Tag Archives: CEO

Current Affairs, Politics, Science & Health, Web & Technology

Google is giving its dominant search engine an artificial intelligence makeover

Google, which is owned by Alphabet Inc., already has been testing its own conversational chatbot called Bard.

By Associated Press, May 1, 2023

Google CEO Sundar Pichai speaks Wednesday at the Google I/O keynote session in Mountain View, Calif..Josh Edelson / AFP – Getty Images

Now, Google is ready to test the AI waters with its search engine, which has been synonymous with finding things on the internet for the past 20 years and serves as the pillar of a digital advertising empire that generated more than $220 billion in revenue last year.

“We are at an exciting inflection point,” Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai told a packed developers’ conference in a speech peppered with one AI reference after another. “We are reimagining all our products, including search.”

Source: Google is giving its dominant search engine an artificial intelligence makeover

Memories & History, Pleasures, Times They Are A-Changing, Travel

Amtrak CEO William J. Flynn thinks Americans are ready for trains again

And he says sleeper cars are making a comeback.

An Amtrak Pacific Surfliner train at Moorpark Station in California. Laser1987/iStock/Getty Images Plus

By Henry Grabar, March 15, 20213:28 PM

William J. Flynn took over as CEO of Amtrak at the worst possible time. It was April 2020—one month after the country locked down—and ridership on the quasi-public passenger rail network was down by 97 percent. Two recovery bills later, Amtrak’s finances have been shored up. Though business remains way down, vaccines are rolling out, and Flynn aims to double Amtrak’s pre-pandemic ridership in the next two decades. We spoke last week about what America’s interstate rail system could look like after COVID. We discussed major undertakings like the Gateway Project, the new tunnel beneath the Hudson River connecting New York and New Jersey, which Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has called the most important infrastructure project in the country. Flynn told me he does not pay attention to the astronomical cost of rail construction in the United States relative to peer countries. He also outlined his beef with freight railroads, explained why he welcomes private-sector competition, and showed me where he thinks Amtrak has room to grow after its 50th birthday next month. Our conservation has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Source: https://slate.com/business/2021/03/amtrak-ceo-interview-trains-coronavirus.html