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Because of that, shortcuts get made.’[/pullquote]“A slip-up, a misconfiguration when creating their website and everything that goes with it,” said 19-year-old Paul, who asked that we not use his full name.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He’s a New Zealand university student and sort of a hacker hobbyist. He writes a cybersecurity blog using the pen name “MrBruh,” and his \u003ca href=\"https://mrbruh.com/chattr/\">post\u003c/a> about Chattr is titled, “How I pwned half of America’s fast food chains, simultaneously.” The term “pwned,” by the way, means compromised.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a very competitive market, so people have to get their products up and going before anyone else can. Because of that, shortcuts get made,” Paul said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Paul and a couple of \u003ca href=\"https://kibty.town/blog/chattr\">friends\u003c/a> who conducted the hack with him said they contacted Chattr. \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The company didn’t respond to them personally, but in a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7151289760647467008/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">LinkedIn post\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, wrote,\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> “Our engineering team acted swiftly, initiating a comprehensive investigation to determine the extent of the breach. We are pleased to report that the vulnerability has been fixed.”\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Paul confirmed Chattr fixed the problem within a day of being alerted. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But there are plenty of other chatbot vulnerabilities yet to be discovered, and not always by \u003cem>white\u003c/em> hat hackers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We already live in an era of proliferating ransomware and malware. And we’re adding a new layer of vulnerabilities,” said Irina Raicu, who directs the Internet Ethics Program at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Raicu noted that, in the age of the internet, most companies have systems in place to protect against malicious hackers, but they’re widely understood to be inadequate.[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Irina Raicu, director of internet ethics, Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University\"]‘It’s also a huge problem for the government, for national security, for education, for the entire healthcare system.’[/pullquote]“Yes, and not just companies. It’s also a huge problem for the government, for national security, for education, for the entire healthcare system,” Raicu said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Artificial intelligence can be helpful for those tasked with protecting software systems. But the same technology serves the other side of the conflict.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“All types of cyber threat actors — state and non-state, skilled and less-skilled — are already using AI, to varying degrees,” as one \u003ca href=\"https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/report/impact-of-ai-on-cyber-threat\">recent report\u003c/a> from the U.K.’s National Security Cyber Centre put it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The same report goes on to warn the growing sophistication of AI “lowers the barrier” for amateur cybercriminals and hackers to access systems and gather information, extract sensitive data, paralyze computer systems, and demand ransoms.[aside postID=news_11966824 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/11/DeepFakeVid-1020x676.jpg']In a \u003ca href=\"https://www.idtheftcenter.org/post/2023-annual-data-breach-report-reveals-record-number-of-compromises-72-percent-increase-over-previous-high/\">report released \u003c/a>on Jan. 25, the Identity Theft Resource Center, which tracks publicly available information about data breaches, noted: “The availability of compromised consumer data and the use of large language models [LLMs] is already resulting in vastly improved phishing lures and highly effective social engineering attacks that are driving financial losses for businesses and individuals.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.nist.gov/news-events/news/2024/01/nist-identifies-types-cyberattacks-manipulate-behavior-ai-systems\">unsolved cybersecurity issues\u003c/a> with AI chatbots, Raicu said, are likely to make us all much more vulnerable on multiple fronts. 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"content": "\u003cp class=\"p1\">\u003ca href=\"#episode-transcript\">\u003ci>View the full episode transcript.\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Robotaxis had their Icarus moment in 2023, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://sfstandard.com/2023/12/29/cruise-waymo-robotaxis-2024-predictions/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">writes Joshua Bote\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, tech reporter for The San Francisco Standard. After Cruise’s rise and fall in San Francisco, what’s ahead for the robotaxi industry?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm/?e=KQINC3221209728\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 id=\"episode-transcript\">Episode Transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">\u003ci>This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>I’m Ericka Cruz Guevarra, and welcome to the Bay. Local news to keep you rooted. There was a moment last year where it seemed like the rise of robo taxis or driverless vehicles in San Francisco was just inevitable. There was fascination, but also skepticism, and yet they just kept coming until, of course, the carpet got pulled out from under one of the biggest names in the industry; Cruise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>[news clip]\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>After a series of viral mishaps, bad PR and a cruise vehicle hitting and dragging a woman. Cruise is now off the streets. So does that mean robo taxis are done for?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joshua Bote: \u003c/strong>That really is like, felt like such a severe turning point for how regulators and the general public and even the tech press saw cruise, right?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Today, the future of robo taxis in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joshua Bote: \u003c/strong>Cruise was sort of this company that felt like you saw them everywhere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Joshua Bote is a tech reporter for the San Francisco Standard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joshua Bote: \u003c/strong>You saw them in the sunset. You saw them in the Richmond, and eventually you started seeing them all over the city. I think that it was widely understood that cruise was the company that was expanding, and Waymo was sort of trying to be slower and be a little bit less aggressive with their expansion in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>I mean, back in August, Cruise and Waymo got the okay to charge fares, and it really just felt like, okay, these things are just going to be around like they’re going to be part of life here in San Francisco. Is that how it felt to you?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joshua Bote: \u003c/strong>Yeah. You know, there’s definitely was this idea that they were sort of inevitable, right? That once they got sort of introduced into the cities, that they would just keep on coming and keep on expanding and, you know, you’d see less and less drivers operating these things in these robo taxis would operate on their own around the packed streets of downtown and Union Square, and you’d see them everywhere. There were a lot of big numbers that were being touted around, not just by analysts, but by the companies themselves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joshua Bote: \u003c/strong>GM executives and cruise executives were like, by 2025, cruise would be on track to make $1 billion. By 2030, cruise would make $50 billion like the sky was the limit. I think people took them at their word that this technology was working, and that it would prove to be the future of trading in San Francisco, not just, you know, in cars. But I think that, like people believed that it would upend public transit systems and change the way that people get around the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Right. So the messaging at the time was, this is the future. Humans are terrible drivers. Leave it up to the robotaxis. But then this feeling that Waymo and Cruise especially were flying high, seemed to really take a pretty quick turn when these high profile incidents and videos came out. Can you remind us of some of the biggest ones?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joshua Bote: \u003c/strong>Almost immediately after Cruise and Waymo were approved to expand their services and operations in San Francisco? That was August 10th. A day later, I was covering outside lands, and I remember leaving Golden Gate Park and immediately seeing just a cruise stuck at the intersection for like a solid half hour, just causing traffic jams. It was such a jarring thing to see that this technology had immediately faltered.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joshua Bote: \u003c/strong>Around that time, too. There was an incident in North Beach where there were like 5 or 6 cruisers that, like, couldn’t move. And that was just this one two punch of what is actually going to happen when if there’s a Warriors game or if there’s like a big giant scam, like what will happen? And how can crews specifically adapt to big events like this?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>And, and I mean, those stolen cars were one thing, but then people actually were hurt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joshua Bote: \u003c/strong>Yeah, there were other incidents, right? Like there were cruisers that were stuck in wet concrete. There were cruisers that like, got tangled up in electrical wiring during a storm. A lot of emergency vehicles and first responders and, you know, police and fire unions complained about crews and Waymo cars impeding their access to emergency scenes. But the big, big incident that I think sort of proved to be the turning point for how we saw crews in Waymo was, on October 2nd.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>[news clip]\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joshua Bote: \u003c/strong>A hit and run. Driver struck a woman. The driver fled the scene, but then a cruise immediately after ran her over.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>[news clip]\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joshua Bote: \u003c/strong>It was a horrible, horrible thing to see. I think that people were really disturbed and shaken up by it. I think the immediate response by crews also proved to be a little bit concerning. They really tried to frame it in a different light in a way that as time would go on and more information came out about it, that it felt like Cruz was sort of deceiving the public and officials about how they handled the situation. Before the end of the month. Cruz had fully had its license to operate suspended by the DMV because of specifically this incident, and Cruz itself voluntarily pulled out all of its fleet across the nation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Can we expect them to be back on the road anytime soon?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joshua Bote: \u003c/strong>They said when they pulled out the fleet that they would come back in a smaller city and on a slower scale. They haven’t identified the city yet. That’s something that I’ve tried asking them about. It seems like they’re going to try and do a much slower expansion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joshua Bote: \u003c/strong>And it’s interesting to see, because before all of this happened, they were really adamant about grocery, really adamant about expanding their services. And this just feels like a far cry from it. Right? Just one city a lot more slowly and just trying to emphasize safety and emphasize building trust with the public again. And I think that that’s something that we’re going to see a lot more of in 2024.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Coming up. What Cruse’s downfall means for the rest of the robotaxi industry. Stay with us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Well, Joshua, we’ve been talking a lot about crews, but they’re not the only robo taxi company. Right? So I’m wondering where what’s happened to crews, and it’s sort of fall from grace. Where has that left other companies?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joshua Bote: \u003c/strong>I think from the analyst and expert point of view, Waymo is now the top dog. For so long, we sort of understood Cruise and Waymo to be sort of like a rabbit and the tortoise type story, where cruise was moving really fast and accelerating at this level, that felt untenable. And it ultimately was. And Waymo was understood to be this sort of slower, more safety oriented company. And as a result of that, Waymo does have this perception.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joshua Bote: \u003c/strong>But ultimately, Cruise’s mishaps hurt the driverless car market at large. Even Waymo sort of has to continue doubling down on these safety emphasis and doubling down and just making sure that they are gaining this trust. And as for Zoox, which is Amazon owned, even, they’re still trying to ramp up in a way that can sort of build trust and build better relationships with the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joshua Bote: \u003c/strong>There are other, you know, robo trucks and sort of these vehicles that are delivering things that are being introduced, highway robo trucks and other things like that. But I think for our intents and purposes, I think Waymo and to a lesser extent, Zoox are going to be the companies to keep an eye out on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Do you think that public officials are still friendly to robo taxis, even after everything that happened with cruiser? Do you think that something fundamental has shifted?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joshua Bote: \u003c/strong>I always think that it varies on sort of the state versus local level because, you know, the Board of Supervisors, even before Cruise and Waymo were going to expand on this bigger level. There was a lot of skepticism from the board across all sides. On a state level, there is a little bit more attention being drawn to it. There’s a lot more skepticism from their end, which is why you’re seeing a lot of legislators introduce bills to try and get some more regulation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joshua Bote: \u003c/strong>As for Gavin Newsom, he vetoed a bill that would have had more regulations on robo trucks. What he said when he vetoed that robo truck regulation bill, was there enough things already in place to regulate robo taxis? And I don’t know that activists and other people fully agree with that, but that was the logic that he provided.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>What is your sense, then, right now, of how the public in San Francisco in particular, is feeling about these robo taxis and, and these companies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joshua Bote: \u003c/strong>You know, I was in the wharf recently and I was waiting for the streetcar to come pick me up. And I was sitting next to a tourist family. And the tourist family, like, saw Waymo driving by. And they were like amazed by it. They’re like, oh my God, it’s a driverless car. That’s so wild.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joshua Bote: \u003c/strong>San Francisco is such a crazy place and people think it’s cool or people think it’s stranger otters unnerving or it runs the gamut emotionally. But beyond this idea that that’s a cool thing, I don’t know that people are sort of using it in their day to day lives. People at the end of the day are still calling up Uber and Lyft.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Well, what lessons are you taking away from the story of Cruise’s rise and fall?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joshua Bote: \u003c/strong>I think sort of evergreen one is to always be skeptical of companies, especially tech companies, when they make claims that are too good to be true. Like, cruise took out the ad that was like, we are safer than human drivers. Human drivers are terrible. And they took that out in the Chronicle, in the New York Times. It was everywhere. And even then I felt a little bit of skepticism.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joshua Bote: \u003c/strong>But with all the details that kept coming out about how cruise wanted hyperspeed growth and how cruise sought to expand almost at the expense of their safety and regulation goals. When technology collides with the real world and and it’s no longer in beta testing and you sort of have to live with it, there are so many unforeseen consequences. And I think that that’s the thing that we have to pay attention to.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Joshua, thank you so much for joining us on the show and for talking about this with me. I really appreciate it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joshua Bote: \u003c/strong>Thank you for having me. It’s a pleasure to be on the show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>That was Joshua Bote, a tech reporter for the San Francisco Standard. This 30 minute conversation with Joshua was cut down and edited by senior editor Alan Montecillo. Maria Esquinca is our producer. She scored this episode. Music courtesy of Audio Network. The Bay is a production of KQED Public Media in San Francisco. I’m Ericka Cruz Guevarra. Thanks for listening. Peace.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-content post-body\">\u003ch2 id=\"episode-transcript\">Episode Transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">\u003ci>This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>I’m Ericka Cruz Guevarra, and welcome to the Bay. Local news to keep you rooted. There was a moment last year where it seemed like the rise of robo taxis or driverless vehicles in San Francisco was just inevitable. There was fascination, but also skepticism, and yet they just kept coming until, of course, the carpet got pulled out from under one of the biggest names in the industry; Cruise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>[news clip]\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>After a series of viral mishaps, bad PR and a cruise vehicle hitting and dragging a woman. Cruise is now off the streets. So does that mean robo taxis are done for?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joshua Bote: \u003c/strong>That really is like, felt like such a severe turning point for how regulators and the general public and even the tech press saw cruise, right?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Today, the future of robo taxis in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joshua Bote: \u003c/strong>Cruise was sort of this company that felt like you saw them everywhere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Joshua Bote is a tech reporter for the San Francisco Standard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joshua Bote: \u003c/strong>You saw them in the sunset. You saw them in the Richmond, and eventually you started seeing them all over the city. I think that it was widely understood that cruise was the company that was expanding, and Waymo was sort of trying to be slower and be a little bit less aggressive with their expansion in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>I mean, back in August, Cruise and Waymo got the okay to charge fares, and it really just felt like, okay, these things are just going to be around like they’re going to be part of life here in San Francisco. Is that how it felt to you?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joshua Bote: \u003c/strong>Yeah. You know, there’s definitely was this idea that they were sort of inevitable, right? That once they got sort of introduced into the cities, that they would just keep on coming and keep on expanding and, you know, you’d see less and less drivers operating these things in these robo taxis would operate on their own around the packed streets of downtown and Union Square, and you’d see them everywhere. There were a lot of big numbers that were being touted around, not just by analysts, but by the companies themselves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joshua Bote: \u003c/strong>GM executives and cruise executives were like, by 2025, cruise would be on track to make $1 billion. By 2030, cruise would make $50 billion like the sky was the limit. I think people took them at their word that this technology was working, and that it would prove to be the future of trading in San Francisco, not just, you know, in cars. But I think that, like people believed that it would upend public transit systems and change the way that people get around the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Right. So the messaging at the time was, this is the future. Humans are terrible drivers. Leave it up to the robotaxis. But then this feeling that Waymo and Cruise especially were flying high, seemed to really take a pretty quick turn when these high profile incidents and videos came out. Can you remind us of some of the biggest ones?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joshua Bote: \u003c/strong>Almost immediately after Cruise and Waymo were approved to expand their services and operations in San Francisco? That was August 10th. A day later, I was covering outside lands, and I remember leaving Golden Gate Park and immediately seeing just a cruise stuck at the intersection for like a solid half hour, just causing traffic jams. It was such a jarring thing to see that this technology had immediately faltered.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joshua Bote: \u003c/strong>Around that time, too. There was an incident in North Beach where there were like 5 or 6 cruisers that, like, couldn’t move. And that was just this one two punch of what is actually going to happen when if there’s a Warriors game or if there’s like a big giant scam, like what will happen? And how can crews specifically adapt to big events like this?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>And, and I mean, those stolen cars were one thing, but then people actually were hurt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joshua Bote: \u003c/strong>Yeah, there were other incidents, right? Like there were cruisers that were stuck in wet concrete. There were cruisers that like, got tangled up in electrical wiring during a storm. A lot of emergency vehicles and first responders and, you know, police and fire unions complained about crews and Waymo cars impeding their access to emergency scenes. But the big, big incident that I think sort of proved to be the turning point for how we saw crews in Waymo was, on October 2nd.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>[news clip]\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joshua Bote: \u003c/strong>A hit and run. Driver struck a woman. The driver fled the scene, but then a cruise immediately after ran her over.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>[news clip]\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joshua Bote: \u003c/strong>It was a horrible, horrible thing to see. I think that people were really disturbed and shaken up by it. I think the immediate response by crews also proved to be a little bit concerning. They really tried to frame it in a different light in a way that as time would go on and more information came out about it, that it felt like Cruz was sort of deceiving the public and officials about how they handled the situation. Before the end of the month. Cruz had fully had its license to operate suspended by the DMV because of specifically this incident, and Cruz itself voluntarily pulled out all of its fleet across the nation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Can we expect them to be back on the road anytime soon?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joshua Bote: \u003c/strong>They said when they pulled out the fleet that they would come back in a smaller city and on a slower scale. They haven’t identified the city yet. That’s something that I’ve tried asking them about. It seems like they’re going to try and do a much slower expansion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joshua Bote: \u003c/strong>And it’s interesting to see, because before all of this happened, they were really adamant about grocery, really adamant about expanding their services. And this just feels like a far cry from it. Right? Just one city a lot more slowly and just trying to emphasize safety and emphasize building trust with the public again. And I think that that’s something that we’re going to see a lot more of in 2024.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Coming up. What Cruse’s downfall means for the rest of the robotaxi industry. Stay with us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Well, Joshua, we’ve been talking a lot about crews, but they’re not the only robo taxi company. Right? So I’m wondering where what’s happened to crews, and it’s sort of fall from grace. Where has that left other companies?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joshua Bote: \u003c/strong>I think from the analyst and expert point of view, Waymo is now the top dog. For so long, we sort of understood Cruise and Waymo to be sort of like a rabbit and the tortoise type story, where cruise was moving really fast and accelerating at this level, that felt untenable. And it ultimately was. And Waymo was understood to be this sort of slower, more safety oriented company. And as a result of that, Waymo does have this perception.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joshua Bote: \u003c/strong>But ultimately, Cruise’s mishaps hurt the driverless car market at large. Even Waymo sort of has to continue doubling down on these safety emphasis and doubling down and just making sure that they are gaining this trust. And as for Zoox, which is Amazon owned, even, they’re still trying to ramp up in a way that can sort of build trust and build better relationships with the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joshua Bote: \u003c/strong>There are other, you know, robo trucks and sort of these vehicles that are delivering things that are being introduced, highway robo trucks and other things like that. But I think for our intents and purposes, I think Waymo and to a lesser extent, Zoox are going to be the companies to keep an eye out on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Do you think that public officials are still friendly to robo taxis, even after everything that happened with cruiser? Do you think that something fundamental has shifted?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joshua Bote: \u003c/strong>I always think that it varies on sort of the state versus local level because, you know, the Board of Supervisors, even before Cruise and Waymo were going to expand on this bigger level. There was a lot of skepticism from the board across all sides. On a state level, there is a little bit more attention being drawn to it. There’s a lot more skepticism from their end, which is why you’re seeing a lot of legislators introduce bills to try and get some more regulation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joshua Bote: \u003c/strong>As for Gavin Newsom, he vetoed a bill that would have had more regulations on robo trucks. What he said when he vetoed that robo truck regulation bill, was there enough things already in place to regulate robo taxis? And I don’t know that activists and other people fully agree with that, but that was the logic that he provided.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>What is your sense, then, right now, of how the public in San Francisco in particular, is feeling about these robo taxis and, and these companies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joshua Bote: \u003c/strong>You know, I was in the wharf recently and I was waiting for the streetcar to come pick me up. And I was sitting next to a tourist family. And the tourist family, like, saw Waymo driving by. And they were like amazed by it. They’re like, oh my God, it’s a driverless car. That’s so wild.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joshua Bote: \u003c/strong>San Francisco is such a crazy place and people think it’s cool or people think it’s stranger otters unnerving or it runs the gamut emotionally. But beyond this idea that that’s a cool thing, I don’t know that people are sort of using it in their day to day lives. People at the end of the day are still calling up Uber and Lyft.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Well, what lessons are you taking away from the story of Cruise’s rise and fall?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joshua Bote: \u003c/strong>I think sort of evergreen one is to always be skeptical of companies, especially tech companies, when they make claims that are too good to be true. Like, cruise took out the ad that was like, we are safer than human drivers. Human drivers are terrible. And they took that out in the Chronicle, in the New York Times. It was everywhere. And even then I felt a little bit of skepticism.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joshua Bote: \u003c/strong>But with all the details that kept coming out about how cruise wanted hyperspeed growth and how cruise sought to expand almost at the expense of their safety and regulation goals. When technology collides with the real world and and it’s no longer in beta testing and you sort of have to live with it, there are so many unforeseen consequences. And I think that that’s the thing that we have to pay attention to.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Joshua, thank you so much for joining us on the show and for talking about this with me. I really appreciate it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joshua Bote: \u003c/strong>Thank you for having me. It’s a pleasure to be on the show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>That was Joshua Bote, a tech reporter for the San Francisco Standard. This 30 minute conversation with Joshua was cut down and edited by senior editor Alan Montecillo. Maria Esquinca is our producer. She scored this episode. Music courtesy of Audio Network. The Bay is a production of KQED Public Media in San Francisco. I’m Ericka Cruz Guevarra. Thanks for listening. Peace.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>"
