A better metric is the AI Mode feature, that is only available in India and the USA, has to be activated by the user, and now has more than 100 million monthly active users, it was revealed during Alphabet’s quarterly earnings call.
— AI is positively impacting every part of the business, said CEO Sundar Pichai.
Continue reading “Google says AI overviews has over 2 billion monthly users, Gemini has 450M”
OpenAI announced on Saturday that it had won the prestigious gold medal, and now, Google is claiming the same.
For their part, they used an «advanced version» of the DeepThink reasoning model, not a specially tuned model, that included parallel thinking — which can «explore and combine multiple possible solutions before giving a final answer.»
Continue reading “Google also won gold in the International Mathematical Olympiad”
The call ahead feature has been added to Google’s search results pages, but first you have to search for something that might qualify.
Google suggests something like «pet groomers near me,» and this enables the «Have AI check pricing»-feature.
From there, you get a couple of quick questions about your pet and the services you need, when you need it, and how to update you.
Google takes care of it
Google’s AI takes it from there, calls up the service you wanted and asks about pricing and availability. Then it can update you with a text or email message.
Continue reading “Google AI can now call businesses for you, adds Deep Research to AI Mode”
The deal will see Windsurf CEO Varun Mohan, co-founder Douglas Chen and a small team join Google’s DeepMind division.
Also licensing key tech
Further, Google will invest $2.4 billion in a non-exclusive deal to license Windsurf’s technology, reports Reuters, among others.
OpenAI had been in long-winding talks to buy the company, in its biggest deal yet, and many said it was just around the corner, as late as in May, 2025.
Continue reading “Google hires top execs, team from Windsurf — upending OpenAIs deal”
The new Image-to-video feature for Veo 3 is sure to further expand the video pool online
To no one’s surprise, Grok 4 checks with Elon’s opinions
Multiple reddit and X.com users report how the new «maximally truth-seeking» Grok model checks with Elon Musk’s X account and interviews to align with his views in its reasoning. This comes hot on the heels of Grok 3 shutting down for spewing nazi conspiracies, after Elon accused it of being too aligned with left wing media.
More at TechCrunch, and CNBC who both confirm the reports.
Image-to-video generation comes to Veo 3
After opening up Veo 3 worldwide for Gemini Pro users and teasing the feature last week, it’s finally gone live globally.
It is now possible to upload a picture and have it animated in an 8-second 720p video if you are a Gemini Pro ($20/month) or Ultra ($250/month) user.
Simply upload a photo, add any instructions for the scene you want to create, and two minutes later you should have a nicely animated video. Google also says they have generated over 40 million videos since Veo 3’s inception in May.
More at Google’s blog and on 9to5Google.
In coming update, Youtube will demonetize «inauthentic» content
In a battle against «AI slop,» as in mass produced, unoriginal content chruned out at scale and made by AI tools, Youtube is now saying they will clarify their position on «inauthentic» content on July 15. They already have an extensive page on AI tools, but requires their use to be «original» and «authentic» and is seeing a lot of misuse. These videos will likely be demonetized shortly.
More at Youtube’s policy updates, and Gizmodo bemoans AI slop, as usual.
Alphabet’s Isomorphic Labs promises a cure for every disease
Isomorphic Labs president Colin Murdoch has spoken to Fortune about his ambitions to use AI discovery to find cures for just about anything. They are a spinoff from the AlphaFold unit and are «collaborating with AI to design drugs for cancer,» «right now,» he says.
The next stage is doing human trials on some of the drugs they have discovered, which can be a long and cumbersome process, but is crucial to getting the drugs approved.
«We’re staffing up now. We’re getting very close,» says Murdoch, and «we’re making good progress.»
Read the full interview at Fortune.
Veo 3 is also now available in India, Indonesia and all of Europe, Google’s Josh Woodward tweets:
Continue reading “Google rolls out Veo 3 for Gemini Pro users globally”
The complaints on the initial launch were that the Gemini-powered AI search was sluggish and took much longer than users had patience for, Mashable writes.
Complex queries for the photo library
The idea of the AI-powered search feature was to let people search in natural language with complex queries, like «what did I eat in Barcelona?» and finding photos that would make great backgrounds, according to 9to5Google.
Continue reading “Google’s improved Ask Photos in Android goes live for US users”
YouTube’s owner sits on an archive of over 20 billion videos, now being tapped to train its Veo 3 video model. But creators are alarmed about their content appearing in AI-generated outputs, raising red flags over copyright and IP rights. Google says it only uses a small subset of the repository and has «guardrails» in place:
«we’ve invested in robust protections that allow creators to protect their image and likeness in the AI era,» they say to CNBC.
