Google turns internet queries into conversations

Google chief executive Sundar Pichai has expressed confidence that weaving Gemini artificial intelligence into search will benefit the tech firm's business
Google has begun letting people turn online searches into conversations, with generative artificial intelligence providing spoken summaries of query results.
With Audio Overviews, Gemini AI models quickly sum up query results in conversational style, according to Google.
"An audio overview can help you get a lay of the land, offering a convenient, hands-free way to absorb information whether you're multitasking or simply prefer an audio experience," Google said in a blog post. "We display helpful web pages right within the audio player on the search results page so you can easily dive in and learn more."
Google is beefing up online search with generative artificial intelligence, embracing AI despite fears for its ad-based business model.
CEO Sundar Pichai recently unveiled a new AI mode in Google search.
The search engine's nascent AI mode goes further than AI Overviews which display answers to queries from the tech giant's generative AI powers above the traditional blue links to websites and ads.
Since Google debuted AI Overviews in search slightly more than a year ago, it has grown to more than 1.5 billion users across several countries, according to Pichai.
Google's push into generative AI comes amid intensifying competition with OpenAI's ChatGPT, which has itself incorporated search engine features into its popular chatbot.
© 2025 AFP

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Yomiuri Shimbun

15 hours ago

• Yomiuri Shimbun

Europeans Seek ‘Digital Sovereignty' as US Tech Firms Embrace Trump

BERLIN, June 21 (Reuters) – At a market stall in Berlin run by charity Topio, volunteers help people who want to purge their phones of the influence of U.S. tech firms. Since Donald Trump's inauguration, the queue for their services has grown. Interest in European-based digital services has jumped in recent months, data from digital market intelligence company Similarweb shows. More people are looking for e-mail, messaging and even search providers outside the United States. The first months of Trump's second presidency have shaken some Europeans' confidence in their long-time ally, after he signaled his country would step back from its role in Europe's security and then launched a trade war. 'It's about the concentration of power in U.S. firms,' said Topio's founder Michael Wirths, as his colleague installed on a customer's phone a version of the Android operating system without hooks into the Google ecosystem. Wirths said the type of people coming to the stall had changed: 'Before, it was people who knew a lot about data privacy. Now it's people who are politically aware and feel exposed.' Tesla TSLA.O chief Elon Musk, who also owns social media company X, was a leading adviser to the U.S. president before the two fell out, while the bosses of Amazon AMZN.O, Meta META.O and Google-owner Alphabet GOOGL.O took prominent spots at Trump's inauguration in January. Days before Trump took office, outgoing president Joe Biden had warned of an oligarchic 'tech industrial complex' threatening democracy. Berlin-based search engine Ecosia says it has benefited from some customers' desire to avoid U.S. counterparts like Microsoft's MSFT.O Bing or Google, which dominates web searches and is also the world's biggest email provider. 'The worse it gets, the better it is for us,' founder Christian Kroll said of Ecosia, whose sales pitch is that it spends its profits on environmental projects. Similarweb data shows the number of queries directed to Ecosia from the European Union has risen 27% year-on-year and the company says it has 1% of the German search engine market. But its 122 million visits from the 27 EU countries in February were dwarfed by 10.3 billion visits to Google, whose parent Alphabet made revenues of about $100 billion from Europe, the Middle East and Africa in 2024 – nearly a third of its $350 billion global turnover. Non-profit Ecosia earned 3.2 million euros ($3.65 million) in April, of which 770,000 euros was spent on planting 1.1 million trees. Google declined to comment for this story. Reuters could not determine whether major U.S. tech companies have lost any market share to local rivals in Europe. DIGITAL SOVEREIGNTY The search for alternative providers accompanies a debate in Europe about 'digital sovereignty' – the idea that reliance on companies from an increasingly isolationist United States is a threat to Europe's economy and security. 