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Business Matters: Alphabet dismisses investor proposals on AI, antitrust issues and diversity

Google protest AFP Getty Images.jpg

20/06/2019 GMT

Alphabet dismisses investor proposals on AI, antitrust issues and diversity

BBC World Service - Business Matters, Alphabet dismisses investor proposals on AI, antitrust issues and diversity

The parent company of Google has had its annual shareholder meeting.

The parent company of Google, Alphabet, has long been on the back foot over how it handles sexual harassment allegations, ethical concerns with artificial intelligence systems and its treatment of contract workers. But it has decided that its annual shareholder meeting was not the forum to pass a string of 13 worker and investor proposals on artificial intelligence, antitrust issues and diversity. We hear from activist investor Pat Miguel Tomaino; Maria Noel Fernandez, who is a director with Silicon Vallery Rising, speaking for workers in the LA digital industry and from journalist Paresh Dave, who was at the meeting.

We travel to Chennai in India where the very survival of trade and industry is being seriously questioned, because of a major water crisis.

Plus, we hear about a project in New York aimed at reducing plastic waste, by encouraging consumers to reuse their containers.

We also look ahead towards next week  when the messaging app Slack will list in New York with a valuation of around $17bn. 

Also on the programme, we look at Facebook's controversial plans to launch its own cryptocurrency, Libra. There have been calls for it to be delayed until the US Congress has examined it.

Presenter Nigel Cassidy is joined by guests Diane Brady in New York and Madhavan Narayanan in Delhi.

(Photo: Google employees stage a walkout in November 2018 in New York. Credit: Bryan R. Smith/AFP/Getty Images)

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