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Microsoft says it is laying off nearly 3% of its entire workforce. The tech giant didn't disclose the total amount of lost jobs but it will amount to about 6,000 people. Microsoft employed 228,000 full-time workers as of last June, the last time it reported its annual headcount. About 55% of those workers were in the US, reports AP. Microsoft said the layoffs will be across all levels and geographies but will focus on reducing management levels. Notices went out on Tuesday. OpenAI reverses course and says its nonprofit will continue to control its business Microsoft announced a smaller round of performance-based layoffs in January. But the 3% cuts will be Microsoft's biggest reported layoffs since early 2023, when the company cut 10,000 workers, almost 5% of its workforce, joining other tech companies that were scaling back their pandemic-era expansions. The latest layoffs come just weeks after Microsoft reported strong sales and profits that beat Wall Street expectations for the January-March quarter, which investors took as a dose of relief during a turbulent time for the tech sector and US economy.

Dua Lipa, Sir Elton John, Sir Ian McKellen and Florence Welch are among a list of stars calling on the prime minister to update copyright laws in a way that protects them from artificial intelligence. A letter signed by more than 400 British musicians, writers and artists, addressed to Sir Keir Starmer, says failing to give that protection would mean them "giving away" their work to tech firms. Also at risk, they write, is "the UK's position as a creative powerhouse". They want the PM to back an amendment to the Data (Use and Access) Bill that would require developers to be transparent with copyright owners about using their material to train AI models.   A government spokesperson said: "We want our creative industries and AI companies to flourish, which is why we're consulting on a package of measures that we hope will work for both sectors. "We're clear that no changes will be considered unless we are completely satisfied they work for creators," they added. Other signatories include author Kazuo Ishiguro, playwright David Hare, singers Kate Bush and Robbie Williams, as well as Coldplay, Tom Stoppard and Richard Curtis. Sir Paul McCartney, who told the BBC in January he was concerned about AI ripping off artists, has also signed the letter. "We are wealth creators, we reflect and promote the national stories, we are the innovators of the future, and AI needs us as much as it needs energy and computer skills," it states. They say their concerns can be met if the government backs an amendment proposed by Baroness Beeban Kidron ahead of a key vote in the House of Lords on Monday. Baroness Kidron's amendment, it says, would "allow both AI developers and creators to develop licensing regimes that will allow for human-created content well into the future." Advertisement Not everyone agrees with the artists' approach. Julia Willemyns, co-founder of the Centre for British Progress think tank, said such proposals could hamper the UK and its bid for growth. The measures would "do nothing to stop foreign firms from using content from the British creative industries," she told the BBC. "A restrictive copyright regime would offshore AI development, chill domestic innovation, and directly harm the UK economy," she said. However, the letter comes amid mounting concern from artists over the inclusion of their works, and material protected by copyright, in the data used to develop generative AI systems. These tools, which can produce new content in response to simple text prompts, have become increasingly popular and available to consumers. But their capabilities have been accompanied by concerns and criticism over their data use and energy demand. ·         What is AI, how does it work and what are the concerns about it? In February, artists including Annie Lennox and Damon Albarn released a silent album to protest about the government's proposed changes to copyright law. The government carried out a consultation around its proposal to allow developers to be able to use creators' content on the internet to help develop their models, unless the rights holders elect to "opt out". According to The Guardian, ministers were reconsidering the proposal following creator backlash. Mr Ishiguro pointed the BBC to an earlier statement in which he wrote, "why is it just and fair - why is it sensible - to alter our time-honoured copyright laws to advantage mammoth corporations at the expense of individual writers, musicians, film-makers and artists?" The Nobel Prize-winning author added that since then the only limited advance was that it now appeared the government had accepted the opt-out proposals were not likely to be workable, He thought a new consultation to find a fairer scheme was possible, though it remained to be seen how meaningful any consultation would be. "It's essential that they get this right," he wrote. MPs recently rejected a separate amendment tabled by Baroness Kidron that aimed to make AI developers accountable to UK copyright law. Now, she says transparency obligations for tech firms under the new proposed amendment could support the development of licensing agreements between creators and companies. "The UK is in a unique position to take its place as a global player in the international AI supply chain, but to grasp that opportunity requires the transparency provided for in my amendments, which are essential to create a vibrant licencing market," Baroness Kidron said. In their statement the government said: "It's vital we take the time to work through the range of responses to our consultation, but equally important that we put in the groundwork now as we consider the next steps. "That is why we have committed to publishing a report and economic impact assessment – exploring the broad range of issues and options on all sides of the debate." Advertisement  

