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When you listen to Google Maps driving directions in your car, get answers from your Google Home, or hear a spoken translation in Google Translate, you're using Google's speech synthesis, or text-to-speech (TTS) technology. Speech interfaces not only allow you to interact naturally and conveniently with digital devices, they're a crucial technology for making information universally accessible: TTS opens up the internet to millions of users all over the world who may not be able to read, or who have visual impairments. Over the last few years, there’s been an explosion of new research using neural networks to simulate a human voice. These models, including many developed at Google, can generate increasingly realistic, human-like speech. While the progress is exciting, we’re keenly aware of the risks this technology can pose if used with the intent to cause harm. Malicious actors may synthesize speech to try to fool voice authentication systems, or they may create forg...

Today, digital technology and mobile devices have put the consumer in control. The traditional, linear customer journey from awareness to purchase has been replaced with unique, unpredictable journeys —where no two are exactly alike. Understanding how customers engage at each step along the way is a key priority for marketers and an opportunity to deliver improved customer experiences that drive better marketing results. In our new Analytics 360 Solution Guide , we share how leading marketers are building their strategies around the customer, adopting technology to help teams better collaborate, and integrating their ads and analytics data. Put the customer at the center Across our research, one thing became clear: Leading marketers are putting customers at the heart of their strategy. Interactive entertainment company Electronic Arts Inc. has organized their teams around the customer. Marketing, analytics, and publishing teams all start from a single source of truth: custome...

Concerns about disinformation run high ahead of elections, a time when secure access to authoritative information is essential. Over the past few years, as more attempts to disrupt democratic processes have come to light, the scale of our response has increased. The upcoming European Parliament elections in May of this year are a big focus for our teams. Dedicated elections teams clamping down on abuse Our work to prevent election-related abuse ahead of and during elections means teams and subject matter experts across Google are working closely together. These teams, many of whom are based in Europe, are trained to identify and stop a wide range of potential abuse that can range from State Sponsored phishing attacks to attempts to alter Maps so people can’t find their polling station. We’re also constantly working to get people to authoritative content and improving our systems to combat the effects of disinformation. We’re staffed so we can get ahead of abuse, clamp down on ma...

For many people in cities and towns across America, the public library is the central place to access information, search for a job or even learn about running a small business. And librarians aren’t just checking out books to patrons—they’re providing key digital resources for their communities. At the end of last year we announced our plans to bring Grow with Google to more local communities by teaming up with libraries in all 50 states across the country to help ensure that economic opportunity exists for everyone, everywhere.   We’re kicking that work off today in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania —where Benjamin Franklin established America's first free public library—by hosting in-person workshops for job seekers, small businesses, librarians and nonprofit leaders. Later this week, we'll be continuing the Pennsylvania workshops in York and Erie, then heading to more states like Connecticut and Maryland . We’re looking forward to people across the country joining us at the...

Today’s industrial economy is hugely wasteful. In 2018, the global demand for resources was 1.7 times more than what the Earth can support in one year. As population size and consumption continues to grow, we need to make an unprecedented, economy-wide shift or the effect on the planet will be irreversible. Instead of our current “take-make-waste” economy, we need to shift to a system where waste is dramatically reduced and growth is decoupled from the consumption of finite resources— a circular economy . This is much like what we see in nature: A tree grows from the energy of the sun and the nutrients in the soil, once it dies it turns into soil to fuel the growth of new life. In this model, everything from cars and refrigerators to packaging and clothing would be repurposed and reborn for use again. However, upheaving our industrial economy built over centuries requires new approaches and technological might. According to research we published this week with Ellen MacArthur Foun...

Today we asked the Supreme Court of the United States to review our long-running copyright dispute with Oracle over the use of software interfaces. The outcome will have a far-reaching impact on innovation across the computer industry. Standardized software interfaces have driven innovation in software development. They let computer programs interact with each other and let developers easily build technologies for different platforms. Unless the Supreme Court steps in here, the industry will be hamstrung by court decisions finding that the use of software interfaces in creating new programs is not allowed under copyright law. With smartphone apps now common, we sometimes forget how hard it once was for developers to build apps across a wide range of different platforms. Our 2008 release of the open-source Android platform changed the game. It helped developers overcome the challenges of smaller processors, limited memory, and short battery life, while providing innovative features...

For 18 years, Wikipedia has been the internet’s encyclopedia, contributing to the vast knowledge available on the open web, and the Wikimedia Foundation has long shared in our mission of making information accessible to people around the world. Our organizations have partnered throughout the years on initiatives that further our joint goals around knowledge access, including making information available through Google Search. Many individual Googlers also show their support for Wikimedia, through donations and from active participation in the community. We look forward to continuing our close partnership with new initiatives and commitments to achieving our shared goals. As the next billion people come online, it’s critical that the content on the web reflect the diversity of its users. Currently, the web is lacking content in many local languages and thus restricts the information that people can access. By collaborating on programs to increase the availability of local language...

