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U.S. Government Files Lawsuit Against Google; New Technology Helps Ocean Researchers. Aired 4-4:10a ET
Aired October 21, 2020 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CARL AZUZ, CNN 10 ANCHOR: An underwater research station, today on CNN 10, we`re going to explore that in depth. Get it?
I`m Carl Azuz. That story is just a few minutes away.
First, though, the U.S. government is suing the Google technology company and 11 states have joined the lawsuit. Here`s what this is about. The
United States has antitrust laws designed to keep American businesses from having too much power.
The U.S. Justice Department says Google has broken those laws in part by keeping competitors from getting a foothold in the online search business.
This could prevent Americans from ever getting to see the next Google, the next major search company, according to the Justice Department.
But Google believes the lawsuit is deeply flawed. It says people use its search engine because they choose, not because they`re forced to or because
they can`t find alternatives. Those alternatives include Bing and Yahoo and DuckDuckGo. But 90 percent of all Internet searches are made on Google.
European officials have also fined Google billions of dollars for allegedly preventing competition. The company has appealed those finds and says it`s
made changes to address concerns in Europe. But Google isn`t alone in these investigations.
A recent U.S. congressional report says several major tech companies have too much power. It accuses Amazon of mistreating third party sellers. Apple
preventing competition in its App Store. Facebook buying popular apps like Instagram and WhatsApp to prevent these companies from eventually competing
with Facebook.
All of these businesses have denied doing anything illegal. They`ve said they`re successful because of their usefulness and popularity, not because
they`re trying to monopolize their industry. The suit involving Google is the largest antitrust case against the tech company in more than two
decades and it could be years before it`s decided.
A 1998 lawsuit between the U.S. government and Microsoft eventually led to limits on Microsoft`s software business.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AZUZ (voice-over): Ten-second trivia:
Which of these literary characters was the first to appear in print?
Captain Nemo, Robinson Crusoe, Horatio Hornblower or Captain Ahab?
Castaway Robinson Crusoe first appeared in Daniel Defoe`s novel in 1719.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AZUZ: NASA currently has five active missions to Mars. There`s a sixth one in partisanship with European Space Agency. We told you yesterday how there
are plans to put 4G wireless technology on the moon, assuming a base gets built there. But experts estimate that more than 80 percent of the Earth`s
oceans have never been explored.
Why are there so many efforts to map out other planets like Mars and Venus when we haven`t followed map out our own. One reason critics say is because
it`s expensive. We don`t have a technology to build a research station that can withstand deep ocean pressures, and even if we did, it will reportedly
cost more to do that than to put one on the moon. Another reason is that some parts of the remote ocean floor that people had observed don`t have a
lot of features. It`s like a desert, except for the strange creatures that sometimes float by.
But supporters of ocean research are developing new keys to unlock the secrets of the sea.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FABIEN COUSTEAU, FCOLC: For me, the ocean is home, and it`s always been a source of curiosity. I feel more at home in the ocean than I do on land.
For many reasons -- simply for the beauty of it, for the wow factor of an alien world. For the pragmatic reason to be able to answer questions that
we simply don`t have answers to.
SUBTITLE: The Aquanaut.
REPORTER: In 2014, Fabien Cousteau and his crew spent 31 days living under the ocean, on an expedition called Mission 31.
And he did so on this -- an underwater habitat known as Aquarius.
COUSTEAU: From a very young age, I was exposed to the underwater world. I`ve been scuba diving since my fourth birthday. Been on expeditions with
my family since I was seven.
REPORTER: Fabien comes from a family of out-of-the-box thinkers. You may be familiar with his grandfather, Jacques Cousteau, the late explore and
innovator who pioneered underwater exploration technology. His most popular invention was a regulator valve for diving. It allowed humans to breathe
underwater using an air tank. He called it the aqua lung, but we simply refer to it as a scuba.
But even for Jacques, the ultimate dream was life aquatic. So in came Conshelf 1, the first ever underwater station that allowed him to live
underwater for several days.
It laid the framework for subsequent ocean habitats.
COUSTEAU: One of the really neat points of Mission 31 based out of Aquarius is that for the first time on a Cousteau expedition, we had Wi-Fi
at the bottom of the sea.
It was arguably better than my apartment in New York City.
So we were able to reach over 100,000 students live through Skyping the classroom sessions and other platforms, to really be able to show them both
inside the habitat, which is pretty cool. It`s like the International Space Station. And outside the habitat, all the critters and all the sea life,
that fireworks display of activity that we`re studying.
I`m a firm believer that humans and technology must work together and one of the things that we`re missing is a modern undersea laboratory, a modern
undersea habitat.
REPORTER: And so a bigger, better, more advanced underwater habitat is already in the works. And its name is Project Proteus.
COUSTEAU: We`re planning on building something that is seven times or more the size of any other previous habitat in history. That allows for us for
much longer deployments, larger teams. To be able to bring that to the bottom of the sea is absolutely paramount.
REPORTER: Cousteau is just one of many modern thinkers, building up and imagining the future of ocean technology.
Architects are reshaping the way we interact with the great blue too.
COUSTEAU: The famous Jacques Rougerie, who pioneered some of the underwater habitats.
REPORTER: Belgian architect Vincent Callebaut has also conceptualized underwater Oceanscrapers, while Danish firm BIG has imagined entire
floating cities.
We may travel deeper than ever before, without physically moving out of our seats. Cousteau points to breakthroughs in automation and underwater
mobility that could take us further than the naked eye can see.
COUSTEAU: AUV`s or autonomous vehicles are amazing. They have a very practical reason. They are able to go places for longer periods of time
without having to have a human being on them.
REPORTER: And just like Jules Verne`s Nautilus, powering up these vehicles may one day be electric, and even renewable.
COUSTEAU: There`s enough energy that could be extracted from the ocean to power the world`s current needs without creating significant environmental
impact. One such piece of technology is called OTEC: ocean thermal energy conversion.
OTEC converts the cold water temperature from the deep water to the fairly warm surface temperature to create energy. Imagine how amazing that piece
of technology could be to help solving some of the climate change related issues.
As we continue to develop, as we continue to expand, as we continue to add more peopled on this planet, that will need that energy.
REPORTER: So, where does that leave us now? Will these breakthroughs take us further and deeper into the ocean and like Cousteau, we may one day find
ourselves living there?
Well, maybe not just yet.
COUSTEAU: It is absolutely possible. Is it desirable? That is something I`m on the fence on.
REPORTER: For now, just like his grandfather, the future of technology lays ion exploring this untouched frontier.
COUSTEAU: My grandfather, he was a pioneer. He inspired hundreds of millions around the world for over five decades. It opens my eyes to what
is possible out there, hat does need to happen and what should be learned from our ocean world.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
AZUZ: Here`s a Halloween decoration that`s both the trick and the treat. It`s a treat to see amusing you`re not afraid of absolutely horrifying
green man-eating spiders. It`s a trick from a retired toymaker who used a crane and a lot of ingenuity to build this disturbing decoration outside
his home in upstate New York. He says 2020 was the perfect time to do this.
But poor Little Miss Muffet, I mean, she`d have a heart attack if that spider sat down beside her. It would send anyone wandering away. It took a
Tarantu-lot of work to build. It wouldn`t fit in any cellar. I mean, in that size, that thing can be anything but reclusive.
I`m Carl Azuz.
You know what? That Lakeville, Connecticut, is beautiful this time of year. It`s where we found Indian Mountain School. Thank you for subscribing and
commenting at YouTube.com/CNN10.
END
