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4÷88 SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Google on Wednesday unleashed another wave of artificial intelligence designed to tackle more of the work and thinking done by humans as it tries to stay on the technology's cutting edge while also trying to fend off regulatory threats to its empire. The next generation of Google's AI is being packaged under the . Google is framing its release of Gemini 2.0 as a springboard for AI agents built to interpret images shown through a smartphone, perform a variety of tedious chores, remember the conversations consumers have with people, help video game players plot strategy and even tackle the task of doing online searches. In , Google CEO Sundar Pichai predicted the technology contained in Gemini 2.0 will “understand more about the world around you, think multiple steps ahead and take action on your behalf, with your supervision.” It's a similar goal being pursued by hard-charging rivals such as OpenAI, with its chatGPT technology, and industry powerhouse such as Microsoft with a variety of similar tools on its Windows software. A lot of Google's latest AI technology will initially be confined to test groups and subscribers who pay $20 per month for Gemini Advanced, but some features will be made available through its search engine and mobile apps. Google is planning wider releases next year that will include the technology popping up in its smorgasbord of free products, including its Chrome browser, digital maps and YouTube. Besides trying to outshine OpenAI and other ambitious startups, Google is also trying to stay a step ahead of Apple as that trendsetting company begins to blend AI into its latest iPhones and other devices. After releasing enabling the first bundle of the iPhone's “Apple Intelligence” features that spruced up the device's Siri assistant, another batch of the AI technology came out with a Google is pushing forward with its latest AI advances even as the U.S. Justice Department is the Mountain View, California, company to prevent further abusive practices by its dominant search engine, which was declared an illegal monopoly by a federal judge earlier this year as part of a landmark antitrust case. Among other things, Gemini 2.0 is supposed to improve the AI overviews that Google began highlighting in its search results over its traditional listing of the most pertinent links to websites in response to AI-powered “answer engines” such as Perplexity. After the AI overviews initially produced some goofy suggestions, including , Google refined the technology to minimize such missteps. Now, company executives are promising things are going to get even better with Gemini 2.0, which Pichai said will be able to engage in more human-like reasoning while solving more advanced math problems and even churn out some computer code. The improvements to AI Overviews will initially only appear to a test audience before a wider release next year. The technological upgrade is also supposed to infuse a still-experimental universal AI agent dubbed “Project Astra,” with even more smarts and versatility, enabling people to have more meaningful and helpful conversations with the technology. In a show of confidence, Google said it will expand the number of people testing Project Astra without providing any specifics of the group's size. As part of Gemini 2.0, Google is also going to begin testing an extension to Chrome called “Project Mariner,” which can be turned on to do online searches and sift through the results so people don't won't have to bother. If the U.S. Department of Justice gets its way, Google will be forced to sell or spin off Chrome as part of its punishment for deploying its search engine in ways that stifled competition and potential innovation. Google has ridiculed the Justice Department's proposal as “overly broad” and vowed to resist any attempt to break up the company during federal court hearings scheduled to begin in Washington D.C. next spring. Even if those proceedings culminate in a court order mandating a breakup, Google could still appeal in a process that could take years to resolve while it continues its AI expansion. “I can’t wait to see what this next era brings,” Pichai wrote in his blog post, signaling the company doesn't believe it will be deterred by regulators.

CVG Announces Election of Jeffrey S. Niew to Board of DirectorsRenowned philanthropist and author Sudha Murty, addressing a gathering at a university event, cautioned against the unsustainable pursuit of instant fame and wealth among today's youth. She urged graduates to cultivate curiosity, learn from mistakes, and navigate life ethically and legally. Murty pointed out the pitfalls of equating life with a touchscreen, fueled by ease and instant gratification. She advised students that true success demands years of effort and encouraged them to strengthen both mind and body, devoid of dependence on online validations. Highlighting the role of creativity and imagination in personal growth, Murty called for a balance between embracing technological prowess and maintaining personal connections, particularly with less privileged sections of society. Emphasizing hard work over shortcuts, she advocated helping others as a source of immense happiness. (With inputs from agencies.)

