief technologist at the Federal Trade Commission and current head of AI policy at the Abundance Institute. Chilson adds that the bid will have no bearing on the remedies that Judge Amit Mehta is currently considering in the antitrust case. Perplexity is talking like it has every intention of buying Chrome. “Multiple large investment funds have agreed to finance the transaction in full, so we have a wide range of options,” the company said in a statement to Fast Company on Tuesday. “We are confident in our ability to close quickly.” Interestingly, Perplexity says it commits “never to stealthily replace the default search engine of Chrome (Google).” Perplexity is good at what it does, but still small Perplexity employs some very talented AI engineers, its answer engine product works surprisingly well by most accounts (including mine), and the company has been agile about releasing new products that augment its core service. (It recently released its own browser called Comet.) But in the face of Google Search, Perplexity is still small-fry. It serves only a fraction of internet searches and sends only a fraction of the product search referrals that go to brand websites. Perplexity looks more like a company to be acquired, not like an acquirer. Meta, parent company of Facebook and Instagram, reportedly held talks to acquire Perplexity earlier this year, but an agreement couldnt be reached. It’s likely that other suitors have approached the startup. And yet the existing rules of market dominance in tech could be shifting under everyones feetbecause of generative AI. During this seminal period in the potentially transformative technology (when the next Googles and Apples may be being decided), optics matter. Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas seems to have a keen sense of this. He knows he needs to keep his companys name in the conversation with other up-and-comers, such as OpenAI and Anthropic, as the so-called AI revolution unfolds. Hes done an admirable job of itas evidenced by his many podcasts, public appearances, and viral tweets. So Perplexitys Chrome bid may come out of the same playbook. Its about posturing. For a company of Perplexitys stature to convince consumers that it could really be the heir to Googles search throne, it may want to puff itself up to appear to belong in (roughly) the same weight class as the incumbent. Putting in an offer to buy a key piece of Googles business may serve that end.
Category:
E-Commerce
The man who fired more than 180 shots with a long gun at the headquarters of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention broke into a locked safe to get his father’s weapons and wanted to send a message against COVID-19 vaccines, authorities said Tuesday. Documents found in a search of the home where Patrick Joseph White lived with his parents expressed the shooters discontent with the COVID-19 vaccinations, Georgia Bureau of Investigation Director Chris Hosey said. White, 30, had written about wanting to make the public aware of his discontent with the vaccine, Hosey said. White also had recently verbalized thoughts of suicide, which led to law enforcement being contacted several weeks before the shooting, Hosey said. He died at the scene Friday of a self-inflicted gunshot wound after killing a police officer. Asked about threats based on misinformation regarding the CDC and its vaccine work, FBI Special Agent Paul Brown said Tuesday: Weve not seen an uptick, although any rhetoric that suggests or leads to violence is something we take very seriously. Although we are tracking it, we are sensitive to it. We have not seen that uptick, said Brown, who leads the FBIs Atlanta division. The suspects family was fully cooperating with the investigation, authorities said at the Tuesday news briefing. White had no known criminal history, Hosey said. Executing a search warrant at the family’s home in the Atlanta suburb of Kennesaw, authorities recovered written documents that are being analyzed, and seized electronic devices that are undergoing a forensic examination, the agency said. Investigators also recovered a total of five firearms, including a gun belonging to his father that he used in the attack, Hosey said. Hosey said the suspect did not have a key to the gun safe: He broke into it, he said. White had been stopped by CDC security guards before driving to a pharmacy across the street, where he opened fire from a sidewalk, authorities said. The bullets pierced blast-resistant windows across the campus, pinning employees down during the barrage. More than 500 shell casings have been recovered from the crime scene, the GBI said. In the aftermath, officials at the CDC are assessing the security of the campus and making sure they notify officials of any new threats. U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. toured the CDC campus on Monday, accompanied by Deputy Secretary Jim ONeill and