Back to top

Image: Bigstock

Alphabet Roundup: I/O Event, Gov't Pro A.I., Irish Vote, More

Read MoreHide Full Article

Alphabet (GOOGL - Free Report) had an eventful week with its I/O developers’ conference, a positive White House meeting, a decision to ban Irish referendum ads and Waymo projections from UBS. Here are the high points-

Google I/O

-Revamping news: Google is finally doing something it should have done a long time ago. Other than improving the news app by adding content from YouTube and tweets, it is introducing different ways of displaying news that will help users gain deeper insight into any issue.

The downside of personalization is that your own views tend to get reinforced while the other side of the story escapes your attention. This naturally affects your understanding of any issue. So now, there are two options titled “Full Coverage” (is same for all readers and will feature different points of view) and “Headlines” (will also showcase what people are reading all over the world) that give you unfiltered news stories. You also have the option of training the AI to feature your preferred publishers.

-Assistant: Google announced Routines some time back that lets Assistant in Google Home take over routine functions (“actions”) when it hears word triggers. "Hey Google, good night" for example could get Assistant to turn off the lights, adjust the temperature, play music or do other things you require it to. Now Google is bringing Custom Routines, so you can also determine your own trigger words and fix your routine from any of a million actions.  

These actions are important things, because it is a list of to-do things for Assistant, but also includes apps that you may like to engage with (like a voice version of app-install ads). What’s more, if you decide to keep using an app (for example a music streaming app), you have the option of setting it up to send you notifications. This is a feature that Amazon (AMZN - Free Report) already has so it’s a good-to-have thing on Google as well.

All this is meant to make your life easier while keeping you from using your phone less. So assuming that you actually use your devices to do all these things, now you can simply shout out a single command and sit back.

Assistant can also help you write emails by suggesting words or phrases as you write and taking care of details. It can manage your photos and suggest who to share stuff with and also turn your black and white images to color.

-Google Duplex is basically Assistant taking over the phone calling function to book appointments with the hair dresser or a restaurant table (for example). It’s human-like, using the language and making all the sounds that a person usually makes during conversation, so the person on the other side likely won’t know they are talking to a robot. This also makes it controversial.

But according to Google engineers Yaniv Leviathan and Yossi Matias, "Duplex can only carry out natural conversations after being deeply trained in such domains. It cannot carry out general conversations." So there could be a simple way of checking out if the entity you’re talking to is really a person.

The Google Assistant could of course introduce itself as such before handling the situation, but then there’s the chance that the person on the other end might hang up rather than talk to a robot. But it is a very interesting development, particularly if you consider that Assistant can constantly expand its domain experience to other spheres such as the phone company, store, servicemen, school representatives and other people you might need to talk to. It would be a really nice way of handling the tasks you don’t particularly like.

-AI Chips: Google launched the third generation of its Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) that the company claims packs eight times the power of the second generation chips announced last year. The chips will enable AI by allowing applications to do things like recognize words specific people say within audio recordings, spot objects in photos and videos, and pick up underlying emotions in written text. The new TPUs won’t be available to third parties just yet, but may be offered to its cloud customers later.

-Security: Google is guaranteeing that its just-announced IoT platform called Android Things will take care of security updates for connected IoT devices built on Things for at least three years, which while not covering the useful lives of everyday devices like connected thermostats, cameras and speakers, is a nice start.

Also, since the maximum period hasn’t been announced, it may actually be in line with what the competition from companies like Microsoft (MSFT - Free Report) , Amazon or Apple (AAPL - Free Report) offers. Things is built on chips from companies like Qualcomm (QCOM - Free Report) and a stripped down version of Android that companies can incorporate into their devices.

Early products built on the platform include the Lenovo smart display launched at CES and the LG smart speaker that went on sale last month. Nest thermostats still aren’t part of this family, which could be why Google recently brought the division into its fold.

-Android P will also tell users how much time they’re spending on the device, offer app timers to set limits as well as different modes that can help the user get away such as a ‘do not disturb” mode or wind down mode (reduces brightness). 

-Maps is getting an AR upgrade with a new Visual Positioning System. So when users raise their phones they see and actual image of the street and a large arrow pointing them in the correct direction (particularly useful when traveling on foot). They will also get many more pointers about nearby businesses.

White House Gives AI Vote of Confidence

In a first-of-its-kind meeting between the government and representatives of over 40 U.S. companies across technology, food, agriculture, energy, manufacturing, financial services, healthcare, transportation, logistics and other sectors, the White house said that the companies would have the greatest possible latitude to develop artificial intelligence (AI).

The government’s goal is to maintain America’s AI lead in the face of the determined challenge from China. So it doesn’t look like there will be regulations pulling back AI efforts any time in the near term, which makes sense because it’s very early days yet and the impact of the technology on the environment, jobs, privacy and security isn’t known yet.

According to a Bloomberg account, Michael Kratsios, a top White House science adviser, said, "We didn’t cut the lines before Alexander Graham Bell made the first telephone call… We didn’t regulate flight before the Wright Brothers took off at Kitty Hawk."

These are encouraging statements for the future of AI and could signal the start of a partnership with the private sector that could include government funding and easier access to data.  

Google, Facebook Ban Election Ads

Google and Facebook are playing safe with respect to an Irish referendum on the Eighth Amendment, added to the constitution back in 1983. Accordingly, Facebook is blocking all referendum related ads originating in any other country while Google is blocking (including on YouTube) all ads related to the referendum.

The law in question determines that as an expression of respect to the child’s right to life, abortion is an option for women only when their own life is in danger and for no other reason, not even in the case of rape or incest. The punishment for breaking the law of up to 14 years in prison is also severe. But opinions have changed over time, which is why the Irish are seeking to liberalize this law and give women more choice.

Although there’s no restriction on people discussing both sides of the issue on social media and placing ads on Facebook from within the country, groups supporting the anti-abortion law are saying that it’s “an attempt to rig the referendum” by “preventing the public from hearing the message from one side."

UBS Note on Waymo

Waymo is expected to start offering its self-driving taxi service in Phoenix, Arizona later this year and UBS has put out a note on its prospects, as well as the state of the market over the next few years. The investment firm doesn’t expect these taxis to really take off until 2026, but by 2030, it estimates that there will be 26 million self-driving taxis on the roads.

Not just that – it says that Waymo will take 60% of the global market that will generate up to $2.8 trillion by 2030, when its technology will be so effective that automakers will be forced to buy it.

 

Recommendations

Alphabet has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

More Stock News: This Is Bigger than the iPhone!

It could become the mother of all technological revolutions. Apple sold a mere 1 billion iPhones in 10 years but a new breakthrough is expected to generate more than 27 billion devices in just 3 years, creating a $1.7 trillion market.

Zacks has just released a Special Report that spotlights this fast-emerging phenomenon and 6 tickers for taking advantage of it. If you don't buy now, you may kick yourself in 2020.

Click here for the 6 trades >>

Published in