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Boopie Miller scored 24 points and Yohan Traore added 20 points and 11 rebounds as SMU was at its best after halftime in a 98-82 win over Longwood on Sunday afternoon in Dallas. The Mustangs (11-2) have won seven straight games but this one was not without a serious scare from Longwood. SMU led by just a bucket after a seesaw first half but took charge with a 15-3 run to open the second. The Lancers pulled to within 69-62 on a tip in by Elijah Tucker with 11:37 to play before SMU put away the game with a 14-1 run capped by Chuck Harris' 3-pointer with 6:57 remaining. Matt Cross added 19 points while Harris hit for 12 for the Mustangs, who shot 62 percent from the floor. Tucker led Longwood (11-4) with 20 points, with Colby Garland adding 19 and Emanuel Richards scoring 12 points in the loss. The Lancers allowed their most points of the season and surrendered 32 points more than their season average. The teams went back and forth in a contentious first eight minutes that featured 11 lead changes and three ties with neither team up by more than three points. Harris' jumper with 11:55 left in the first half pushed the Mustangs to a 21-19 lead but that was quickly answered by a 3-pointer from Jefferson to put Longwood back on top at 22-21. SMU then reeled off 17-4 run, with Kario Oquendo contributing two free throws, a 3-pointer and a bucket to that surge and two free throws from Traore put the Mustangs up 38-26 with 5:34 to play in the half. Just when it seemed like SMU had found the formula to dispatch the feisty Lancers, Longwood rallied to tie the game at 43 on pull-up jumper by Garland with 8.9 seconds left before halftime. That gave Harris enough time to get down the floor and into the paint for a short jumper that gave the Mustangs a 45-43 lead at the break. Traore led all scorers with 15 points and seven rebounds before halftime while Miller added 11 for SMU. Garland and Tucker had 10 points apiece to pace the Lancers. --Field Level Media

Mississippi State is back in the AP Top 25. The No. 19 Bulldogs (11-1) jumped into the rankings last week as they were preparing to face Bethune-Cookman on Monday night in Starkville, Miss. Mississippi State was unranked in the preseason poll and stayed in the rankings for just one week in both of its previous appearances. But it's coming off a performance that suggests it might have some staying power with the start of Southeastern Conference play looming. The visiting Bulldogs won decisively against then-No. 21 Memphis 79-66 on Dec. 21. Bulldogs coach Chris Jans said "it's too early to say" whether his team's most recent performance was indicative of what might be the norm going forward, but he was encouraged by it. "Our guys haven't played the same every time out," Jans said. "I mean no disrespect to anyone else we've played, but it's a different competition (against ranked teams). I've liked how we've played to this point, but who knows how it'll unfold." The Bulldogs routed another top-20 opponent when they defeated then-No. 18 Pitt 90-57 on Dec. 4 in Starkville. "We're certainly happy that we've played our best against the best competition because, in (the SEC), this is what we're going to face every night," Jans said. "It's been well-documented where the SEC is at compared to every other conference this year. Now, can we do it over the course of 10 weeks, where it's like this every single time?" The games against ranked teams are going to start coming with more regularity because there are 10 SEC teams in the current Top 25. "Heading into this season, we had a few goals," forward Cameron Matthews said. "One of them is to try and to compete for a (conference) championship. We felt like we could compete in the SEC. I think we were able to prove it (against Memphis)." The Bulldogs used a 13-0 run to grab an 18-5 lead at Memphis, and they never led by fewer than 10 points the rest of the way. Riley Kugel scored 19 points off the bench, and team leader Josh Hubbard (17.6 ppg) added 13. Bethune-Cookman (3-9) also is looking forward to seeing how it'll stack up in its conference -- the Southwestern Athletic Conference. "We've got a lot of depth and we have age and experience," head coach Reggie Theus said earlier this season. The Wildcats have seven active players averaging double-figure minutes and they feature two graduates, two seniors and three juniors. They are led by a high-scoring trio of guards Brayon Freeman (16.0) and Trey Thomas (12.3) and forward Reggie Ward Jr. (11.7). Ward and Freeman scored 14 points apiece and Thomas added 12 in the team's most recent game, a 76-63 loss at Davidson on Dec. 21. Bethune-Cookman has prepared for conference play with a series of games against power-conference opponents in Texas Tech, Nebraska, Minnesota, Virginia and West Virginia. Theus said "the difficult thing" about the pre-conference schedule has been molding 11 new players into a cohesive team. "That's the bottom line," he said. "We have everything else in place. I'm real excited about where we could end up." --Field Level Media

Google forges ahead with its next generation of AI technology while fending off a breakup threat

