Big Tech’s stock prices boomed in 2024. Bay Area-headquartered Nvidia, Apple, Google and Meta were already humongous companies at the start of the year — as of Thursday, they had grown in value by 199 percent, 19 percent, 19 percent and 59 percent, respectively.
Secretary of State Shirley N. Weber directed state elections officials to release cast vote records only as PDFs. Alameda County Registrar Tim Dupuis has agreed to release the records in a JSON file, allowing easy analysis.
The grant, from the Department of Justice, will fund the Yuba County Regional Interoperability and Encryption Communications Project to enhance emergency radio communication.
Despite the latest job cuts, the tech industry’s massive Bay Area layoffs are starting to slow noticeably. During the first six months of 2024, tech companies disclosed plans to slash more than 13,000 jobs in the Bay Area, an average of about 500 a week.
Although mobile cameras are only part of a pilot program, Mayor Matt Mahan said the city would consider whether to expand the program as it continues to add more technology solutions to the police department.
During the first six months of 2024, tech companies disclosed plans to slash more than 13,000 jobs in the Bay Area, or an average of about 500 a week. So far, during the final six months of 2024, tech companies have revealed decisions to cut about 3,600 jobs in the region, an average of 210 a week.
In 2022, 2023 and 2024 — covering the period when tech companies began to elevate their job cutting in the Bay Area — the technology industry has slashed well over 47,800 jobs.
Californians have begun to chafe at the industry’s influence. A recent poll by the Bay Area News Group and Joint Venture Silicon Valley revealed that a hefty majority of surveyed voters believe the tech industry is too powerful and has lost its moral compass.
By late 2027 and into 2028, a new communications-based system, which employs Wi-Fi and cell signals to precisely track the locations of trains, will be installed by Hitachi, which will provide support services for 20 years under the agreement.
The majority of the cuts would be made by the end of 2024. The layoffs in Folsom and San Jose will take effect in late November. The company offered voluntary buyouts earlier this year.
The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency said it plans to roll out the cameras in February, more than a year after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation allowing San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose and three other cities to pilot the program for five years.
In addition to creating an IT inventory, the legislation would require an assessment of the city’s AI programs with the goal of determining their potential to displace workers, make biased decisions, create security risks and intrude on privacy.
Law enforcement is assessing the source and scope of the breach, which was discovered Monday afternoon. Officials haven’t identified which documents or software were involved in the breach.
The Mountain View-based company has announced the expansion of its fleet of self-driving taxis. The company plans to incorporate electric vehicles from Hyundai.
A New Jersey-based company that supplies IT workers throughout Silicon Valley and the Bay Area was intentionally discriminating against non-Indian workers and abusing the H-1B visa process, a jury has found.
“Our most consistent work in California is bringing money into agencies through flexible repayment terms,” says Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins, CEO and co-founder of Promise, a fast-growing tech company focused on the efficient distribution of government benefits.
“This new law will equip all California students with the skills and training they need to be safe, ethical and successful users of AI as it becomes more mainstream,” said the bill’s author, Assemblymember Marc Berman.
“After nearly seven years with the city already, I think I’ve got a good sense of where the challenges lie, but also, more importantly, how to get things done,” Michael Makstman said.
The Marin Wildfire Prevention Authority has developed a "dynamic risk scoring" system that uses computer simulations to assess the fire risk associated with each property.
County officials have their eyes set on an ambitious goal — to make the county carbon-neutral by 2030, starting with 25 measures centered on government operations. The effort will cost an estimated $38 million.
Surfnet, a locally owned wireless and fiber Internet provider in Santa Cruz, has secured grant funding to extend broadband access to some of the rural communities in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
Sonoma County has joined a handful of counties — including Santa Cruz, San Benito and San Francisco — that have adopted a guiding blueprint for AI. Other California counties are not far behind in developing AI policies of their own.
“We’ll be able to teach firefighters what dryness does to a fire, or wind, or a change in fuel type, because we have seen so many firefighters die on fires when they don’t anticipate what the fire’s going to do,” said Jason Forthhofer, a research mechanical engineer with the U.S. Forest Service.
“What is happening in the world is this massive swell of AI technologies that are entering the classrooms, whether they like it or not,” said Suzanne DiBianca, the company’s chief impact officer and executive vice president. “We’re really trying to help the districts navigate that.”
Brian Kelly discussed the progress of construction after a slow start to the challenges that lie ahead for the ambitious rail project. Succeeding Kelly will be Ian Choudri, a senior vice president for transportation engineering firm HNTB Corp.
“I have to be honest — this isn’t really me,” said a man who looks like Larkspur-Corte Madera School District Superintendent Brett Geithman in a brief video embedded in a post to parents. “It’s my AI-generated avatar. And I can speak over 20 languages.”
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation had used the Computer Voice Stress Analyzer, or CVSA, for at least two decades despite research indicating the technology was no better at detecting deception than a coin flip.
The codes direct unsuspecting users to fraudulent websites that often attempt to masquerade as sites affiliated with government agencies or banks, according to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.