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"content": "\u003cp>If you’re a California resident, you use tax-funded roads, schools and other services, so you’re on the Silicon Valley financial roller coaster whether you know it or not.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The tech industry has contributed an increasing amount to the state budget, and even the way tech companies pay their employees has become a growing source of the state’s income tax revenue, a new analysis shows.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many tech companies pay their employees base wages as well as stock options. Vested stock options — options that have matured and are fully owned by employees who can choose to sell them — are treated like ordinary income for tax purposes. Companies must pay withholding taxes on part of that income to state and federal governments. Last year, those taxes paid by the four largest tech companies in the state — Apple, Google, Meta and Nvidia — grew to at least $5 billion, making up more than 6% of all of the state’s income-tax withholding, the Legislative Analyst’s Office \u003ca href=\"https://lao.ca.gov/LAOEconTax/Article/Detail/789\">estimated\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s up from 4% to 5% pre-pandemic, has more than doubled since 2016 and quadrupled over the past decade. That increase has come as those companies have grown tremendously in market value — the four of them are now worth more than $7 trillion. Last year, the withholding taxes they paid helped offset the effects of fewer initial public offerings on the state’s revenue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chas Alamo, the principal fiscal and policy analyst for the office, did the analysis. He said that if he had the resources to do a deeper dive and had tallied the stock-equity withholding from all large tech companies in the state instead of just the biggest four, it might make up as much as 10% of all income-tax withholding. That’s on top of what the tech industry contributes to the state’s income-tax revenue, which makes it even more dependent on tech’s ups and downs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Historically, “withholding has been a stable barometer of how the state’s economy is doing,” Alamo said. “It hasn’t been subject to the volatility of the stock market. But that has changed over the last several years.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Tax revenue from stock-options withholding at the biggest tech companies has quadrupled in the past decade\" aria-label=\"Column Chart\" id=\"datawrapper-chart-CZPfV\" src=\"https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/CZPfV/3/\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"width: 0; min-width: 100% !important; border: none;\" height=\"400\" data-external=\"1\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All Californians have a stake in the health of the tech industry because the state relies so heavily on personal income taxes for revenue. In light of a \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/2024/01/newsom-budget-california/\">multibillion-dollar budget deficit\u003c/a> and mixed signals around tech — which, on the one hand, continues to lay off employees but, on the other hand, is seeing an artificial intelligence boom that has translated into gains on Wall Street — income-tax withholding from both tech employee wages, as well as the withholding from their stock options, matter more than ever.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pinpointing exactly how much tech-industry employment contributes to the state’s coffers can be tricky because tech companies have many different types of employees, but consider this: Software developers in the state earned about $48.9 billion, based on average annual earnings of about $190,000, according to data from the Employment Development Department as of the first quarter of last year. That total from just one segment of the industry was more than what the state received in total income-tax revenue from all sectors of the labor force through November: $47.2 billion, according to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.sco.ca.gov/2023Nov_personal_income_tax_tracker.html\">State Controller’s tracker\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As for the rise in stock-equity withholding, it was the result of a great 2023 for the large tech companies whose financial filings Alamo analyzed, especially Meta and Nvidia. Shares in chip company Nvidia, whose graphics processing units dominate the artificial intelligence market, ended last year up about 239% from the previous year. Facebook parent company Meta’s investments in artificial intelligence helped propel its stock 198% higher year over year. Meanwhile, the stocks of Apple and Google ended 2023 up 49% and 59% year over year, respectively. [pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Ahmad Thomas, chief executive, Silicon Valley Leadership Group\"]‘AI is going to power the next wave of economic growth in the state and nation.’[/pullquote]If artificial intelligence continues to lead to stock-market gains for tech companies, the state will keep reaping the rewards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some experts and economists are plenty optimistic about artificial intelligence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“AI is going to power the next wave of economic growth in the state and nation,” said Ahmad Thomas, chief executive of Silicon Valley Leadership Group, a tech policy advocacy group whose hundreds of member companies include some of the biggest names in tech and business. Thomas called the Bay Area the “epicenter” of artificial intelligence because most hot startups in the space are based in San Francisco or elsewhere in the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stephen Levy, a longtime economist and director of the Center for Continuing Study of the California Economy, an independent, private research organization, said that despite more than 260,000 layoffs in the tech industry worldwide last year, \u003ca href=\"https://layoffs.fyi/\">according to one count\u003c/a>, the number of tech jobs is now higher than what it was before the coronavirus pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California Center echoes that for Jobs and the Economy, the information arm of the California Business Roundtable, an advocacy organization made up of top executives of the state’s major employers. The center said there were about 1.4 million jobs it considers part of the tech industry as of November 2023, about 76,000 more than the total tech jobs in the state in February 2020.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Levy said there is a “rebalancing” that’s going on in tech after all the hiring companies did during the pandemic, but that electric vehicles, cleantech infrastructure and artificial intelligence are “three areas [where he expects] massive amounts of money over the next five years.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The budget Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed on Wednesday mentioned expectations for continued slower and more moderate job growth, which his staff also attributed to “reverting to historical trends as the labor market is now in the post-pandemic recovery period.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the past couple of years, fewer initial public offerings for companies in California — 195 in 2021 vs. 30 in 2023, according to \u003ca href=\"https://pitchbook.com/news/reports/q3-2023-pitchbook-nvca-venture-monitor\">data from PitchBook\u003c/a>, which keeps track of capital markets — have meant fewer newly minted multimillionaire tech employees and less state revenue from income-tax withholding and capital gains, which is the profit investors make when they sell stock. [aside label='More on Big Tech' tag='tech']PitchBook’s 2024 venture capital outlook, though, said that if inflation continues to ease and the Federal Reserve does not raise interest rates, IPOs could make a comeback.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet Alamo, of the Legislative Analyst’s Office, cautioned that just as companies’ stock-price surges can result in a bump in revenue from withholding, “the same could happen on the opposite side.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s one reason the Center for Jobs and the Economy has warned against the state’s heavy dependence on one region and has said the state needs to regulate — and spend — less. The tech-heavy Bay Area contributes more than 40% of personal income-tax revenue to the state, according to U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis figures cited by the group. And, as Newsom’s budget also pointed out this week, the top 1% earners in the state, most of whose income comes from stock-based compensation and capital gains, contributed half of all personal income taxes to the state in 2021.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The problem is it really disguises the true economy of California,” said Brooke Armour, president of the California Center for Jobs and the Economy. “When you have one small part of the economy that carries the state, that papers over the affordability crisis.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s up from 4% to 5% pre-pandemic, has more than doubled since 2016 and quadrupled over the past decade. That increase has come as those companies have grown tremendously in market value — the four of them are now worth more than $7 trillion. Last year, the withholding taxes they paid helped offset the effects of fewer initial public offerings on the state’s revenue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chas Alamo, the principal fiscal and policy analyst for the office, did the analysis. He said that if he had the resources to do a deeper dive and had tallied the stock-equity withholding from all large tech companies in the state instead of just the biggest four, it might make up as much as 10% of all income-tax withholding. That’s on top of what the tech industry contributes to the state’s income-tax revenue, which makes it even more dependent on tech’s ups and downs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Historically, “withholding has been a stable barometer of how the state’s economy is doing,” Alamo said. “It hasn’t been subject to the volatility of the stock market. But that has changed over the last several years.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Tax revenue from stock-options withholding at the biggest tech companies has quadrupled in the past decade\" aria-label=\"Column Chart\" id=\"datawrapper-chart-CZPfV\" src=\"https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/CZPfV/3/\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"width: 0; min-width: 100% !important; border: none;\" height=\"400\" data-external=\"1\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All Californians have a stake in the health of the tech industry because the state relies so heavily on personal income taxes for revenue. In light of a \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/2024/01/newsom-budget-california/\">multibillion-dollar budget deficit\u003c/a> and mixed signals around tech — which, on the one hand, continues to lay off employees but, on the other hand, is seeing an artificial intelligence boom that has translated into gains on Wall Street — income-tax withholding from both tech employee wages, as well as the withholding from their stock options, matter more than ever.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pinpointing exactly how much tech-industry employment contributes to the state’s coffers can be tricky because tech companies have many different types of employees, but consider this: Software developers in the state earned about $48.9 billion, based on average annual earnings of about $190,000, according to data from the Employment Development Department as of the first quarter of last year. That total from just one segment of the industry was more than what the state received in total income-tax revenue from all sectors of the labor force through November: $47.2 billion, according to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.sco.ca.gov/2023Nov_personal_income_tax_tracker.html\">State Controller’s tracker\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As for the rise in stock-equity withholding, it was the result of a great 2023 for the large tech companies whose financial filings Alamo analyzed, especially Meta and Nvidia. Shares in chip company Nvidia, whose graphics processing units dominate the artificial intelligence market, ended last year up about 239% from the previous year. Facebook parent company Meta’s investments in artificial intelligence helped propel its stock 198% higher year over year. Meanwhile, the stocks of Apple and Google ended 2023 up 49% and 59% year over year, respectively. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>If artificial intelligence continues to lead to stock-market gains for tech companies, the state will keep reaping the rewards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some experts and economists are plenty optimistic about artificial intelligence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“AI is going to power the next wave of economic growth in the state and nation,” said Ahmad Thomas, chief executive of Silicon Valley Leadership Group, a tech policy advocacy group whose hundreds of member companies include some of the biggest names in tech and business. Thomas called the Bay Area the “epicenter” of artificial intelligence because most hot startups in the space are based in San Francisco or elsewhere in the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stephen Levy, a longtime economist and director of the Center for Continuing Study of the California Economy, an independent, private research organization, said that despite more than 260,000 layoffs in the tech industry worldwide last year, \u003ca href=\"https://layoffs.fyi/\">according to one count\u003c/a>, the number of tech jobs is now higher than what it was before the coronavirus pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California Center echoes that for Jobs and the Economy, the information arm of the California Business Roundtable, an advocacy organization made up of top executives of the state’s major employers. The center said there were about 1.4 million jobs it considers part of the tech industry as of November 2023, about 76,000 more than the total tech jobs in the state in February 2020.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Levy said there is a “rebalancing” that’s going on in tech after all the hiring companies did during the pandemic, but that electric vehicles, cleantech infrastructure and artificial intelligence are “three areas [where he expects] massive amounts of money over the next five years.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The budget Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed on Wednesday mentioned expectations for continued slower and more moderate job growth, which his staff also attributed to “reverting to historical trends as the labor market is now in the post-pandemic recovery period.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the past couple of years, fewer initial public offerings for companies in California — 195 in 2021 vs. 30 in 2023, according to \u003ca href=\"https://pitchbook.com/news/reports/q3-2023-pitchbook-nvca-venture-monitor\">data from PitchBook\u003c/a>, which keeps track of capital markets — have meant fewer newly minted multimillionaire tech employees and less state revenue from income-tax withholding and capital gains, which is the profit investors make when they sell stock. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>PitchBook’s 2024 venture capital outlook, though, said that if inflation continues to ease and the Federal Reserve does not raise interest rates, IPOs could make a comeback.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet Alamo, of the Legislative Analyst’s Office, cautioned that just as companies’ stock-price surges can result in a bump in revenue from withholding, “the same could happen on the opposite side.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s one reason the Center for Jobs and the Economy has warned against the state’s heavy dependence on one region and has said the state needs to regulate — and spend — less. The tech-heavy Bay Area contributes more than 40% of personal income-tax revenue to the state, according to U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis figures cited by the group. And, as Newsom’s budget also pointed out this week, the top 1% earners in the state, most of whose income comes from stock-based compensation and capital gains, contributed half of all personal income taxes to the state in 2021.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The problem is it really disguises the true economy of California,” said Brooke Armour, president of the California Center for Jobs and the Economy. “When you have one small part of the economy that carries the state, that papers over the affordability crisis.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>At a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11969898/protesters-outside-google-in-san-francisco-call-for-immediate-end-to-project-nimbus\">protest outside Google offices\u003c/a> in San Francisco last month, protesters called for Google to cancel a seven-year, $1.2 billion contract with \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.il/en/departments/news/press_01082023_b\">Amazon\u003c/a> and the Israeli government and military called “Project Nimbus.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the time, a Google spokesperson stated the Nimbus contract is “not directed at highly sensitive or classified military workloads relevant to weapons or intelligence services.” When asked in November about it in an \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9s4PKv2SQzU\">interview with Bloomberg\u003c/a>, CEO Sundar Pichai said, “Project Nimbus was an RFP [request for proposal] from Israel’s Ministry of Finance,” although the Israeli agency itself \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.il/en/departments/news/press_01082023_b\">describes the project\u003c/a> as “led by the Accountant General of the Ministry of Finance through the Government Procurement Administration together with the Israel National Digital Agency, the Israel National Cyber Directorate, the Ministry of Defense, the Israel Defense Force (IDF) and other partners in the government.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9s4PKv2SQzU\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I view us as a partner to like-minded governments that share democratic values around the world,” Pichai said. “Be it skilling and educating their workforce, be it bringing more access to knowledge and information, and helping them build out their digital infrastructure, including AI. I think that’s the role. We don’t see it in a geopolitical context.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Google also told KQED that the people organizing to kill Project Nimbus “largely don’t work at Google.” Most of the protesters that evening in December were not Google employees, but a few were, like software engineer Valerie Kuan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Catherine Fisk, professor of labor and employment law, UC Berkeley\"]‘You don’t have a right, unless you’ve negotiated a contract to give you that right, to go to work for Google and then decide that you won’t do certain kinds of work.’[/pullquote]“These are not projects that I’ve personally worked on, but this is an issue that affects all Google workers. Because Google is looking to exploit all of their workers’ labor to profit off of war and profit off of Israeli genocide against the Palestinian people,” Kuan said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She’s not alone. The campaign \u003ca href=\"https://www.notechforapartheid.com\">No Tech For Apartheid\u003c/a>, which organized the December protest, boasts on its website that more than 1,100 Google and Amazon workers have signed its petition demanding both companies stop doing business with Israel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an email to KQED Wednesday, a spokesperson for Amazon said “We respect our employees’ rights to express themselves without fear of retaliation, intimidation, or harassment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Are Googlers speaking out on record against their employer at risk of losing their jobs? “It’s especially complicated in California because there is a wide range of laws that might apply,” said Catherine Fisk, a professor of labor and employment law at UC Berkeley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fisk added most companies read the \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=LAB§ionNum=1101\">California Labor Code\u003c/a> as giving employees the right to be free from retaliation for their political activities and affiliations. “Saying, ‘American tech companies should not be contracting with the Israeli government.’ That is almost certainly protected by statute in California for private sector employees and by statute, and by the Constitution, for government employees. Because they’re not speaking as employees. They’re speaking as citizens. They’re speaking on a matter of public concern,” Fisk said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That said, she noted there are not a lot of legal decisions parsing the language, and “the decisions are somewhat mixed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If the boss is taking a strong political position, that may not constitute the kind of targeted harassment that would be actionable,” Fisk said, even if the political position is deeply offensive — and employees who feel offended are afraid to voice their disagreement or distress, lest they be fired or demoted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a similar vein, “You don’t have a right, unless you’ve negotiated a contract to give you that right, to go to work for Google and then decide that you won’t do certain kinds of work,” Fisk said. “Google might decide, for the sake of attracting top talent, that they will allow workers to refuse to work on projects that are inconsistent with their values, but that’s a contractual arrangement. That’s company policy. It’s not mandated by law.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>What about criticizing a company’s line of business? \u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>A Google spokesperson wrote KQED, “We prohibit retaliation in the workplace and \u003ca href=\"https://services.google.com/fh/files/blogs/policy_workplace_concerns.pdf\">publicly share\u003c/a> our very clear policy.” Since Project Nimbus was announced two years ago, at least one Google marketing manager quit, claiming she was \u003ca href=\"https://medium.com/@arielkoren/googles-complicity-in-israeli-apartheid-how-google-weaponizes-diversity-to-silence-palestinians-cb41b24ac423\">retaliated against\u003c/a>, a claim denied by Google and \u003ca href=\"https://www.nlrb.gov/case/20-CA-286745\">federal labor regulators\u003c/a>. Fisk said U.S. law gives a wide berth to private employers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As part of Google’s \u003ca href=\"https://about.google/community-guidelines/\">community guidelines\u003c/a>, the company counsels employees, “While sharing information and ideas with colleagues helps build community, disrupting the workday to have a raging debate over politics or the latest news story does not. Our primary responsibility is to do the work we’ve each been hired to do, not to spend working time on debates about non-work topics.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_11969898 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231214-GazaGoogleProtest-30-BL-1020x680.jpg']Fisk adds that many people who find themselves at odds with their bosses’ political opinions, or contracts, are likely to be counseled to look for another job if they feel morally uncomfortable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She added, “Google might be able to say, ‘Criticizing the company, accusing us of being immoral while you are on the payroll: not protected. You can take a political stance — drones are bad, the war in the Middle East is unjust, call for a cease-fire — but what you can’t do is accuse us of immoral conduct.