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Today’s topics include Google spending $300 million to fight fake news online and Workday providing HR resources on Slack.
Google will spend $300 million over the next three years to help news organizations sustain business growth and drive quality journalism. Under the new Google News Initiative announced March 20, the company will also empower news organizations through technological innovation such as machine learning and natural language processing tools.
Philipp Schindler, Google’s chief business officer, said, “Business models for journalism continue to change drastically. The rapid evolution of technology is challenging all institutions, including the news industry, to keep pace.”
The Google News Initiative will focus on combating the spread of online misinformation, especially during breaking news situations.
On the technology front, Google is working on tools capable of better separating content from authoritative sources with that from purveyors of misinformation. Google will also work directly with newsrooms to identify and combat misinformation.
Announced March 21, Workday and Slack are teaming up to help employees access human resources information and complete related tasks without bouncing between Workday’s HR software and the Slack chat-based collaboration app. Starting this fall, users will be able to access many Workday functions by simply typing commands into a Slack conversation.
Workday CTO Joe Korngiebel said, “Employees will be able to interact with Workday through conversational language to gain access to co-worker information, provide anytime feedback to a colleague, or request time off, all without having to leave Slack.”
Additionally, IT teams will soon be able to assign employees to Slack channels based on the work department, custom notifications will allow users to configure Workday alerts, and users will be able to act on notifications without leaving the app.