Alphabet News

Three Republican House lawmakers on Monday asked the CEOs of Alphabet, Facebook parent Meta, Amazon.com and Microsoft if they have adopted adequate safeguards to address growing national security concerns on submarine communications cables.Washington has been raising alarm about the network of more than 400 subsea cables that handle 99% of international internet traffic and about threats from China and Russia.The letter raised concerns that entities affiliated with China "such as SBSS…

Shipping giant CMA CGM and tech startup Mistral AI expect rapid productivity gains from a 100 million euro ($110 million) partnership unveiled on Sunday, which the French firms also touted as a commitment to their home country amid the global trade tensions.The five-year partnership, which will bring CMA CGM's AI-related spending to 500 million euros ($550 million), will focus on customer service in shipping and logistics and factchecking at its French media businesses that include news channel BFM TV.In a joint interview with Mistral's co-founder and CEO Arthur Mensch…

Some expert thoughts on AI in 2025:“In 2025, AI won’t just be a tool; it will be a collaborator.”“In 2025, the most productive employees will work alongside AI agents.”AI agents are an advance on large language models (LLMs). LLMs at present are popularly used as creative and conversational search engines. They can’t directly interact with external tools or data processing system or autonomously set up systems to monitor and collect ongoing data. AI agents can, and they can proactively track and collect data streams to refine their decision-making.

Australia's Indian Ocean territory of Christmas Island will be connected by subsea cable to the northern garrison city of Darwin, a project backed by Alphabet's Google that Australia says will boost its digital resilience.Christmas Island is 1,500 km (930 miles) west of the Australian mainland, with a small population of 1,250, but strategically located in the Indian Ocean, 350 km (215 miles) from Jakarta.The cable announcement comes as the Australian and U.S. militaries upgrade airfields in Australia's north, where a rotating force of U.S.

CMA CGM and Google announced a  partnership to accelerate the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) across CMA CGM's operations globally.“By combining CMA CGM’s deep expertise in shipping and logistics with Google's AI tools and secure infrastructure we can help CMA CGM digitally transform its own operations and those of its customers," said Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet. "This partnership is a prime example of how AI can assist employees, improve outcomes for customers…

On Feb. 10 last year, the cable ship CS Dependable appeared off the coast of the island of Diego Garcia, an Indian Ocean atoll that’s home to a discreet U.S. naval base.Over the next month, the ship’s crew covertly laid an underwater fiber-optic cable to the military base, an operation code-named “Big Wave,” according to four people with direct knowledge of the mission, as well as a Reuters analysis of satellite imagery and ship tracking data.The new super-fast internet link to Diego Garcia, which has not previously been reported, will boost U.S. military readiness in the Indian Ocean, a region where China has expanded its naval influence over the last decade.The CS Dependable is owned by SubCom…

Regulations governing deep-sea mining will take longer to finalize due to the global pandemic, a group of Latin American countries said, creating uncertainty for companies looking to mine the sea bed for metals, including cobalt and nickel.The delayed negotiations also pose a potential difficulty for companies seeking financing from investors to mine the sea floor.The U.N.’s International Seabed Authority (ISA) is working on global rules covering sea bed mining, which is not allowed…

Alphabet, Google's parent company, announced that it is calling it quits on its efforts to build and monetize its Makani wind energy kites.Google acquired Makani, which developed airborne wind turbines and aimed to make wind energy more accessible and affordable, in 2013. Last year, the company spun it out of X and made it a standalone Alphabet unit.Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai has reportedly been under pressure to cut losses from the company's 'Other Bets' category, which includes projects such as X, self-driving car service Waymo and wireless broadband project Loon. Last year, 'Other Bets' lost $4.8 billion, according to the Financial Times.Fort Felker said in his blog post that despite successfully demonstrating a flight off the coast of Norway last year…

Mitsubishi Shipbuilding Co., Ltd., a group company of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI) based in Yokohama, held a christening ceremony on March 12th for a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) carrier currently under construction for JX Ocean Co., Ltd. The new ship, named Future Ace, will be the twelfth of Mitsubishi Shipbuilding's latest third-generation, 83,000m3-class LPG carriers. In addition to increased energy-efficiency, the ship will have the capability to adapt flexibly to major LPG terminals worldwide, as well as specifications compatible with the new expanded Panama Canal.

Congress enacted the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA 90) a mere 17 months after the disastrous oil spill following the grounding of the tanker Exxon Valdez in Prince William Sound. Among the many provisions in the voluminous bill was a detailed planning requirement. For the first time, tank vessels and facilities handling oil in bulk were required to develop extensive plans for responding to a worst case discharge of oil into waters of the United States. As regards vessels and marine-transportation-related facilities, the U.S.