A new software update prevented a third radar outage in the last two weeks at New Jersey's busy Newark airport when a telecommunications line failed again over the weekend, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Monday. At a news conference, Duffy also said the recent problems that have led to hundreds of cancellations and delays in Newark could have been avoided had action been taken by President Joe Biden's administration to better equip the air traffic control facility in Philadelphia — particularly after issues with the hardware in October and November that should have set off alarms. The delays continued at Newark Liberty International Airport on Monday evening with average backups of more than 1 1/2 hours. This time it wasn't caused by technical failures, but a shortage of air traffic controllers that has been made worse because several of them went on leave due after the first radar outage under a 45-day trauma leave, said Federal Aviation Administration spokesperson Kristen Alsop. The FAA had already restricted traffic into Newark after the first incident due to the staffing shortages. Those limits, designed to keep flights safe, combined with an ongoing runway construction project in Newark, has created lingering cancellations and delays. Later this week, the FAA will meet with all the airlines to discuss making those limits last into the summer. Trump administration fires top copyright official days after firing Librarian of Congress Duffy said the update the Federal Aviation Administration installed Friday night helped ensure the backup system worked on Sunday when there was another problem with the primary line coming into the air traffic control facility in Philadelphia. When a similar issue happened Friday and on April 28, the radar and communications systems went offline briefly, leaving controllers unable to see or talk to the planes. Even though the radar system stayed online Sunday, controllers were worried because of the two previous outages, so Duffy said they stopped all traffic at Newark airport for about 45 minutes as a precaution. Duffy said he will request an investigation into last year's move of Newark air traffic controllers from New York to Philadelphia to determine why more wasn't done to ensure there wouldn't be problems. Philadelphia is about 85 miles (137 kilometers) southwest of Newark. “The Biden-Buttigieg FAA bungled this move without properly hardening the telecom lines feeding the data, which was already well-known to be error-prone,” Duffy said. “Without addressing the underlying infrastructure, they added more risk to the system.” Duffy also said the FAA should have set up a new radar system for Newark in Philadelphia instead of piping the signal in from New York for controllers. Duffy and President Donald Trump have said that the problems in Newark are a prime example of why they developed a multibillion-dollar plan to overhaul that nation's air traffic control system, unveiled last week. Duffy blames the Biden administration for failing to do that, but those problems go back decades, even before the first Trump administration. An adviser to former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said Duffy should spend more time trying to deal with the nation's problems, and he defended the Biden administration's efforts to bolster air traffic controller hiring and make a down payment on dealing with some of the infrastructure problems. Google to pay $1.4 billion to settle Texas lawsuit over unauthorised data collection “Secretary Duffy has a tough job. But he needs to spend more time doing what the American people are paying him to do — fix problems — and less time blaming others," said Chris Meagher. Duffy laid out an extensive plan to replace the nation's outdated air traffic control system last week, including installing 4,600 new high-speed data connections and replacing 618 radars, but didn't put a price tag on the plan other than to say it will cost billions. The FAA has installed new fiber optic lines at Newark airport and New York's Kennedy International and LaGuardia airports to replace old copper wires since the first outage, but plans to spend the next two weeks testing those new lines out before switching over to them.

The Trump administration has fired the nation’s top copyright official, Shira Perlmutter, days after abruptly terminating the head of the Library of Congress, which oversees the U.S. Copyright Office. The office said in a statement Sunday that Perlmutter received an email from the White House a day earlier with the notification that “your position as the Register of Copyrights and Director at the U.S. Copyright Office is terminated effective immediately.” On Thursday, President Donald Trump fired Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden, the first woman and the first African American to be librarian of Congress, as part of the administration’s ongoing purge of government officials perceived to oppose the president and his agenda. Hayden named Perlmutter to lead the Copyright Office in October 2020. Perlmutter’s office recently released a report examining whether artificial intelligence companies can use copyrighted materials to “train” their AI systems and then compete in the same market as the human-made works they were trained on. The report, the third part of a lengthy AI study, follows a review that Perlmutter began in 2023 with opinions from thousands of people including AI developers, actors and country singers. In January, the office clarified its approach as one based on the “centrality of human creativity” in authoring a work that warrants copyright protections. The office receives about half a million copyright applications per year covering millions of creative works. Woman seeks divorce after ChatGPT interprets coffee grounds, suggests husband’s affair “Where that creativity is expressed through the use of AI systems, it continues to enjoy protection,” Perlmutter said in January. “Extending protection to material whose expressive elements are determined by a machine ... would undermine rather than further the constitutional goals of copyright.” The White House didn’t return a message seeking comment Sunday. Democrats were quick to blast Perlmutter’s firing. “Donald Trump’s termination of Register of Copyrights, Shira Perlmutter, is a brazen, unprecedented power grab with no legal basis,” said Rep. Joe Morelle of New York, the top Democrat on the House Administration Committee. Perlmutter, who holds a law degree, was previously a policy director at the Patent and Trademark Office and worked on copyright and other areas of intellectual property. She also previously worked at the Copyright Office in the late 1990s. She did not return messages left Sunday.    