'Ordinary people, the kind of people who would never have thought it was important they were using an American service are saying, 'hang on!',' said UK-based internet regulation expert Maria Farrell. 'My hairdresser was asking me what she should switch to.' Use in Europe of Swiss-based ProtonMail rose 11.7% year-on-year to March compared to a year ago, according to Similarweb, while use of Alphabet's Gmail, which has some 70% of the global email market, slipped 1.9%. ProtonMail, which offers both free and paid-for services, said it had seen an increase in users from Europe since Trump's re-election, though it declined to give a number. 'My household is definitely disengaging,' said British software engineer Ken Tindell, citing weak U.S. data privacy protections as one factor. Trump's vice president JD Vance shocked European leaders in February by accusing them – at a conference usually known for displays of transatlantic unity – of censoring free speech and failing to control immigration. In May, Secretary of State Marco Rubio threatened visa bans for people who 'censor' speech by Americans, including on social media, and suggested the policy could target foreign officials regulating U.S. tech companies. U.S. social media companies like Facebook and Instagram parent Meta have said the European Union's Digital Services Act amounts to censorship of their platforms. EU officials say the Act will make the online environment safer by compelling tech giants to tackle illegal content, including hate speech and child sexual abuse material. Greg Nojeim, director of the Security and Surveillance Project at the Center for Democracy & Technology, said Europeans' concerns about the U.S. government accessing their data, whether stored on devices or in the cloud, were justified. Not only does U.S. law permit the government to search devices of anyone entering the country, it can compel disclosure of data that Europeans outside the U.S. store or transmit through U.S. communications service providers, Nojeim said. MISSION IMPOSSIBLE? Germany's new government is itself making efforts to reduce exposure to U.S. tech, committing in its coalition agreement to make more use of open-source data formats and locally-based cloud infrastructure. Regional governments have gone further – in conservative-run Schleswig-Holstein, on the Danish border, all IT used by the public administration must run on open-source software. Berlin has also paid for Ukraine to access a satellite-internet network operated by France's instead of Musk's Starlink. But with modern life driven by technology, 'completely divorcing U.S. tech in a very fundamental way is, I would say, possibly not possible,' said Bill Budington of U.S. digital rights nonprofit the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Everything from push notifications to the content delivery networks powering many websites and how internet traffic is routed relies largely on U.S. companies and infrastructure, Budington noted. Both Ecosia and French-based search engine Qwant depend in part on search results provided by Google and Microsoft's Bing, while Ecosia runs on cloud platforms, some hosted by the very same tech giants it promises an escape from. Nevertheless, a group on messaging board Reddit called BuyFromEU has 211,000 members. 'Just canceled my Dropbox and will switch to Proton Drive,' read one post. Mastodon, a decentralized social media service developed by German programmer Eugen Rochko, enjoyed a rush of new users two years ago when Musk bought Twitter, later renamed X. But it remains a niche service. Signal, a messaging app run by a U.S. nonprofit foundation, has also seen a surge in installations from Europe. Similarweb's data showed a 7% month-on-month increase in Signal usage in March, while use of Meta's WhatsApp was static. Meta declined to comment for this story. Signal did not respond to an e-mailed request for comment. But this kind of conscious self-organizing is unlikely on its own to make a dent in Silicon Valley's European dominance, digital rights activist Robin Berjon told Reuters. 'The market is too captured,' he said. 'Regulation is needed as well.'

