Inkhabar webdesk

By Foo Yun Chee BRUSSELS (Reuters) -Alphabet's Google has offered to make further changes to its search results in its latest attempt to avoid a European Union antitrust fine, according to a document seen by Reuters. The world's most popular internet search engine modified its July proposal following feedback and criticism from vertical search engines, which are specialised search engines with links to a specific sector such as hotels, airlines, restaurants and transport services. Price comparison sites have also criticised its previous proposals. Google has come under European Commission scrutiny since March for allegedly favouring its own services such as Google Shopping, Google Hotels and Google Flights over competitors. It risks a fine in the coming months, other sources have told Reuters. The EU case is under the landmark Digital Markets Act, which sets out a list of dos and don'ts to limit the power of Big Tech, create room for rivals and increase choice for users. Google said its latest tweaks were in response to calls that search results for third-party VSSs and Google should have the same information, functionality and features. "We will create the opportunity for each VSS to show its own box on Search. A VSS box will be populated with results from that VSS inventory," the company said in its proposal. It added the box would have the same format and information for third-party VSSs as for Google. The winning bid for the box would be based on objective and non-discriminatory criteria and it would not share its rivals' data with others, Google said. Suppliers – in essence hotels, restaurants, airlines and travel services – would be placed in a box either above or below the VSS box depending on the relevance to the user's query. Google said it was keen to find a balanced solution and bring the EU investigation to a close but warned of risks ahead. "We remain concerned that any further changes to Search would prioritise the commercial interests of a small set of intermediaries over European businesses who want to sell directly to their customers," a Google spokesperson said. (Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; editing by Barbara Lewis)

(The article has been published through a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has been published verbatim. Liability lies with original publisher.)

By Max A. Cherney SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) -U.S. Republican Senator Tom Cotton has asked the Commerce Department to investigate Singapore-based Megaspeed for allegedly diverting Nvidia chips used for artificial intelligence, according to a letter seen by Reuters on Monday. The letter cites an October report in The New York Times that detailed the alleged diversion of Nvidia chips by Megaspeed, a cloud computing company. According to the report, Megaspeed funneled Nvidia chips to Malaysia and Indonesia that appeared to serve customers in China remotely. Megaspeed did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Singapore Police Force said on Tuesday that "investigations are ongoing into Megaspeed for suspected breaches of our domestic laws."     A Nvidia spokesperson said it had engaged with the U.S. government regarding Megaspeed, performed its own inquiry, and had not identified any reason to believe products had been diverted.     The U.S. has blocked high-end AI chips from export to China due to national security concerns. In July, Reuters reported that demand for repairs of banned Nvidia products boomed, which was also cited by Cotton in his letter. In 2024, Reuters reported that China had obtained high-end Nvidia AI chips in spite of a ban. "As the Trump administration recently indicated, export controls are an important tool as he navigates America through perilous times against an increasingly aggressive and emboldened adversary," Cotton wrote. "The pervasiveness of chip smuggling undermines the president and allows U.S. adversaries access to advanced technology where the U.S. maintains significant leverage." Cotton said he would continue to work with U.S. President Donald Trump to curb illegal diversions of U.S. chips. His letter was addressed to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. Cotton previously introduced legislation that would require location verification of chips after they are sold. Last week, Trump unveiled levies of 100% on China's U.S.-bound exports and new export controls on "any and all critical software" by November 1. On Sunday, China said the latest tariffs were hypocritical.     (Reporting by Max A. Cherney in San Francisco; Editing by Thomas Derpinghaus and Nia Williams)

(The article has been published through a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has been published verbatim. Liability lies with original publisher.)

By Max A. Cherney (Reuters) -Intel announced on Tuesday a new artificial intelligence chip for the data center that it plans to launch next year, in a renewed push to break into the AI chip market. The new chip (GPU) will be optimized for energy efficiency and support a wide range of uses such as running AI applications, or inference, Intel Chief Technology Officer Sachin Katti said at the Open Compute Summit on Tuesday. "It emphasizes that focus that I talked about earlier, inference, optimized for AI, optimized, optimized for delivering the best token economics out there, the best performance per dollar out there," Katti said. The new chip, called Crescent Island, is the struggling U.S. chipmaker's latest attempt to capitalize on the frenzy in AI spending that has generated billions in revenue for AMD and Nvidia.  The company's plans trail behind competitors and represent the significant challenge Intel's executives and engineers face to capture a meaningful portion of the market for AI chips and systems. Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan has vowed to restart the company's stalled AI efforts after the company effectively mothballed projects such as the Gaudi line of chips and Falcon Shores processor.  Crescent Island will feature 160 gigabytes of a slower form of memory than the high bandwidth memory (HBM) that is found on AMD and Nvidia's data center AI chips. The chip will be based on a design that Intel has used for its consumer GPUs. Intel did not disclose which manufacturing process Crescent Island would use. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment. MIX AND MATCH Since the generative AI boom with the launch of OpenAI's ChatGPT in November 2022, startups and large cloud operators have rushed to grab GPUs that help run AI workloads on data center servers. The demand explosion has led to a supply crunch and sky-high prices for chips designed or suited for AI applications. Katti said at the San Jose trade show that the company would release new data center AI chips every year, which would match the annual cadence set by AMD, Nvidia and several of the cloud computing companies that make their own chips. Nvidia has dominated the market to build large AI models such as the one used for ChatGPT. Tan has said the company plans to focus its design efforts on building chips useful for running those AI models – which work behind the scenes to make AI software operate. "Instead of trying to build for every workload out there, our focus is increasingly going to be on inference," Katti said. Intel has taken an open and modular approach in which customers can mix and match chips from different vendors, Katti said. Nvidia said last month it would invest $5 billion in Intel, taking a roughly 4% stake and becoming one of its largest shareholders as part of a partnership to co-develop future PC and data center chips. The deal is part of Intel's effort to ensure that Intel's central processors (CPUs) are installed in every AI system that gets sold, Katti said.  (Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru and Max Cherney in San Francisco; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar and Stephen Coates)

(The article has been published through a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has been published verbatim. Liability lies with original publisher.)