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That said, Fisk notes that, despite recent restructurings and layoffs that have roiled Silicon Valley of late, software engineers arguably have more labor market power than most U.S. employees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Valerie Kuan said as much at that protest back in December. “In 2018, there was Project Maven, which was a contract with the U.S. Department of Defense to provide them with advanced AI capabilities that would increase how deadly U.S. drone strikes would be. But thankfully, back then, Google workers also organized around this and managed to get it canceled,” Kuan said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s true for \u003ca href=\"https://www.wsj.com/video/palmer-luckey-on-google-pulling-out-of-the-militarys-ai-project-maven/92864DF1-3CCB-4B32-A159-B060A867493A\">Project Maven\u003c/a> and, before that, Project Dragonfly, which was to be a\u003ca href=\"https://theintercept.com/2018/12/17/google-china-censored-search-engine-2/\"> Chinese government-friendly version of Google Search\u003c/a>. Although, as CEO Sundar Pichai noted, Google continues to work with the \u003ca href=\"https://cloud.google.com/blog/topics/inside-google-cloud/update-on-google-clouds-work-with-the-us-government\">U.S. government\u003c/a> and others around the world. Will Googlers prevail against Project Nimbus? That remains to be seen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>At a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11969898/protesters-outside-google-in-san-francisco-call-for-immediate-end-to-project-nimbus\">protest outside Google offices\u003c/a> in San Francisco last month, protesters called for Google to cancel a seven-year, $1.2 billion contract with \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.il/en/departments/news/press_01082023_b\">Amazon\u003c/a> and the Israeli government and military called “Project Nimbus.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the time, a Google spokesperson stated the Nimbus contract is “not directed at highly sensitive or classified military workloads relevant to weapons or intelligence services.” When asked in November about it in an \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9s4PKv2SQzU\">interview with Bloomberg\u003c/a>, CEO Sundar Pichai said, “Project Nimbus was an RFP [request for proposal] from Israel’s Ministry of Finance,” although the Israeli agency itself \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.il/en/departments/news/press_01082023_b\">describes the project\u003c/a> as “led by the Accountant General of the Ministry of Finance through the Government Procurement Administration together with the Israel National Digital Agency, the Israel National Cyber Directorate, the Ministry of Defense, the Israel Defense Force (IDF) and other partners in the government.”\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/9s4PKv2SQzU'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/9s4PKv2SQzU'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I view us as a partner to like-minded governments that share democratic values around the world,” Pichai said. “Be it skilling and educating their workforce, be it bringing more access to knowledge and information, and helping them build out their digital infrastructure, including AI. I think that’s the role. We don’t see it in a geopolitical context.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Google also told KQED that the people organizing to kill Project Nimbus “largely don’t work at Google.” Most of the protesters that evening in December were not Google employees, but a few were, like software engineer Valerie Kuan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“These are not projects that I’ve personally worked on, but this is an issue that affects all Google workers. Because Google is looking to exploit all of their workers’ labor to profit off of war and profit off of Israeli genocide against the Palestinian people,” Kuan said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She’s not alone. The campaign \u003ca href=\"https://www.notechforapartheid.com\">No Tech For Apartheid\u003c/a>, which organized the December protest, boasts on its website that more than 1,100 Google and Amazon workers have signed its petition demanding both companies stop doing business with Israel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an email to KQED Wednesday, a spokesperson for Amazon said “We respect our employees’ rights to express themselves without fear of retaliation, intimidation, or harassment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Are Googlers speaking out on record against their employer at risk of losing their jobs? “It’s especially complicated in California because there is a wide range of laws that might apply,” said Catherine Fisk, a professor of labor and employment law at UC Berkeley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fisk added most companies read the \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=LAB§ionNum=1101\">California Labor Code\u003c/a> as giving employees the right to be free from retaliation for their political activities and affiliations. “Saying, ‘American tech companies should not be contracting with the Israeli government.’ That is almost certainly protected by statute in California for private sector employees and by statute, and by the Constitution, for government employees. Because they’re not speaking as employees. They’re speaking as citizens. They’re speaking on a matter of public concern,” Fisk said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That said, she noted there are not a lot of legal decisions parsing the language, and “the decisions are somewhat mixed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If the boss is taking a strong political position, that may not constitute the kind of targeted harassment that would be actionable,” Fisk said, even if the political position is deeply offensive — and employees who feel offended are afraid to voice their disagreement or distress, lest they be fired or demoted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a similar vein, “You don’t have a right, unless you’ve negotiated a contract to give you that right, to go to work for Google and then decide that you won’t do certain kinds of work,” Fisk said. “Google might decide, for the sake of attracting top talent, that they will allow workers to refuse to work on projects that are inconsistent with their values, but that’s a contractual arrangement. That’s company policy. It’s not mandated by law.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>What about criticizing a company’s line of business? \u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>A Google spokesperson wrote KQED, “We prohibit retaliation in the workplace and \u003ca href=\"https://services.google.com/fh/files/blogs/policy_workplace_concerns.pdf\">publicly share\u003c/a> our very clear policy.” Since Project Nimbus was announced two years ago, at least one Google marketing manager quit, claiming she was \u003ca href=\"https://medium.com/@arielkoren/googles-complicity-in-israeli-apartheid-how-google-weaponizes-diversity-to-silence-palestinians-cb41b24ac423\">retaliated against\u003c/a>, a claim denied by Google and \u003ca href=\"https://www.nlrb.gov/case/20-CA-286745\">federal labor regulators\u003c/a>. Fisk said U.S. law gives a wide berth to private employers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As part of Google’s \u003ca href=\"https://about.google/community-guidelines/\">community guidelines\u003c/a>, the company counsels employees, “While sharing information and ideas with colleagues helps build community, disrupting the workday to have a raging debate over politics or the latest news story does not. Our primary responsibility is to do the work we’ve each been hired to do, not to spend working time on debates about non-work topics.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Fisk adds that many people who find themselves at odds with their bosses’ political opinions, or contracts, are likely to be counseled to look for another job if they feel morally uncomfortable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She added, “Google might be able to say, ‘Criticizing the company, accusing us of being immoral while you are on the payroll: not protected. You can take a political stance — drones are bad, the war in the Middle East is unjust, call for a cease-fire — but what you can’t do is accuse us of immoral conduct.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That said, Fisk notes that, despite recent restructurings and layoffs that have roiled Silicon Valley of late, software engineers arguably have more labor market power than most U.S. employees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Valerie Kuan said as much at that protest back in December. “In 2018, there was Project Maven, which was a contract with the U.S. Department of Defense to provide them with advanced AI capabilities that would increase how deadly U.S. drone strikes would be. But thankfully, back then, Google workers also organized around this and managed to get it canceled,” Kuan said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s true for \u003ca href=\"https://www.wsj.com/video/palmer-luckey-on-google-pulling-out-of-the-militarys-ai-project-maven/92864DF1-3CCB-4B32-A159-B060A867493A\">Project Maven\u003c/a> and, before that, Project Dragonfly, which was to be a\u003ca href=\"https://theintercept.com/2018/12/17/google-china-censored-search-engine-2/\"> Chinese government-friendly version of Google Search\u003c/a>. Although, as CEO Sundar Pichai noted, Google continues to work with the \u003ca href=\"https://cloud.google.com/blog/topics/inside-google-cloud/update-on-google-clouds-work-with-the-us-government\">U.S. government\u003c/a> and others around the world. Will Googlers prevail against Project Nimbus? That remains to be seen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "california-forever-lawsuit-looms-as-solano-county-farmers-fight-back",
"title": "California Forever Lawsuit Looms as Solano County Farmers Fight Back",
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"content": "\u003cp>Ian and Margaret Anderson’s lives revolve around their over 100-year-old farm, E.A. Anderson and Son Ranch., in the Montezuma Hills of Solano County. They raise thousands of sheep and grow grains like wheat, safflower and canola. Recently, they started growing malting barley, which can be used to make beer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Grains are the most productive crops here,” said Ian Anderson. “We’ve had really good crops over the last few years.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Andersons own about 1,500 acres, but have always farmed on thousands of acres more that they rent from relatives, neighbors and utility agencies. Each year, a third of the land is reserved for sheep grazing, another third for crops and the final third lays fallow to let the soil rest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11969277\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11969277\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231205-SolanoCountyFarmers-05-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"An older white man seen from behind with sheep and a farmhouse in the background.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231205-SolanoCountyFarmers-05-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231205-SolanoCountyFarmers-05-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231205-SolanoCountyFarmers-05-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231205-SolanoCountyFarmers-05-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231205-SolanoCountyFarmers-05-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231205-SolanoCountyFarmers-05-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ian Anderson walks through the farmland the Anderson family has owned for generations in Birds Landing, Solano County, on Dec. 5, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But a few years ago, their world started to turn upside down. In 2017, Flannery Associates, a company backed by Silicon Valley billionaires, started buying thousands of acres of farmland around them \u003ca href=\"https://californiaforever.com/\">to build a new city from scratch\u003c/a>. The Andersons weren’t interested in selling their land when the company first approached them in 2019.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s not just about the money,” said Ian. “It’s about who we are and what we do. We have value in growing our crops and raising our livestock. That is more meaningful than cashing in on money and then trying to start a new life somewhere else.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, the Andersons and other landowners are embroiled in a bitter lawsuit with the company. Even if the case gets dismissed, the Andersons are unsure whether they can continue operating their farm as the hills change around them.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A new California dream\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>California Forever, the parent company of Flannery Associates, wants to “bring back the California Dream” — a dream that includes offices close to homes, with restaurants and small businesses lining the streets in between. The details of how that city will be built are still hazy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jan Sramek, the company’s CEO, envisions a sustainable city with plenty of bike paths and public transportation to rival Berlin or Paris. They aim to solve some of the state’s biggest problems: housing affordability, long commutes and clean energy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11969283\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11969283\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231205-SolanoCountyFarmers-92-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"An older white woman and a younger white woman to her left during a town hall, the older woman is speaking into a microphone.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231205-SolanoCountyFarmers-92-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231205-SolanoCountyFarmers-92-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231205-SolanoCountyFarmers-92-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231205-SolanoCountyFarmers-92-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231205-SolanoCountyFarmers-92-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231205-SolanoCountyFarmers-92-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Margaret Anderson and her daughter Maryn Johnson speak during a town hall meeting in Rio Vista on Dec. 5, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“People have been trying to solve these issues for 30 years,” said Sramek. “Every time someone says ‘I don’t like your project for these reasons’ we say, okay, what’s your proposal for fixing these issues? Because it’s really easy to be a critic.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sramek and his team have been coming face to face with some of their critics, as they have spent the past month campaigning across Solano County to get more residents on board with the planned community. Before it can be built, voters will have to approve the project when it appears on their November ballot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Ian Anderson, E.A. Anderson and Son Ranch\"]‘It’s not just about the money. It’s about who we are and what we do. We have value in growing our crops and raising our livestock. That is more meaningful than cashing in on money and then trying to start a new life somewhere else.’[/pullquote]But the company has faced trouble earning trust among residents who have shown up to question Sramek at a series of town hall meetings. Some are unsure how it will make its proposed plans a reality, which show, among other things, a high-speed rail line running through this remote farmland. Others are still skeptical of Flannery’s motives after it started purchasing more than 60,000 acres in secrecy in 2017.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though the Andersons say they were uninterested in selling their land to the company, the lawsuit Flannery Associates filed in May alleged they and about 35 farmers and landowners colluded with each other to price-fix their land and not sell to the company unless it met a specific price.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though Ian and Margaret Anderson have held onto the land they own, many of the neighbors whose land they rented have sold to Flannery. Last season, the Andersons continued to farm on 1,200 acres of that land, renting it from Flannery on a monthly basis. In February, they received an eviction notice with a 30-day notice to vacate the land. They had been growing wheat and barley there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was really excited to have this over 2-ton crop of barley and wheat,” said Ian. “It’s kinda how you value your life when you’re a farmer, when you grow great crops, it makes you feel good, when the ground is suitable for growing really great crops. We fought and fought and fought to avoid losing the entire crop.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11969282\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11969282\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231205-SolanoCountyFarmers-88-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A white middle aged man gestures as he speaks to a woman.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231205-SolanoCountyFarmers-88-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231205-SolanoCountyFarmers-88-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231205-SolanoCountyFarmers-88-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231205-SolanoCountyFarmers-88-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231205-SolanoCountyFarmers-88-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231205-SolanoCountyFarmers-88-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jan Sramek, CEO of California Forever, answers a question from Maryn Johnson, daughter of Ian and Margaret Anderson, during a town hall meeting in Rio Vista on Dec. 5, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Eventually, they were allowed to harvest the crops, but had to pay 30% of the revenue to the company. Now, the Andersons have gone from grazing and planting on about 10,000 acres to just about 3,500.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They’re hoping the case gets dismissed, but they say the lawsuit, now seven months old, has been a financial drain. While they still have savings for retirement, they’ve reduced their farmhand staff from 10 employees to five and have started selling some of their sheep to keep their farm financially afloat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re no longer looking to invest in new equipment,” said Ian Anderson. “We’re basically trying to figure out a downsized operation — if we can still keep doing it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A farm that has adapted\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Ian Anderson’s great-grandfather moved from Denmark to the Montezuma Hills sometime after 1865. He secured farmland for himself and, ultimately, for each of his sons as they reached adulthood. One of those sons, Ian’s grandfather, started a farming operation that morphed into E.A. Anderson & Son.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label=\"Related Stories\" postID=\"news_11959924,forum_2010101894493,news_11959390\"]The Andersons don’t rely on irrigation, instead practicing dryland or rain-fed farming, which requires large swaths of land to soak up the rain. As climate change has brought whiplash between heavy rainfall and intense drought, they have had to adapt their methods. Instead of plowing their fallow land, they now disk the fields, which just turns the soil over and conserves more moisture from one season to the next.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But now that most of the land is gone, the Andersons are unsure whether they can adapt enough to carry on. They had hoped their son Neil would eventually take over the family farm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Since he was a toddler, he wanted nothing more than to be out on the farm,” Margaret said. “When Ian came back from college and was working with his dad, he took the farm to the next level beyond what his dad did. And Neil is doing the same kind of thing. But all of a sudden, it’s very questionable.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The need for more housing\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Ian and Margaret Anderson understand the need for more housing and jobs in Solano County. They can respect where Jan Sramek’s desire for a truly dense city comes from. But to build all that in the middle of the Montezuma Hills, far away from highways, public transportation and most of the jobs people already have doesn’t make sense to them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11969279\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11969279\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231205-SolanoCountyFarmers-28-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A farmhouse with trees behind it and windvanes on a hill in the background. \" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231205-SolanoCountyFarmers-28-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231205-SolanoCountyFarmers-28-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231205-SolanoCountyFarmers-28-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231205-SolanoCountyFarmers-28-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231205-SolanoCountyFarmers-28-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231205-SolanoCountyFarmers-28-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A barn stands on the EA Anderson Ranch, farmland the Anderson family has owned for generations, in Birds Landing, Solano County, on Dec. 5, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“When we see our cities in Solano County that really could use a boost to increase the quality of housing and volume of housing, versus going out into a brand new area and starting every bit of infrastructure from scratch, it can’t be anything other than what could be called sprawl.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They are worried California Forever will turn the hills into another San José, a sprawling suburban city that used to be farmland too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the \u003ca href=\"https://farmland.org/american-farmland-trusts-statement-about-solano-county-ca-model-city/\">American Farmland Trust\u003c/a>, the U.S. loses 2000 acres of farmland per day. California Forever justifies building their new city in the Montezuma Hills because the farmland is not considered “prime.” But the Andersons disagree.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For generations, we have grown crops that don’t further drain from California’s limited water supply,” said Margaret. “We can’t continue [developing] at this pace and expect our country to remain food secure.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Ian and Margaret Anderson’s lives revolve around their over 100-year-old farm, E.A. Anderson and Son Ranch., in the Montezuma Hills of Solano County. They raise thousands of sheep and grow grains like wheat, safflower and canola. Recently, they started growing malting barley, which can be used to make beer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Grains are the most productive crops here,” said Ian Anderson. “We’ve had really good crops over the last few years.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Andersons own about 1,500 acres, but have always farmed on thousands of acres more that they rent from relatives, neighbors and utility agencies. Each year, a third of the land is reserved for sheep grazing, another third for crops and the final third lays fallow to let the soil rest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11969277\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11969277\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231205-SolanoCountyFarmers-05-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"An older white man seen from behind with sheep and a farmhouse in the background.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231205-SolanoCountyFarmers-05-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231205-SolanoCountyFarmers-05-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231205-SolanoCountyFarmers-05-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231205-SolanoCountyFarmers-05-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231205-SolanoCountyFarmers-05-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231205-SolanoCountyFarmers-05-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ian Anderson walks through the farmland the Anderson family has owned for generations in Birds Landing, Solano County, on Dec. 5, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But a few years ago, their world started to turn upside down. In 2017, Flannery Associates, a company backed by Silicon Valley billionaires, started buying thousands of acres of farmland around them \u003ca href=\"https://californiaforever.com/\">to build a new city from scratch\u003c/a>. The Andersons weren’t interested in selling their land when the company first approached them in 2019.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s not just about the money,” said Ian. “It’s about who we are and what we do. We have value in growing our crops and raising our livestock. That is more meaningful than cashing in on money and then trying to start a new life somewhere else.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, the Andersons and other landowners are embroiled in a bitter lawsuit with the company. Even if the case gets dismissed, the Andersons are unsure whether they can continue operating their farm as the hills change around them.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A new California dream\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>California Forever, the parent company of Flannery Associates, wants to “bring back the California Dream” — a dream that includes offices close to homes, with restaurants and small businesses lining the streets in between. The details of how that city will be built are still hazy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jan Sramek, the company’s CEO, envisions a sustainable city with plenty of bike paths and public transportation to rival Berlin or Paris. They aim to solve some of the state’s biggest problems: housing affordability, long commutes and clean energy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11969283\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11969283\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231205-SolanoCountyFarmers-92-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"An older white woman and a younger white woman to her left during a town hall, the older woman is speaking into a microphone.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231205-SolanoCountyFarmers-92-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231205-SolanoCountyFarmers-92-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231205-SolanoCountyFarmers-92-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231205-SolanoCountyFarmers-92-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231205-SolanoCountyFarmers-92-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231205-SolanoCountyFarmers-92-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Margaret Anderson and her daughter Maryn Johnson speak during a town hall meeting in Rio Vista on Dec. 5, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“People have been trying to solve these issues for 30 years,” said Sramek. “Every time someone says ‘I don’t like your project for these reasons’ we say, okay, what’s your proposal for fixing these issues? Because it’s really easy to be a critic.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sramek and his team have been coming face to face with some of their critics, as they have spent the past month campaigning across Solano County to get more residents on board with the planned community. Before it can be built, voters will have to approve the project when it appears on their November ballot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>But the company has faced trouble earning trust among residents who have shown up to question Sramek at a series of town hall meetings. Some are unsure how it will make its proposed plans a reality, which show, among other things, a high-speed rail line running through this remote farmland. Others are still skeptical of Flannery’s motives after it started purchasing more than 60,000 acres in secrecy in 2017.