Lots of talk on socials doesn’t always relate to hard news, but here are some topics making the rounds. (Picture: Adobe)GPT-5.6 in overdrive on the hype machine
The rumor mill is kicking into high gear for OpenAI’s next GPT-5.6. It’s supposed to be largely on par with Fable 5, or kick it to the curb on some tests, according to X leaker Chetaslua who claims to have been testing it for a while.
OpenAI’s chief scientist, Jakub Pachocki, pre-announced the model as a «meaningful improvement,» but would not point to a timeline.
Apple’s new Siri can take all kinds of actions across apps. (Picture: Apple)Apple finally revealed their new AI features at the Worldwide Developer Conference, conveniently packaged into «Siri AI» and as system-wide Apple Intelligence in the 27-series systems, due in beta later this fall.
The new Siri app brings wide world knowledge from Google’s Gemini and does all the things you’d expect, like carry natural language conversations, answer specific questions and do a web search. It can also scan your messages, emails, pictures «and more,» Apple says.
The feature can be invoked by swiping down from the Dynamic Island or by traditional methods, lies «on top» of the OS, understands «personal context» and has «on-screen awareness,» meaning it can read your app screens.
Also from the systemwide Apple Intelligence, iOS/macOS 27 gains enhancements in the camera app and writing tools, as well as a slew of handy AI features across Safari, Messages, Mail, Calendar and Phone apps.
The tool is English-only, requires an iPhone 15 Pro or later and is not available in the EU or China at launch «later» this year.
Commands are simple once the mouse knows where it is pointing. (Picture: Google)The common mouse pointer hasn’t changed in half a century, Google says — so it has infused it with context-aware AI to let you simply speak to it.
The general idea is to have an AI system be aware of where or what you are pointing at, and then use the microphone on your computer to give simple commands without careful prompting.
This should allow for easier AI interactions like «show me directions» when looking at a building, or «book a table» while hovering over a restaurant.
This sort of pointer needs the OS or app to be context-aware, and there is no system like this yet. It is, however, rolling out in Gemini in Chrome «starting today,» and will roll out «soon» as Magic Pointer, a major feature of the freshly announced Googlebook.
It is also available to test in AI Studio, where you can use it to edit an image or find places on a map. Do note that the system uses your microphone.
Gemini is basically enjoying a monopoly for integrated system access on Android. The EU wants to change that. (Picture: generated)Google has been aggressively implementing AI and Gemini on its platforms, such as web search — and Android. Right now, Gemini is basically the only AI with system access on the platform, and the EU sees room for improvement.
Under the Digital Markets Act, Google isn’t just another vendor — it’s one of seven dominant platforms, deemed «gatekeepers» to other services. That means it has to behave like a platform, like Windows, and offer equal access to its services.
The European Commission lists letting competing AI assistants have easy access to functions like sending emails, sharing and editing photos — and have system level access to control apps. It should also provide Android API access and support for free, they say.
Fully featured Gemini, including nano banana and screen sharing — now for the Mac. (Picture: Google)The Gemini app for macOS took just a few days to prototype and was fully developed in less than a hundred days, Ars Technica writes.
Once installed, it can be launched from the menu bar or by pressing Option+Space on the keyboard.
The app goes a bit further than ChatGPT on the Mac, letting you share your entire screen with Gemini, or just select apps, and otherwise has everything the web interface offers, 9to5Google reports.
The app/window sharing lets Gemini answer questions about spreadsheets, reports, web pages or code bases, Google says.
Google gets it right more often than not, but 1 in 10 queries result in errors. (Picture: Adobe)Sure, the measured accuracy by AI lab Oumi ticks in at a decent 90% — but when you scale it up to the sheer mass of Google’s traffic of more than five trillion searches per year, you get mind-boggling numbers of hundreds of thousands of «inaccuracies» per minute, the New York Times writes.
The test, conducted on the Gemini 3 generation of AI Overviews, was made using the SimpleQA dataset intended to probe for chatbot accuracy. It contains more than 4,000 questions with real, verifiable answers, that was made by OpenAI in 2024, Ars Technica reports.
Google’s AI answer machine pops up on every query these days, but it is difficult to tell precisely which model it uses for each task. For simple web searches, it might well opt for one of the faster Flash models rather than the more advanced Pro. It might also give different answers to the same question just milliseconds apart.
Google also doesn’t like the measurement being used, telling the NYT that «This study has serious holes. It doesn’t reflect what people are actually searching on Google.»
It now seems easier to switch to Gemini, but finding the files to do it can sometimes be difficult. (Picture: Google)Switching from a chatbot with lots of history to a fresh one can be a pain, which is why Google is now launching new switching tools, that lets you import from other chatbots, with hopes of snagging some extra users from others.
The first step is to simply prompt the bot you are switching from to output your preferences, or its memories, and it will provide them in a prompt reply. This can then be pasted into Gemini.
The second feature will import your entire chat history — up to 5GB of it. Doing this is a little more complicated and involves a trip to the settings panel, but it should result in getting a zip file from your provider, which can be uploaded to Google.