A Greek woman has filed for divorce, claiming that ChatGPT revealed her husband's alleged affair through an AI-driven interpretation of coffee cup patterns. According to Greek City Times, the woman turned to the AI chatbot for a modern spin on tasseography, the traditional art of interpreting coffee grounds to foresee the future. Married for over 12 years and mother to two children, she reportedly submitted images of coffee residue from both her and her husband's cups, asking ChatGPT to read them. The AI's interpretation left her stunned: it allegedly pointed to her husband being romantically involved with a younger woman determined to split their family. It even suggested that his “destined partner” had a name beginning with the letter "E," while her own reading indicated betrayal and household turmoil. Her husband, speaking to a local TV channel, dismissed the claim as baseless and said, “I laughed it off as nonsense. But she took it seriously. She asked me to leave, told our kids we were getting divorced, and then I got a call from a lawyer. That's when I realised this wasn't just a phase.” Refusing any attempt at mutual separation, the woman served formal divorce papers within three days. The man also claimed his wife has a history of embracing mystical beliefs, recalling a prior incident where she followed an astrologer’s guidance for nearly a year. His lawyer emphasized that AI interpretations hold no legal weight. “He is innocent until proven otherwise,” the lawyer said. While the unusual case has sparked widespread discussion across Greek social media, legal professionals have reiterated that AI-generated predictions cannot be used as evidence in court. Source: NDTV  

Candy Crush Saga players navigating the game’s more than 18,700 levels may not realize that artificial intelligence is quietly helping shape their puzzle-solving experience. The wildly popular mobile game, developed by Swedish studio King, uses AI tools to assist in designing and tweaking levels to keep players engaged — whether they’re first-timers or seasoned veterans looking for fresh challenges. Developers also rely on AI to revise older levels, helping to prevent users from getting stuck or losing interest. According to Todd Green, general manager of the Candy Crush franchise, AI helps relieve some of the burden on developers. “It would be extremely difficult,” he said, to update and manage so many levels manually. With AI doing an initial pass, designers are free to focus on building new puzzle boards. In the broader gaming world, the role of AI in development is still being debated. Some see it as a way to streamline repetitive tasks and enhance games with smarter non-player characters. Others view it as a potential job threat — a concern serious enough that game performers with the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists went on strike last July over AI-related issues. “We’re not putting chatbots into the game. We’re not putting AI-powered design experiences into the game for players directly to play with,” Green clarified. “Instead, we’re trying to deploy AI on existing problems that we have in order to make the work of the teams faster or more accurate, and more accurate more quickly.” Data from the Entertainment Software Association shows that U.S. consumer spending on video game content rose to $51.3 billion in 2024, up from $49.8 billion the year before. Mobile games, including Candy Crush, make up about half of that figure and are now the top gaming choice for players aged 8 and up. Candy Crush, which debuted on Facebook in 2012, has undergone constant evolution. King has now released 300 different client versions of the game. Activision Blizzard acquired King in 2016 for $5.9 billion. Joost Van Dreunen, author of One Up: Creativity, Competition, and the Global Business of Video Games, said the game’s longevity and massive user base create a constant demand for new content. In that context, using AI makes sense. “To supply that at scale, you absolutely can rely on a sort of artificial intelligence or generative AI to create the next set of forms,” he said. “The thing about Candy Crush is that every level is technically a single board that you have to solve or clear before you can advance. With AI and the existing library of human-made boards, it makes total sense to then accelerate and expand the efforts to just create more inventory. People play more levels.” King applies AI in two primary ways: to generate new puzzles and to revisit and revise older ones — even levels released years ago — to ensure they remain enjoyable. For high-level players, the aim is to make new puzzles engaging right from the start. “That’s hard for us to do, because we don’t get the benefit of having many players test or play through the levels and give us feedback. We have to sort of try and pitch it right at first,” Green explained. He said it’s also crucial to cater to returning players who may have taken a break and are curious about what’s new. Instead of directly introducing AI-generated content into the game, King uses the technology behind