Google fined for refusing to store user data inside Russia | US to free up more wireless spectrum

Google fined for refusing to store user data inside Russia

The tech giant was fined $164,000 after continually refusing to store Russian user’s data on servers inside Russia, a Moscow court said.

The country has a history of clashing with foreign tech companies which has intensified since the war in Ukraine. However, while the Kremlin has banned platforms including Twitter (now X) and Facebook, it has not yet blocked access to Google’s services.

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Biden National Strategy to free up more wireless spectrum

The White House announced it was releasing a National Spectrum Strategy and a presidential memorandum to free up additional wireless spectrum for advanced tech needs.

The strategy is dedicated to modernising US spectrum policy that “includes new actions to improve spectrum management and spectrum access — including a study of more than 2,700 megahertz of spectrum for potential repurposing.”

The White House says additional spectrum is key to next-generation wireless services and a variety of advanced technology, infrastructure and government needs.

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BMW expands EV charging service across the US

BMW North America is growing its electric vehicle (EV) charging service, ChargeForward, to 48 states in America, increasing its footprint in the electric mobility sector.

The service allows drivers to earn incentives when they let ChargeForward manage the vehicle through its telematics system to charge at a time when there is less strain on the grid.

It is partnered with utilities PG&E in California and Duke Energy in North Carolina, among others, for the service. All BMW EVs and plug-in hybrid models made after 2018 will be able to enrol.

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AI ‘outperforms traditional weather forecasters’

Google DeepMind was able to predict Hurricane Lee’s path back in September three days ahead of the traditional methods.

Developers have said that the meteorological breakthrough from the AI tool could save lives by predicting weather incidents like hurricanes and floods sooner than traditional forecasting systems can — by up to 10 days in advance.

DeepMind said that AI should be used in conjunction with supercomputers to complement the older systems. AI models are trained from data and that data is generated by traditional approaches; it needs the traditional approach to gather data to train the model.

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