CDC Director Susan Monarez, according to a health agency statement. No one should face violence while working to protect the health of others, Kennedy said in a statement Saturday. It said top federal health officials are actively supporting CDC staff. Kennedy also visited the DeKalb County Police Department, and later met privately with the slain officers wife. A photo of the suspect will be released later Tuesday, Hosey said, but he encouraged the public to remember the face of the officer instead. Kennedy was a leader in a national anti-vaccine movement before President Donald Trump selected him to oversee federal health agencies, and he has made false and misleading statements about the safety and effectiveness of COVID-19 shots and other vaccines. Some unionized CDC employees called for more protections. Some employees who recently left the agency as the Trump administration pursues widespread layoffs, meanwhile, squarely blamed Kennedy. Years of false rhetoric about vaccines and public health was bound to take a toll on peoples mental health, and leads to violence, said Tim Young, a CDC employee who retired in April. By Charlotte Kramon and Jeff Martin, Associated Press
Category:
E-Commerce
The Oklahoma City Thunder felt slighted last season when they were left off the NBAs Christmas schedule. That wont be an issue this year. MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the NBA champion Thunder will be working at home for Christmas this season, playing host to Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs as part of the leagues annual Dec. 25 quintuple-header. BetMGM Sportsbook has the Thunder favored by 9.5 points. The other Christmas games, released by the NBA on Tuesday: Cleveland at New York (favored at -2.5), Houston at LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers (-1.5), No. 1 pick Cooper Flagg and Dallas visiting Golden State (-4.5), and Minnesota playing at Denver (-4.5). Some NBA Cup games are scheduled to be released Wednesday, and the full schedule80 of the 82 games for all teamsis to be released on Thursday. The remaining two games for each club will be filled in December based on how teams fare in the NBA Cup. They make the schedule. We play it, Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said last season, when asked about his club not being picked for the Dec. 25 lineup. Our players, I know, would have liked to play on Christmas because thats such a staple day in the NBA season. But we cant control that. Well, they sort of did control their Christmas scheduling fate this season. The NBA champions typically get invited to play on Christmas the following season; Oklahoma City beat Indiana in a seven-game NBA Finals last season. The Eastern Conference champion Pacers are among the Christmas snubs this year, after losing Tyrese Haliburton to an Achilles tear that will sideline him for the entirety of this season and seeing Myles Turner opt to sign with Milwaukee in free agency. The Knicks will be playing their 58th Christmas game, extending their NBA record. The first Christmas game in league history was at Madison Square Garden in 1947. Boston, Philadelphia, and Phoenix played on Christmas last season and didnt make the Dec. 25 cut this season, replaced by Cleveland (which was the Easts No. 1 seed), Houston (which landed Kevin Durant in an offseason blockbuster from the Suns), and the Thunder. Cleveland and the Thunder are playing on Christmas for the first time since 2018. The Rockets have a Christmas game for the first time since 2019. James, if he plays on the holiday, will be making his 20th Christmas appearance in his record 23rd NBA season. Only 12 NBA franchises have 20 Christmas games, and James could soon have that many as a player. And it’ll be a big NBA holiday in Texas: All three of the state’s teams are playing on Christmas for the first time. Opening night NBCs return to the NBA broadcast world officially starts with opening night on Oct. 21, when the Thunder (favored by 6.5 points) will receive their championship rings before playing host to Durant and the Rockets in the first game of the season. That will be followed by Stephen Curry, Jimmy Butler, and Golden State taking on James, Luka Doncic, and the Lakers (-3.5) in the second game of the NBC doubleheader. Those are the only two games on opening night. MLK Day Peacock and NBC will have four games on Jan. 19, which is Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The matchups: Milwaukee at Atlanta on Peacock at 1 p.m. ET, followed by three games on NBC: Oklahoma City at Cleveland at 2:30 p.m. ET, Dallas at New York at 5 p.m. ET, and Boston at Detroit at 8 p.m. ET. Memphis, which typically plays on the holiday, is not this season. The Grizzlies will be returning from Europe, after facing Orlando on Jan. 15 in Berlin and Jan. 18 in London.
Category:
E-Commerce
All news |
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||