the scenes, helping improve level design more efficiently. “Doing that for 1,000 levels all at once is very difficult by hand,” Green said. “So the most important thing to understand here is that we are using AI as like a custom design.” Green noted that level difficulty is intentionally varied to keep players engaged — easier puzzles may follow more difficult ones and vice versa. With AI, the team can now potentially enhance thousands of levels each week instead of just hundreds, by automating the early stages of redesign. “We talk to players all the time,” Green said. “We also get the quantitative feedback. We can see how players respond to the levels... How easy are the levels? Do they get sort of stuck, or are they progressing in the way that we hope?” To evaluate how players are interacting with levels, King tracks metrics such as pass rate — how often a level is beaten within 100 tries — and how frequently a level is “reshuffled,” meaning all the candies are rearranged. However, some elements are harder to quantify. “It’s also, to some extent, obviously subjective,” Green said. “It’s different for different people.”

Google has agreed to pay $1.4 billion to the state of Texas to resolve allegations that it collected users’ personal data without proper consent, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced on Friday. Paxton said the settlement sends a strong warning to tech giants that profiting from the misuse of personal data will not be tolerated. “Big Tech is not above the law in Texas,” he stated. “For years, Google secretly monitored users' locations, search histories, and even captured biometric data like voiceprints and facial geometry. We fought back—and we won.” The lawsuit, originally filed in 2022, accused Google of violating user privacy by tracking their geolocation, collecting data during "incognito" browsing, and harvesting biometric identifiers through services like Google Photos and Google Assistant. Google invests in nuclear power with Elementl Power to fuel AI energy needs Google spokesperson José Castañeda responded by saying the settlement addresses “long-standing issues” and noted that many of the relevant product policies have already been updated. He added that the agreement doesn’t require any further changes to Google’s products and that the company remains committed to improving its privacy controls. According to Paxton, this is the largest state-level settlement ever reached with Google over privacy violations involving user data. The state has reached previous settlements with Google, including a $700 million agreement in December 2023 tied to antitrust allegations surrounding the company’s Android app store. Texas also recently finalized a separate $1.4 billion privacy settlement with Meta over similar claims involving unauthorized use of biometric data.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and executives from Microsoft and chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices testified on Capitol Hill about the biggest opportunities, risks and needs facing an industry which lawmakers and technologists agree could fundamentally transform global business, culture and geopolitics. The hearing comes as the race to control the future of artificial intelligence is heating up between companies and countries. Altman's OpenAI is in a furious race to develop the best artificial intelligence model against tech rivals like Alphabet and Meta, as well as against those developed by Chinese competitors. “I believe this will be at least as big as the internet, maybe bigger,” Altman said in his opening remarks about AI’s potential to transform society. “For that to happen, investment in infrastructure is critical.” Altman urged senators to help usher in the “dual revolutions” of artificial intelligence and energy production that “will change the world we live in, I think, in incredibly positive ways.” The witnesses included Altman; Lisa Su, chief executive of semiconductor maker AMD; Michael Intrator, co-founder of AI cloud computing startup CoreWeave; and Brad Smith, vice chair and president of Microsoft. The four executives unanimously urged lawmakers to help streamline policy for AI-related projects and fundraising. The hearing spanned topics ranging from industry debates over chip performance, jobs, human relationships and power generation to grander questions about the global competition with China and the European Union. “China aims to lead the world in AI by 2030,” said Sen. Ted Cruz, chair of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. “In this race, the United States is facing a fork in the road. Do we go down the path that embraces our history of entrepreneurial freedom and technological innovation? Or do we adopt the command and control policies of Europe?” Senators were broadly sober in their questioning and united in their concern that the U.S. maintain its dominance in artificial intelligence. Lawmakers from both parties also raised concerns over cybersecurity, data privacy and AI's ability to create content that could confuse or mislead people. Some