Two Google engineers resign over firing of AI ethics researcher

An engineering director and a software developer have quit Alphabet Inc's Google over the dismissal of AI researcher Timnit Gebru, a sign of the ongoing conflicts at the search giant over diversity and ethics.

David Baker, a director focused on user safety, left Google last month after 16 years because Gebru's exit "extinguished my desire to continue as a Googler," he said in a letter seen by Reuters. Baker added, "We cannot say we believe in diversity, and then ignore the conspicuous absence of many voices from within our walls." READ MORE

Tesla's Profits Are Not From Selling Cars

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) is a car company worth over $800 billion that has never turned a profit selling cars. Despite a cult following and intense brand loyalty, Tesla has been unable to wring any profits out of the half a million cars it now sells annually.

To be clear, Tesla did report a profit for 2020, under generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), marking the company's first full year of profitability. But that profit did not come from the core business of manufacturing cars. Tesla booked a whopping $1.58 billion of revenue from selling regulatory credits last year, more than the previous three years combined. Tesla's net income of $721 million in 2020 turns into a substantial loss if those regulatory credit sales are backed out. READ MORE

Who Will Control the Software That Powers the Internet?

AS THE INTERNET has evolved over its 35-year lifespan, control over its most important services has gradually shifted from open source protocols maintained by non-profit communities to proprietary services operated by large tech companies. As a result, billions of people got access to amazing, free technologies. But that shift also created serious problems.

Millions of users have had their private data misused or stolen. Creators and businesses that rely on internet platforms are subject to sudden rule changes that take away their audiences and profits. But there is a growing movement — emerging from the blockchain and cryptocurrency world — to build new internet services that combine the power of modern, centralized services with the community-led ethos of the original internet. We should embrace it. READ MORE

What to Do If Your Team Doesn’t Want to Return to the Office

As the pandemic continues, there are growing tensions at organizations where employees who have been working from home are now expected to come into reopened offices. Many knowledge workers—who have happily shed their commutes, decreased their interaction with difficult colleagues and let go of other frustrations of the office—relish the freedom, flexibility, and the increased productivity of working from home. But some senior leaders, who may not have confidence in their own ability to manage remote workers, aren't necessarily on the same page. READ MORE

Biden’s paid leave plan meets the nation's ‘messy’ policies

The word you often hear associated with the current system of paid leave in the United States is patchwork.

Research from employment law firm Seyfarth tracks the issue and lays out just how true that is. Some states, like Massachusetts and Arizona, have statewide sick and personal leave laws. Others, including Georgia to Iowa, have what’s described as anti-local leave laws to stop their cities from passing leave laws on their own. READ MORE

Elon Musk to offer $100 million prize for 'best' carbon capture tech

Tesla Inc chief and billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk on Thursday took to Twitter to promise a $100 million prize for development of the "best" technology to capture carbon dioxide emissions.

Capturing planet-warming emissions is becoming a critical part of many plans to keep climate change in check, but very little progress has been made on the technology to date, with efforts focused on cutting emissions rather than taking carbon out of the air. READ MORE

Why 2021 Will Be The Year Of Guided Selling

Sales teams have always needed to be agile. The marketplace is constantly changing, with new trends emerging among buyers all of the time. To stay ahead of the curve, sales organizations have to adjust to address buyers’ needs and expectations. Years ago, this meant opening new avenues for sales and experimenting with different kinds of demonstrations. Now, sales organizations are faced with a massive shift to remote selling strategies, digital experiences and virtual onboarding. READ MORE

He may hold the winning ticket in tech and Silicon Valley knows it

Between March and November last year, even as the coronavirus upended lives and devastated economies around the world, India's richest man was handed more than $27 billion to make a bet on the future of the internet.

More than half that eye-popping amount came from Silicon Valley. It started with $5.7 billion from Facebook in March, one of the biggest investments in the American company's history. Silver Lake Partners, the private equity firm based eight miles from Facebook's (FB) Menlo Park headquarters, followed with its own investment just weeks later, as did Palo Alto's General Atlantic and San Francisco-headquartered TPG Capital.

Smaller investments from Qualcomm (QCOM) and Intel (INTC) came next, before Google (GOOGL) swooped in with $4.5 billion to swell the impressive war chest. READ MORE

It's review season: Here's how to talk to your boss

It's that time of year again...review season.

Was that a groan? I get it, performance reviews are tough during normal times. And who really wants to look back at 2020?

While many companies are taking a different approach to evaluations this year, some experts say that having a one-on-one discussion with your boss about last year while also setting goals for the new year will help establish your priorities and continue your career growth. READ MORE