Tag: gemini

Google announces Universal Commerce protocol, set for AI Mode, Gemini

Soon you will not only get ads in AI Mode, but discounts and checkouts, too. (Picture: generated)
The Universal Commerce protocol will simplify the shopping experience for a broad range of retailers and will soon offer «native checkout» so you «can buy directly on AI Mode» and Gemini, beginning with Google Pay.

The system was co-developed with the likes of Walmart, Target, Shopify, Etsy and Wayfair — many of whom also worked on similar efforts with OpenAI’s checkout and apps earlier.

It’s a «new open standard for agents and systems to talk to each other across every step of the shopping journey,» Sundar Pichai says on x.com.

One feature is the Business Agent, that will answer product questions in the «brand’s voice,» Engadget writes. This agent will also let advertisers «present exclusive offers» to shoppers who are ready to buy.

Tobi Lutke, CEO of Shopify says the platform can transact with any merchant, and that agents can now handle anything from discovery to fulfillment, and deal with everything from discounts, subscriptions and loyalty programs.

Read more: Engadget, Axios and TechCrunch.

Gemini is coming to Gmail: Google is rolling out new AI features

Gmail needs evolving, Google says, and does it with AI from Gemini. (Picture: Google)
3 billion people use Google’s email tool, and for now, at least American customers are getting an AI revamp.

Email volume is at an all-time high, Google says, and «managing your inbox and the flow of information has become as important as the emails themselves.»

Continue reading “Gemini is coming to Gmail: Google is rolling out new AI features”

Boston Dynamics officially launches Atlas humanoid, DeepMind partnership

The new Atlas robot is ready to work, and will soon have brains from Google. (Picture: Boston Dynamics)
The company has great plans for its new robot, including placing it in majority owner Hyundai’s manufacturing plants — and is announcing a partnership with Google’s DeepMind at the same time.

Google already has a «Gemini Robotics» arm, and has been looking for partners, TechCrunch writes — and Boston Dynamics has been looking for an advanced AI model.

The new Atlas humanoid was made its first official debut yesterday at CES, and will be put to work in Hyundai’s U.S. factories by 2028, handling tasks that are either too dangerous or too strenuous for humans.

The trick is to build a proper world model for robots to train on, but Google is pretty advanced in this space.

— We are excited to begin working with the Boston Dynamics team to explore what’s possible with their new Atlas robot as we develop new models, says Carolina Parada, Senior Director of Robotics at Google DeepMind in a release.

Read more: Boston Dynamics’ press release, more on Atlas. Writeups, detail from TechCrunch, Mashable.

Google launches Gemini 3 Flash; faster, cheaper and the new default

Gemini 3 Flash is a whole lot faster than Pro, while retaining much of its prowess. (Picture: Google)
Offering performance just below Gemini 3 Pro and outperforming 2.5 Pro by wide margins, the new Flash model’s major selling point is price and speed.

The model is especially good at agentic workflows, and in fast reasoning, Google says.

On the benchmarks it performs stunningly well for the price, even beating Gemini 3 Pro at MMMU-Pro, which tests for multimodal understanding. It also ticks in at 33.7% in Humanity’s Last Exam, just a little below GPT-5.2.

Google has priced the model for efficiency, too, with a cost of $0.50 for 1 million tokens of input, and $3.00 for the same output. This is substantially lower than 3 Pro and is only beaten by Grok 4.1 Fast and Gemini 2.5 Flash.

The model is rolling out in all channels as of today, and will become the default in the Gemini app and on the web, as well as in AI Mode, where it will much improve reasoning.

Read more: Google: launch page, for developers, and in AI Mode. Writeups at The Verge, 9to5Google and Engadget.

Google rolling out live translations on Android, as Apple launches in Europe

Google live translate works with over 20 languages, but is only available in the USA, India and Mexico for now.
Google says they’ll expand availability and launch on iOS in 2026. (Picture: Screenshot)
Google has just announced a beta translation service that will translate from 20 languages directly in any headphones.

Apple has had this function in the US since iOS 26 in June, 2025, and just rolled out the functionality in Europe in iOS 26.2.

The idea is to use Gemini 2.5 Flash Native Audio as the base model, to «preserve the tone, emphasis and cadence of each speaker,» according to 9to5Google.