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though the Andersons say they were uninterested in selling their land to the company, the lawsuit Flannery Associates filed in May alleged they and about 35 farmers and landowners colluded with each other to price-fix their land and not sell to the company unless it met a specific price.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though Ian and Margaret Anderson have held onto the land they own, many of the neighbors whose land they rented have sold to Flannery. Last season, the Andersons continued to farm on 1,200 acres of that land, renting it from Flannery on a monthly basis. In February, they received an eviction notice with a 30-day notice to vacate the land. They had been growing wheat and barley there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was really excited to have this over 2-ton crop of barley and wheat,” said Ian. “It’s kinda how you value your life when you’re a farmer, when you grow great crops, it makes you feel good, when the ground is suitable for growing really great crops. We fought and fought and fought to avoid losing the entire crop.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11969282\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11969282\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231205-SolanoCountyFarmers-88-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A white middle aged man gestures as he speaks to a woman.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231205-SolanoCountyFarmers-88-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231205-SolanoCountyFarmers-88-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231205-SolanoCountyFarmers-88-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231205-SolanoCountyFarmers-88-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231205-SolanoCountyFarmers-88-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231205-SolanoCountyFarmers-88-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jan Sramek, CEO of California Forever, answers a question from Maryn Johnson, daughter of Ian and Margaret Anderson, during a town hall meeting in Rio Vista on Dec. 5, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Eventually, they were allowed to harvest the crops, but had to pay 30% of the revenue to the company. Now, the Andersons have gone from grazing and planting on about 10,000 acres to just about 3,500.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They’re hoping the case gets dismissed, but they say the lawsuit, now seven months old, has been a financial drain. While they still have savings for retirement, they’ve reduced their farmhand staff from 10 employees to five and have started selling some of their sheep to keep their farm financially afloat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re no longer looking to invest in new equipment,” said Ian Anderson. “We’re basically trying to figure out a downsized operation — if we can still keep doing it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A farm that has adapted\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Ian Anderson’s great-grandfather moved from Denmark to the Montezuma Hills sometime after 1865. He secured farmland for himself and, ultimately, for each of his sons as they reached adulthood. One of those sons, Ian’s grandfather, started a farming operation that morphed into E.A. Anderson & Son.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The Andersons don’t rely on irrigation, instead practicing dryland or rain-fed farming, which requires large swaths of land to soak up the rain. As climate change has brought whiplash between heavy rainfall and intense drought, they have had to adapt their methods. Instead of plowing their fallow land, they now disk the fields, which just turns the soil over and conserves more moisture from one season to the next.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But now that most of the land is gone, the Andersons are unsure whether they can adapt enough to carry on. They had hoped their son Neil would eventually take over the family farm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Since he was a toddler, he wanted nothing more than to be out on the farm,” Margaret said. “When Ian came back from college and was working with his dad, he took the farm to the next level beyond what his dad did. And Neil is doing the same kind of thing. But all of a sudden, it’s very questionable.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The need for more housing\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Ian and Margaret Anderson understand the need for more housing and jobs in Solano County. They can respect where Jan Sramek’s desire for a truly dense city comes from. But to build all that in the middle of the Montezuma Hills, far away from highways, public transportation and most of the jobs people already have doesn’t make sense to them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11969279\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11969279\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231205-SolanoCountyFarmers-28-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A farmhouse with trees behind it and windvanes on a hill in the background. \" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231205-SolanoCountyFarmers-28-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231205-SolanoCountyFarmers-28-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231205-SolanoCountyFarmers-28-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231205-SolanoCountyFarmers-28-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231205-SolanoCountyFarmers-28-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231205-SolanoCountyFarmers-28-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A barn stands on the EA Anderson Ranch, farmland the Anderson family has owned for generations, in Birds Landing, Solano County, on Dec. 5, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“When we see our cities in Solano County that really could use a boost to increase the quality of housing and volume of housing, versus going out into a brand new area and starting every bit of infrastructure from scratch, it can’t be anything other than what could be called sprawl.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They are worried California Forever will turn the hills into another San José, a sprawling suburban city that used to be farmland too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the \u003ca href=\"https://farmland.org/american-farmland-trusts-statement-about-solano-county-ca-model-city/\">American Farmland Trust\u003c/a>, the U.S. loses 2000 acres of farmland per day. California Forever justifies building their new city in the Montezuma Hills because the farmland is not considered “prime.” But the Andersons disagree.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For generations, we have grown crops that don’t further drain from California’s limited water supply,” said Margaret. “We can’t continue [developing] at this pace and expect our country to remain food secure.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>California’s \u003ca href=\"https://broadbandforall.cdt.ca.gov/\">Broadband for All\u003c/a> initiative aims to connect more people to the internet across the state, but advocates said the program isn’t targeting lower-income communities like East Oakland that need high-speed connections the most.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Their approach of ‘building everywhere as fast as we can’ privileges communities that have existing infrastructure, and [has] relegated communities that have been neglected for decades to the back of the line,” said Patrick Messac, director of the nonprofit Oakland Undivided.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Patrick Messac, director, Oakland Undivided\"]‘Their approach … privileges communities that have existing infrastructure, and [has] relegated communities that have been neglected for decades to the back of the line’[/pullquote]Construction on a “Middle Mile Network” of fiber-optic cables as part of the \u003ca href=\"https://middle-mile-broadband-initiative.cdt.ca.gov/\">Middle-Mile Broadband Initiative\u003c/a>, is set to begin in Livermore and Pleasanton by mid-2024 — while Oakland doesn’t have a confirmed start date.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state does not yet have the funding to complete the later phases of construction, which include cities like Oakland. Still, the California Department of Technology said Gov. Gavin Newsom will announce further plans in January.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement, Oakland officials said the state’s decision to cut a broadband route out of the plan the city had advocated for has also decreased the project’s benefits for residents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In the case of the Middle Mile initiative, it appears that the State is prioritizing speed of deployment, more than, say, what communities the network goes through,” a city spokesperson said in the statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An online meeting today will allow residents to learn more about a Digital Equity Plan released this week as part of the Broadband for All initiative.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The equity plan is a requirement for receiving federal funding. In a press release, the Department of Technology said the plan’s goal is to expand internet access “for all residents.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Messac said that in its current form, the draft Digital Equity Plan and the Broadband for All initiative do not take an equitable approach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label=\"Related Stories\" postID=\"news_11965285,news_11954197,news_11951980\"]“Investments and resources should be targeted where the need is most acute,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Others take a more positive view. Oakland’s Housing Authority recently voted to provide free Wi-Fi for residents in the city’s four largest public housing communities. A spokesperson for the authority said they were encouraged by the state’s Digital Equity Plan draft.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an email, the spokesperson said, “In addition to the internet, the plan also recognizes the importance of access to adequate devices and meaningful, relevant training to support digital inclusion.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oakland officials said they will continue to work with the State to “address digital inequity in Oakland and throughout California.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state’s Digital Equity Plan will remain open for \u003ca href=\"https://broadbandforall.cdt.ca.gov/state-digital-equity-plan/digital-equity-plan-public-comment-form/\">public comment\u003c/a> through late January 2024. Today’s meeting will review the plan and answer any questions about the public comment process.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Critics say the Middle-Mile Broadband Initiative prioritizes speed of deployment over meeting the high-speed connection needs of lower-income communities like those in East Oakland.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Construction on a “Middle Mile Network” of fiber-optic cables as part of the \u003ca href=\"https://middle-mile-broadband-initiative.cdt.ca.gov/\">Middle-Mile Broadband Initiative\u003c/a>, is set to begin in Livermore and Pleasanton by mid-2024 — while Oakland doesn’t have a confirmed start date.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state does not yet have the funding to complete the later phases of construction, which include cities like Oakland. Still, the California Department of Technology said Gov. Gavin Newsom will announce further plans in January.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement, Oakland officials said the state’s decision to cut a broadband route out of the plan the city had advocated for has also decreased the project’s benefits for residents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In the case of the Middle Mile initiative, it appears that the State is prioritizing speed of deployment, more than, say, what communities the network goes through,” a city spokesperson said in the statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An online meeting today will allow residents to learn more about a Digital Equity Plan released this week as part of the Broadband for All initiative.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The equity plan is a requirement for receiving federal funding. In a press release, the Department of Technology said the plan’s goal is to expand internet access “for all residents.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Messac said that in its current form, the draft Digital Equity Plan and the Broadband for All initiative do not take an equitable approach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“Investments and resources should be targeted where the need is most acute,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Others take a more positive view. Oakland’s Housing Authority recently voted to provide free Wi-Fi for residents in the city’s four largest public housing communities. A spokesperson for the authority said they were encouraged by the state’s Digital Equity Plan draft.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an email, the spokesperson said, “In addition to the internet, the plan also recognizes the importance of access to adequate devices and meaningful, relevant training to support digital inclusion.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oakland officials said they will continue to work with the State to “address digital inequity in Oakland and throughout California.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state’s Digital Equity Plan will remain open for \u003ca href=\"https://broadbandforall.cdt.ca.gov/state-digital-equity-plan/digital-equity-plan-public-comment-form/\">public comment\u003c/a> through late January 2024. Today’s meeting will review the plan and answer any questions about the public comment process.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Protesters Outside Google in San Francisco Call for Immediate End to 'Project Nimbus'",
"headTitle": "Protesters Outside Google in San Francisco Call for Immediate End to ‘Project Nimbus’ | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Pro-Palestinian Google employees protested outside Google offices in San Francisco on Thursday to demand the tech giant cancel a $1.2 billion contract — called “Project Nimbus” — with the Israeli government and military.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An estimated 500 protesters chanted “Google, Google you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide,” reflecting growing outrage over the contract during Israel’s ongoing bombardment of Gaza. The Israeli Finance Ministry described the Project Nimbus contract as “intended to provide the government, the defense establishment and others with an all-encompassing cloud solution.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11969956\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11969956\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231214-GazaGoogleProtest-13-BL.jpg\" alt=\"Protesters holding signs.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231214-GazaGoogleProtest-13-BL.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231214-GazaGoogleProtest-13-BL-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231214-GazaGoogleProtest-13-BL-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231214-GazaGoogleProtest-13-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231214-GazaGoogleProtest-13-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Demonstrators gather outside Google offices in downtown San Francisco on Dec. 14, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Valerie Kuan, a software engineer at Google who was at the protest, said she doesn’t work on Project Nimbus “but this is an issue that affects all Google workers.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Google is looking to exploit all of their workers’ labor to profit off of war and profit off of Israeli genocide against the Palestinian people,” said Kuan, who has worked at Google for a little more than a year. “There are many ways to run a profitable company without supporting genocide.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11969954\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11969954\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231214-GazaGoogleProtest-03-BL.jpg\" alt=\"An young woman with Palestinian garb speaks to protesters through a loud speaker.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231214-GazaGoogleProtest-03-BL.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231214-GazaGoogleProtest-03-BL-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231214-GazaGoogleProtest-03-BL-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231214-GazaGoogleProtest-03-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231214-GazaGoogleProtest-03-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A demonstrator speaks outside Google offices in downtown San Francisco on Dec. 14, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A recent\u003ca href=\"https://www.972mag.com/mass-assassination-factory-israel-calculated-bombing-gaza/\"> investigation by +972 Magazine\u003c/a>, an Israeli-Palestinian journalism publication, revealed that the Israeli military is using artificial intelligence to target and assassinate Palestinians in Gaza. The reporting does not identify the source of the technology, but Google workers with the \u003ca href=\"https://www.notechforapartheid.com\">No Tech For Apartheid\u003c/a> campaign claim their company and its Project Nimbus partner, Amazon, are complicit in the Israeli siege.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Khaled Allen, software engineer, Google\"]‘I have a lot of faith in Google as a company. In general, it is a force for good in the world. Because I believe that, that’s why I’m here.’[/pullquote]Protester Khaled Allen, a Google software engineer of part-Palestinian descent, said he hasn’t been very politically active but that he feels “called to do so now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I feel very connected to the issue because of my background,” said Allen, who has been at Google for two years. “I have a lot of faith in Google as a company. In general, it is a force for good in the world. Because I believe that, that’s why I’m here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the protest grew Thursday night, a dozen protesters lay down on the sidewalk and covered themselves with white sheets bearing the Google logo. \u003ca href=\"https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/israel-hamas-press-on-despite-rising-deaths-tolls-on-both-sides-afe9787f\">More than 18,600 people in Gaza\u003c/a> have been killed in the war, most of them women and children, according to Gaza health officials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11969953\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11969953\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231214-GazaGoogleProtest-02-BL.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231214-GazaGoogleProtest-02-BL.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231214-GazaGoogleProtest-02-BL-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231214-GazaGoogleProtest-02-BL-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231214-GazaGoogleProtest-02-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231214-GazaGoogleProtest-02-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Demonstrators gather outside Google offices in downtown San Francisco. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In a 2021 anonymous open letter to Google and Amazon published in\u003ca href=\"https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/oct/12/google-amazon-workers-condemn-project-nimbus-israeli-military-contract\">\u003cem> The Guardian\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, employees described watching their companies “aggressively pursue contracts with institutions like the US Department of Defense, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and state and local police departments. These contracts are part of a disturbing pattern of militarization, lack of transparency and avoidance of oversight.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We cannot look the other way, as the products we build are used to deny Palestinians their basic rights, force Palestinians out of their homes and attack Palestinians in the Gaza Strip — actions that have prompted war crime investigations by the\u003ca href=\"https://www.icc-cpi.int/Pages/item.aspx?name=210303-prosecutor-statement-investigation-palestine\"> international criminal court\u003c/a>,” the letter said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11969959\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11969959\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231214-GazaGoogleProtest-12-BL.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231214-GazaGoogleProtest-12-BL.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231214-GazaGoogleProtest-12-BL-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231214-GazaGoogleProtest-12-BL-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231214-GazaGoogleProtest-12-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231214-GazaGoogleProtest-12-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Demonstrators gather outside Google offices in downtown San Francisco. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Google did not respond to KQED’s request for comment for this story, but in an email to the \u003cem>San Francisco Chronicle\u003c/em>, it wrote that Project Nimbus was not a military program, adding that the protest “is part of a longstanding campaign by a group of organizations and people who largely don’t work at Google.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have been very clear that the Nimbus contract is for workloads running on our commercial platform by Israeli government ministries such as finance, healthcare, transportation, and education,” the statement added. “Our work is not directed at highly sensitive or classified military workloads relevant to weapons or intelligence services.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11969957\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11969957\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231214-GazaGoogleProtest-16-BL.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231214-GazaGoogleProtest-16-BL.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231214-GazaGoogleProtest-16-BL-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231214-GazaGoogleProtest-16-BL-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231214-GazaGoogleProtest-16-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231214-GazaGoogleProtest-16-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Demonstrators gather outside Google offices in downtown San Francisco. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Last year, a group of Palestinian Google employees and their allied colleagues spoke out anonymously in a public video about the anti-Palestinian bias they said they witnessed at the company. One Palestinian Google employee said she felt like she was making her living “off the oppression of my family back home.” Another Palestinian Google employee said, “Google’s Project Nimbus will be a big ugly moment in Google’s history and a shameful and embarrassing engagement.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GI-ePG0rTA\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another group of workers recently published an\u003ca href=\"https://medium.com/@notechforapartheid/googleopenletter-868f0c4477db\"> open letter\u003c/a> addressed to Google leadership accusing the company of a double standard that allows for “freedom of expression for Israeli Googlers versus Arab, Muslim and Palestinian Googlers.” The unsigned letter was attributed to “Muslim, Palestinian and Arab Google employees joined by anti-Zionist Jewish colleagues.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In another\u003ca href=\"https://docs.google.com/document/u/1/d/e/2PACX-1vQt-eWcx-7rZxWTlx0dngRvhn_goqMdl8bPhqvucPiEenbd6KNpLGe-I_QLPLg1_K37Yrkp86ks4RXl/pub\"> unsigned open letter\u003c/a>, published in mid-October, a group of Google employees demanded the company cancel its Project Nimbus contract “and immediately cease doing business with the Israeli apartheid government and military.” The letter goes on to demand that Google leadership “issue a public condemnation of the ongoing genocide in the strongest possible terms.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Around 500 people marched and chanted outside Google offices in San Francisco in an effort to get the Silicon Valley giant to stop 'being complicit' in the mass civilian casualties in Gaza following Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Pro-Palestinian Google employees protested outside Google offices in San Francisco on Thursday to demand the tech giant cancel a $1.2 billion contract — called “Project Nimbus” — with the Israeli government and military.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An estimated 500 protesters chanted “Google, Google you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide,” reflecting growing outrage over the contract during Israel’s ongoing bombardment of Gaza. The Israeli Finance Ministry described the Project Nimbus contract as “intended to provide the government, the defense establishment and others with an all-encompassing cloud solution.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11969956\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11969956\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231214-GazaGoogleProtest-13-BL.jpg\" alt=\"Protesters holding signs.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231214-GazaGoogleProtest-13-BL.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231214-GazaGoogleProtest-13-BL-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231214-GazaGoogleProtest-13-BL-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231214-GazaGoogleProtest-13-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231214-GazaGoogleProtest-13-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Demonstrators gather outside Google offices in downtown San Francisco on Dec. 14, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Valerie Kuan, a software engineer at Google who was at the protest, said she doesn’t work on Project Nimbus “but this is an issue that affects all Google workers.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Google is looking to exploit all of their workers’ labor to profit off of war and profit off of Israeli genocide against the Palestinian people,” said Kuan, who has worked at Google for a little more than a year. “There are many ways to run a profitable company without supporting genocide.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11969954\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11969954\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231214-GazaGoogleProtest-03-BL.jpg\" alt=\"An young woman with Palestinian garb speaks to protesters through a loud speaker.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231214-GazaGoogleProtest-03-BL.