Google cancels Qaya, which offered storefronts for creators, and six other projects out of the 14 housed at its incubator Area 120, as it shifts its focus to AI (Sarah Perez/TechCrunch)

Bloomberg:
Sundar Pichai said in a Code Conference interview that Google is “pro-competitive” and cited Microsoft, Apple, and TikTok as competitors in different businesses  —  Sundar Pichai, chief executive officer of Google parent Alphabet Inc., defended the internet-search giant against claims …

Jennifer Elias / CNBC:
Leaked audio: at a Google all-hands, Sundar Pichai expressed some annoyance at staff questions about cost cutting, telling them not to “equate fun with money”  —  – Google CEO Sundar Pichai spent much of this week’s all-hands meeting addressing employee concerns about company cost-cutting measures.

Alexandra S. Levine / Forbes:
At Code, CEOs and politicians voiced concerns about TikTok’s power, rapid growth, and surveillance potential, with some calling for it to be banned altogether  —  At the Code Conference in LA, tech and media CEOs and politicians all expressed concerns about the Chinese-owned app — as a competitor, and as a national security risk.

Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
Twitter cancels its Chirp developer conference, set for November 16, and says it is building “some things that we’re excited to share with you soon”  —  Twitter is canceling its developer-focused Chirp conference amid management transition, the company said late Thursday.

Monica Chin / The Verge:
Google announces $20M in new commitments to expand computer science education in the US and expects the funds to improve educational access for 11M+ students  —  Grants will support 4-H, The Hidden Genius Project, CUNY, and more  —  Google has announced $20 million in new commitments …

Sebastian Moss / DCD:
Sources: Meta reviews some of its 11 future data center projects globally and lays off Danish contractors, as part of a drastic design change for AI workloads  —  As it plans radical shift to AI data centers  —  Meta is reviewing a number of under-construction data center projects around …