Trump says Google chief Sundar Pichai apologized to him
At the recent White House press briefing, US President Donald Trump claimed that Sundar Pichai, the chief of Google and Alphabet, apologized to him. He didn't share specific details, but the development came shortly after Trump boasted that "1,700 Google engineers" are working on a coronavirus screening tool when it was actually Verily, Google's sister company, doing the same - on a smaller scale.
Head of Google called to apologize, Trump said
During the briefing, which revolved largely around US's measures against coronavirus, Trump thanked Google and its communications team for substantiating his claims about the coronavirus screening website being developed. Then, he said, "The head of Google, who is a great gentleman — said — called us — and apologized," without telling anything about the exact reason he apologized for.
Here's what Trump added in the announcement
"I don't know where the press got their fake news, but they got it someplace. As you know, this is from Google [while showing the company's Twitter statements]. They put out a release and you guys can figure it out yourselves and how that got out."
What this could be about?
While neither the White House nor Google has said anything about the call between Trump and Pichai, the matter appears related to the nationwide coronavirus screening website the President claimed Google was building. He said that the internet giant's "1,700 engineers" were working on a website that would detect if people needed a coronavirus test and guide them to the nearest testing center.
Later, it was revealed Verily was building screening tool
Soon after Trump's announcement, Google communications team clarified that Verily, a company under the umbrella of its parent company Alphabet, is working on the screening tool, which will be ready for deployment in the San Francisco Bay area pretty soon. They added that the site would be tested in the above-mentioned region first and then expanded to cover more areas.
But, Google didn't deny Trump's claims
Despite clarifying Verily's working on the screening tool, Google didn't deny Trump's claim and noted that it is also working on a nationwide site with the US government. However, this one won't be used for screening, the company said. It would include "information about COVID-19 symptoms, risk, and testing information" so that the public could stay aware and prevent the spread of the disease.
Pichai also shared a blog post about the ongoing efforts
Along with the clarification from Google, Pichai also shared a blog post clearing up the confusion around the work being done. In that, he wrote about both the things, Verily's project for screening and Google's work on spreading awareness and coronavirus related information.