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Three people have been charged with a host of hunting violations following a yearlong investigation led by Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. Prosecutors in Broadwater County say two of the defendants illegally harvested three six-point bull elk with rifles during the 2023 archery season in Hunting District 380, which covers the Elkhorn Mountains and where permits to harvest a bull elk can only be obtained through a lottery process with extremely narrow chances. Broadwater county prosecutors said the two primarily involved, Tylor Castona and Alisha Byrd, also poached three whitetail buck deer near Townsend in the following month. One of those deer was shot at night and left on the ground for waste when the landowner turned his lights on to investigate the gunshots around midnight. The landowner called FWP that night, triggering an investigation that uncovered the alleged poaching spree of deer, elk and a spike bull elk taken over the two-month period. As measured by an FWP game warden, one of those bucks met the regulatory criteria to be considered a trophy, meaning the defendants could face additional $8,000 in restitution if convicted of the charge relating to that buck. According to charges filed Oct. 8, Castona and Byrd of East Helena face a combined 29 criminal counts and both are facing felony tampering with witness charges for allegedly attempting to coordinate their stories ahead of interviews with game wardens investigating the case. Castona faces an additional felony tampering charge for deleting GPS waypoints on the mapping tool OnX Maps once they learned game wardens were investigating the case. Aside from the felony tampering charges, Castona is accused of two counts of hunting without a license, four counts of unlawful possession or transportation of a game animal, four counts of killing over the limit, two counts of unlawful use of artificial light while hunting, two counts of illegal transfer of hunting licenses, one count of waste of a game animal and one count of failing to obtain a landowner's permission to hunt. Byrd, beyond the felony tampering charge, is accused of hunting without a license, three counts of unlawful possession or transportation of a game animal, two counts of unlawfully transferring hunting licenses, killing over the limit, two counts of wasting a game animal and one count of failing to obtain a landowner's permission to hunt. Charging documents filed in Broadwater County against the pair, following multiple interviews with the defendants, lay out the events as such: In early October 2023, weeks before the rifle season opened, Byrd told investigators she was with Castona when she shot a six-point bull in the Elkhorn Mountains when she did not have a permit to hunt bull elk there. Only 0.94% of hunters who applied for that tag drew it in the 2023 season. The two placed a GPS marker on the spot, and drove to Helena to pick up Tracer Castona, Tylor's nephew, to help them retrieve the bull elk. Tracer Castona faces two misdemeanor charges in Broadwater County Justice Court for his alleged role in retrieving the animal. On the return drive to recover first bull elk that night, Tylor Castona shot another six-point bull that crossed the road. According to charging documents, Castona turned his headlights into the field and shot it with a rifle. Byrd also told investigators Castona killed the third six-point bull earlier that year during archery season in another Helena area hunting district managed for hunter opportunity on mature bull elk. A GPS marker for this area investigators were able to retrieve from Castona's OnX account was created on Sept. 17. Byrd also used her general elk tag on a spike bull elk in the Elkhorn Mountains in late October, but she told investigators the elk was too far away and Castona shot and killed it. Law enforcement's first foray into the alleged poaching activities came just after midnight on Nov. 15, 2023. A landowner called the FWP tip line to report a person had fired at a deer in their headlights near Beaver Creek Road. The vehicle fled when the landowner flipped his lights on, but the landowner recorded a video of the red pickup in retreat, according to charging documents. Montana Highway Patrol and an FWP game warden responded to the area, and the trooper, Eric Arnold, pulled a red pickup over for traveling 73 miles per hour in a 65-mph zone. Castona and Byrd were in the pickup, both wearing hunting clothes, according to court documents. The two denied being in the area of the reported night hunting but said they had successfully harvested an elk on private land earlier that day. Warden Troy Hinck met the property owner and found a dead whitetail buck in the field, as well as an elk carcass disposed of further down the road. Hinck noted that road had recently been graded, and matched the tire tracks from the elk to the scene of the dead buck, according to court documents. FWP investigators interviewed Castona at his home in East Helena on Nov. 16; he denied shooting an animal on Beaver Creek Road or driving in that area. In a second interview, Castona changed his story, according to prosecutors, now admitting to driving on Beaver Creek Road but claiming he saw someone else shooting at the deer, and that he only went to the area to check on the activity. The following day, Byrd called Warden Hinck and said she and Castona had killed elk on public lands earlier that season, and that she and Castona had killed two whitetail bucks on a section of state land, according to court documents. The officers had noted two large whitetail deer heads, each five-point bucks, at Castona's residence. Byrd said she and Castona shot the deer with a single rifle, and Hinck responded with doubt that they had shot two large whitetail bucks with a single rifle in the daytime. On Nov. 20, Hinck obtained a search warrant and seized three elk antler sets, all six-point bulls, and two whitetail deer antler sets, both five-point bucks, according to charging documents. Byrd voluntarily met with FWP investigators again in December, this time admitting Castona had beamed his headlights into the field near Beaver Creek Road before shooting a buck, according to court records. Castona went to find the deer, but returned to the pickup and fled when the landowner turned the lights on, she told them. Byrd reportedly told investigators she and Castona had colluded to create a story regarding another vehicle in the area where the buck was shot, prosecutors wrote in charging documents. The two five-point bucks were likewise both shot by Castona while he was hunting alone, Byrd told investigators, although she agreed to put her deer tag on one of the bucks, according to charging documents. In this interview, Byrd reported the incidents in which she and Castona had illegally killed the bull elk. Investigators recovered waypoints Castona created but later deleted on OnX; charging documents repeatedly describe these points helped confirm the incidents Byrd reported to law enforcement. All three people charged in the spree pleaded not guilty at their initial appearances. Castona is currently in custody at Montana State Prison following a conviction earlier this year for sexual assault. The Broadwater County and Lewis and Clark County sheriff's offices both assisted in the investigation.

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