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231214-GazaGoogleProtest-03-BL-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231214-GazaGoogleProtest-03-BL-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231214-GazaGoogleProtest-03-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231214-GazaGoogleProtest-03-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A demonstrator speaks outside Google offices in downtown San Francisco on Dec. 14, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A recent\u003ca href=\"https://www.972mag.com/mass-assassination-factory-israel-calculated-bombing-gaza/\"> investigation by +972 Magazine\u003c/a>, an Israeli-Palestinian journalism publication, revealed that the Israeli military is using artificial intelligence to target and assassinate Palestinians in Gaza. The reporting does not identify the source of the technology, but Google workers with the \u003ca href=\"https://www.notechforapartheid.com\">No Tech For Apartheid\u003c/a> campaign claim their company and its Project Nimbus partner, Amazon, are complicit in the Israeli siege.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Protester Khaled Allen, a Google software engineer of part-Palestinian descent, said he hasn’t been very politically active but that he feels “called to do so now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I feel very connected to the issue because of my background,” said Allen, who has been at Google for two years. “I have a lot of faith in Google as a company. In general, it is a force for good in the world. Because I believe that, that’s why I’m here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the protest grew Thursday night, a dozen protesters lay down on the sidewalk and covered themselves with white sheets bearing the Google logo. \u003ca href=\"https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/israel-hamas-press-on-despite-rising-deaths-tolls-on-both-sides-afe9787f\">More than 18,600 people in Gaza\u003c/a> have been killed in the war, most of them women and children, according to Gaza health officials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11969953\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11969953\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231214-GazaGoogleProtest-02-BL.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231214-GazaGoogleProtest-02-BL.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231214-GazaGoogleProtest-02-BL-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231214-GazaGoogleProtest-02-BL-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231214-GazaGoogleProtest-02-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231214-GazaGoogleProtest-02-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Demonstrators gather outside Google offices in downtown San Francisco. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In a 2021 anonymous open letter to Google and Amazon published in\u003ca href=\"https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/oct/12/google-amazon-workers-condemn-project-nimbus-israeli-military-contract\">\u003cem> The Guardian\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, employees described watching their companies “aggressively pursue contracts with institutions like the US Department of Defense, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and state and local police departments. These contracts are part of a disturbing pattern of militarization, lack of transparency and avoidance of oversight.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We cannot look the other way, as the products we build are used to deny Palestinians their basic rights, force Palestinians out of their homes and attack Palestinians in the Gaza Strip — actions that have prompted war crime investigations by the\u003ca href=\"https://www.icc-cpi.int/Pages/item.aspx?name=210303-prosecutor-statement-investigation-palestine\"> international criminal court\u003c/a>,” the letter said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11969959\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11969959\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231214-GazaGoogleProtest-12-BL.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231214-GazaGoogleProtest-12-BL.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231214-GazaGoogleProtest-12-BL-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231214-GazaGoogleProtest-12-BL-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231214-GazaGoogleProtest-12-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231214-GazaGoogleProtest-12-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Demonstrators gather outside Google offices in downtown San Francisco. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Google did not respond to KQED’s request for comment for this story, but in an email to the \u003cem>San Francisco Chronicle\u003c/em>, it wrote that Project Nimbus was not a military program, adding that the protest “is part of a longstanding campaign by a group of organizations and people who largely don’t work at Google.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have been very clear that the Nimbus contract is for workloads running on our commercial platform by Israeli government ministries such as finance, healthcare, transportation, and education,” the statement added. “Our work is not directed at highly sensitive or classified military workloads relevant to weapons or intelligence services.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11969957\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11969957\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231214-GazaGoogleProtest-16-BL.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231214-GazaGoogleProtest-16-BL.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231214-GazaGoogleProtest-16-BL-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231214-GazaGoogleProtest-16-BL-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231214-GazaGoogleProtest-16-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/231214-GazaGoogleProtest-16-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Demonstrators gather outside Google offices in downtown San Francisco. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Last year, a group of Palestinian Google employees and their allied colleagues spoke out anonymously in a public video about the anti-Palestinian bias they said they witnessed at the company. One Palestinian Google employee said she felt like she was making her living “off the oppression of my family back home.” Another Palestinian Google employee said, “Google’s Project Nimbus will be a big ugly moment in Google’s history and a shameful and embarrassing engagement.”\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/2GI-ePG0rTA'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/2GI-ePG0rTA'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>Another group of workers recently published an\u003ca href=\"https://medium.com/@notechforapartheid/googleopenletter-868f0c4477db\"> open letter\u003c/a> addressed to Google leadership accusing the company of a double standard that allows for “freedom of expression for Israeli Googlers versus Arab, Muslim and Palestinian Googlers.” The unsigned letter was attributed to “Muslim, Palestinian and Arab Google employees joined by anti-Zionist Jewish colleagues.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In another\u003ca href=\"https://docs.google.com/document/u/1/d/e/2PACX-1vQt-eWcx-7rZxWTlx0dngRvhn_goqMdl8bPhqvucPiEenbd6KNpLGe-I_QLPLg1_K37Yrkp86ks4RXl/pub\"> unsigned open letter\u003c/a>, published in mid-October, a group of Google employees demanded the company cancel its Project Nimbus contract “and immediately cease doing business with the Israeli apartheid government and military.” The letter goes on to demand that Google leadership “issue a public condemnation of the ongoing genocide in the strongest possible terms.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"headTitle": "Silicon Valley Investors Want to Build a New City. Can They Convince Solano County Voters? | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"#episode-transcript\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">View the full episode transcript.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">California Forever, the group of Silicon Valley investors and billionaires who want to build a new city from scratch in Solano County, are on something of a public relations campaign.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The group held its first town hall meeting in Vallejo on Wednesday night. And it will be the first of many — because if they really want to build a new city on the county’s outskirts, they’ll need to win over the hearts and minds of voters first. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\n\u003cp id=\"embed-code\" class=\"inconsolata\">\n\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm/?e=KQINC6493768949&light=true\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\n\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Links:\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>LISTEN: \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11959845/the-silicon-valley-giants-who-want-to-build-a-new-city-in-solano-county\">The Silicon Valley Giants Who Want to Build a New City in Solano County\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003ch2 id=\"episode-transcript\">Episode Transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>I’m Ericka Cruz Guevarra and welcome to the bay. Local news to keep you rooted. Over the last few months, the Silicon Valley investors and billionaires who want to build a new city in Solano County have been gearing up for something of a public relations tour, an elevator pitch to the public. You see, for years, these Silicon Valley giants had been secretly buying up a bunch of land in Fairfield and Rio Vista. And nobody, not even the U.S. government, knew their identities. But ever since The New York Times revealed who they were and their plans, these investors who formed the group California Forever have some big questions to answer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem> \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cem>[Solana County voter]\u003c/em> I mean, ultimately, they need our approval, right? So I guess in other words, we’re kind of asking what’s in it for us?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>If they want to see their plans through California forever is going to have to win over the hearts and minds of Solano County voters. Today, KQED housing reporter Adhiti Bandlamudi, takes us to Vallejo. And inside the very first town hall between California forever and Solano County residents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>The meeting was at the Vallejo Naval and Historical Museum. To attend the meeting, you basically had to like reserve a seat through Eventbrite. It was 100% free. There were about like 50 people there. It wasn’t a full hall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Adhiti, who was at this meeting, or specifically representatives of California forever, who was there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>So there were actually quite a few people from California forever. Not the investors necessarily, but the staff. The main person who is like the face of this project, who was the only one who would talk on the record, was Jan Sramek, who’s the California forever’s CEO? Jan Sramek is really interesting. He was born in the Czech Republic. He was educated at the University of Cambridge and then like London School of Economics. It was trading for Goldman Sachs when he was like 22. He definitely has a lot of sway. And that Sway has gotten him a lot of investment from billionaires like LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, Stripe co-founders Patrick and John Collison. Andreessen Horowitz, founder Marc Andreessen and partner Chris Dixon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>So he definitely has a lot of influence. And this idea of building a city from scratch, this is really his idea, right? It is. Basically, the idea is pretty simple Build a walkable city where you can walk down the street and, you know, grab a cup of coffee, go to your work, and your work isn’t super far away. You know, in Solano County, a lot of the residents there travel two hours into the city or down to the peninsula or the South Bay. What Jan Sramek and the people at California forever are saying is, what if that wasn’t the case? What if we could also build the local economy out in farmland that we feel could be better used to serve the public?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Well, already this first meeting, as we were just saying, was in Vallejo, which, to be clear, is actually like nearly an hour away from the land that California forever plans or hopes to develop. So why does California forever seem to want Vallejo’s blessing in this as well?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>They’re going not only to Vallejo, but like, you know, Fairfield and Rio Vista. And the reason why is that the entire county has to vote to approve this project. And so they really can’t just to concentrate their efforts to where it really will be. They have to get everybody’s buy in. Audie, what did California forever share with Solano County residents at this meeting about their plans so far? The meeting started by basically introducing who is backing this. Where is this money coming from? And while the names of, you know, LinkedIn executives and Stripe executives are very interesting and impressive to a certain demographic in the Bay Area, to some people, they don’t really mean much. They just mean money.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>What they did talk about is water rights, where they’re getting water from. So they answered that they actually have their own water source and that’s going to be fine. They won’t have to siphon it off from another city transportation. The project is close to Highway 12, which is super heavily congested. It’s also one of the deadliest highways. And they talked about plans to potentially widen it or make it, you know, beneficial for all of Solano County while also being beneficial for California forever. They talked about the kind of housing that they want to build, not specifically, but more generally, talking about how, you know, they want to provide housing for all residents of many different income brackets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>They talked a very big picture and made a lot of promises. And I think there were some people in the community who saw that and said, well, okay, I’m going to look further into this later on. And there were other people who heard that and said, this is really shady. They’re not telling us anything. What’s the deal here?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>Well, I mean, on that note, what was your sense of how people were responding to this presentation by California forever? Just generally, what how would you maybe characterize the mood?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>The mood was very skeptical. Anyone who was like supporting the project did so quietly. The California forever. People who are who are presenting this idea are very confident in their plan and they’re trying to sell it. Right. They’re trying to say like, hey, this is good for you, this is good for everyone. But that confident attitude was taken as arrogant and forceful by some in the audience.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>You know, the beginning of the meeting was informational and it was pretty tame. Then people were getting upset and they started yelling out questions and it got a little bit contentious. I could see Jan becoming, like, visibly aggravated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>I heard a lot of people at the meeting saying that, you know, look, we’re already competing for resources with other cities like water and electricity and even jobs. So why are you going to add a new city if things are already bad for us here? There were other people who are sort of like, why did you have a submit questions ahead of time if you really wanted to talk to us, like let’s talk now. You’re making all these big promises, but there’s no proven track record of what it’s actually going to do.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>So what happens when this fails? Like, are you going to leave us high and dry? I could feel these, like, old seeds of, like, maybe like betrayal or like just being promised big things too many times and those big promises not coming to fruition and people feeling like, you know, we’ve seen this song and dance before and we’re not having it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Coming up, we hear from residents about what they think of the plan and we hear directly from California forever. Stay with us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>I know you had a chance to speak to some of the people who went to the meeting to hear a little bit more about their perspectives. Tell me more about what those conversations were like.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>The first person I talked to was Paula Conley. And tell me how you’re feeling today.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Paula Conley: \u003c/strong>Well, I’m a native Vallejoen, and I’m very proud of our city, and it’s had a lot of disadvantages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>She actually was holding a sign. It was a little cardboard sign. And I think it said something like, leave Solano County forever. Paula had a lot of concerns. One of them was mainly about California forever’s attitude about the project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Paula Conley: \u003c/strong>But what bothers me is the incredible hubris of billionaires who think because they have money, they know everything and they can just come in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>You know, Paula was also really concerned about what happens if this fails. I mean, in Paula’s mind, just sort of like what happens when this fails. And she was kind of like, if this isn’t going to do anything for my town, why should I even support it?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Paula Conley: \u003c/strong>So we have a beautiful area. It’s not to say we don’t need development, but we have lots of towns struggling. And if you’ve got the money, help the people who are here. You’re talking about helping people. There’s people right here that need the help.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Did you talk with anyone who’s more open to this idea? Potentially.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>You know, I met Patrice Lewis. I actually saw her talking to one of the California Forever people. And she had like this notebook.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Patrice Lewis: \u003c/strong>A project like this is crucial and it’s going to be vital to Vallejo. And I’m just looking at how it’s going to be an event below because that’s my major concern here. So I’ve seen some things on the news.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>She kind of was like, either I can come to these meetings and engage in the process and try to tell them what I want or get left out entirely.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Patrice Lewis: \u003c/strong>I don’t know if I want to do anyway. They have the money. They already purchased the land. You know, I don’t want to go on to get along, but definitely be, you know, a voice in the room and be able to sit and listen and have a conversation so my city can get something. But also, like add to whatever the plan is going to be and to know what it looks like and not just be like totally against it, I guess.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>Yeah, Patrice is definitely one of those people who is sort of like optimistic that maybe things are going to happen, but also cautious and, you know, maybe a little bit realistic that like, they may not listen, but I have to do the best that I can.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sam Houston: \u003c/strong>My name is Sam Houston. Like the city. Oh, wow. Yeah.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>Yeah. Yeah. And where do you live?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sam Houston: \u003c/strong>I live here in Vallejo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>So there was one person who I talked to. His name is Sam Houston. How long have you all lived in Vallejo?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sam Houston: \u003c/strong>I’ve lived in Vallejo for five years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>Right now, his wife and him, they commute to San Francisco and spend two hours in traffic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sam Houston: \u003c/strong>Before that, I lived in Richmond and then lived in San Francisco. We’ve just kind of been progressively pushed out because of rent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>And I think they’ve been wondering if Solano County is a place where they can put down roots and they haven’t figured that out yet. You know.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sam Houston: \u003c/strong>My wife and I are building a family now, and so also thinking about the future. Like, where can people that live here, where can they work? Is there opportunity? Is there like a path to success for people here if there are really great jobs in this new city? How can people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>California forever makes a good pitch for someone like him. So Sam said that he is actually going to attend some more meetings and he’s going to keep an open mind about what this project could do for him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sam Houston: \u003c/strong>I’m open minded. I think part of the challenge for for the company is that they did acquire all this land in secret, and I understand why they did do it in secret. But it’s just hard to build trust by doing what they did, I guess. So they’re just kind of starting on the back foot, so to speak.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Well, Adhiti if the whole point of this meeting was to really engage with the community, I’m curious how representatives of California forever responded to some of what was said at the meeting, particularly this idea that, you know, have the Silicon Valley outsiders coming into a community they know absolutely nothing about and that there is some fear there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>Yeah. So the last person I talked to that night was Jan Sramek. I asked him like, how how did you respond? Like it seemed like people were really upset about this project. And he responded with this glowing confidence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jan Sramek: \u003c/strong>I’m excited that we are out in the community talking to people. I mean, obviously there are other people in the room who have strong opinions, but we think it’s important that they hear the story from us. And then some of them are…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>Basically was feeling really confident that he can win people over, that this project is a net good. And he also mentioned that, you know, while there are some loud opponents of the project, he said most people came up to him and said, actually, I’m pretty open minded about this and I think I could be on board with this kind of thing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jan Sramek: \u003c/strong>So many people came and said, you know, I know that some people are against it and very vocal about we are in favor of the project and we actually kind of feel stifled by the loud opposition to the project, which is making it difficult.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>And I asked him to you know, look, I have heard from multiple people who say like, you’re an outsider and you’re coming in and like, you don’t know the history of this place. And he sort of said like, you know, actually for the past several years, like I’ve been doing a lot of research on Solano County and Vallejo and all of the cities. And I know more than you think I know.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jan Sramek: \u003c/strong>There is a lot that we understand about the county and we didn’t invest money here lately. And so before we ever started investing, we did a lot of research on the county. We read a lot of historical documents. We’ve spoken to little people. We’ve done a lot of surveys. And so, actually, we do know more about the county than almost any other developer that would come in here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>There were people who are sort of like, this is not a good plan. While we agree that this kind of plan might be good for some people, we don’t like how you’re going about it and we don’t like what you’re about. And his response to that is. Fine. Then give me an alternative.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jan Sramek: \u003c/strong>There are very serious issues in Solano County that have been going on for a long time. And so overall, it’s a it’s a wonderful place to live. It’s in a great location. There’s there’s a lot of really great people and great communities. But there have been ongoing issues with housing affordability, with the lack of good paying local jobs. And so every time someone says, I don’t like your project, we say, okay, what’s your proposal for fixing these issues? Because it’s really easy to be a critic. It’s really hard to build something in the world today.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>I want to talk about what is ahead already. This is, of course, the first of a handful of town halls that California forever is hosting around the county. So what is the goal here?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>So there are five more stops all over the county, and the goal is to basically prime people for what’s to come ahead. Solano County has this policy that whenever they change the zoning in a particular district to build this kind of like dense urban development, that the voters need to approve it first. And voters are basically going to get a chance to decide whether they want to relax some of the restrictions on zoning that would make way for a dense urban project like this. There are a lot of steps before we’re actually going to see any like housing getting constructed here. So we have a long way to go.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Well, my last question for you already. I mean, there are fights about housing all over California all the time, but there is something that feels very different about this particular project, not just the fact that these are like tech billionaires and this like Silicon Valley element, but also the way that it’s like Silicon Valley sort of colliding with a place like Solano County, which I feel like can’t feel farther enough away from Silicon Valley. You know, so I’m curious how I guess this housing fight that you’re seeing here compares to other housing debates that you’ve seen or covered.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>You know, there’s like this disconnect. I think the people who live there who are like, I see what you’re saying, and I see how that would be good for some people, but I don’t see myself in that vision. That’s like not what I want. What’s more is that Solano County is one of the places where people who can’t find housing in the big cities are going out to to find housing there. And residents who already live there are already facing the pressures of like richer people moving in, driving up the housing prices like they’re already facing that. So when they see California for forever coming in and promising this big thing of even more change and potentially even more displacement, they’re really skeptical and honestly, really scared about it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Adhiti, thank you so much.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>Thanks for having me.