Japan Today

2 days ago

• Japan Today

Europe's lithium quest hampered by China and lack of cash

The 'lithium triangle' formed by Chile, Argentina and Bolivia accounts for nearly half of the world's lithium reserves By Alvaro VILLALOBOS Europe's ambition to be a world player in decarbonized transportation arguably depends on sourcing lithium abroad, especially in South America. Even the bloc's broader energy security and climate goals could depend on securing a steady supply of the key mineral, used in batteries and other clean energy supply chains. But Europe has run into a trio of obstacles: lack of money, double-edged regulations and competition from China, analysts told AFP. China has a major head start. It currently produces more than three-quarters of batteries sold worldwide, refines 70 percent of raw lithium and is the world's third-largest extractor behind Australia and Chile, according to 2024 data from the United States Geological Survey. To gain a foothold, Europe has developed a regulatory framework that emphasizes environmental preservation, quality job creation and cooperation with local communities. It has also signed bilateral agreements with about 15 countries, including Chile and Argentina, the world's fifth-largest lithium producer. But too often it fails to deliver when it comes to investment, say experts. "I see a lot of memoranda of understanding, but there is a lack of action," Julia Poliscanova, director of electric vehicles at the Transport and Environment (T&E) think tank, told AFP. "More than once, on the day that we signed another MoU, the Chinese were buying an entire mine in the same country." The investment gap is huge: China spent $6 billion on lithium projects abroad from 2020 to 2023, while Europe barely coughed up a billion dollars over the same period, according to data compiled by T&E. Lagging investment At the same time, the bottleneck in supply has tightened: last year saw a 30 percent increase in global demand for lithium, according to a recent report from the International Energy Agency (IEA). "To secure the supply of raw materials, China is actively investing in mines abroad through state-owned companies with political support from the government," the IEA noted. China's Belt and Road Initiative funneled $21.4 billion into mining beyond its shores in 2024, according to the report. Europe, meanwhile, is "lagging behind in investment levels in these areas", said Sebastian Galarza, founder of the Center for Sustainable Mobility in Santiago, Chile. "The lack of a clear path for developing Europe's battery and mining industries means that gap will be filled by other actors." In Africa, for example, Chinese demand has propelled Zimbabwe to become the fourth-largest lithium producer in the world. "The Chinese let their money do the talking," said Theo Acheampong, an analyst at the European Council on Foreign Relations. By 2035, all new cars and vans sold in the European Union must produce zero carbon emissions, and EU leaders and industry would like as much as possible of that market share to be sourced locally. Last year, just over 20 percent of new vehicles sold in the bloc were electric. "Currently, only four percent of Chile's lithium goes to Europe," noted Stefan Debruyne, director of external affairs at Chilean private mining company SQM. "The EU has every opportunity to increase its share of the battery industry." Shifting supply chains But Europe's plans to build dozens of battery factories have been hampered by fluctuating consumer demand and competition from Japan (Panasonic), South Korea (LG Energy Solution, Samsung) and, above all, China (CATL, BYD). The key to locking down long-term lithium supply is closer ties in the so-called "lithium triangle" formed by Chile, Argentina and Bolivia, which account for nearly half of the world's reserves, analysts say. To encourage cooperation with these countries, European actors have proposed development pathways that would help establish electric battery production in Latin America. Draft EU regulations would allow Latin America to "reconcile local development with the export of these raw materials, and not fall into a purely extractive cycle", said Juan Vazquez, deputy head for Latin America and the Caribbean at the OECD Development Centre. But it is still unclear whether helping exporting countries develop complete supply chains makes economic sense, or will ultimately tilt in Europe's favor. "What interest do you have as a company in setting up in Chile to produce cathodes, batteries or more sophisticated materials if you don't have a local or regional market to supply?" said Galarza. "Why not just take the lithium, refine it and do everything in China and send the battery back to us?" Pointing to the automotive tradition in Mexico, Brazil and Argentina, Galarza suggested an answer. "We must push quickly towards the electrification of transport in the region so we can share in the benefits of the energy transition," he argued. But the road ahead looks long. Electric vehicles were only two percent of new car sales in Mexico and Chile last year, six percent in Brazil and seven percent in Colombia, according to the IEA. The small nation of Costa Rica stood out as the only nation in the region where EVs hit double digits, at 15 percent of new car sales. © 2025 AFP