Iowa may be heaven , but it’s a snowy one. With an average of around 33 inches of snow every year, keeping roads open and safe is an important challenge. Car accidents tend to spike during the winter months each year in Iowa, as do costly delays. And dangerous commutes can mean hazards for people and commerce alike: the state is one of the country’s largest producers of agricultural output, and much of that is moved on roads. To improve road safety and efficiency, the Iowa Department of Transportation has teamed up with researchers at Iowa State University to use machine learning, including our TensorFlow framework , to provide insights into traffic behavior. Iowa State’s technology helps analyze the visual data gathered from stationary cameras and cameras mounted on snow plows. They also capture traffic information using radar detectors. Machine learning transforms that data into conclusions about road conditions, like identifying congestion and getting first responders to the scen...

AI has become part of the fabric of modern life, with applications in sectors ranging from agriculture to retail to health to education. We believe that AI, used appropriately, can deliver great benefit for economies and society, and help people to make decisions that are fairer, safer, and more inclusive and informed. As with other technologies, there are new policy questions that arise with the use of AI, and governments and civil society groups worldwide have a key role to play in the AI governance discussion. In a white paper we’re publishing today, we outline five areas where government can work with civil society and AI practitioners to provide important guidance on responsible AI development and use: explainability standards, fairness appraisal, safety considerations, human-AI collaboration and liability frameworks. There are many trade-offs within each of these areas and the details are paramount for responsible implementation. For example, how should explainability and th...

Starting today, we’re accepting applications for the 2019 North America Google Policy Fellowship. Our fellowship gives undergraduate and graduate students a paid opportunity to spend 10-weeks diving head first into Internet policy at leading nonprofits, think tanks and advocacy groups. In addition to opportunities in Washington, D.C. and California, we’ve expanded our program to include academic institutions and advocacy groups in New York and Utah, where students will have the chance to be at the forefront of debates on internet freedom and economic opportunity. We’re looking for students from all majors and degree programs who are passionate about technology and want to gain hands on experience exploring important intersections of tech policy. The application period opens today for the North America region and all applications must be received by 12:00 p.m. ET/9 a.m. PT, Friday, February, 15th. This year's program will run from early June through early August, with regular pro...

In my twelve years at Google, I've seen that big things happen when you don't shy away from big ideas—especially when you pair those ideas with emerging technology. We're trying to encourage more of that kind of thinking with the Google AI Impact Challenge , a call for organizations to use AI to help address social, humanitarian and environmental problems. Before you read on, remember this: there are only seven days left to apply to the Challenge ! Hundreds of nonprofits and research organizations have already applied, and there’s good reason for all the excitement. Recently, we collaborated with McKinsey on research to identify ways AI can drive social change. The resulting report shows that AI projects have the potential to improve all 17 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals: end poverty and hunger, promote good health and wellbeing for all, and several more . What works? According to the research, AI has the greatest potential for impact in four are...

What was new with Google Cloud in 2018? Well, it depends on what particular cloud technology you’re interested in. There was plenty of news on the AI and machine learning front, along with developments on a variety of enterprise cloud components. The open cloud community continued to be a thriving place to collaborate, and Google Cloud user productivity and efficiency grew, too. These popular stories from last year illustrate some of what you can do with Google Cloud technology. Machine and deep learning made leaps. On the hardware front, special chips designed for high performance, called Cloud TPUs , are now broadly available to speed up machine learning tasks. And we partnered with NASA’s Frontier Development Lab to use ML to build simulations and algorithms to answer one big question: Is there life on other planets ? Organizations are starting to extract more value from their data. Tools like BigQuery and the Ethereum digital currency dataset , which we recently made avail...

Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) providers play a vital role in enabling and managing the business features and services in Android — helping customers deploy devices and applications consistently at scale. Today, we’re launching the Android Enterprise Recommended program for Enterprise Mobility Management  to help customers find the best equipped EMMs to successfully deploy Android. Since we’ve collaborated closely with EMM partners over the years, we understand what it takes to demonstrate excellence in this area. With this program, we’re recognizing partners who provide the most comprehensive technical solutions and have knowledgeable teams focused on modern Android security and management.  We’re pleased to welcome Blackberry, Google Cloud, I3 Systems, IBM, Microsoft, MobileIron, Softbank, SOTI, and VMware to the program. These partners have validated solutions or will be launching their offerings throughout 2019, and we’ll add more approved partners over time. Mor...

Hash Code , Google’s team programming competition, is back...and this time, it’s going global. Think you could optimize video serving on YouTube ? Or how about route Loon balloons to provide Internet coverage ? These are all prompts from past competitions—so if you think you’re up for the challenge, register today and join developers around the world as they tackle a new Google engineering problem. Hash Code 2019 kicks off with the Online Qualification Round on Thursday, February 28th. Top teams from this round will be invited to Google Ireland in April to compete for cash prizes and the title of Hash Code 2019 Champion. Whether you’re new to programming or a coding competition pro, there are plenty of reasons to participate in Hash Code. Here are our top three: Optimization problems for the win. Just like the problems that Google engineers tackle, there’s never one right answer to a Hash Code problem. Instead, each round of the competition is designed as a “battle of heuristics...