The feature is only available in the USA, Mexico and India so far, and only on Android, but Google says «we’ll be bringing it to iOS and more countries in 2026.»

All you need to do is tap the «Live translate» button in the Google Translate app, point your phone in the direction of the speaker, and it will start translating, with an understanding of slang, idioms and euphemisms.

Apple is a little more quirky than Google, requiring the use of AirPods Pro 2 or 3, or AirPods 4 with ANC to work properly.

Read more: Google’s announcement, writeups on 9to5Google, Ars Technica. MacRumors on Apple’s capabilities.

Google demos smart glasses with Android XR, set to debut in 2026

The glasses without a screen will arrive first, as of "next year."
Google’s in-specs screen is impressing reviewers, but it’s the screenless glasses getting released first. (Picture: Google)
Google has officially taken the lid off «Project Aura,» inviting a whole host of websites to demo it — and doing their own bit in The Android Show, XR Edition on Youtube.

They are mostly concerned with the glasses with internal screens, that can run bog standard Android apps as well as Android XR apps — and provides you with information right inside the glasses.

These spectacles, while impressive, connect via wire to a puck in your pocket that serves as a battery and trackpad in one, and use a phone or laptop for computing power, but they don’t have a release date as of yet.

Continue reading “Google demos smart glasses with Android XR, set to debut in 2026”

Google partners with Replit to bring «vibe coding» to the enterprise

Replit tightens its integration with Google models and Cloud.
Vibe Coding is comping for the enterprise. (Picture: Google, modified)
Decade old Replit has a valuation of $3 billion dollars and is a «leader» in the AI Vibe coding space, writes CNBC, and they are now tightening their integration with Google Cloud and the Gemini models.

—The goal for us, and Google, is to make enterprise vibe-coding a thing, Replit founder and CEO Amjad Masad said; — We want to show the world that these tools are actually going to transform businesses and how people work.

Under the new agreement, Replit will expand its Google Cloud use and «further integrate Google’s models into its platform,» Google writes on the deal.

Replit will gain access to all of the Gemini models, and the deal will «help enterprise customers embrace vibe coding.»

— Our mission is to enable the next billion software creators — from hobbyists to entrepreneurs to enterprises, Masad said.

Read more: Google’s announcement, writeup on CNBC.

Google’s Gemini 3 Deep Think debuts for Ultra users

Deep Think incorporates the code that won the math olympiad, and is reserved for heavy lifting.
Gemini 3 Deep Think brings some serious AI muscles to tackle the toughest problems. (Picture: Google)
Google just launched it’s most capable model to it highest paid tier, ready to take on the most confounding probblems.

It incorporates the solutions that won gold at the International Mathematical Olympiad and beat the ICPC coding contest, and carries on its duties doing parallel reasoning, letting it try several approaches to a problem at once.

Continue reading “Google’s Gemini 3 Deep Think debuts for Ultra users”

Altman declares «Code Red» at OpenAI, plans Gemini 3-beating model

OpenAI has put ads on hold until it can release a Gemini 3-beating model.
All other initiatives are on hold as OpenAI prepares its next model. (Picture: generated)
Competition is heating up in the AI chatbot market, as highlighted in the last weeks, with new, capable models from Google, Anthropic, and a new Codex Max from OpenAI.

This has now caused Altman to delay other initiatives, such as ads, to focus on making a better ChatGPT, paywalled The Information writes, citing an internal memo.

They are apparently planning to release a new reasoning model next week that will be «ahead of Gemini 3.» But this needs a little more polishing on the «experience.»

Just last week, a developer revealed ad code in the latest ChatGPT beta — meaning that their work on ads was fairly advanced and almost ready to ship.

This work is now on the back burner, at least until next week, when OpenAI hopes to reclaim their crown.

Read more: The Information (paywalled), and Reuters. Discussion on r/Singularity.

Cloud honcho at Google says they need to double capacity every six months

Google needs to reach 1000x capacity in the next 4-5 years, they say at an all hands meeting.
Google is not immune to the ever increasing demand on AI infrastructure. (Picture: generated)
The demand for AI infrastructure is «the most critical and also the most expensive part of the AI race,» said Vice President at Google Cloud, Amin Vahdat, at a recent all hands meeting, reported by CNBC.

This comes as almost every other Big Tech company is increasing data center spending and Google has set aside $93 billion in «capital expenditures» this year to do the same.