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>That was Adhiti Bandlamudi, a housing reporter for KQED. This 42 minute conversation with Adhiti was cut down by producer Maria Esquinca. Allan Montecillo is our senior editor. He scored this episode and added all the tape. It was pitched by me. By the way, we did another episode that dives deeper into the Silicon Valley giants behind California forever. We actually talked to The New York Times reporter who broke that story. It’s a really good episode. So if you are a Solano County resident and you are curious to know more, I’ll give you a link to that in our show notes. The Bay is a production of member supported KQED in San Francisco. I’m Ericka Cruz Guevarra. Peace.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"#episode-transcript\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">View the full episode transcript.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">California Forever, the group of Silicon Valley investors and billionaires who want to build a new city from scratch in Solano County, are on something of a public relations campaign.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The group held its first town hall meeting in Vallejo on Wednesday night. And it will be the first of many — because if they really want to build a new city on the county’s outskirts, they’ll need to win over the hearts and minds of voters first. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\n\u003cp id=\"embed-code\" class=\"inconsolata\">\n\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm/?e=KQINC6493768949&light=true\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\n\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Links:\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>LISTEN: \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11959845/the-silicon-valley-giants-who-want-to-build-a-new-city-in-solano-county\">The Silicon Valley Giants Who Want to Build a New City in Solano County\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-content post-body\">\u003ch2 id=\"episode-transcript\">Episode Transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>I’m Ericka Cruz Guevarra and welcome to the bay. Local news to keep you rooted. Over the last few months, the Silicon Valley investors and billionaires who want to build a new city in Solano County have been gearing up for something of a public relations tour, an elevator pitch to the public. You see, for years, these Silicon Valley giants had been secretly buying up a bunch of land in Fairfield and Rio Vista. And nobody, not even the U.S. government, knew their identities. But ever since The New York Times revealed who they were and their plans, these investors who formed the group California Forever have some big questions to answer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem> \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cem>[Solana County voter]\u003c/em> I mean, ultimately, they need our approval, right? So I guess in other words, we’re kind of asking what’s in it for us?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>If they want to see their plans through California forever is going to have to win over the hearts and minds of Solano County voters. Today, KQED housing reporter Adhiti Bandlamudi, takes us to Vallejo. And inside the very first town hall between California forever and Solano County residents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>The meeting was at the Vallejo Naval and Historical Museum. To attend the meeting, you basically had to like reserve a seat through Eventbrite. It was 100% free. There were about like 50 people there. It wasn’t a full hall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Adhiti, who was at this meeting, or specifically representatives of California forever, who was there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>So there were actually quite a few people from California forever. Not the investors necessarily, but the staff. The main person who is like the face of this project, who was the only one who would talk on the record, was Jan Sramek, who’s the California forever’s CEO? Jan Sramek is really interesting. He was born in the Czech Republic. He was educated at the University of Cambridge and then like London School of Economics. It was trading for Goldman Sachs when he was like 22. He definitely has a lot of sway. And that Sway has gotten him a lot of investment from billionaires like LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, Stripe co-founders Patrick and John Collison. Andreessen Horowitz, founder Marc Andreessen and partner Chris Dixon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>So he definitely has a lot of influence. And this idea of building a city from scratch, this is really his idea, right? It is. Basically, the idea is pretty simple Build a walkable city where you can walk down the street and, you know, grab a cup of coffee, go to your work, and your work isn’t super far away. You know, in Solano County, a lot of the residents there travel two hours into the city or down to the peninsula or the South Bay. What Jan Sramek and the people at California forever are saying is, what if that wasn’t the case? What if we could also build the local economy out in farmland that we feel could be better used to serve the public?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Well, already this first meeting, as we were just saying, was in Vallejo, which, to be clear, is actually like nearly an hour away from the land that California forever plans or hopes to develop. So why does California forever seem to want Vallejo’s blessing in this as well?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>They’re going not only to Vallejo, but like, you know, Fairfield and Rio Vista. And the reason why is that the entire county has to vote to approve this project. And so they really can’t just to concentrate their efforts to where it really will be. They have to get everybody’s buy in. Audie, what did California forever share with Solano County residents at this meeting about their plans so far? The meeting started by basically introducing who is backing this. Where is this money coming from? And while the names of, you know, LinkedIn executives and Stripe executives are very interesting and impressive to a certain demographic in the Bay Area, to some people, they don’t really mean much. They just mean money.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>What they did talk about is water rights, where they’re getting water from. So they answered that they actually have their own water source and that’s going to be fine. They won’t have to siphon it off from another city transportation. The project is close to Highway 12, which is super heavily congested. It’s also one of the deadliest highways. And they talked about plans to potentially widen it or make it, you know, beneficial for all of Solano County while also being beneficial for California forever. They talked about the kind of housing that they want to build, not specifically, but more generally, talking about how, you know, they want to provide housing for all residents of many different income brackets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>They talked a very big picture and made a lot of promises. And I think there were some people in the community who saw that and said, well, okay, I’m going to look further into this later on. And there were other people who heard that and said, this is really shady. They’re not telling us anything. What’s the deal here?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>Well, I mean, on that note, what was your sense of how people were responding to this presentation by California forever? Just generally, what how would you maybe characterize the mood?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>The mood was very skeptical. Anyone who was like supporting the project did so quietly. The California forever. People who are who are presenting this idea are very confident in their plan and they’re trying to sell it. Right. They’re trying to say like, hey, this is good for you, this is good for everyone. But that confident attitude was taken as arrogant and forceful by some in the audience.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>You know, the beginning of the meeting was informational and it was pretty tame. Then people were getting upset and they started yelling out questions and it got a little bit contentious. I could see Jan becoming, like, visibly aggravated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>I heard a lot of people at the meeting saying that, you know, look, we’re already competing for resources with other cities like water and electricity and even jobs. So why are you going to add a new city if things are already bad for us here? There were other people who are sort of like, why did you have a submit questions ahead of time if you really wanted to talk to us, like let’s talk now. You’re making all these big promises, but there’s no proven track record of what it’s actually going to do.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>So what happens when this fails? Like, are you going to leave us high and dry? I could feel these, like, old seeds of, like, maybe like betrayal or like just being promised big things too many times and those big promises not coming to fruition and people feeling like, you know, we’ve seen this song and dance before and we’re not having it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Coming up, we hear from residents about what they think of the plan and we hear directly from California forever. Stay with us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>I know you had a chance to speak to some of the people who went to the meeting to hear a little bit more about their perspectives. Tell me more about what those conversations were like.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>The first person I talked to was Paula Conley. And tell me how you’re feeling today.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Paula Conley: \u003c/strong>Well, I’m a native Vallejoen, and I’m very proud of our city, and it’s had a lot of disadvantages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>She actually was holding a sign. It was a little cardboard sign. And I think it said something like, leave Solano County forever. Paula had a lot of concerns. One of them was mainly about California forever’s attitude about the project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Paula Conley: \u003c/strong>But what bothers me is the incredible hubris of billionaires who think because they have money, they know everything and they can just come in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>You know, Paula was also really concerned about what happens if this fails. I mean, in Paula’s mind, just sort of like what happens when this fails. And she was kind of like, if this isn’t going to do anything for my town, why should I even support it?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Paula Conley: \u003c/strong>So we have a beautiful area. It’s not to say we don’t need development, but we have lots of towns struggling. And if you’ve got the money, help the people who are here. You’re talking about helping people. There’s people right here that need the help.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Did you talk with anyone who’s more open to this idea? Potentially.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>You know, I met Patrice Lewis. I actually saw her talking to one of the California Forever people. And she had like this notebook.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Patrice Lewis: \u003c/strong>A project like this is crucial and it’s going to be vital to Vallejo. And I’m just looking at how it’s going to be an event below because that’s my major concern here. So I’ve seen some things on the news.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>She kind of was like, either I can come to these meetings and engage in the process and try to tell them what I want or get left out entirely.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Patrice Lewis: \u003c/strong>I don’t know if I want to do anyway. They have the money. They already purchased the land. You know, I don’t want to go on to get along, but definitely be, you know, a voice in the room and be able to sit and listen and have a conversation so my city can get something. But also, like add to whatever the plan is going to be and to know what it looks like and not just be like totally against it, I guess.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>Yeah, Patrice is definitely one of those people who is sort of like optimistic that maybe things are going to happen, but also cautious and, you know, maybe a little bit realistic that like, they may not listen, but I have to do the best that I can.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sam Houston: \u003c/strong>My name is Sam Houston. Like the city. Oh, wow. Yeah.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>Yeah. Yeah. And where do you live?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sam Houston: \u003c/strong>I live here in Vallejo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>So there was one person who I talked to. His name is Sam Houston. How long have you all lived in Vallejo?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sam Houston: \u003c/strong>I’ve lived in Vallejo for five years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>Right now, his wife and him, they commute to San Francisco and spend two hours in traffic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sam Houston: \u003c/strong>Before that, I lived in Richmond and then lived in San Francisco. We’ve just kind of been progressively pushed out because of rent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>And I think they’ve been wondering if Solano County is a place where they can put down roots and they haven’t figured that out yet. You know.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sam Houston: \u003c/strong>My wife and I are building a family now, and so also thinking about the future. Like, where can people that live here, where can they work? Is there opportunity? Is there like a path to success for people here if there are really great jobs in this new city? How can people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>California forever makes a good pitch for someone like him. So Sam said that he is actually going to attend some more meetings and he’s going to keep an open mind about what this project could do for him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sam Houston: \u003c/strong>I’m open minded. I think part of the challenge for for the company is that they did acquire all this land in secret, and I understand why they did do it in secret. But it’s just hard to build trust by doing what they did, I guess. So they’re just kind of starting on the back foot, so to speak.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Well, Adhiti if the whole point of this meeting was to really engage with the community, I’m curious how representatives of California forever responded to some of what was said at the meeting, particularly this idea that, you know, have the Silicon Valley outsiders coming into a community they know absolutely nothing about and that there is some fear there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>Yeah. So the last person I talked to that night was Jan Sramek. I asked him like, how how did you respond? Like it seemed like people were really upset about this project. And he responded with this glowing confidence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jan Sramek: \u003c/strong>I’m excited that we are out in the community talking to people. I mean, obviously there are other people in the room who have strong opinions, but we think it’s important that they hear the story from us. And then some of them are…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>Basically was feeling really confident that he can win people over, that this project is a net good. And he also mentioned that, you know, while there are some loud opponents of the project, he said most people came up to him and said, actually, I’m pretty open minded about this and I think I could be on board with this kind of thing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jan Sramek: \u003c/strong>So many people came and said, you know, I know that some people are against it and very vocal about we are in favor of the project and we actually kind of feel stifled by the loud opposition to the project, which is making it difficult.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>And I asked him to you know, look, I have heard from multiple people who say like, you’re an outsider and you’re coming in and like, you don’t know the history of this place. And he sort of said like, you know, actually for the past several years, like I’ve been doing a lot of research on Solano County and Vallejo and all of the cities. And I know more than you think I know.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jan Sramek: \u003c/strong>There is a lot that we understand about the county and we didn’t invest money here lately. And so before we ever started investing, we did a lot of research on the county. We read a lot of historical documents. We’ve spoken to little people. We’ve done a lot of surveys. And so, actually, we do know more about the county than almost any other developer that would come in here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>There were people who are sort of like, this is not a good plan. While we agree that this kind of plan might be good for some people, we don’t like how you’re going about it and we don’t like what you’re about. And his response to that is. Fine. Then give me an alternative.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jan Sramek: \u003c/strong>There are very serious issues in Solano County that have been going on for a long time. And so overall, it’s a it’s a wonderful place to live. It’s in a great location. There’s there’s a lot of really great people and great communities. But there have been ongoing issues with housing affordability, with the lack of good paying local jobs. And so every time someone says, I don’t like your project, we say, okay, what’s your proposal for fixing these issues? Because it’s really easy to be a critic. It’s really hard to build something in the world today.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>I want to talk about what is ahead already. This is, of course, the first of a handful of town halls that California forever is hosting around the county. So what is the goal here?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>So there are five more stops all over the county, and the goal is to basically prime people for what’s to come ahead. Solano County has this policy that whenever they change the zoning in a particular district to build this kind of like dense urban development, that the voters need to approve it first. And voters are basically going to get a chance to decide whether they want to relax some of the restrictions on zoning that would make way for a dense urban project like this. There are a lot of steps before we’re actually going to see any like housing getting constructed here. So we have a long way to go.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Well, my last question for you already. I mean, there are fights about housing all over California all the time, but there is something that feels very different about this particular project, not just the fact that these are like tech billionaires and this like Silicon Valley element, but also the way that it’s like Silicon Valley sort of colliding with a place like Solano County, which I feel like can’t feel farther enough away from Silicon Valley. You know, so I’m curious how I guess this housing fight that you’re seeing here compares to other housing debates that you’ve seen or covered.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>You know, there’s like this disconnect. I think the people who live there who are like, I see what you’re saying, and I see how that would be good for some people, but I don’t see myself in that vision. That’s like not what I want. What’s more is that Solano County is one of the places where people who can’t find housing in the big cities are going out to to find housing there. And residents who already live there are already facing the pressures of like richer people moving in, driving up the housing prices like they’re already facing that. So when they see California for forever coming in and promising this big thing of even more change and potentially even more displacement, they’re really skeptical and honestly, really scared about it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Adhiti, thank you so much.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>Thanks for having me.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>That was Adhiti Bandlamudi, a housing reporter for KQED. This 42 minute conversation with Adhiti was cut down by producer Maria Esquinca. Allan Montecillo is our senior editor. He scored this episode and added all the tape. It was pitched by me. By the way, we did another episode that dives deeper into the Silicon Valley giants behind California forever. We actually talked to The New York Times reporter who broke that story. It’s a really good episode. So if you are a Solano County resident and you are curious to know more, I’ll give you a link to that in our show notes. The Bay is a production of member supported KQED in San Francisco. I’m Ericka Cruz Guevarra. Peace.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>"
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"content": "\u003cp>The parent company of Instagram and Facebook has sued the Federal Trade Commission in an attempt to stop the agency from reopening a 2020 privacy settlement with the company that would prohibit it from profiting from data it collects on users under 18.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a lawsuit filed late Wednesday in federal court in Washington, D.C., Meta Platforms Inc. said it is challenging “the structurally unconstitutional authority exercised by the FTC” in reopening the privacy agreement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"U.S. Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.)\"]‘In the face of a potentially massive fine, Meta’s adoption of extreme, right-wing legal theories to challenge our country’s premier consumer protection agency reeks of desperation.’[/pullquote]“Meta respectfully requests that this Court declare that certain fundamental aspects of the Commission’s structure violate the U.S. Constitution, and that these violations render unlawful the FTC Proceeding against Meta,” the company says in its complaint.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The dispute stems from a \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/general-news-7fa2c8a26b34436d89a1c7aff9914f70\">2020 consent agreement\u003c/a> Meta made with the FTC that also had the social media giant pay a record $5 billion fine over privacy violations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In May of this year, the FTC said Meta \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/facebook-kids-messenger-ftc-privacy-children-6158aa59dee25c473e49f7df16f502ec\">failed to fully comply with the 2020 settlement\u003c/a> and proposed sweeping changes to the agreement, including barring Meta from making money from data it collects on minors. This would include data collected through its virtual-reality products.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The FTC had no comment on the lawsuit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_11965392 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/GettyImages-1440405373-1020x734.jpg']Meta’s complaint came after the U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative majority on Wednesday \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/supreme-court-regulatory-agencies-sec-enforcement-c3a3cae2f4bc5f53dd6a23e99d3a1fac\">seemed open to a challenge\u003c/a> to how the Securities and Exchange Commission fights fraud in a case that could have far-reaching effects on other regulatory agencies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A majority of the nine-member court suggested that people accused of fraud by the SEC should have the right to have their cases decided by a jury in federal court, instead of by the SEC’s in-house administrative law judges, echoing elements of Meta’s lawsuit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>U.S. Sen. Edward Markey, a frequent critic of Meta and other Big Tech companies, called Meta’s lawsuit a “weak attempt to avoid accountability.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In the face of a potentially massive fine, Meta’s adoption of extreme, right-wing legal theories to challenge our country’s premier consumer protection agency reeks of desperation,” Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, said in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“Meta respectfully requests that this Court declare that certain fundamental aspects of the Commission’s structure violate the U.S. Constitution, and that these violations render unlawful the FTC Proceeding against Meta,” the company says in its complaint.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The dispute stems from a \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/general-news-7fa2c8a26b34436d89a1c7aff9914f70\">2020 consent agreement\u003c/a> Meta made with the FTC that also had the social media giant pay a record $5 billion fine over privacy violations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In May of this year, the FTC said Meta \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/facebook-kids-messenger-ftc-privacy-children-6158aa59dee25c473e49f7df16f502ec\">failed to fully comply with the 2020 settlement\u003c/a> and proposed sweeping changes to the agreement, including barring Meta from making money from data it collects on minors. This would include data collected through its virtual-reality products.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The FTC had no comment on the lawsuit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Meta’s complaint came after the U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative majority on Wednesday \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/supreme-court-regulatory-agencies-sec-enforcement-c3a3cae2f4bc5f53dd6a23e99d3a1fac\">seemed open to a challenge\u003c/a> to how the Securities and Exchange Commission fights fraud in a case that could have far-reaching effects on other regulatory agencies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A majority of the nine-member court suggested that people accused of fraud by the SEC should have the right to have their cases decided by a jury in federal court, instead of by the SEC’s in-house administrative law judges, echoing elements of Meta’s lawsuit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>U.S. Sen. Edward Markey, a frequent critic of Meta and other Big Tech companies, called Meta’s lawsuit a “weak attempt to avoid accountability.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In the face of a potentially massive fine, Meta’s adoption of extreme, right-wing legal theories to challenge our country’s premier consumer protection agency reeks of desperation,” Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, said in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>OpenAI’s board of directors’ abruptly firing CEO Sam Altman then bringing him back days later did not come out of nowhere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fact, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/11/17/1213892587/chatgpt-open-ai-ceo-sam-altman-ousted\">boardroom drama\u003c/a> represented the boiling over of tensions that have long simmered under the surface of the company.