Top Google executives are in Cuba to promote open Internet access, according to a dissident blogger who says she met the group in Havana.
The team, led by executive chairman Eric Schmidt, met with Cuban officials as well as independent people in the technology and digital field, according to a report on the independent news Web site 14ymedio.com, which was started last month by blogger Yoani Sanchez.
Google is on an official two-day visit “to promote the virtues of a free and open Internet,” the report said.
Photo: EPA
Schmidt appeared to confirm the report when he retweeted a message posted by Sanchez about the visit.
Neither Google nor the Cuban government made any official statement about the executives’ presence in Cuba.
Cuba does not allow open Internet access. Just 2.6 million out of a population of 11.2 million have Internet access, almost entirely limited to government-run centers, foreign companies and tourist hotels. Most of those who do have access are only able to explore a limited, state-controlled basket of approved Web sites.
Schmidt, who was Google’s chief executive from 2001 to 2011, is becoming more visible on issues involving technology and world affairs. His mandate as executive chairman involves government outreach, thought leadership and building partnerships and business relationships, the company said.
Schmidt was accompanied by Jared Cohen, director of Google Ideas, as well as two other staff, Sanchez said.
Google Ideas describes itself as a “a think/do tank that explores how technology can enable people to confront threats in the face of conflict, instability or repression,” according to its Web site.
Schmidt and Cohen are the coauthors of The New Digital Age, published last year, and have a track record of speaking with leaders of countries that restrict free speech to advocate for a free and open Internet.
Schmidt was the first high-profile tech executive to visit Myanmar last year in the wake of reforms that prompted Western nations to ease sanctions following decades of military dictatorship.
The Google delegation in Havana met with students and was given a tour of Havana’s University of Information Sciences on Saturday, 14ymedio reported.
Sanchez started 14ymedio, Cuba’s first independent online newspaper, last month, although the site has been repeatedly blocked in Cuba.
The Cuban government sought to discredit Sanchez as a paid propagandist doing the bidding of the US government.
The 14ymedio.com site seeks to draw attention away from the country’s state-controlled media and challenge the government’s heavy media restrictions.
Sanchez’s blog on daily life and politics in Cuba, Generation Y, has rattled the Cuban establishment, and she has won prestigious media awards in the US and Europe.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”