partisan fighting did arise. Sen. Bernie Moreno, an Ohio Republican, pressed Su and Smith on whether the Biden administration’s sustainable energy policies hindered the goal of producing more power for AI-related infrastructure. And Sen. Tammy Duckworth, an Illinois Democrat, criticized cuts by President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk to federal funding for research and to agencies like the Energy Department’s national laboratories and National Science Foundation, painting them as “a self sabotaging attack.” “Does anyone truly have confidence that had DOGE been around decades ago, they would not have cut the project that created the internet as an example of wasteful, publicly funded research and development?” asked Duckworth. Google invests in nuclear power with Elementl Power to fuel AI energy needs But despite some barbs, the hearing maintained a low-key tenor and some bipartisan joking as lawmakers and executives discussed the potential of a technology all present agreed would determine humanity's future. “Look, there is a race, but we need to understand what we’re racing for,” Sen. Brian Schatz, a Hawaii Democrat, told the witnesses. “It’s not just a sort of commercial race, so we can edge out our nearest competitor in the public sector or the private sector. We’re trying to win a race so that American values prevail.” Trade policy and AI Several of the executives warned against U.S. export controls that could end up pushing other countries toward China’s AI technology. “We totally understand as an industry the importance of national security,” Su said. But she added, if not able to “have our technology adopted in the rest of the world, there will be other technologies that will come to play.” Those technologies are less advanced today but will mature over time, she said. Altman drew a direct connection between the ability of the U.S. to attract global talent and sell its products globally to national security and its international influence. “The leverage and the power the U.S. gets from having iPhones be the mobile device people most want, and Google being the search engine that people most want around the world is huge,” Altman said. “We talk maybe less about how much people want to use chips and other infrastructure developed here, but I think it’s no less important, and we should aim to have the entire U.S. stack be adopted by as much of the world as possible.” Trade rivalry between the U.S. and China has been weighing heavily on the AI industry, including California-based chipmakers Nvidia and AMD. The Trump administration announced in April that it would restrict sales of Nvidia’s H20 chips and AMD’s MI308 chips to China. Nvidia has said the tighter export controls will cost the company an extra $5.5 billion. AMD said after reporting its quarterly earnings this week that it will cost the firm $1.5 billion in lost revenue over the coming months. Motorola Edge 60 Pro Review: Know the Pros and Cons Still uncertain are additional AI chip controls set by former President Joe Biden’s administration that are set to take effect next week targeting more than 100 countries, including a number of U.S. allies. The policy drew strong opposition from Nvidia and other tech companies, while it was supported by others, including AI company Anthropic, as a way to prevent China’s “sophisticated smuggling operations” to obtain chips from shell companies in third countries. The Commerce Department said in an email Thursday that Trump plans to replace Biden’s “overly complex, overly bureaucratic” rule with a simpler one but didn’t say when. AI data center expansion and state competition The day before the hearing, Altman visited the Abilene, Texas, site of the massive Stargate data center project being built for OpenAI in collaboration with Oracle and other partners. The site was chosen for its potential access to a variety of energy resources, including wind and solar power. Altman, during the hearing, said that Texas had been “unbelievable" in incentivizing major AI projects. “I think that would be a good thing for other states to study,” Altman said. He predicted that the Abilene site would be the “largest AI training facility in the world.” But Altman also later cautioned against a patchwork regulatory framework for AI. “It is very difficult to imagine us figuring out how to comply with 50 different sets of regulations,” said Altman. “One federal framework that is light touch, that we can understand, and it lets us move with the speed that this moment calls for, seems important and fine.” While the tech industry has long relied on data centers to run online services, from email and social media to financial transactions, new AI technology behind popular chatbots and generative AI tools requires even more powerful computation to build and operate. A report released by the Department of Energy late last year estimated that the electricity needed for data centers in the U.S. tripled over the past decade and is projected to double or triple again by 2028 when it could consume up to 12% of the nation’s electricity.

