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Greetings! Beware companies bearing gifts: They tend to want something. Google's announcement on Wednesday that it would now include its artificial intelligence tools in its business products such as corporate Gmail, whether customers want the tools or not, was cast as a do-gooder move aiming to bring the power of AI to everyone. The reality is more likely that Google is desperate to get more businesses to use its Gemini-branded AI tools because not enough are buying them on an à la carte basis. Hence, Google is resorting to giving those tools—which include AI enhancements for Gmail, Google Docs and Google Sheets—to everyone on its Workspace plans while simultaneously raising the price for those plans by $2 a month. That's a much lower number than the $20 a month Google was charging for Gemini as an add-on feature. But Google will get those extra $2 from all its customers, presumably coming out ahead. It's reminiscent of the cable TV business model, where every viewer paid for a package of channels, regardless of what they watched, ensuring that all the channels in the package did well. Google's move contrasted with pricing changes Microsoft unveiled for certain AI services on Wednesday. Microsoft will start charging businesses for some AI agent features in its Copilot service based on how often they use the service, rather than using a flat monthly fee (Microsoft is still charging the flat fee for customers who want its full suite of AI features in its popular Office software). As we have reported, Microsoft has had problems selling Copilot to businesses, which question whether the AI tools are worth the money. Switching to a consumption basis offers companies a superficially better deal: If you don't use it, you don't pay. The risk is that if you get hooked on it, the costs could skyrocket! Businesses are likely to appreciate Microsoft's offering more, at least in concept, as no one likes to pay for a feature they didn't ask for. Still, it's possible that over time, businesses using corporate Gmail will discover they like the Gemini features and appreciate the low cost. We look forward to how Google will describe the revenue uplift from today's announcement. Speaking of Google AI, we wrote recently about how Google was struggling to persuade news publishers to use its AI tools, partly because OpenAI has snared many of them by signing lots of content licensing agreements with them. OpenAI today went one better, announcing a content licensing agreement with Axios that also includes funding to help it "expand its local news coverage." According to Axios, the ChatGPT creator will help finance its expansion into four new markets. Google must be wondering what it did wrong. The company has spent years funding journalism projects and content-producing efforts by news organizations through the Google News Initiative. It hasn't been willing to do AI content licensing agreements, however, which has annoyed publishers. OpenAI is, at least for now, news folks' new best friend. - President-elect Donald Trump is considering issuing an executive order when he takes office to delay a ban of TikTok for 60 to 90 days, the Washington Post reported. The legal impact of such an order is, however, questionable, as one lawyer told the Post.
- Separately, TikTok is preparing to shut off its app for U.S. users on Sunday, the day a federal law will ban the app, unless the Supreme Court intervenes to block the ban, The Information reported.
- The U.S. announced new regulations that would stop advanced chips made by TSMC from being sold to China, Bloomberg reported, widening the array of export controls affecting advanced semiconductors.
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