Google Quiz: 10 Questions to Dominate Alphabet

Sundar Pichai is the CEO of Alphabet Inc. Google, an Alphabet subsidiary, was marking black-owned businesses in the US in 2020.

According to a New York Times Jan. 20, 2023, article, the founders of Google, Larry Page and Sergey Brin have re-engaged with the company to help with its AI strategy. Google has been worried about ChatGPT, developed by OpenAI, as it could potentially disrupt its search business. According to a slide presentation reviewed by the New York Times, the search giant plans to debut more than 20 new AI products and showcase a version of its search engine with chatbot features in 2023.

Are layoffs part of Google’s strategy for 2023?

Alphabet (Google’s parent company) cut 12,000 jobs in Jan. 2023. In a memo on Jan. 20, 2023, Sundar Pichai, Alphabet’s CEO, said that the layoffs ensure that “our people and roles are aligned with our highest priorities.”

On July 1, 2022, Google announced new privacy protections on its Google Maps service. The company will delete locations like abortion clinics, counseling centers, domestic violence shelters, fertility clinics, addiction treatment facilities, and weight loss clinics from users’ Location History. The information will be purged shortly after any visit to these facilities. The new policy will take effect in the coming weeks.

In recent years, Google has released several messaging apps that failed to significantly impact the market, including Google Talk, Google+ Messenger, Google Voice, Allo, Duo, and the long-forgotten Google Wave. Starting on Nov. 1, 2022, Hangouts has joined the list and automatically redirects to Google Chat on the web. As outlined in the company’s announcement, all messages and contacts will automatically be migrated to the new system.

In a move that seemed right out of a tech whiz’s playful handbook, Google unveiled Gmail on April Fools’ Day 2004. This wasn’t just any day for Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who had a penchant for pulling off pranks on this day. The launch left many wondering if this was just another quirky joke from Google. Offering a then-unheard-of 1 gigabyte of storage per account, Gmail revolutionized digital correspondence.

When you switch to Incognito mode in Chrome, you might think you’ve donned an invisibility cloak. However, Google still notes your general browsing behavior. This doesn’t mean Google had a blow-by-blow account of every site you visited; instead, it collected non-specific, aggregated data that provided insights into user habits without detailing individual browsing histories. This discovery emerged from a lawsuit filed in 2020, leading to Google’s commitment in early April 2024 to delete this aggregated data and clarify their privacy disclosures.

Google’s Gemini, unveiled on Dec. 6, 2023, is a multimodal AI model. It can understand and process various information forms, including text, audio, and visuals. This AI model comes in three versions – Nano, Pro, and Ultra – each designed for different levels of complexity and tasks. The Pro version has already been integrated into Google’s AI assistant Bard, while the Nano version is set for mobile devices. The most powerful, Ultra, is expected to debut in 2024. Gemini’s development was part of Google’s response to OpenAI’s ChatGPT success.

In a digital age twist on the classic tale of Icarus flying too close to the sun, Google’s AI, Gemini, soared a tad too high in its quest for diversity. Shortly after its launch, Gemini found itself in hot water for applying a 21st-century filter to historical scenes, leading to a collage of anachronisms. From generating non-white depictions of WWII German soldiers to reimagining the Founding Fathers with a modern diversity twist, Gemini’s noble intentions of inclusivity inadvertently led to a historical mashup that would leave any history buff scratching their head. Recognizing the faux pas, Google announced it would pause Gemini’s people-generating prowess to recalibrate its history compass.