Google’s Big Cloud Play - DTNSB 4994  ## Metadata - Author: [[Daily Tech News Show]] - Full Title: Google’s Big Cloud Play - DTNSB 4994 - Category: #podcasts - URL: https://share.snipd.com/episode/fa0e3e2d-ca79-46fb-8fb9-b5ff0eaca22c ## Document Notes ## Highlights - **Google's New TPU: Ironwood** - Google announced its seventh-generation Tensor Processing Unit (TPU), called Ironwood, optimized for AI inference. - Ironwood boasts a peak power of 4,614 TFLOPs and a specialized sparse core for recommendations and reduced latency. Transcript: Tom Merritt I'm Jen Cutter. Let's start with what you need to know with the big story. Lots of news coming out of Google Cloud next. Google's seventh generation Tensor Processing Unit, that's the same Tensor that's the T in ChatGPT, by the way, is called Ironwood. It is optimized for inference. That means that it's the execution of the LLMs, not the training, although it could do training. It's optimized for inference. Has a peak power of 4,614 TFLOPs for those who track that number. Has a specialized sparse core, which is good for algorithms that make recommendations. Also minimizes latency. That lowers the power requirements, so it's going to use less power. It's meant for the data center, comes in a 256 chip cluster or a 9,216 chip cluster. You're not buying this for your home use. Google's TPU competes with similar offerings from NVIDIA, Amazon, and Microsoft. Of course, Amazon's chips pretty much just available through AWS, Microsoft's through Azure, and Google wants these to be available through Google Cloud. So it's a way of saying, hey, if you come use Google Cloud, you get this hot new TPU that's good for inferencing and saves power, et cetera, et cetera. Jenn Cutter Google Workspace is getting more ([Time 0:02:06](https://share.snipd.com/snip/699130bb-a983-4a09-aff7-b5e9027b41ba)) - **Google Workspace Flows** - Google Workspace is introducing Workspace Flows, agents that automate tasks like spreadsheet updates and document searches. - Flows integrate with Google's custom chatbots (Gems) and Google Drive, with plans for third-party tool connectivity. Transcript: Jenn Cutter Google Workspace is getting more agents called Workspace Flows. These can automate tasks like updating spreadsheets and finding information in documents. Flows can work with Google's customized chatbots called Gems and, of course, integrate with Google Drive. Google says it's working to connect with third-party tools as well. Google Docs will soon get Notebook LM's audio overviews, the thing that makes podcasts out of your docs. It will also provide tools to help you refine your writing and arguments stronger. There is also Help Me Analyze for Google Sheets and Take Notes for Me in Google Meet. Google Chat users will be able to add Gemini to chats, and customers will be able to restrict which regions can store their data in order to comply with regional rules like the EU's GDPR. Gemini Code Assist is getting agents in preview. It can do things like create code based on specs in a Google Doc, transform code from one language to another, generate work plans, and more. Code Assist is now ([Time 0:03:22](https://share.snipd.com/snip/9f590a64-8646-4d77-b64b-0ec530c24328)) - **Gemini Integration in Google Workspace** - Google is gradually integrating its Gemini AI models into Workspace, enhancing various applications. - Gemini is being incorporated into Docs, Sheets, Meet, and Chat, offering features like audio overviews and writing assistance. Transcript: Tom Merritt Slowly, which is weird to think of Google acting slowly, but it's so big it acts slowly now. It is taking advantage of its Gemini stuff and putting it in workspace. So I think these are nice offerings that they're doing. Google is releasing Gemini 2.5 Flash in Vertex AI. It lets developers adjust speed, accuracy, and most importantly, I think, cost to your specific needs. 2.5 Flash is a reasoning model. So it's similar to DeepSeek R1 or OpenAI 03 mini. These are small models. And Google says its version should be good for customer service, document parsing, anything where efficiency at scale is the key. Google said Gemini 2.5 Flash will come to on-premises environments as well. So not just available through Google Cloud, starting in Q3. ([Time 0:04:24](https://share.snipd.com/snip/65e6508f-69b6-44be-8b20-d9ee2e390bbd)) - **Nintendo Switch 2 Release Uncertainties** - Nintendo is delaying the Nintendo Switch 2 release in China due to concerns about video game sale restrictions, not tariffs. - The company is also assessing options for the Switch 2's U.S. release due