The tech giant said in an email to staff on Wednesday that it will no longer set hiring goals to improve workplace diversity, the Wall Street Journal (NWS+0.56% ) reported. The company also reportedly told staff it is reviewing some of its diversity, equity, and inclusion programs after recent court decisions and President Donald Trump’s executive order to end DEI programs in the federal government. Google told staff it is “evaluating changes to our programs required to comply,” according to the Wall Street Journal. In the wake of George Floyd’s...

Google on Tuesday updated its ethical guidelines around artificial intelligence, removing commitments not to apply the technology to weapons or surveillance.

The company’s AI principles previously included a section listing four “Applications we will not pursue.” As recently as Thursday, that included weapons, surveillance, technologies that “cause or are likely to cause overall harm,” and use cases contravening principles of international law and human rights, according to a copy hosted by the Internet Archive.

Google said Monday it will change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to “Gulf of America” in Google Maps after the Trump administration updates its “official government sources.”

The company also said it will start using the name “Mount McKinley” for the mountain in Alaska currently called Denali.

Last week, President Donald Trump signed executive actions that included an order to make the name changes on official maps and federal communications.

Google has notified the European Union that it won’t integrate work from fact-checking organizations into Search or YouTube, ahead of the bloc’s plans to expand disinformation laws. Google had previously signed a set of voluntary commitments that the EU introduced in 2022 to reduce the impact of online disinformation, which are in the process of being formalized into law under the Digital Services Act (DSA).

Update, Jan. 8, 2025: This story, originally published Jan. 6, now includes details of other VPN-related vulnerabilities and further information regarding the threat searching for VPN apps on Google now brings to users.

New York Attorney General Letitia James has celebrated a "major victory" against Google after a court found that it maintained an illegal monopoly of online search engines.

"This decision is a major victory in our efforts to ensure all companies, no matter how powerful or influential, are held accountable when they harm others," James said in a statement.

Google has violated US antitrust law with its search business, a federal judge ruled Monday, handing the tech giant a staggering court defeat with the potential to reshape how millions of Americans get information online and to upend decades of dominance.

“After having carefully considered and weighed the witness testimony and evidence, the court reaches the following conclusion: Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly,” US District Judge Amit Mehta wrote in Monday’s opinion. “It has violated Section 2 of the Sherman Act.”