Tech giant Google has teamed up with Elementl Power to develop three advanced nuclear energy sites, as the demand for electricity driven by artificial intelligence continues to surge. Announced on Wednesday, the collaboration will see Google invest in projects expected to generate 600 megawatts of power each, AP reports. Although the total investment amount was not disclosed, the partnership underscores the growing role of nuclear energy in supporting AI-driven infrastructure. “Our collaboration with Elementl Power enhances our ability to move at the speed required to meet this moment of AI and American innovation,” said Amanda Peterson Corio, Google’s head of data centre energy. The two companies plan to work closely with utility providers and regulated power firms to identify and develop additional nuclear energy projects. “We look forward to working with Google to execute these projects and bring safe, carbon-free, baseload electricity to the grid,” said Chris Colbert, Chairman and CEO of Elementl Power. US expands attempt to blow up Google with proposed teardown of its ad technology As AI technology evolves and expands, so too does its appetite for power, prompting states across the US to position themselves as energy hubs for the tech industry. Policymakers are increasingly backing nuclear energy initiatives, offering incentives and easing regulations to attract investment. In 2023, 25 US states passed laws promoting advanced nuclear power, while more than 200 pro-nuclear bills have been introduced in state legislatures this year, according to the Nuclear Energy Institute. Amid growing interest in carbon-free, reliable electricity, tech companies are investing in next-generation nuclear technologies. Amazon revealed in October that it would support small modular reactors, just days after a similar announcement from Google. In another notable development, Constellation Energy — owner of the defunct Three Mile Island nuclear facility — said in September that it aimed to restart the plant to supply electricity to Microsoft’s data centres. The site, located near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, was the scene of the United States' most serious nuclear accident in 1979. In addition to nuclear, Amazon, Google and Microsoft have been actively funding wind and solar energy projects to diversify their low-emission power sources. Elementl Power was established in 2022.

The U.S. Justice Department is doubling down on its attempt to break up Google by asking a federal judge to force the company to part with some of the technology powering the company's digital ad network. The proposed dismantling coincides with an ongoing federal effort to separate Google's Chrome browser from its dominant search engine. The government's latest proposal was filed late Monday in a Virginia federal court two-and-half weeks after a federal judge ruled that its lucrative digital ad network has been improperly abusing its market power to stifle competition to the detriment of online publishers. In a 17-page filing, Justice Department lawyers argued that U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema should punish Google by ordering the company to offload its AdX business and DFP ad platform, tools that bring together advertisers, who want to market their products, and publishers, who want to sell commercial space on their sites, to bring in revenue. The government also is seeking other restrictions, including a 10-year ban on Google from operating a digital ad exchange, to undercut the power of a “recidivist monopolist.” Not surprisingly, it's an idea that Google vehemently plans to oppose when the penalty phase of the antitrust case —known as remedy hearings — begins in late September. Google already has vowed to appeal Brinkema's ruling that the technology powering the ad network has been breaking the law, but can't do that until the judge rules on its punishment in a decision expected late this year or early next year. ‘AI will replace your job, including mine’, warns Fiverr CEO The Justice Department's proposal “would cause economic chaos and technological dysfunction resulting in harm to millions of advertisers and publishers, and in so doing, degrade the experience of internet users,” Google said in a court filing late Monday. In its counterproposal, Google outlined a plan that it believes will bring more transparency to its ad network and eventually foster more competition. Google proposed the appointment of a trustee to oversee its behavior for three years. The attempt to tear down Google's ad network comes on top of the Justice Department's ongoing effort to have the company part with its popular Chrome browser and impose other restrictions to curtail the power of its ubiquitous search engine, which another federal judge branded an illegal monopoly in a ruling last August. The remedy hearings in the search case are scheduled to conclude later this month, with a ruling from U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta expected by Labor Day. If the Justice Department is able to persuade the two different judges to order its proposed dismantling of Google, it would be the biggest breakup of a U.S. company since AT&T was forced to spin off its phone service into seven separate regional companies more than 40 years ago. Google's Play Store for apps running on its Android software that powers most of the world's smartphones also was declared an illegal monopoly by a federal jury in 2023 and is battling a judge's order that would require it to overhaul a commission system that generates billions of dollars in annual revenue. But hobbling its search engine and digital ad network would be far bigger blows because they are the key cogs in a business that generated $265 billion in revenue last year. Google is confronting the breakup threats at the same time the advent of artificial intelligence is changing the way consumers are using technology and seeking information online — a shift that could also siphon traffic and money away from a powerhouse that began in a Silicon Valley garage in 1998. OpenAI reverses course and says its nonprofit will continue to control its business Despite the adversity, Google is still delivering robust financial growth to its corporate parent Alphabet Inc., which is currently valued at $2 trillion. Alphabet's share dipped by less than 1% Tuesday to close at $163.20.