The Google for Education Certified Innovator Program supports educators in developing new projects for their classrooms and school districts. Members participate in a year-long mentorship program that begins with workshops called Innovator Academies where teachers, coaches and Google experts learn from each other. Today, applications for the 2019 Innovator Academies are open. We’re sharing a few of the projects that have been started at past Innovator Academies—plus, alumni tips for educators who might want to develop their own. Start in your own backyard Tai Preuninger, Mesquite Independent School District in Texas After discovering that my students had no idea their hometown (Mesquite) was ten miles away from Dallas, I created Hometown 360 , which uses VR to document the history and geography of the city. With sections on local institutions and time-lapse maps tracking changes in the area over time, students can see a panoramic view of their hometown. There’s even a Make It Yo...

The challenges of local newsrooms are well-documented. Newspapers with long histories have had to cut back on staff and reduce coverage and reporters who try to start new digital publications face an interminable struggle with technical and business problems. It just doesn’t make sense, for instance, that every team of local reporters should have to invent the right mix of product features, get world-class tech and user experience talent, and then turn it all into the perfect bespoke publishing system to get their stories to readers. Shouldn't doing great editorial work be enough? We think so, and that's why the Google News Initiative has partnered with Automattic/WordPress  and invested $1.2 million in its effort to create Newspack: a fast, secure, low-cost publishing system tailor-made to the needs of small newsrooms. Other funders include the Lenfest Institute for Journalism, The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and Civil Media collectively contributing another ...

Women Techmakers creates visibility, community and resources for women in technology by hosting events, offering free trainings and piloting new initiatives with different groups and partners around the world. Whether you’re exploring a job in tech or looking to improve the influence of your work, we offer resources for women in all phases of their career. In our latest YouTube series, Women Techmakers in 60 Seconds , we explain advanced technical topics in one minute or less, making them more approachable and accessible. The series gives you access to experts who tackle topics, technologies and skills they’ve spent years honing, stripping that subject of its complexity and distilling the concept in a bite-size way. For example, you might’ve heard the term “virtual machine” or “VM” before and nodded along—but what is it, really? This episode offers a quick tutorial that reveals the mystery behind VMs in just 60 seconds. We also discuss topics like APIs , Web Accessibility and mor...

The past year has seen a range of public debates about the roles and responsibilities of technology companies. As 2019 begins, I’d like to share my thoughts on these important discussions and why Google supports smart regulation and other ways to address emerging issues. We’ve always been and still are fundamentally optimistic about the power of innovative technology. We’re proud that Google’s products and services empower billions of people, drive economic growth and offer important tools for your everyday life. This takes many forms, whether it’s instant access to the world’s information, an infinite gallery of sortable photos, tools that let you share documents and calendars with friends, directions that help you avoid traffic jams, or whatever Google tool you find most helpful. But this optimism doesn’t obscure the challenges we face—including those posed by misuse of new technologies. New tools inevitably affect not just the people and businesses who use them, but also culture...

A new year has arrived, and with it fresh opportunities to transform your business. Android can help power a more productive workforce and enhance customer experiences. As we look ahead to the rest of 2019, here are a few ways Android can help power a connected workforce, capable of meeting the evolving needs of digital enterprise. Raising the bar with Android Enterprise Recommended Last year we launched Android Enterprise Recommended , which makes it simpler for organizations to select, deploy and manage enterprise devices and services. The program establishes best practices and common requirements for devices and services, backed by a thorough testing process conducted by Google. Devices in the program meet an elevated set of specifications for hardware, deployment, security updates, and user experience. In September, we expanded the program to a new category of rugged devices for more demanding environments, which helps organizations in purchasing and deploying trusted Andr...

In 2018, the Google Assistant learned to speak new languages (Nǐ hǎo!), expanded to new regions (like the Netherlands, Indonesia and Turkey), and became smarter with new features that can help you throughout your day. Along the way, more people started using the Assistant to get some help—active users of the Google Assistant grew four times over the past year. By the end of this month, we expect the Google Assistant to be available on one billion devices, up from 500 million last May. Here are some of the ways the Assistant became more helpful in 2018: Google Home for the holidays: It was another record year for our Google Home family of devices, with millions sold this holiday season. Smart displays were particularly popular—one out of every seven Google Home devices activated over the holiday period was a Google Home Hub. With a rich visual display for photos, videos and visual answers, people found new ways to use their Assistant on Google Home Hub—hundreds of millions of phot...

Any teacher will tell you that time is of the essence when it comes to the classroom. We heard from educators that they wanted a quick, easy way to keep up with the latest product updates and resources, so we created EDU in 90 , a video series from Google for Education, to deliver just that. Last season, we explored updates to Classroom and the new Teacher Center Resource Hub . We also uncovered your favorite strategies for creatively leveraging tools—like creating graphic novels with Google Drawings and using Slides to develop class newsletters. Today, we’re kicking off season four of EDU in 90, with updates on Google Classroom, Quizzes in Google Forms and computer science. And based on your feedback, we’ll be focusing future episodes on topics like accessibility features, innovative uses for G Suite for Education tools, and favorite classroom apps from your peers.  Don’t miss an episode—be sure to check out our series playlist and subscribe to the Google for Education Yo...