The name Google is synonymous with online searches, but over the years the company has grown beyond search and now builds multiple consumer products, including software like Gmail, Chrome, Maps, Android, and hardware like the Pixel smartphones, Google Home, and Chromebooks. Its name can also be found on internet services such as Google Fi, Flights, Checkout, and Google Fiber. Here is all of the latest news about one of the most influential tech companies in the world.
The current Google Assistant is being replaced with a smarter, more conversational upgrade.
CEO Sundar Pichai also says that Google had its ‘strongest quarter ever’ for its consumer AI subscriptions.
Launched last year, Preferred Sources allows you to customize the outlets you see the most often in Google Search’s “top stories” section. Now, this feature is available in “all supported languages globally,” according to Google.
Users in the US have been able to shrink YouTube videos while they access other apps for some time now, but now Google is expanding the feature to more regions in the coming months. It’s only available for long-form, non-music content on Android and iOS.
The Financial Times reports Alphabet’s president of global affairs, Kent Walker, responded to employee opposition to the deal Google signed with the Pentagon in a memo on Tuesday, saying, “Staying engaged with governments, including on national security, will help democracies benefit from responsible technologies.”
Users can now generate and download files directly in Gemini without needing work-arounds like telling it to export to Google Docs first. Google says the feature is available to all Gemini users and is ready to create files in Workspace apps (Drive / Docs / Sheets) or “.pdf, .docx, .xlsx, .csv, LaTeX, Plain Text (TXT), Rich Text Format (RTF) and Markdown (MD).”
Their new Next Wave Fund will reward select entrepreneurs and small businesses (with fewer than 20 full-time employees) with a $10,000 pledge towards a crowdfunded technology or digital gaming-focused project. Recipients will also receive guidance from Kickstarter, training from Google, and “opportunities for marketing exposure and promotion.”
All the ad people I know keep saying “the content is the targeting” lately, and now I know why: Google and Meta are using AI to flip the online ad model upside down. Big dive in the NYT:
But the real business breakthroughs have come from targeting. It used to be that an advertiser would say, for example, “I want to target women in New York between the ages of 24 and 35.” Now it’s the opposite: Meta and Google are using A.I. to recommend customers the brands should be going after.
[The New York Times]
That’s the title of a paper that 404 Media reports was recently published by Alexander Lerchner, a Senior Staff Scientist at Google DeepMind. Regardless of grand pronouncements from folks, including DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis, about AGI’s potential, the paper states that “phenomenal consciousness” is a physical state, and “not a software artifact that can be accidentally or deliberately created.”
After 404 reached out for comment, the DeepMind letterhead was removed, and a disclaimer about it representing the author’s “personal views” was moved to the top.
The NYT has a deep dive into the Google co-founder’s hard turn to the right, which is either because he hates the proposed billionaire tax in California or because he’s super into his hardcore MAGA girlfriend. (Or both.) In any case, he’s having “intimate” dinners with Trump — and bringing Sundar Pichai along for the ride.
[The New York Times]
Eight months after the iOS app launched, Tesla has released an Android version of its Robotaxi app. The service expanded to Houston and Dallas last week, but still seems to only have a small number of vehicles actually on the road.
[Google Play]
Initially, Google will invest $10 billion, but could pour up to $30 billion more into Anthropic if it meets certain performance targets, according to Bloomberg.
Amazon, which had already invested $8 billion in Anthropic before this week, also announced new investments into the company. It invested $5 billion on Monday and could commit “up to an additional $20 billion in the future.”
Android Headlines spotted an unlisted promo video for the I/O pre-show’s second year, since removed from the Android YouTube channel. Apparently the show will stream at 1PM ET on May 12th, a week before I/O on May 19th, and will tee up “one of the biggest years for Android yet.”
[Android Headlines]
That’s “up from 50% last fall,” according to a blog post from Google CEO Sundar Pichai. Google recently created a “strike team” to improve its AI models’ coding capabilities and catch up to Anthropic, which as of February writes 70 to 90 percent of its code with Claude Code.
Per 9to5Mac, Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian was excited to boast about Gemini’s big new customer. The upgraded Siri is still coming “later this year.”
A new security feature in Chrome Enterprise can help businesses detect and combat “anomalous” activity by AI-powered agents within compromised extensions or online services. Google is rolling out its AI auto browse feature to enterprise customers as well, which can perform multi-step tasks in Chrome on your behalf.
The feature, which first arrived for AI Pro and Ultra subscribers in January, lets you use Gmail’s search bar to ask questions about what’s in your inbox. Gmail will then provide an AI-generated summary that draws from the information in your emails.
New AI tools can unlock insights from aerial and satellite images or anchor “imaginative scenes in the real world,” Google says. Pretty niche, but probably useful for urban planners, or putting spaceships in front of New York landmarks.
When Google launched Gemini for Home, it put one key feature behind a paywall. Continued Conversation became available only on Gemini Live, which required Google Home Premium.
Starting today, users in Early Access can once again ask follow-up questions to Google’s voice assistant on their Google Home devices without saying “Hey Google” every time, and without paying. Another bonus is that the feature now works with all supported languages and in all regions.
[Google Nest Community Blog]
According to The Information, the Google co-founder said in a memo to DeepMind employees that “every Gemini engineer must be forced to use internal agents for complex, multistep tasks.”
Anthropic’s tools have been leading the AI coding race, and Brin apparently sees catching them as a step toward building AI that can improve itself.
[The Information]
The first hint was a sponsored Instagram post on March 31st. But Curry has been spotted wearing the mysterious device (possibly dubbed “Google Fitbit Air”) in a video from Sotheby’s, and it even made an appearance in a behind-the-scenes clip way back from All-Star weekend. We don’t know much, but it looks like Google is getting ready to take on Whoop.
Google now lets you track price drops of your favorite hotel and receive email alerts if rates drop during your chosen dates:
To get started on desktop, head to Search and look up a specific hotel by name, then tap the new price tracking toggle. On mobile, you’ll find the price tracking option under the Prices tab after you search.
Google just released the fourth beta for Android 17 today, and now, 9to5Google and Android Authority point out that it contains mentions of a new lighting feature that we might see on the next round of Pixel phones.
The Pixel Glow details say it “uses subtle light and color on the back of your device to inform you of important activity when it’s face down,” when interacting with Gemini, or when favorite contacts are calling.
Along with an upgraded Android CLI, Google is launching a new Android skills GitHub repository and an Android Knowledge base, which can provide AI agents with the information and resources they need to perform coding tasks.
The company is apparently reversing course in its approach to military dealings. Google currently has a contract that allows the DOD to use Gemini for “all lawful purposes,” but only in unclassified settings. According to The Information:
Google’s proposed contract language appears to mirror the terms OpenAI secured in an agreement it struck with the Pentagon over the use of its AI earlier this year… However, lawyers also said at the time that language in OpenAI’s contract that seemed to preclude the use of its AI for fully autonomous lethal weapons and mass domestic surveillance wouldn’t necessarily prevent those applications because OpenAI also agreed that its technology could be used for “all lawful purposes.”
