Google co-founder Sergey Brin calls U.N. ‘transparently antisemitic' after report on tech firms and Gaza
His comments came in response to a U.N. report released last month that alleged technology firms including Google and its parent company Alphabet had profited from 'the genocide carried out by Israel' in Gaza by providing cloud and AI technologies to the Israeli government and military.
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CNBC
13 minutes ago
- CNBC
OpenAI to release web browser in challenge to Google Chrome
OpenAI is close to releasing an AI-powered web browser that will challenge Alphabet's market-dominating Google Chrome, three people familiar with the matter told Reuters. The browser is slated to launch in the coming weeks, three of the people said, and aims to use artificial intelligence to fundamentally change how consumers browse the web. It will give OpenAI more direct access to a cornerstone of Google's success: user data. If adopted by the 400 million weekly active users of ChatGPT, OpenAI's browser could put pressure on a key component of rival Google's ad-money spigot. Chrome is an important pillar of Alphabet's ad business, which makes up nearly three-quarters of its revenue, as Chrome provides user information to help Alphabet target ads more effectively and profitably, and also gives Google a way to route search traffic to its own engine by default. OpenAI's browser is designed to keep some user interactions within a ChatGPT-like native chat interface instead of clicking through to websites, two of the sources said. The browser is part of a broader strategy by OpenAI to weave its services across the personal and work lives of consumers, one of the sources said. OpenAI declined to comment. The sources declined to be identified because they are not authorized to speak publicly on the matter. Led by entrepreneur Sam Altman, OpenAI upended the tech industry with the launch of its AI chatbot ChatGPT in late 2022. After its initial success, OpenAI has faced stiff competition from rivals including Google and startup Anthropic, and is looking for new areas of growth. In May, OpenAI said it would enter the hardware domain, paying $6.5 billion to buy io, an AI devices startup from Apple's former design chief, Jony Ive. A web browser would allow OpenAI to directly integrate its AI agent products such as Operator into the browsing experience, enabling the browser to carry out tasks on behalf of the user, the people said. The browser's access to a user's web activity would make it the ideal platform for AI "agents" that can take actions on their behalf, like booking reservations or filling out forms, directly within the websites they use. OpenAI has its work cut out - Google Chrome, which is used by more than 3 billion people, currently holds more than two-thirds of the worldwide browser market, according to web analytics firm StatCounter. Apple's second-place Safari lags far behind with a 16% share. Last month, OpenAI said it had 3 million paying business users for ChatGPT. Other AI startups like The Browser Company and Brave have announced AI-powered browsers capable of performing actions on a user's behalf this year. Perplexity, a well-funded startup known for its search engine, also launched its AI browser, Comet, on Wednesday. Chrome's role in providing user information to help Alphabet target ads more effectively and profitably has proven so successful that the Department of Justice has demanded its divestiture after a judge last year ruled that the Google parent holds an unlawful monopoly in online search. OpenAI's browser is built atop Chromium, Google's own open-source browser code, two of the sources said. Chromium is the source code for Google Chrome, as well as many competing browsers including Microsoft's Edge and Opera. Last year, OpenAI hired two longtime Google vice presidents who were part of the original team that developed Google Chrome. The Information was first to report their hires and that OpenAI previously considered building a browser. An OpenAI executive testified in April that the company would be interested in buying Chrome if antitrust enforcers succeeded in forcing the sale. Google has not offered Chrome for sale. The company has said it plans to appeal the ruling that it holds a monopoly. OpenAI decided to build its own browser, rather than simply a "plug-in" on top of another company's browser, in order to have more control over the data it can collect, one source said.