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Following days of upheaval, Altman is \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/11/22/1214621010/openai-reinstates-sam-altman-as-its-chief-executive\">again leading the company\u003c/a> and a newly-formed board of directors is charting the path ahead, but the chaos at OpenAI can be traced back to the unusual way the company was structured.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>OpenAI was founded in 2015 by Altman, Elon Musk and others as a nonprofit research lab. It was almost like an anti-Big Tech company; it would prioritize principles over profit. It wanted to, as OpenAI \u003ca href=\"https://openai.com/blog/introducing-openai\">put it\u003c/a> back then, develop AI tools that would “benefit humanity as a whole, unconstrained by a need to generate financial return.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But in 2018, two things happened: First, Musk quit the board of OpenAI after he said he invested $50 million, cutting the then-unknown company off from more of the entrepreneur’s crucial financial backing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And secondly, OpenAI’s leaders grew increasingly aware that developing and maintaining advanced artificial intelligence models required an immense amount of computing power, which was incredibly expensive.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Balancing ideals with the need for funding\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>A year after Musk left, OpenAI created a for-profit arm. Technically, it is what’s known as a “capped profit” entity, which means investors’ possible profits are capped at a certain amount. Any remaining money is re-invested in the company.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet the nonprofit’s board and mission still governed the company, creating two competing tribes within OpenAI: adherents to the serve-humanity-and-not-shareholders credo and those who subscribed to the more traditional Silicon Valley modus operandi of using investor money to release consumer products into the world as rapidly as possible in hopes of cornering a market and becoming an industry pacesetter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Altman, a 38-year-old techno-optimist who previously led the prestigious startup accelerator Y Combinator, tried to thread the needle between the two approaches. He struck something of a middle ground by unveiling new OpenAI tools gradually, first to smaller groups, then larger ones, to fine-tune and refine the tools before making them public.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>ChatGPT’s success attracts Big Tech money\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>When OpenAI kicked off a seismic shift in the tech industry with its\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/12/19/1143912956/chatgpt-ai-chatbot-homework-academia\"> launch of ChatGPT\u003c/a> last year, the company’s most prominent investor, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/03/02/1159895892/ai-microsoft-bing-chatbot\">Microsoft\u003c/a>, greatly increased its financial stake. It upped its commitment to OpenAI to the tune of $13 billion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Microsoft became the financial engine that powered OpenAI, but the nonprofit’s board of directors still called all the shots. Despite Microsoft’s sizable investment, it did not have a seat on OpenAI’s board.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All of this set the stage for Altman’s sudden ouster from the company earlier this month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The board itself has still not explained why it fired Altman — beyond saying, in vague terms, that it believed Altman had not been “consistently candid in his communications with the board.” And the company’s structure gives the board that right: it has complete, unchecked power to remove the CEO whenever it sees fit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=forum_2010101891581,mindshift_62317 label='Chat GPT']Sources close to the discussions say before Altman’s termination, he had been at odds with members of the board over the hasty commercialization of OpenAI products. Board members worried whether Altman was considering the risks of AI products seriously enough, or just trying to maintain the company’s dominant position in the crowded and competitive world of generative AI development.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The dangers of powerful AI range from supercharging the spread of disinformation, massive job loss and human impersonation exploited by bad actors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The question was: Did Altman abandon OpenAI’s founding principles to try to scale up the company and sign up customers as fast as possible? And, if so, did that make him unsuited to helm a nonprofit created to develop AI products “free from financial obligations”?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Whatever its reasoning, there was nothing Microsoft, or any company executive, could do when the board moved to jettison Altman. The dramatic gesture, and then reversal, illustrated the tension at the heart of OpenAI’s structure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An \u003ca href=\"https://gist.github.com/matthewlilley/96ad6208d39b14c7e133ac456680fd2d\">anonymous letter \u003c/a>written by former OpenAI employees during the Altman drama called on the board to examine whether Altman was putting commercial products and fundraising goals before the nonprofit’s founding mission.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We implore you, the Board of Directors, to remain steadfast in your commitment to OpenAI’s original mission and not succumb to the pressures of profit-driven interests,” the letter states. “The future of artificial intelligence and the well-being of humanity depend on your unwavering commitment to ethical leadership and transparency.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>An uneasy resolution\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>OpenAI’s board at first refused to entertain the possibility of Altman returning, but then something happened they could not ignore: 702 out of OpenAI’s 770 employees \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/11/20/technology/letter-to-the-open-ai-board.html\">committed to leaving\u003c/a> the company unless Altman was restored. The employees also asked that a new board be assembled. It was, and Altman was restored as CEO not long after.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Just one former board member sits on the new, temporary board: Adam D’Angelo, the CEO of the question-and-answer site Quora. He had voted for Altman’s ouster.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Others, who are familiar to Silicon Valley boards, have taken seats alongside him. They include Bret Taylor, a longtime Silicon Valley executive and former chairman of the board of Twitter, and former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_11966824,news_11904502,news_11747046,news_11738391]As it stands, OpenAI’s \u003ca href=\"https://openai.com/charter\">charter\u003c/a> says it is committed to the development of artificial general intelligence, also known as AGI, or a type of AI superintelligence that can outperform humans, that will not “harm humanity or unduly concentrate power.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But success in Silicon Valley almost always requires massive scale and the concentration of power — something that allowed OpenAI’s biggest funder, Microsoft, to become one of the most valuable companies in the world. It is hard to imagine Microsoft would invest $13 billion into a company believing it would not one day have an unmovable foothold in the sector.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under the board’s current mission, developing AI systems should be undertaken with the main goal of benefiting all of humanity, with no regard to ever turning a profit for outside investors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet the for-profit entity of OpenAI will continue to recruit moneyed enthusiasts who want in on the AI goldrush. The two sides are at cross purposes, with no clear way to co-exist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new board is expected to grow and include a representative from Microsoft. Among the board’s tasks: taking a hard look at OpenAI’s structure. Does the hybrid model create too much friction? Or is there a way to forge ahead with a middle-of-the-road approach?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>OpenAI’s board of directors’ abruptly firing CEO Sam Altman then bringing him back days later did not come out of nowhere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fact, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/11/17/1213892587/chatgpt-open-ai-ceo-sam-altman-ousted\">boardroom drama\u003c/a> represented the boiling over of tensions that have long simmered under the surface of the company.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Following days of upheaval, Altman is \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/11/22/1214621010/openai-reinstates-sam-altman-as-its-chief-executive\">again leading the company\u003c/a> and a newly-formed board of directors is charting the path ahead, but the chaos at OpenAI can be traced back to the unusual way the company was structured.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>OpenAI was founded in 2015 by Altman, Elon Musk and others as a nonprofit research lab. It was almost like an anti-Big Tech company; it would prioritize principles over profit. It wanted to, as OpenAI \u003ca href=\"https://openai.com/blog/introducing-openai\">put it\u003c/a> back then, develop AI tools that would “benefit humanity as a whole, unconstrained by a need to generate financial return.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But in 2018, two things happened: First, Musk quit the board of OpenAI after he said he invested $50 million, cutting the then-unknown company off from more of the entrepreneur’s crucial financial backing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And secondly, OpenAI’s leaders grew increasingly aware that developing and maintaining advanced artificial intelligence models required an immense amount of computing power, which was incredibly expensive.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Balancing ideals with the need for funding\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>A year after Musk left, OpenAI created a for-profit arm. Technically, it is what’s known as a “capped profit” entity, which means investors’ possible profits are capped at a certain amount. Any remaining money is re-invested in the company.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet the nonprofit’s board and mission still governed the company, creating two competing tribes within OpenAI: adherents to the serve-humanity-and-not-shareholders credo and those who subscribed to the more traditional Silicon Valley modus operandi of using investor money to release consumer products into the world as rapidly as possible in hopes of cornering a market and becoming an industry pacesetter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Altman, a 38-year-old techno-optimist who previously led the prestigious startup accelerator Y Combinator, tried to thread the needle between the two approaches. He struck something of a middle ground by unveiling new OpenAI tools gradually, first to smaller groups, then larger ones, to fine-tune and refine the tools before making them public.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>ChatGPT’s success attracts Big Tech money\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>When OpenAI kicked off a seismic shift in the tech industry with its\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/12/19/1143912956/chatgpt-ai-chatbot-homework-academia\"> launch of ChatGPT\u003c/a> last year, the company’s most prominent investor, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/03/02/1159895892/ai-microsoft-bing-chatbot\">Microsoft\u003c/a>, greatly increased its financial stake. It upped its commitment to OpenAI to the tune of $13 billion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Microsoft became the financial engine that powered OpenAI, but the nonprofit’s board of directors still called all the shots. Despite Microsoft’s sizable investment, it did not have a seat on OpenAI’s board.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All of this set the stage for Altman’s sudden ouster from the company earlier this month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The board itself has still not explained why it fired Altman — beyond saying, in vague terms, that it believed Altman had not been “consistently candid in his communications with the board.” And the company’s structure gives the board that right: it has complete, unchecked power to remove the CEO whenever it sees fit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Sources close to the discussions say before Altman’s termination, he had been at odds with members of the board over the hasty commercialization of OpenAI products. Board members worried whether Altman was considering the risks of AI products seriously enough, or just trying to maintain the company’s dominant position in the crowded and competitive world of generative AI development.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The dangers of powerful AI range from supercharging the spread of disinformation, massive job loss and human impersonation exploited by bad actors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The question was: Did Altman abandon OpenAI’s founding principles to try to scale up the company and sign up customers as fast as possible? And, if so, did that make him unsuited to helm a nonprofit created to develop AI products “free from financial obligations”?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Whatever its reasoning, there was nothing Microsoft, or any company executive, could do when the board moved to jettison Altman. The dramatic gesture, and then reversal, illustrated the tension at the heart of OpenAI’s structure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An \u003ca href=\"https://gist.github.com/matthewlilley/96ad6208d39b14c7e133ac456680fd2d\">anonymous letter \u003c/a>written by former OpenAI employees during the Altman drama called on the board to examine whether Altman was putting commercial products and fundraising goals before the nonprofit’s founding mission.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We implore you, the Board of Directors, to remain steadfast in your commitment to OpenAI’s original mission and not succumb to the pressures of profit-driven interests,” the letter states. “The future of artificial intelligence and the well-being of humanity depend on your unwavering commitment to ethical leadership and transparency.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>An uneasy resolution\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>OpenAI’s board at first refused to entertain the possibility of Altman returning, but then something happened they could not ignore: 702 out of OpenAI’s 770 employees \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/11/20/technology/letter-to-the-open-ai-board.html\">committed to leaving\u003c/a> the company unless Altman was restored. The employees also asked that a new board be assembled. It was, and Altman was restored as CEO not long after.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Just one former board member sits on the new, temporary board: Adam D’Angelo, the CEO of the question-and-answer site Quora. He had voted for Altman’s ouster.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Others, who are familiar to Silicon Valley boards, have taken seats alongside him. They include Bret Taylor, a longtime Silicon Valley executive and former chairman of the board of Twitter, and former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>As it stands, OpenAI’s \u003ca href=\"https://openai.com/charter\">charter\u003c/a> says it is committed to the development of artificial general intelligence, also known as AGI, or a type of AI superintelligence that can outperform humans, that will not “harm humanity or unduly concentrate power.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But success in Silicon Valley almost always requires massive scale and the concentration of power — something that allowed OpenAI’s biggest funder, Microsoft, to become one of the most valuable companies in the world. It is hard to imagine Microsoft would invest $13 billion into a company believing it would not one day have an unmovable foothold in the sector.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under the board’s current mission, developing AI systems should be undertaken with the main goal of benefiting all of humanity, with no regard to ever turning a profit for outside investors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet the for-profit entity of OpenAI will continue to recruit moneyed enthusiasts who want in on the AI goldrush. The two sides are at cross purposes, with no clear way to co-exist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new board is expected to grow and include a representative from Microsoft. Among the board’s tasks: taking a hard look at OpenAI’s structure. Does the hybrid model create too much friction? Or is there a way to forge ahead with a middle-of-the-road approach?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>For over a month, Vallejo resident Hannah Brannan has been intensively monitoring the social media accounts of her mentees and colleagues in Gaza.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’d constantly just be refreshing. ‘Okay, is this person alive? Have they been on Twitter or on Facebook?’” said Brannan, a software engineer who volunteers with \u003ca href=\"https://gazaskygeeks.com/\">Gaza Sky Geeks\u003c/a>, a program started in 2011 that provides mentorship opportunities to aspiring tech workers in the enclave. “And the moment that [the] internet really started crashing — it’s just devastating because you know that they’re in active danger and you can’t do anything.”[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Hannah Brannan, Gaza Sky Geeks volunteer\"]‘It’s definitely spotty and not reliable and not consistent and not the default match for people’s technologies, but it’s something.’[/pullquote]Brannan, the founder of \u003ca href=\"https://www.gatherflora.com/home\">Gather Flora\u003c/a>, an online marketplace connecting florists with local growers, got involved with the program five years ago and has traveled to Gaza several times since then.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Gaza is a place that teaches you life and hope like no other,” she said. It “teaches you to see the joy because they are not always offered that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brannan said she recently received a harrowing video message from Mahmood Khwaiter, a Gaza Sky Geeks staffer who, until recently, lived in Gaza City before evacuating to the south.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s no place to go. Gaza is all in danger,” Khwaiter said in the video, sent on Oct. 14 while he was still in Gaza City, during the first week of Israel’s aerial bombardment. “It’s been 24 hours without electricity and water, without food, without anything. So remember me. Remember my family.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brannan describes Khwaiter as an incredible human being — and said his message was heartbreaking to hear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11967633/heres-where-bay-area-electeds-stand-on-israels-siege-of-gaza\">the Israeli siege of Gaza now well into its second month\u003c/a>, and the Palestinian death toll topping 11,000, according to Gazan health officials, Brannan is one of many volunteers involved in an international effort to send electronic SIM cards to Gaza residents. eSIMs, as they’re known, can be transferred digitally through either QR or manual codes that enable recipients to \u003ca href=\"https://www.marketplace.org/shows/marketplace-tech/israel-hamas-war-esims-gazans/\">activate cell phone plans on mobile networks\u003c/a> and retain internet access when it’s otherwise unavailable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The resource, according to \u003ca href=\"https://www.accessnow.org/press-release/reverse-total-communications-blackout-gaza/\">digital civil rights nonprofit Access Now\u003c/a>, can be a crucial lifeline to the hundreds of thousands of displaced people in Gaza, where dwindling resources and badly damaged or \u003ca href=\"https://www.wired.com/story/israel-gaza-internet-blackouts-weapon/\">destroyed telecommunication lines\u003c/a> have resulted in severely limited \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/paltelco/status/1725159705796821048?s=11&t=nPTZi5KB-HdtJJFWSpgeMA\">phone and internet access\u003c/a>. According to the UN, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.ochaopt.org/content/hostilities-gaza-strip-and-israel-flash-update-4\">Israeli military has targeted \u003c/a>this civilian infrastructure, a move that Access Now called a “\u003ca href=\"https://www.accessnow.org/press-release/reverse-total-communications-blackout-gaza/\">human rights violation\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last week, when PalTel, the Palestinian telecommunications company, \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/paltelco/status/1725159705796821048?s=11&t=nPTZi5KB-HdtJJFWSpgeMA\">announced it was about to run out of fuel\u003c/a> amid the ongoing Israeli blockade — prompting a short telecommunications blackout — Brannan and other volunteers went into overdrive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/Paltelco/status/1725159705796821048\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s “why we’re kind of trying to get round-the-clock volunteer efforts on getting people connected to (eSIMs), because, in theory, with that, you seem to be able to have hotspots from international networks,” said Brannan, who recently formed a new group devoted to the effort, called \u003ca href=\"https://www.gaza.online/\">Gaza Online\u003c/a>. “It’s definitely spotty and not reliable and not consistent and not the default match for people’s technologies, but it’s something.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brannan said that as of Saturday morning, Gaza Online volunteers had received nearly 1,000 requests for eSIMs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Iliana Montauk, a Berkeley resident who joined Gaza Sky Geeks in 2013 and has since visited the enclave several times, says she found a community of creative entrepreneurs and technologists in Gaza with impressive visions despite their often fragile circumstances. On one trip, she recalls being pitched on an extensive range of projects, everything from a video game embedded in Arab culture to an e-commerce website for Arab moms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“(We) had 60 founders in the space all pitching their ideas to me and asking me for help preparing for their pitches to investors,” Montauk said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most cafes and homes had WiFi, and co-working spaces were everywhere, she said. That’s in part due to the sorely outdated telecommunications infrastructure in Gaza, where \u003ca href=\"https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/30/israeli-restrictions-leave-palestinians-facing-digital-divide\">any major upgrade projects must first be approved by Israel\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Palestinians were some of the first to get online and be connected on social networking and all of that because their people are starving for some connection to the outside world,” Montauk said. “As soon as email and social networks were available, [Palestinians] got onto it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11968030\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2048px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/11/IMG-20220510-WA0021.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11968030\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/11/IMG-20220510-WA0021.jpg\" alt=\"A group of women, mostly wearing headscarves, sit at a long table.\" width=\"2048\" height=\"1536\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/11/IMG-20220510-WA0021.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/11/IMG-20220510-WA0021-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/11/IMG-20220510-WA0021-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/11/IMG-20220510-WA0021-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/11/IMG-20220510-WA0021-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/11/IMG-20220510-WA0021-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2048px) 100vw, 2048px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Iliana Montauk (front), the co-founder of Manara, with participants of her program in Gaza in 2022. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Manara)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>When she visited Gaza, electricity was only available about four hours a day, further limiting connection, Montauk said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s just been a limit to how much electricity Gaza can provide for itself internally,” she said. “I’ll be working with people online, and they’ll be sitting in darkness because their electricity will get shut off, but they’ll have their WiFi attached to [battery] power and their laptop charged up so that they can keep working.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Participants in her program would also just keep working through whatever unrest was going on at the time, Montauk said, recalling how “you could hear bombing in the background” during previous escalations.[aside label=\"More Israel-Gaza Coverage\" tag=\"gaza\"]Montauk remembers how on her first day in Gaza — in 2013 — “there were sonic booms overhead from Israeli warplanes, and we were putting safety glass up in the windows and preparing an evacuation plan.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since then, Montauk has helped launch Manara — which means lighthouse in Arabic — a startup aimed at connecting tech companies to talented prospects in the Middle East & North Africa, \u003ca href=\"https://old.manara.tech/about-us\">with a specific focus on women and Palestinians\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>About 80 engineers in Gaza are involved in Manara’s community, including ones who are still in training and others who are working remotely for international companies. Many of them have lost their homes and entire neighborhoods in recent weeks and need eSIMS to stay connected, Montauk said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hailey Yoon, a Manara mentor based in Dubai, has been leading the effort to contact the engineers and their families in Gaza and help send them eSIMS.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If we really put into realistic words, I was checking if everybody was dead or alive, every day,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The eSIMS delivery process has required tireless experimenting, with Manara community members still trying to determine where eSIMs work best in Gaza and which formats are most effective.