to tariffs on Vietnam-manufactured goods. Transcript: Jenn Cutter Nikkei reports that Nintendo will wait to assess before deciding on the release of the Nintendo Switch 2 in China. This is not related to tariffs, but instead over concern about China's restriction on video game sales. Not all international titles may be sold in China without modification to localize them for the Chinese market. Nintendo currently partners with Tencent on the original Switch in China, but has been winding down its eShop for the Switch, which stopped selling games on March 31st. Meanwhile, in Nintendo news related to tariffs, research firm DFC Intelligence says it does not expect a price rise in the Switch, expecting that Nintendo will offer fewer discounts In bundles to make up the difference. Nintendo America president Doug Bowser told CNBC on Monday that many Switch 2 models had already been shipped to the U.S. Ahead of the imposition of tariffs. Nintendo builds the Switch 2 in Vietnam, which is currently under a 46% tariff. Nintendo does not currently have pre-order dates for the U.S. And Canada as it assesses options related to the tariffs. Yeah, ([Time 0:12:48](https://share.snipd.com/snip/4a68f53c-542b-44ae-bff1-1336cfa60439)) - **Razer Products and Tariffs** - Razer removed its gaming laptops and laptop stands from its U.S. online store, likely due to tariffs on China-made products. - The products remain available in other online stores, suggesting tariffs as the primary reason for removal. Transcript: Tom Merritt In fact, there's a bit more tariff-related news for other companies. Razer pulled its gaming laptops and the Razer adjustable laptop stand off the US version of its online store. The Blade 16 just launched in March, so it was there. Now it's not. Component shortages could be part of this. The NVIDIA RTX 5000 GPUs are hard to get. But Razer makes most of its products in China. So that's probably what is behind this. And the products are all still available to order from other stores like the UK stores. So it seems like this is mostly tariff related. ([Time 0:15:29](https://share.snipd.com/snip/e5b0e646-55c4-42b3-a284-30cd93222a4a)) - **Instagram for iPad** - An Instagram employee revealed that the platform is developing an iPad-specific app. - This follows Instagram head Adam Mosseri's 2022 statement about insufficient iPad users, suggesting a shift in strategy. Transcript: Jenn Cutter Instagram employee told the information that Instagram is working on an iPad-specific app. Instagram head Adam Masseri said in 2022 that the company hadn't done so because there were not enough iPad Instagram users. Instagram has also been previewing an edits app for video. Tom Merritt This seems like a wow, TikTok is really big. Maybe we should encourage tablet users. Yeah, ([Time 0:19:13](https://share.snipd.com/snip/d5cd8286-5001-425e-bb1c-bb4658d3b326)) - **Microsoft's Data Center Strategy Shift** - Microsoft is scaling back its data center construction plans, possibly due to overestimating demand or AI efficiency gains. - The company will retain the purchased land for future development, indicating long-term data center needs. Transcript: Tom Merritt So it's good to see them doing a different approach to this, possibly. Also a different approach, Microsoft has been pulling back its plans to build new data centers, telling the Columbus, Ohio, Dispatch that it is no longer moving forward with three Data center campuses in the area. Now, Microsoft has been pulling back on data center plans across Asia and Europe. My guess is a lot of this has to do with overestimation of data center demand, not because of a lack of demand for AI, but realizing that these models can be more efficient than they thought. Microsoft says it's going to hold on to the land it bought for the data centers and develop at an unspecified future time. So that implies that they think that they will have a use for it eventually. ([Time 0:20:02](https://share.snipd.com/snip/4d296195-b032-4bdc-b3d8-cf79964fb89e)) - **USDA Disbands Food Safety Panels** - The USDA disbanded its food safety panels, which advised on issues like meat inspection and microbial threats. - These panels were working on projects such as reducing bacterial contamination in baby formula and improving meat inspections with AI. Transcript: Jenn Cutter The U.S. Government has been making a lot of changes to how it supports science in the U.S. So it's time to check in with Dr. Nikki to see what has changed in the last month. Hi, Dr. Tom Merritt Nikki. How the heck are you keeping up on all this? Niki Ackermans Well, I