Boston Globe
14 minutes ago
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Ship attacked by Yemen's Houthi rebels sinks in the Red Sea, 6 of 25 aboard rescued
Advertisement The attack on the Eternity C and the sinking of the bulk carrier Magic Seas in another attack Sunday raise new questions about the Red Sea's safety as ships had slowly begun returning to its waters. Meanwhile, a new possible cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war — as well as the future of talks between the US and Iran over Tehran's battered nuclear program — remain in the balance. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up 'We are now with grave concern seeing an escalation in the Red Sea with attacks on two commercial ships earlier this week by Ansar Allah, resulting in civilian loss of life and casualties as well as the potential for environmental damage,' warned United Nations special envoy Hans Grundberg, using another name for the rebels. Advertisement A statement from the European Union naval mission in the Red Sea said the crew of the ship included 22 sailors, among them 21 Filipinos and one Russian, as well as a three-member security team. Those rescued were five Filipinos and one Indian. Three people also were killed during the hourslong attack on the ship, the EU force said, and their nationalities were not immediately known. The armed rebels had attacked the ship with rocket-propelled grenades and small arms, later using two drones and two drone boats carrying bombs to strike the vessel, the EU force said. The Eternity C sank at 7:50 a.m. Wednesday, it added. The ship, flagged out of Liberia but owned by a Greek firm, likely had been targeted like the Magic Seas over its firm doing business with Israel. Neither vessel apparently requested an escort from the EU force. The US military has two aircraft carriers in the Mideast, the USS Nimitz and the USS Carl Vinson, but both likely are in the Arabian Sea, far from the site of the attacks. There are two American destroyers believed to be operating in the Red Sea. However, the ships attacked had no US ties and a cease-fire between the Houthis and America announced after the bombing campaign earlier this year still appears to be holding. Brigadier General Yahya Saree, a Houthi military spokesperson, claimed the attack in a prerecorded message Wednesday night as the EU force acknowledged it was still searching for those onboard with private industry rescuers. The Houthis later released footage of them launching missiles at the Eternity C. The bridge appeared heavily damaged by the attack and oil leaked from the vessel. The ship took on water from holes along its waterline before sinking beneath the waves, the rebels chanting: 'God is the greatest; death to America; death to Israel; curse the Jews; victory to Islam.' Advertisement The Houthis released a similar video after their attack on the tanker Sounion in August 2024 and on Tuesday from their attack on the Magic Seas. The attacks on the ships drew immediate international condemnation. 'These attacks demonstrate the ongoing threat that Iran-backed Houthi rebels pose to freedom of navigation and to regional economic and maritime security,' US State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said. 'The United States has been clear: We will continue to take necessary action to protect freedom of navigation and commercial shipping from Houthi terrorist attacks.' The EU force earlier said one of the wounded crew lost his leg. Grundberg, the UN envoy, also decried the targeting of civilian infrastructure after Israel bombed three Houthi-controlled ports in Yemen over the weekend and hit a power station. 'Yemen must not be drawn deeper into regional crises that threaten to unravel the already extremely fragile situation in the country,' he warned during an address to the Security Council. Satellite images analyzed by The Associated Press showed new damage at Yemen's rebel-controlled port at Hodeida after it was targeted by the Israeli airstrikes. The images from Planet Labs PBC showed new portions of the pier at the port torn away by Israeli bombing, likely to affect the unloading of cargo there. In conducting the strikes, Israel said the Houthis used the port to smuggle military equipment into the country, a growing worry of analysts and Yemen watchers in recent years. Hodeida is the main entry point for food and other humanitarian aid for millions of Yemenis. Advertisement
San Francisco Chronicle
18 minutes ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
US issues sanctions against UN investigator probing abuses in Gaza
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The Trump administration announced it is issuing sanctions Wednesday against an independent investigator tasked with probing human rights abuses in the Palestinian territories, the latest effort by the United States to punish critics of Israel's 21-month war in Gaza. The State Department's decision to sanction Francesca Albanese, the U.N. special rapporteur for the West Bank and Gaza, comes after a recent U.S. pressure campaign to force the international body to remove her from her post failed. Albanese, a human rights lawyer, has been vocal about what she has described as the 'genocide' that Israel is waging against Palestinians in Gaza. Both Israel and the U.S., which provides military support, have strongly denied that accusation. In recent weeks, Albanese has issued a series of letters, urging other countries to pressure Israel, including through sanctions, to end its deadly bombardment of the Gaza Strip. The Italian national has also been a strong supporter of the International Criminal Court's indictment against Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, for war crimes. She most recently issued a report naming several U.S. giants among companies aiding what she described as Israel's occupation and war on Gaza. 'Albanese's campaign of political and economic warfare against the United States and Israel will no longer be tolerated,' Secretary of State Marco Rubio posted on social media. 'We will always stand by our partners in their right to self-defense.' Albanese has been the target of criticism from pro-Israel officials and groups in the U.S. and in the Middle East. Last week, the U.S. mission to the U.N. issued a scathing statement, calling for her removal for 'a years-long pattern of virulent anti-Semitism and unrelenting anti-Israel bias.' The statement said that Albanese's allegations of Israel committing genocide or apartheid are 'false and offensive.' It is all a culmination of an extraordinary and sprawling campaign of nearly six months by the Trump administration to quell criticism of Israel's handling of the deadly war in Gaza, which is closing in on two years. Earlier this year, the Trump administration began arresting and deporting faculty and students of American universities who participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations and other political activities. The war between Israel and Hamas began Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel and killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 people captive. Israel's retaliatory campaign has killed over 57,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which says women and children make up most of the dead but does not specify how many were fighters or civilians. Nearly 21 months into the conflict that displaced the vast majority of Gaza's 2.3 million people, it is nearly impossible for the critically wounded to get the care they need, doctors and aid workers say. 'We must stop this genocide, whose short-term goal is completing the ethnic cleansing of Palestine, while also profiteering from the killing machine devised to perform it,' Albanese said in a recent post on X. 'No one is safe until everyone is safe.'