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yoon said the Manara community is doing its best to keep tabs on the location of its eSIMs recipients by monitoring messenger apps like Telegram and WhatsApp to see when users were last online — and check where their eSIM cards have been activated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/Mirna_elhelbawi/status/1726267541914333561\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because of the logistical complexities, Yoon recommends that people interested in helping donate an eSIM card to an organization rather than trying to activate one themselves. Manara recently sent out \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/Czsd5y2IBzQ/?hl=en\">a call for eSIMS in Qatar\u003c/a>, while Egyptian journalist Mirna El Helbawi has been a key organizer \u003ca href=\"https://www.marketplace.org/shows/marketplace-tech/israel-hamas-war-esims-gazans/\">spearheading pools for eSIMs donations on social media\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, in the Bay Area, Brannan refers people to \u003ca href=\"https://airtable.com/appW9GG5fusT5uquf/shrIl8AYyjzaEHLOL\">a form used by groups to organize donations\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said sending eSIMS to Gazans is one way to stand up for their basic liberties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s the ability to connect with loved ones,” she said. “The ability to tell your story.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Correction (Nov. 21): The original version of this story stated that Gaza Sky Geeks was co-founded in 2011 by Iliana Montauk. Rather, Montauk joined the group in 2013.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>For over a month, Vallejo resident Hannah Brannan has been intensively monitoring the social media accounts of her mentees and colleagues in Gaza.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’d constantly just be refreshing. ‘Okay, is this person alive? Have they been on Twitter or on Facebook?’” said Brannan, a software engineer who volunteers with \u003ca href=\"https://gazaskygeeks.com/\">Gaza Sky Geeks\u003c/a>, a program started in 2011 that provides mentorship opportunities to aspiring tech workers in the enclave. “And the moment that [the] internet really started crashing — it’s just devastating because you know that they’re in active danger and you can’t do anything.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Brannan, the founder of \u003ca href=\"https://www.gatherflora.com/home\">Gather Flora\u003c/a>, an online marketplace connecting florists with local growers, got involved with the program five years ago and has traveled to Gaza several times since then.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Gaza is a place that teaches you life and hope like no other,” she said. It “teaches you to see the joy because they are not always offered that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brannan said she recently received a harrowing video message from Mahmood Khwaiter, a Gaza Sky Geeks staffer who, until recently, lived in Gaza City before evacuating to the south.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s no place to go. Gaza is all in danger,” Khwaiter said in the video, sent on Oct. 14 while he was still in Gaza City, during the first week of Israel’s aerial bombardment. “It’s been 24 hours without electricity and water, without food, without anything. So remember me. Remember my family.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brannan describes Khwaiter as an incredible human being — and said his message was heartbreaking to hear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11967633/heres-where-bay-area-electeds-stand-on-israels-siege-of-gaza\">the Israeli siege of Gaza now well into its second month\u003c/a>, and the Palestinian death toll topping 11,000, according to Gazan health officials, Brannan is one of many volunteers involved in an international effort to send electronic SIM cards to Gaza residents. eSIMs, as they’re known, can be transferred digitally through either QR or manual codes that enable recipients to \u003ca href=\"https://www.marketplace.org/shows/marketplace-tech/israel-hamas-war-esims-gazans/\">activate cell phone plans on mobile networks\u003c/a> and retain internet access when it’s otherwise unavailable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The resource, according to \u003ca href=\"https://www.accessnow.org/press-release/reverse-total-communications-blackout-gaza/\">digital civil rights nonprofit Access Now\u003c/a>, can be a crucial lifeline to the hundreds of thousands of displaced people in Gaza, where dwindling resources and badly damaged or \u003ca href=\"https://www.wired.com/story/israel-gaza-internet-blackouts-weapon/\">destroyed telecommunication lines\u003c/a> have resulted in severely limited \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/paltelco/status/1725159705796821048?s=11&t=nPTZi5KB-HdtJJFWSpgeMA\">phone and internet access\u003c/a>. According to the UN, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.ochaopt.org/content/hostilities-gaza-strip-and-israel-flash-update-4\">Israeli military has targeted \u003c/a>this civilian infrastructure, a move that Access Now called a “\u003ca href=\"https://www.accessnow.org/press-release/reverse-total-communications-blackout-gaza/\">human rights violation\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last week, when PalTel, the Palestinian telecommunications company, \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/paltelco/status/1725159705796821048?s=11&t=nPTZi5KB-HdtJJFWSpgeMA\">announced it was about to run out of fuel\u003c/a> amid the ongoing Israeli blockade — prompting a short telecommunications blackout — Brannan and other volunteers went into overdrive.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Iliana Montauk, a Berkeley resident who joined Gaza Sky Geeks in 2013 and has since visited the enclave several times, says she found a community of creative entrepreneurs and technologists in Gaza with impressive visions despite their often fragile circumstances. On one trip, she recalls being pitched on an extensive range of projects, everything from a video game embedded in Arab culture to an e-commerce website for Arab moms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“(We) had 60 founders in the space all pitching their ideas to me and asking me for help preparing for their pitches to investors,” Montauk said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most cafes and homes had WiFi, and co-working spaces were everywhere, she said. That’s in part due to the sorely outdated telecommunications infrastructure in Gaza, where \u003ca href=\"https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/30/israeli-restrictions-leave-palestinians-facing-digital-divide\">any major upgrade projects must first be approved by Israel\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Palestinians were some of the first to get online and be connected on social networking and all of that because their people are starving for some connection to the outside world,” Montauk said. “As soon as email and social networks were available, [Palestinians] got onto it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11968030\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2048px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/11/IMG-20220510-WA0021.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11968030\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/11/IMG-20220510-WA0021.jpg\" alt=\"A group of women, mostly wearing headscarves, sit at a long table.\" width=\"2048\" height=\"1536\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/11/IMG-20220510-WA0021.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/11/IMG-20220510-WA0021-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/11/IMG-20220510-WA0021-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/11/IMG-20220510-WA0021-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/11/IMG-20220510-WA0021-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/11/IMG-20220510-WA0021-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2048px) 100vw, 2048px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Iliana Montauk (front), the co-founder of Manara, with participants of her program in Gaza in 2022. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Manara)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>When she visited Gaza, electricity was only available about four hours a day, further limiting connection, Montauk said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s just been a limit to how much electricity Gaza can provide for itself internally,” she said. “I’ll be working with people online, and they’ll be sitting in darkness because their electricity will get shut off, but they’ll have their WiFi attached to [battery] power and their laptop charged up so that they can keep working.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Participants in her program would also just keep working through whatever unrest was going on at the time, Montauk said, recalling how “you could hear bombing in the background” during previous escalations.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Montauk remembers how on her first day in Gaza — in 2013 — “there were sonic booms overhead from Israeli warplanes, and we were putting safety glass up in the windows and preparing an evacuation plan.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since then, Montauk has helped launch Manara — which means lighthouse in Arabic — a startup aimed at connecting tech companies to talented prospects in the Middle East & North Africa, \u003ca href=\"https://old.manara.tech/about-us\">with a specific focus on women and Palestinians\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>About 80 engineers in Gaza are involved in Manara’s community, including ones who are still in training and others who are working remotely for international companies. Many of them have lost their homes and entire neighborhoods in recent weeks and need eSIMS to stay connected, Montauk said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hailey Yoon, a Manara mentor based in Dubai, has been leading the effort to contact the engineers and their families in Gaza and help send them eSIMS.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If we really put into realistic words, I was checking if everybody was dead or alive, every day,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The eSIMS delivery process has required tireless experimenting, with Manara community members still trying to determine where eSIMs work best in Gaza and which formats are most effective.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yoon said the Manara community is doing its best to keep tabs on the location of its eSIMs recipients by monitoring messenger apps like Telegram and WhatsApp to see when users were last online — and check where their eSIM cards have been activated.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>Because of the logistical complexities, Yoon recommends that people interested in helping donate an eSIM card to an organization rather than trying to activate one themselves. Manara recently sent out \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/Czsd5y2IBzQ/?hl=en\">a call for eSIMS in Qatar\u003c/a>, while Egyptian journalist Mirna El Helbawi has been a key organizer \u003ca href=\"https://www.marketplace.org/shows/marketplace-tech/israel-hamas-war-esims-gazans/\">spearheading pools for eSIMs donations on social media\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, in the Bay Area, Brannan refers people to \u003ca href=\"https://airtable.com/appW9GG5fusT5uquf/shrIl8AYyjzaEHLOL\">a form used by groups to organize donations\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said sending eSIMS to Gazans is one way to stand up for their basic liberties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s the ability to connect with loved ones,” she said. “The ability to tell your story.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Correction (Nov. 21): The original version of this story stated that Gaza Sky Geeks was co-founded in 2011 by Iliana Montauk. Rather, Montauk joined the group in 2013.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>One year ahead of the 2024 presidential election, \u003ca href=\"https://www.commoncause.org/california/our-work/\">California Common Cause\u003c/a>, a nonprofit, nonpartisan good government advocacy group, has launched the California Institute for Technology and Democracy (\u003ca href=\"https://cited.tech/\">CITED\u003c/a>), to counter the impacts of AI, deepfakes and disinformation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It makes sense that the first such effort is in California, a state that is home to the largest technology companies in the world, but also a state that has a track record of leading the nation in technology policy regulation,” said Ishan Mehta, media and democracy program director at the national branch of Common Cause in Washington D.C., during a Tuesday news conference.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CITED, which claims to be the first organization of its kind at the state level, wants to serve as an information hub, recommending policies to state and congressional lawmakers and highlighting what online tools could be used to spread disinformation, especially during election seasons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Much of the recent policy focus has been on the concerns of the use of AI tools for national security and law enforcement purposes, and I think rightly so. But I think now it’s also time for us to focus on how these same tools can be misused to improperly influence and manipulate our democratic processes. Whether real or not, they can pose a threat to the integrity of elections,” said Angélica Salceda, director of the ACLU of Northern California’s Democracy and Civic Engagement Program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the run-up to the 2020 election,\u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/elections-voting-misinformation-race-immigration-712a5c5a9b72c1668b8c9b1eb6e0038a\"> disinformation ran riot on social media platforms\u003c/a>. Facebook ads targeting Latino and Asian American voters described Joe Biden as a communist. \u003ca href=\"https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/dog-peeing-trump-sign/\">Doctored images\u003c/a> showed dogs urinating on Donald Trump campaign posters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But over the last year, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11932611/with-mass-social-media-layoffs-researchers-warn-of-rise-in-hate-speech\">major platforms have gutted their content moderation teams\u003c/a>, a shift many civil society advocates decry, especially ahead of what’s expected to be a contentious presidential election.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We can all imagine a scenario where AI is used to target limited English-speaking voters and spread false information about polling locations or voting opportunities. Even without the use of AI, we’ve seen some campaigns use these tactics,” Salceda said. “Now imagine these same tactics super-charged.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The disinformation landscape includes altered videos and generative AI, which has streamlined the creation of deep fakes – like \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxXpB9pSETo\">this one featuring the actor Morgan Freeman\u003c/a>. Or \u003ca href=\"https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/ron-desantis-trump-gop-candidate/\">this one featuring Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What we will see in the next year ranges from the silly stuff that’s not that silly — maybe Joe Biden falling down the stairs of AirForce One — to deeply pernicious, perhaps audio of an elections official ‘caught on tape’ saying that vote by mail ballots aren’t secure,” said Jonathan Mehta Stein, executive director of California Common Cause and a CITED board member.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label='More Silicon Valley Coverage' tag='silicon-valley']Last month, Meta’s oversight board announced it would review whether the Menlo Park-based social media giant chose poorly when it left up an altered video that suggested Biden is a “sick pedophile.” The video appeared to show the president repeatedly touching the chest of his adult granddaughter and kissing her on the cheek.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In response, \u003ca href=\"https://transparency.fb.com/oversight/oversight-board-cases/president-biden-altered-video\">the company wrote in a blog post\u003c/a>: “Meta determined that the content did not violate our policies on \u003ca href=\"https://transparency.fb.com/policies/community-standards/hate-speech/\">Hate Speech\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://transparency.fb.com/policies/community-standards/bullying-harassment/\">Bullying and Harassment\u003c/a>, or \u003ca href=\"https://transparency.fb.com/policies/community-standards/misinformation/\">Manipulated Media\u003c/a>, as laid out in our Facebook Community Standards, and left the content up.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Personally, when I find myself listening to a campaign video or a TV ad, I wonder whether any aspect of those videos, including voiceovers, are AI-generated,” Salceda said. “I don’t have a trained eye or ear to know the difference right now, and I wouldn’t be surprised if my experience was reflective of the average voter.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CITED Director Drew Liebert, who served as chief of staff for former Senate Majority Leader Bob Hertzberg, noted the new institute doesn’t intend to exclude Silicon Valley from the policy discussion around AI. “We also very much intend to work, as best we can, with the tech platforms, to see what we can potentially do collaboratively,” Liebert said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>One year ahead of the 2024 presidential election, \u003ca href=\"https://www.commoncause.org/california/our-work/\">California Common Cause\u003c/a>, a nonprofit, nonpartisan good government advocacy group, has launched the California Institute for Technology and Democracy (\u003ca href=\"https://cited.tech/\">CITED\u003c/a>), to counter the impacts of AI, deepfakes and disinformation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It makes sense that the first such effort is in California, a state that is home to the largest technology companies in the world, but also a state that has a track record of leading the nation in technology policy regulation,” said Ishan Mehta, media and democracy program director at the national branch of Common Cause in Washington D.C., during a Tuesday news conference.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CITED, which claims to be the first organization of its kind at the state level, wants to serve as an information hub, recommending policies to state and congressional lawmakers and highlighting what online tools could be used to spread disinformation, especially during election seasons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Much of the recent policy focus has been on the concerns of the use of AI tools for national security and law enforcement purposes, and I think rightly so. But I think now it’s also time for us to focus on how these same tools can be misused to improperly influence and manipulate our democratic processes. Whether real or not, they can pose a threat to the integrity of elections,” said Angélica Salceda, director of the ACLU of Northern California’s Democracy and Civic Engagement Program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the run-up to the 2020 election,\u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/elections-voting-misinformation-race-immigration-712a5c5a9b72c1668b8c9b1eb6e0038a\"> disinformation ran riot on social media platforms\u003c/a>. Facebook ads targeting Latino and Asian American voters described Joe Biden as a communist. \u003ca href=\"https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/dog-peeing-trump-sign/\">Doctored images\u003c/a> showed dogs urinating on Donald Trump campaign posters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But over the last year, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11932611/with-mass-social-media-layoffs-researchers-warn-of-rise-in-hate-speech\">major platforms have gutted their content moderation teams\u003c/a>, a shift many civil society advocates decry, especially ahead of what’s expected to be a contentious presidential election.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We can all imagine a scenario where AI is used to target limited English-speaking voters and spread false information about polling locations or voting opportunities. Even without the use of AI, we’ve seen some campaigns use these tactics,” Salceda said. “Now imagine these same tactics super-charged.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The disinformation landscape includes altered videos and generative AI, which has streamlined the creation of deep fakes – like \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxXpB9pSETo\">this one featuring the actor Morgan Freeman\u003c/a>. Or \u003ca href=\"https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/ron-desantis-trump-gop-candidate/\">this one featuring Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What we will see in the next year ranges from the silly stuff that’s not that silly — maybe Joe Biden falling down the stairs of AirForce One — to deeply pernicious, perhaps audio of an elections official ‘caught on tape’ saying that vote by mail ballots aren’t secure,” said Jonathan Mehta Stein, executive director of California Common Cause and a CITED board member.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Last month, Meta’s oversight board announced it would review whether the Menlo Park-based social media giant chose poorly when it left up an altered video that suggested Biden is a “sick pedophile.” The video appeared to show the president repeatedly touching the chest of his adult granddaughter and kissing her on the cheek.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In response, \u003ca href=\"https://transparency.fb.com/oversight/oversight-board-cases/president-biden-altered-video\">the company wrote in a blog post\u003c/a>: “Meta determined that the content did not violate our policies on \u003ca href=\"https://transparency.fb.com/policies/community-standards/hate-speech/\">Hate Speech\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://transparency.fb.com/policies/community-standards/bullying-harassment/\">Bullying and Harassment\u003c/a>, or \u003ca href=\"https://transparency.fb.com/policies/community-standards/misinformation/\">Manipulated Media\u003c/a>, as laid out in our Facebook Community Standards, and left the content up.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Personally, when I find myself listening to a campaign video or a TV ad, I wonder whether any aspect of those videos, including voiceovers, are AI-generated,” Salceda said. “I don’t have a trained eye or ear to know the difference right now, and I wouldn’t be surprised if my experience was reflective of the average voter.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CITED Director Drew Liebert, who served as chief of staff for former Senate Majority Leader Bob Hertzberg, noted the new institute doesn’t intend to exclude Silicon Valley from the policy discussion around AI. “We also very much intend to work, as best we can, with the tech platforms, to see what we can potentially do collaboratively,” Liebert said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"id": "fresh-air",
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"airtime": "SUN 7:30pm-8pm",
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"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
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"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game – and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
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"marketplace": {
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"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 4pm-4:30pm, MON-WED 6:30pm-7pm",
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"masters-of-scale": {
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"info": "Masters of Scale is an original podcast in which LinkedIn co-founder and Greylock Partner Reid Hoffman sets out to describe and prove theories that explain how great entrepreneurs take their companies from zero to a gazillion in ingenious fashion.",
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},
"mindshift": {
"id": "mindshift",
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"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
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"order": 12
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM1NzY0NjAwNDI5",
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"morning-edition": {
"id": "morning-edition",
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"info": "\u003cem>Morning Edition\u003c/em> takes listeners around the country and the world with multi-faceted stories and commentaries every weekday. Hosts Steve Inskeep, David Greene and Rachel Martin bring you the latest breaking news and features to prepare you for the day.",
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"onourwatch": {
"id": "onourwatch",
"title": "On Our Watch",
"tagline": "Deeply-reported investigative journalism",
"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
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"order": 11
},
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"on-the-media": {
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"title": "On The Media",
"info": "Our weekly podcast explores how the media 'sausage' is made, casts an incisive eye on fluctuations in the marketplace of ideas, and examines threats to the freedom of information and expression in America and abroad. For one hour a week, the show tries to lift the veil from the process of \"making media,\" especially news media, because it's through that lens that we see the world and the world sees us",
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"link": "/radio/program/on-the-media",
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},
"pbs-newshour": {
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"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/PBS-NewsHour---Full-Show-p425698/",
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},
"perspectives": {
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"order": 14
},
"link": "/perspectives",
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"planet-money": {
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"info": "The economy explained. Imagine you could call up a friend and say, Meet me at the bar and tell me what's going on with the economy. Now imagine that's actually a fun evening.",
"airtime": "SUN 3pm-4pm",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/planetmoney.jpg",
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},
"link": "/radio/program/planet-money",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/planet-money/id290783428?mt=2",
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},
"politicalbreakdown": {
"id": "politicalbreakdown",
"title": "Political Breakdown",
"tagline": "Politics from a personal perspective",
"info": "Political Breakdown is a new series that explores the political intersection of California and the nation. Each week hosts Scott Shafer and Marisa Lagos are joined with a new special guest to unpack politics -- with personality — and offer an insider’s glimpse at how politics happens.",
"airtime": "THU 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Political-Breakdown-2024-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"order": 5
},
"link": "/podcasts/politicalbreakdown",
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"amazon": "https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/e0c2d153-ad36-4c8d-901d-f1da6a724824/political-breakdown",
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"possible": {
"id": "possible",
"title": "Possible",
"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
"airtime": "SUN 2pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Possible-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.possible.fm/",
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"source": "Possible"
},
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