Plus: Uber issues weak guidance amid robotaxi investments. And Shopify says AI-search is fueling e-commerce growth. Imani Moise hosts.
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[00:00:01] Here's your afternoon TNB Tech Minute for Wednesday, August 5th. I'm Imani Moise for The Wall Street Journal. Google announced new leadership of its AI operations today in a shakeup following a wave of high-profile departures and delays in releasing a model on par with top offerings from Anthropic and OpenAI. Demis Hassabis is stepping down as chief executive of Google DeepMind to become chairman and chief scientist,
[00:00:26] while Jeff Dean, Google's current chief scientist, is leaving to co-found a new AI startup with three other company veterans. Google's early investments in AI research and infrastructure and its massive base of consumer and enterprise users haven't translated into a consistently dominant position in the AI boom. The company vaulted ahead in the race to develop powerful frontier models with an updated version of Gemini last fall.
[00:00:50] Since then, it has struggled to keep pace with competitors' capability advances as measured by widely used benchmark tests. News Corp, owner of The Wall Street Journal, has a commercial agreement to supply content on Google platforms. Uber Technologies has reported an increase in rides and deliveries this quarter as its customer base expanded, but the ride-hailing company issued a soft outlook as it continues to invest heavily in autonomous vehicles.
[00:01:16] Uber reported revenue of $14.2 billion for the second quarter, up 12% from a year ago, but below analyst estimates. Uber's CEO said the company will continue to invest in its cross-platform strategy, planning to invest $10 billion over the coming years to build out the world's largest platform for AVs at a global scale. And... Shopify is forecasting accelerated sales growth for the third quarter, as AI-driven search and broad merchant expansion fuel market share gains.
[00:01:46] The optimistic outlook puts to rest investor anxieties that have weighed on the company since its first quarter report, when management signaled a potential sales slowdown. Instead, the e-commerce platform is guiding for revenue to grow at a low 30s percentage rate in the current quarter, topping the Wall Street consensus of about 27%. The company said AI-driven traffic and order volumes have tripled year over year. And that's it for your TNB Tech Minutes. We'll have another quick tech update in the morning. The first one is a TNB Tech Minutes. The first one is a TNB Tech Minutes.