Welcome to Tech News Briefing. It's Thursday January 4th. I'm Alex Oscela for the Wall Street Journal.

On today's show, we're talking about cookies and chips.

No, not the food, you know, the tech ones.

First up, Google has started to get rid of cookies, little pieces of data that keep track of the

websites you visit and allow advertisers to target

you with very specific ads. And not everyone is ready for the shift.

W.S.J. reporter Miles Krupa tells us what getting rid of cookies means for internet users and

the $600 billion a year online advertising industry.

And then, as governments are realizing how important AI is, they're paying a lot more attention to the

semiconductor industry, putting chip companies at the center of geopolitics.

But is all this additional attention from politicians actually good for the chip industry?

W.S.J. reporter Asa Fitch tells us how it might play out and what it means for AI.

But before we get to that, starting today, Google is making a big change to its

Chrome browser. It's getting rid of tracking cookies, little text files that advertisers

use to follow you around the internet so they can better target you with ads.

While Google will only restrict the use of cookies for 1% of Chrome users at first,

the company plans to eliminate cookies completely by the end of the year.

Here to tell us about what that means for users

and for the advertising industry

is W.S.J. reporter Miles Krupa.

Miles, why is Google making this change?

It's the domino effect that started with privacy advocates raising concerns

...