China and the United States sank into a deepening trade conflict that roiled financial markets Tuesday after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to impose tariffs on an additional $200 billion of Chinese products, prompting Beijing to accuse Washington of starting a trade war.Trump said Monday his threat was retaliation for China's decision to raise tariffs on $50 billion of U.S. goods over the weekend, a move that itself was in response to additional U.S. tariffs on Chinese…

USACE and USCG collaborate to make inland waterways safer. The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), supported by Alion Science and Technology (Alion), has put forth considerable effort during the last two years to further extend the capabilities of the existing Automatic Identification System (AIS) network to improve the safety and efficiency of navigation along the inland rivers. The USACE works with the United States Coast Guard (USCG) and other agencies and stakeholders to operate and maintain the nation’s Marine Transportation System (MTS).

The British arm of U.S. defence major Lockheed Martin said on Friday it would back a UK government initiative to train students in cyber security to combat a growing skills gap in the area. Through the UK government's CyberFirst initiative, Lockheed Martin will sponsor a number of students across a three-year period and provide them with work placements during their studies. "There's an emerging cyber skills gap and it's vital that this gap is addressed," said Peter Ruddock, chief executive of Lockheed Martin UK. Launched in May 2016, CyberFirst is a work-study programme in online security targeted at students who are about to start university or are in their first year and run by the UK's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC).

The U.S. dollar rose to a three week high against the yen on Friday, on a report of likely further monetary policy easing from the Bank of Japan, while a rise in crude oil prices was offset by poor technology sector earnings, leaving Wall Street stocks steady. The dollar rose more than 2.0 percent against the yen to 111.80 yen, its highest level since April 1 after a media report said the BOJ is considering expanding its negative rate policy to bank loans and could cut rates further. A rise in oil prices helped energy stocks, but disappointing earnings from top technology companies, including Google's parent, Alphabet, weighed on the tech sector on Wall Street, leaving the U.S.'s benchmark S&P 500 stock index little changed for the day.

Navy Capt. Frank Castellano shares his 'Alabama Maersk' rescue experience with Naval Postgraduate School students and faculty. Capt. Frank Castellano,a renowned Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) alumnus and former 'USS Bainbridge' (DDG-96) commander addressed students and faculty at NPS' King Auditorium recently. USS Bainbridge first caught the public's attention after it led the dramatic rescue operation that freed Maersk Alabama Captain Richard Phillips from Somali pirates in 2009. This is a 'sea story,' my sea story," said Castellano in beginning his recount of the dramatic events.

Reading tea leaves on a boat underway is an exercise in frustration because just as the leaves start to settle, another wave comes along and changes the picture. Similarly, trying to foresee trends in the marine industry. Just as you see things shaping up, a change occurs and the industry is re-shuffled. However I believe that I can discuss three particular trends that are part of our collective future. The first of these is the fact that the marine industry will continue to see a growing body of regulations affecting how we design, build, and operate vessels. Some examples of the alphabet soup that we must deal with include ADA, STCW, ISM, EPA, etc. These regulations are being created by organizations both within and outside of the marine industry. Many marine regulators such as the U.S.

A new series of seminars, starting in July and ending in September, aims to educate the maritime community on fast developing new rules and regulations, and more importantly, on how these changes will affect individual companies. Starting in July and ending in September, The Havnen Group — in conjunction with The Maritime Group, publishers of Maritime Reporter & Engineering News, MarineNews and the Marine Security Sourcebook — will host a nine-seminar series, starting in the Gulf of Mexico and ending in New York. Since 9/11, the U.S. has been exerting increased security upon all means of transportation. The international maritime community perceives increased security as a necessity to continuing commerce.

A new series of seminars, starting in July and ending in September, aims to educate the maritime community on fast developing new rules and regulations, and more importantly, on how these changes will affect individual companies. Starting in July and ending in September, The Havnen Group — in conjunction with The Maritime Group, publishers of Maritime Reporter & Engineering News, MarineNews and the Marine Security Sourcebook — will host a nine-seminar series, starting in the Gulf of Mexico and ending in New York. Since 9/11, the U.S. has been exerting increased security upon all means of transportation. The international maritime community perceives increased security as a necessity to continuing commerce.

There has been a lot of discussion in the marine industry over the past year with regard to "bad" aluminum. To briefly recap, a number of boat builders purchased aluminum from a supplier that met the requirements of ASTM 5083 H321. This alloy is accepted by both Lloyds Register (Lloyds) and Det Norske Veritas (DNV) for building aluminum vessels. After the aluminum was used to construct some vessels, the operators began to observe surface pitting corrosion. Upon investigation, it was discovered that the purchased plate had been treated differently during manufacturing, with the result that manganese nodules were precipitating out of the alloy, thus making it susceptible to inter-granular corrosion. The result was that newly-built vessels had to be rebuilt and their original hulls scrapped.