Kalakshar US

Google is investing in a Taiwanese solar company with plans to build a 1 gigawatt (GW) pipeline of sustainable energy in the region. The company is placing a stake in New Green Power (NGP), part of BlackRock’s investment portfolio, for the project. The move could help Google and Taiwan move closer to their climate goals while stabilizing green energy production in one of the most crucial semiconductor hubs of our new AI-infused world.

Google already has a significant presence in Taiwan, including a data center. According to Amanda Peterson Corio, Google’s global head of data center energy, fossil fuels currently generate nearly 85 percent of Taiwan’s power grid. “To help overcome these obstacles, companies can play a pivotal role in finding new strategies to grow the supply of available renewable energy sources and promoting emerging technologies that enable the full decarbonization of regional electricity systems,” she wrote.

Google expects to use up to 300 megawatts of solar capacity to power its data centers in Taiwan. In addition, Peterson Corio says the company “may offer a portion of this clean energy capacity to [its] semiconductor suppliers and manufacturers in the region.” She said that would help its partners meet their green energy goals and reduce indirect (Scope 3) emissions from Google’s supply chain partners.

“A significant share of our Scope 3 footprint can be traced back to the electricity grids that power our suppliers and users, which is why broad decarbonization — and partnerships like this — continue to be core to our net-zero goal,” Peterson Corio wrote.

Regulators haven’t yet approved the deal. Google hasn’t said how much it’s investing in NGP.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/google-invests-in-taiwanese-solar-company-to-boost-green-energy-171231205.html?src=rss 

Two state laws that could upend the way social media companies handle content moderation are still in limbo after a Supreme Court ruling sent the challenges back to lower courts, vacating previous rulings. In a 9 – 0 decision in Moody v. NetChoice and NetChoice v. Paxton, the Supreme Court said that earlier rulings in lower courts had not properly evaluated the laws’ impact on the First Amendment.

The cases stem from two state laws, from Texas and Florida, which tried to impose restrictions on social media companies’ ability to moderate content. The Texas law, passed in 2021, allows users to sue large social media companies over alleged “censorship” of their political views. The Supreme Court suspended the law in 2022 following a legal challenge. Meanwhile, the Florida measure, also passed in 2021, attempted to impose fines on social media companies for banning politicians. That law has also been on hold pending legal challenges.

Both laws were challenged by NetChoice, an industry group that represents Meta, Google, X and other large tech companies. NetChoice argued that the laws were unconstitutional and would essentially prevent large platforms from performing any kind of content moderation. The Biden Administration also opposed both laws. In a statement, NetChoice called the decision “a victory for First Amendment rights online.”

In a decision authored by Justice Elena Kagan, the court said that lower court rulings in both cases “concentrated” on the issue of “whether a state law can regulate the content-moderation practices used in Facebook’s News Feed (or near equivalents).” But, she writes, “they did not address the full range of activities the laws cover, and measure the constitutional against the unconstitutional applications.”

Essentially, the usually-divided court agreed that the First Amendment implications of the laws could have broad impacts on parts of these sites unaffected by algorithmic sorting or content moderation (like direct messages, for instance) as well as on speech in general. Analysis of those externalities, Kagan wrote, simply never occurred in the lower court proceedings. The decision to remand means that analysis should take place, and the case may come back before SCOTUS in the future.

“In sum, there is much work to do below on both these cases … But that work must be done consistent with the First Amendment, which does not go on leave when social media are involved,” Kagan wrote. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/supreme-court-remands-social-media-moderation-cases-over-first-amendment-issues-154001257.html?src=rss 

Sega’s upcoming Crazy Taxi reboot is going to be an open-world massively-multiplayer online (MMO) game, according to a developer interview on YouTube. The interview includes both quotes from Sega’s team and some brief instances of game footage.

Series producer Kenji Kanno confirmed that the reboot will be playable by many people at once, though the company is still testing the game mechanics. The goal, according to a translation by Automaton, is to maintain the feel of the original franchise entries while incorporating MMO elements. To that end, the footage shows multiple yellow taxis racing one another with police cars in pursuit. Oddly, the police cars are convertibles.

It also looks like the map will be inspired by California, which makes sense given the previous entries, and will include “theme park-like” elements. The reboot has previously been described as a AAA title, so Sega is putting a whole bunch of resources behind it. Based on one job recruitment page, the game is being developed in Unreal Engine.

The idea of an open-world Crazy Taxi makes perfect sense, as it already was basically a precursor to GTA and the like. The MMO aspect, however, could be annoying or it could be amazing. We won’t know until it comes out.

This reboot is just one of Sega’s upcoming visits to the nostalgia well. The company recently announced that it’s breaking out many dusty IPs to work on modern versions. These include Crazy Taxi, of course, but also Golden Axe, Jet Set Radio, Shinobi and Streets of Rage. It’s worth noting that the company continues to ignore what the people really want, a modern take on the horrifying talking fish nightmare simulator Seaman.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/segas-new-crazy-taxi-reboot-will-be-an-open-world-mmo-155456136.html?src=rss