Nikkei Asia

3 days ago

• Nikkei Asia

Tesla chases robotaxi rivals and China goes local for auto chips

Hello from Yifan in California, your #techasia host this week. I've been thinking a lot about the future of my job ever since Google's I/O event in May, where the U.S. tech giant laid out an ambitious plan to define what search will look like in the future. Some users in the U.S. may have already seen the roll-out of AI mode, a new segment on the search page that directs them to a ChatGPT-like interface where an AI assistant provides the answers they were looking for. Google is actively nudging users to try out this new mode of search, and it's not hard to imagine that it will eventually replace the current Google search box altogether. While Google and other AI companies often reference the original sources of information in AI-generated answers as footnotes with a link, I doubt many users click on them. The reporting I and my fellow journalists do everyday is used and will continue to be used in AI search results, but with fewer and fewer readers reading the original article. Newsrooms will suffer greatly -- if not completely disappear -- due to this new age of search. But it's not only a problem for newsrooms. How, for example, can we make sure that AI-generated answers are not misinterpreting the results of nuanced, carefully thought-out investigative reporting? Will misinformation and bias become even more prevalent? Some might say this way of thinking is too alarmist, and the future of AI dictating what information we get is still far away from us today. Well, it's not. AI, in many ways, will be a story similar to robotaxis. There were highs and there were lows for the self-driving industry, when over-optimistic projections led to utter disappointment. But now, robotaxis are becoming a reality, with Waymo, and many Chinese companies already rolling out fare-charging driverless taxi services in some of the biggest cities in the world. In fact, I am writing this newsletter from the backseat of a Waymo car in San Francisco, where I'll be meeting a robotics startup founder who believes robotaxis are only the start of the "physical AI" revolution that will eventually replace most human workers. I took my first robotaxi test-ride seven years ago and since then have witnessed how the industry improved itself, one small step at a time, to the point that a futuristic fantasy is now on the cusp of becoming a new reality for transportation. The incremental changes that AI brings to society will eventually accumulate in a similar way, culminating in a fundamental transformation. Your move, Tesla As Tesla prepares for its long-awaited robotaxi debut in Austin,Texas, this week, all eyes are on the U.S. EV giant to see if Elon Musk can deliver on the vision he promised last year. But the U.S. EV giant might already be falling behind its U.S. and Chinese peers in the driverless taxi race. Waymo's rollout in San Francisco has been so successful that its orders have surpassed Lyft as the second-most popular ride-hailing service in the city. In China, meanwhile, several companies already have cars on the road. Baidu operates a fleet of around 1,000 Apollo Go robotaxis, which provided more than 1.4 million rides in the first quarter. has a fleet of over 300 robotaxis and aims to expand it to 1,000 vehicles by the end of this year and 2,000-3,000 by the end of 2026. WeRide's fleet numbers around 400, Nikkei Asia's Cissy Zhou and Yifan Yu report. While the focus now for both the U.S. and Chinese players is to ramp up their service in their home markets, they will soon go head-to-head in overseas markets like Europe and the Middle East, as many have already started laying out the groundwork for expansion through local partnerships. Not so fast A $35 billion merger between U.S. semiconductor giants Synopsys and Ansys is facing delays from China's antitrust regulator, write the Financial Times' Zijing Wu and Cheng Leng. The deal, already approved in the U.S. and Europe, was expected to close this month. but Beijing's State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) has postponed its decision. This hold-up comes as U.S.-China trade tensions escalate, with recent U.S. restrictions on chip design software sales to China. While some sources link the delay to these geopolitical factors, others suggest the deal's complexity is the primary cause. An approval could still come through if Synopsys addresses SAMR's concerns. The merger has a "drop dead clause" that specifies the deal must be completed by Jan. 15, 2026. Homegrown hardware Chinese automakers including SAIC Motor, Changan, Great Wall Motor, BYD, Li Auto and Geely, are preparing to launch models equipped with 100% homemade chips, with at least two brands aiming to start mass production as early as 2026, Nikkei Asia's Cissy Zhou, Cheng Ting-Fang and Lauly Li report. These efforts are part of Beijing's ambitious vision for increasing the country's self-reliance in chips amid intensifying tensions with the U.S. The project to transition to 100% Chinese auto chips is shepherded by China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), which regularly calls on automakers, particularly the state-owned ones, to conduct self-assessments of their domestic chip adoption rates. The latest policy target is to use 100% self-developed and made automotive chips by 2027, which is a significant acceleration of the government's previous target of having domestic automakers using 25% homemade chips this year. Nuclear heats up With the rising energy demand driven by AI and data centers, nuclear energy is increasingly becoming a topic of interest for both the public and private sector. Nikkei's Tomohiro Ebuchi, Ryuto Imao and Seishi Minowa report that Japan and the U.K. will collaborate on nuclear fusion, a technology that promises to be safer and release more energy than the current technology used in nuclear reactors. Hiroshi Masuko, a senior official in Japan's science ministry, and Kerry McCarthy, parliamentary undersecretary of state at the U.K.'s Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, are set to sign a memorandum of cooperation in London on Thursday. The partnership will combine the U.K.'s remote-controlled robot technology and Japan's manufacturing capabilities in a bid to achieve a viable demonstration by the 2030s. The two countries will collaborate on research and development, shared use of facilities, human resource development, and establishment of safety regulations. Industry groups from both countries are also hammering out a memorandum on cooperation. Welcome to the Tech Latest podcast. Hosted by our tech coverage veterans, Katey Creel and Akito Tanaka, every Tuesday we deliver the hottest trends and news from the sector. In this episode, Katey speaks with Mai Nguyen in Hanoi about the latest developments in Vietnam's AI ambitions and how it plans to leverage its status as an emerging tech hub to move up global economic rankings in the coming years. Suggested reads 1. (Nikkei Asia) 2. Nintendo switches up the rules of console gaming (FT) 3. Tourist-crowded Japan turns to apps to combat guide shortages (Nikkei Asia) 4. Donald Trump plans to delay TikTok ban for a third time (FT) 5. 'Asian minds' should seek coexistence with superhuman AI: scholar (Nikkei Asia) 6. Chinese brands extend global reach (FT) 7. TikTok to launch shopping feature in Japan, taking on Amazon, Rakuten (Nikkei Asia) 8. Chinese carmaker Xpeng develops advanced chips for VW cars (FT) 9. (Nikkei Asia) 10. Olympic product placement: 'I can't just give out 17,000 phones. It needs to return value' (FT)