Google's Week: AI skills challenge, Oracle Java case blow, and 'racist' Photo app

Search firm also suffered a blow from the US Supreme Court in Oracle Java case

Google had a fairly diverse week last week including legal tussles, skills concerns and errors with its Photo app. V3 has put together a round up of these key stories, and several more, to help you keep up to date with everything in the world of Google.

Google warns of AI skills shortage challenge

Google's UK engineering director said that the biggest challenge in the development of artificial intelligence (AI), big data and cloud systems is finding people with the right digital skills.

"How the heck are we going to find all the people that we need around the planet with the skills to take advantage of these technologies?" Mike Warriner said at Juniper Network's Digital Disruption event, attended by V3.

UK startup Storm launches 'ethical' search engine to challenge Google, Bing and Yahoo

Google may face a new challenge in the search market in the form of ethical search engine Storm, which does not collect user data and intends to turn over half its revenues to charity.

Storm plans to raise money by taking a tiny portion of sales made on retail websites such as those of Waitrose, Currys, Boots and Sports Direct, which are reached via its search engine.

US Supreme Court deals blow to Google in Oracle Java/Android fight

V3's sister site The INQUIRER reported that Google suffered a blow from the US Supreme Court, which said it would not hear the search firm's appeal against a decision that could force Google to pay Oracle fees for using Java.

The denial is part of a long-running battle between the firms, started by Oracle in 2012 when it complained that Google infringed copyrights by using Java APIs in Android without permission.

Google and smartphones are causing digital amnesia, says Kaspersky

An interesting report from security firm Kaspersky claimed that Google and the internet are causing people to forget information.

Kaspersky polled 6,000 people over the age of 16 and found that 57 percent could not remember the phone number for their place of work, while almost three quarters could not recall contact details for their offspring.

The firm claimed that the ability to search Google for data has eroded people's ability to retain and recall information.

Google apologises for Photo app racial slur

The BBC reported that Google had to apologise when its new Photos app mistakenly labelled a black couple as gorillas during an automated tagging process that happens when people upload photos.

Google received criticism on social networking sites for having a 'racist' service, prompting the company to apologise and say that it is taking immediate action to solve the problem.