treat this as a kind of therapy, Tom. Once a month, I do a deep dive. And then for the rest of the month, I just plug my ears and scream. Tom Merritt So it's been working well. When last we checked, we had the news that came up to March 6th. Let's go in chronological order. What has happened since then? Niki Ackermans Yeah, I picked out some interesting topics and try not to overlap too much. Obviously, there's a lot more going on. But let's start with the USDA, the U.S. Department of Agriculture. They have they had food safety panels, but they have been disbanded. So these panels are made up of expert scientists and they provide advice on things like meat inspections and microbial threats to the food source. And until they were stopped at the beginning of March, they were working on things like reducing bacterial contamination that had led to infants being killed by baby formula in 2022, Also improving meat inspections using AI and reducing harmful microbes in the food with genomics. However, they're finished now. Tom Merritt Yeah. So not a change in the law of what's legal or what's not, but a change in a resource. Yes. Yeah. Okay. Gotcha. Niki Ackermans This advice does not exist anymore. Gotcha. Tom Merritt Okay. Yeah. Niki Ackermans Next one, funding. We're always going to talk about funding. Sorry if you're tired of it. So big in the university world. I don't know if the laymen know about this, but Columbia University has been going through a lot. So they were defunded in about mid-March. The current administration announced an immediate termination of over $400 million in federal funding to Columbia University. This funding is usually congressionally mandated, so that's not technically allowed, but it was done anyway. Allegedly, they did this in response to pro-Palestine protests held on campus. Later in the month, this led to a lot of different changes. So the administration had nine demands in exchange to giving this money back. And the university complied with most of them, including their interim president stepping down, also hiring special officers with the ability to remove individuals from campus, As well as adopting a new definition of anti-Semitism and banning masks and face coverings during protests. They also issued some suspensions for students and degree revocations, among other things. And the faculty is currently suing the administration. And this is ongoing. This is only one of the universities. There's Harvard and Princeton are also going through different things, but this is kind of a flagship. Tom Merritt So Columbia has complied with several of the requests, but the administration has not yet restored the funding. Niki Ackermans No, they have not gotten the funding back as of yet. And it's mostly NIH funding, but that makes sense for a kind of more biomedical focused university. Tom Merritt Our next one sounds like something came back. Niki Ackermans Yeah, sort of good news. So last month we talked about how the NIH has council meetings. Specifically, this is where researchers review new grants to see if they want to award them or not. This is important because we want more and more grants to research more and more different kinds of things. So that was frozen in January. And now, in about the end of March, that freeze has been lifted. So these meetings are starting to take place again slowly. However, we are now behind on the amount of funding awarded by about $1.5 billion compared to last year. So we're not quite where we would like to be, but it is some good news. Tom Merritt Yeah, now they have a chance to at least try to catch up. But that's not the only thing that's happening at the NIH. Niki Ackermans Yeah. On the other hand of the NIH, there is a new director. And this is combined with over 1,300 NIH employees fired, several institute leaders removed, but potentially may get put back into place because them being removed may have been a Coding error. Unsure about that. Government efficiency to eliminate $2.6 billion in contracts at NIH. Contracts support the NIH workforce, things like IT folk who work there, and lots of activities like clinical trials or vaccine development. So that is supposed to be potentially getting cut. ([Time 0:24:10](https://share.snipd.com/snip/390834eb-0ac9-4693-b3b5-40313fe3279d)) - **International Student Crackdown** - Hundreds of international college students in the U.S. are facing visa revocations and potential deportation. - Reasons for visa revocations include pro-Palestine activism and, in some cases, traffic violations. Transcript: Niki Ackermans Yeah. And I think this