Midjourney’s new Video model is only $10/month
While other video generation tools come with premium price tags, Midjourney’s new model is pitched as the first truly accessible option: «The first video model for everyone.» It animates either uploaded photos or AI-generated art, comes with a prompt field for control, and outputs 5-second clips. Early reactions: it excels at cartoons and stylized animation.
Read more at The Verge, their launch post on X, blog post, and check out the gallery here.
Biology in future OpenAI models getting so good, they pose a «high risk»
OpenAI warns that some successors to its current o3 models will cross thresholds in biological reasoning that trigger a «high risk» classification—raising concerns about misuse in synthesizing harmful materials. «They won’t be able to create bioweapons per se,» said safety lead Johannes Heidecke, «but extra safeguards will be deployed.»
Read more: A report on Axios and the blog post from OpenAI discussing the issue.
Eutelsat is creating a Starlink competitor
Europe is making a bold move to counter SpaceX dominance. Struggling satellite firm Eutelsat has secured $1.55 billion to expand its OneWeb network –€717M of that from the French state, which now holds a ~30% stake. «We must invest now,» Macron’s office said, «or risk dependence on foreign powers.»
Read more: France24 digs deep, Bloomberg is paywalled.
Mohan said the Veo3 integration «will open new creative lanes for everyone to explore,» hailing the other AI functions on the platform.
Users can already use AI to translate across 9 different languages, expanding with 11 more «soon.»
Continue reading “YouTube Shorts to get Veo3 integration «later this summer»”
It’s the weekend film festival you didn’t know you needed, running 24/7 in your browser.
Internet awash in short AI videos
Ever since Google launched Veo3 at I/O 2025, the internet has been awash in hundreds of thousands — maybe even millions — of photorealistic video clips made with the tool, of varying quality.
Continue reading “Yes, there’s an AI ad out there — but the tech can do so much more”
Starting June 12th, Google’s Workspace customers will get summaries in the sidebar every time they open a PDF from Drive, according to Google’s blog.
The idea is that you won’t have read the whole thing, of course, but the feature also adds a couple of handy commands in the sidebar.
Performs actions
You can then perform actions, like «Draft a sample proposal,» or «List interview questions based on this resume.»
The PDF summary will open automatically, and there is a way to opt out in the Drive settings, if you think AI is getting a bit too intrusive in your life.
The feature is available in 20 languages, and should be available for many already — but Google says it might take as many as 15 days to fully roll out.
Read more: Google’s launch blog, and a writeup on The Verge
The feature, only available for Labs users in the US in English, lets you generate «quick, conversational audio overviews» for «certain» search queries.
That should let the audio play for you while you are multitasking or turning attention elsewhere.
«It gives a lay of the land», Google says, and The Verge notes it can also be set to a feature known to many NotebookLM users — with two simulated «podcast hosts» enthusiastically debating the results for you.
You can opt into the feature on Google Labs, and the feature will then pop up as an alternative under Google’s AI overviews on the results page.
Read more: Google’s blog announcement, and a summary at The Verge
They say this can be useful for frequently occurring tasks, like getting a morning news summary or providing ideas «for your blog.»
Works with Google apps
Gemini does of course also work with your Google Calendar and Gmail, and can provide you with a list of unread emails and your daily schedule.
Continue reading “Google rolls out scheduled tasks for Gemini subscribers”
It should be available in the Gemini app, and also for free users, who get between three to ten questions per session. This is the model Google plans to take out of Preview as a stable, full model at a later time.
Google has started testing «talk to search» on Android and iOS. The feature lets you discuss and refine search results by clicking under the search bar in the Google app, by text or voice — and you can keep talking after leaving the app.
Anthropic blocks Windsurf access to Claude. Windsurf is an AI coding application that lets you choose which models to use, and the block comes «just weeks after Bloomberg reported that OpenAI was acquiring Windsurf.» «It would be odd for us to be selling Claude to OpenAI,» says Anthropic.
Anthropic opposes 10-year moratorium on state AI laws. In a New York Times op-ed, CEO Dario Amodei argues that AI is developing so fast that new laws might be needed well ahead of the ten-year mark currently being considered in the US Senate. «I believe that these systems could change the world, fundamentally, within two years; in 10 years, all bets are off,» he writes.
The shared service lets other users interact with your stored notebooks, to ask questions and make podcasts of your research. You can restrict access to only chats, if you like.
Continue reading “NotebookLM now lets you easily share projects”