From there on, Gemini promises to pick up right where you left off with the other chatbot, and you won’t have to train a whole new AI. Anthropic already does this.
Siri will open up to ChatGPT competitors come early summer. (Picture: generated)Previously, Siri would hand off more complex questions to ChatGPT when it couldn’t handle it itself — but that’s about to change, according to Bloomberg (paywalled).
Starting in June, if users have Gemini or Claude installed on their phones, Siri will be able to use those bots instead, by recording their preferred «Extension» in Settings.
That would end the ChatGPT monopoly that OpenAI has enjoyed since 2024, and opens up the chatbot ecosystem to other players, likely staving off regulators.
Opening up the platform is for the system level Siri queries native to iOS itself, and must not be confused with the standalone Siri app, which will use Gemini in a billion dollar deal.
With Gemini running on Apple’s own servers, they have wide access and permission to customize it. (Picture: generated)With Google’s bespoke Gemini model running on their internal servers, Apple will have full access to the AI, The Information (paywalled) writes.
That entails that they can run «distillation» on the model, meaning they can use it to provide answers and reasoning over a wide array of tasks and use that to train smaller, more capable Apple models, MacRumors says.
Distillation is a controversial technique, and many of the big AI labs have been accusing Chinese startups of doing it to make their own models more capable.
Design help from Google? If it floats your boat. (Picture Google)Promising to let «anyone» create layouts with natural language prompts and turn them into «high-fidelity UI designs,» Stitch is supposed to let you «vibe design» your projects.
It is intended to let you «explore ideas quickly» with a «high quality outcome.»
The app can take input from text, images, or code, and provides you with an entire design language that you can pick and choose from, with an «infinite» canvas storing your ideas.
It should be equally good at designing for the web and apps, but does come out as somewhat boilerplate and generic.
I tried to get it to brainstorm a little about improving the design of this webpage, and the results were terrible, but it might be worth it for other projects.
The improved Stitch is available at stitch.withgoogle.com and can be accessed for free anywhere Gemini is available.
Shopping for a bag to go with your shoes? Google already knows. (Picture: Google)It seems the tie-in between Google’s Calendar, Gmail, Photos, YouTube and Search and Gemini has been popular — and they are now expanding the service to free users.
— People are appreciating the highly tailored help they’re getting in AI Mode in Search and the Gemini app, Google says.
Personal intelligence can be useful for anything that involves your history with Google, like searching for another pair of sneakers you already bought, shopping for a bag to go with said shoes — or are planning a travel itinerary based on past preferences.
You need to be signed into a personal Google account for it to work, and it is not available for Workspace business, Enterprise, or Education users, TechCrunch notes.
The feature is also explicitly opt-in, and you have to choose to turn it on. There are also granular controls for disabling each app or service, so you can opt out of having Gemini scour your previous web searches and use them in replies, for instance.
The Senate officially clears the big three chatbots for staffer use. (Picture: generated)After some staffers had been using chatbots informally at work since at least 2025, the Senate’s Sergeant at Arms office of the Chief Information Officer has now approved three of them officially.
The chatbots cleared for «drafting and editing documents, summarizing information, preparing talking points and briefing material, and conducting research and analysis» are ChatGPT Enterprise, Gemini on Workspace and Copilot, according to Business Insider.
The Sergeant at Arms will now provide all Senate employees with an AI chatbot license at no cost. The office also touts Copilot Chat as integrated with Office 365 and is usable with Word and Excel — although Claude also offers this capability.
You can now get pretty comprehensive natural language answers from Google Maps. (Picture: Google)With the latest Maps upgrade, you can ask questions in natural language and have Gemini answer with map-specific information.
The feature is supposed to work great for questions of where to find the nearest restroom, or a cozy vegan restaurant nearby — and it even lets you book a table right from the app.
To achieve this, Gemini will scan information from the Maps database consisting of some 300 million places and reviews from over 500 million contributors to find you just the right spot.
Ask Maps also remembers your previous saved spots or queries, so it will know that you are vegetarian, say, or if you have any special needs or preferences.
Of course, once you find a spot, Maps will help you navigate to get there — and in the biggest update in a decade, you now get a 3D driving experience.
Ask Maps is only available on mobile in the USA and India, with desktop support «coming soon.»
Gemini is offering AI integration in the Chrome browser for even more markets. (Picture: Google/generated)With som features previously only available for Pro and Ultra subscribers in the USA, the AI features for Chrome are now launching on desktop and mobile in India (the second largest market for American AI), New Zealand and Canada, with promises of more to come.
Gemini in Chrome adds a new side panel, letting you chat with Gemini without opening up a new tab, and can do things like summarize or interact with web pages. It can connect to Gmail, Calendar, YouTube, Shopping and flights information.
It also comes with Nano Banana features, so you can try an apartment listing picture with your own furniture, for example.
In addition to the three new countries, which are mostly English-speaking, Google is announcing support for another 50 languages.
This of course includes Hindi, but there is also support for French, Spanish, Chinese and lots of other European languages.