still really affects science because so much of our work is done by students. So when they get affected, we lose workforce and we lose science. So there's a really big international college student crackdown happening as of early April. Some international students in US colleges are having their visas revoked. The number is something around the hundreds, but it's not quite confirmed. Sometimes reasons are given like pro-Palestine activism, sometimes not. For example, locally at my university, the University of Alabama, we've had an engineering graduate student who was detained by ICE allegedly because of a traffic violation and not Yet been returned. So we think about up to 300 students have had their visas revoked and are facing deportation from dozens of universities. The U.S. Is host to over a million international students. And like I said, they're a huge part of our workforce. So we are pretty worried. And I'm also personally, for my students, pretty worried about this. So I wanted to make sure we mentioned it. ([Time 0:29:05](https://share.snipd.com/snip/9c28fc31-66bc-4a99-890a-1dcdf57797ef)) - **NSF GRFP Funding Decline** - The National Science Foundation's (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) saw a significant decrease in funding, impacting aspiring scientists. - Only 1,000 fellowships were awarded this year, less than half the number funded last year, raising concerns about supporting future scientists. Transcript: Niki Ackermans Last piece is brand new, came out this morning or earlier this week. So it's a little bit detailed, but I want to make sure that we talk about it. So the National Science Foundation has a graduate fellowship program called the GRFP. And this program supports really exceptional graduate students and basically allows some of them to do a PhD or a master's degree. It supports them for three years to do a really impressive project. It's pretty competitive. And this year, a thousand of them were funded. So congratulations to those students. But that is even less than half of what was funded last year. And there were also cuts the year prior. And like I said, this is really like a year, a life changing thing to get this award. Um, and it's supposed to support some of the most brilliant upcoming scientists. So the fact that it's getting reduced is pretty worrying. Tom Merritt Uh, and this fellowship can go to people from the United States or outside the United States. This is only within the U S so, Oh, this is only within the United States. Niki Ackermans So this is just because it's NSF, NSF is US specific. Gotcha. Tom Merritt So this is, this is directly supporting the careers of new scientists. Absolutely. Niki Ackermans And a good, good pointing that out. Like, yeah, this is like kind of the forming the base of our scientific structure. If we want really good scientists, we have to fund them from the base. And so that's getting less and less. Yeah. Tom Merritt And I think there's a lot of discussion about, you know, bringing scientists over from overseas to the U.S. And then hoping that they stay here and contribute. But that's not what this is. This is a domestic program. Niki Ackermans Yeah, I believe you even have to be a U.S. Citizen to get NSF, this NSF grant. Gotcha. All ([Time 0:30:07](https://share.snipd.com/snip/1ad8df03-68a9-415b-8fdf-5836726091b8)) - **Google Translate in the Wild** - Anand Jr. shared an anecdote of witnessing Google Translate's real-world use at an auto parts store. - The store employee successfully assisted a customer using Google Translate, highlighting its increasing utility in everyday situations. Transcript: Tom Merritt This is a post on our Patreon episode from yesterday regarding Sean Hollister and I talking about Google Translate. Anand Jr. Says, I was at the auto parts store this past weekend, and apparently the guy at the counter was only able to help the customer because of Google Translate. I only cut the tail end, so I don't know what language the customer was a native speaker of. I wonder how my experience on the retail side would have gone if it was today as opposed to five or six years ago. Of course, part of the problem was I'm not fluent in soul-fee age. Then again, there were other music-specific terms that it struggled with. But yeah, interesting to see that out in the wild, not just necessarily because of traveling, although this could have been somebody on vacation, but just in day-to use. Jenn Cutter Yeah, it's getting there. It's getting there. Big ([Time 0:33:31](https://share.snipd.com/snip/d4b62898-5d2c-41fc-9973-6591cf4e86fe))