This will be followed by a «significant increase» in 2026, but likely not matching OpenAI’s enormous $1.4 trillion data center spending.

They are aiming to «spend a lot,» and hit «the next 1000x in 4-5 years,» Vahdat is reported to have said.

That’s one thousand times more «capability, compute and storage networking» that he aims to add for «essentially the same cost, power and energy spend.»

Read more: The scoop at CNBC, writeups at Ars Technica and Gizmodo.

Google launches Gemini 3, blows out benchmarks and is less sycophantic

Picture: Google
Apart from blowing up the benchmarks, Gemini 3 takes pride in telling you «what you need to hear, not just what you want to hear.»

— Like the generations before it, Gemini 3 is once again advancing the state of the art, says CEO Sundar Pichai on their launch page, and adds: — In this new chapter, we’ll continue to push the frontiers of intelligence, agents, and personalization to make AI truly helpful for everyone.

Debuting in preview across all of Google’s services, including AI Mode on their front page, the new model is «another big step on the path toward AGI,» Google says.

Continue reading “Google launches Gemini 3, blows out benchmarks and is less sycophantic”

Google DeepMind unveils SIMA 2 — a self-improving 3D navigator agent

The old SIMA was good at following instructions, but the second version now has access to Gemini models and can explore 3D worlds on its own, with zero advance training.

That’s great for video games, where it can think and perform complex reasoning around its goals.

Learning from concepts
It can also learn across games, taking cues from «mining» in one game and transferring it to «harvesting» in another, meaning it can iterate and get better over time.

Continue reading “Google DeepMind unveils SIMA 2 — a self-improving 3D navigator agent”

Nano Banana arrives in Google Photos

Nono Bana has arrived in Google Photos, letting you conversationally edit your picutres.
You can now use natural language editing of your Google Photos, and get instant results — thanks to Nano Banana. (Picture: Google)
Google has announced a whole slew of AI features for the Photos app — bringing it up to date with their latest «conversational» image generator.

You can now ask the app to remove sunglasses in photos or fix a smile, but it can also respond to names you have tagged in your pictures, such as «make Engel smile.»

«Help me edit»
You can use the «Help me edit»-button in the editor and simply describe the style you want your pics to be in, from a Renaissance portrait to a picture from a children’s story book.

Continue reading “Nano Banana arrives in Google Photos”

Google launches Private AI Compute, a secure way to use cloud AI

Google's new cloud program will offer the same privacy as on-device computation.
Expanding from on-device AI, Google’s new tech will provide the same level of privacy. (Picture: Google)
Similar to Apple’s Private Cloud Compute, Google’s solution is to enhance apps on your phone, Chromebook or whatever else you are using, with extra power from Gemini in the cloud.

Most of Google’s AI features are handled on-device, but they are seeing the need for more computing power to move «from completing simple requests to AI that can anticipate your needs with tailored suggestions or handle tasks for you at just the right moment.»

The connections between the device and servers are encrypted, and the data transmitted is not available to anyone’s prying eyes — not even Google’s.

The new tech is not getting a wide rollout, and most AI queries will still be on-device. The only feature to use it is the Magic Cue in Android, and the Recorder app, that will be able to summarize transcripts in «a wide range of languages.»

This is foundational technology for Google, and they will be rolling out features across their services in short order, saying «This is just the beginning.»

Read more: Google’s launch page, writeups on The Verge and 9to5Google.

Rumor roundup for Monday, November 10.

(picture: Adobe)
Not much to publish today. There are, however, lots of rumors on the grapevine:

There’s talk about Google deprecating models like Gemini 2.5 Pro and its whole family by the end of November to make way for the upcoming Gemini 3.0, said by CEO Sundar Pichai to arrive this year. Many say a preview is launching soon.

There is even a purported leak of Nano Bana 2, the next generation of Gemini’s image generator, and a lot of people are blown out of the water by it.

Some people are also claiming to have spotted GPT-5.1 in OpenAI source code, which could mean we are getting closer to release of that model, too.

Then rumor has it that the new Kimi 2 model from China, said to have been developed for a paltry 4.6 million dollars, is going head to head with GPT-5 in a benchmark collection. It’s made by a company called Moonshot that is backed by Alibaba.

None of this is confirmed news, though, and I’ll be closely watching for anything official, which might be coming sooner than we think.