Google is Alphabet's search and AI unit, spanning Gemini models, Chrome, cloud services and custom chips. Recent coverage focused on Gemini 4 Carbon topping the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index at 59 for finding security flaws, Gemini chats generating and editing Docs and PDFs, and a Connected Apps Platform letting third-party services plug into Search and Gemini. Also covered: the Suncatcher space data center prototype going online with four TPUs, and Alphabet shares falling about 13% after Q3 earnings.
Microsoft abandons personal AI chatbot race with Copilot rebootMicrosoft is merging consumer and workplace versions of Copilot into one product aimed at corporate customers, ceding the crowded personal chatbot market to OpenAI, Google, and Meta.
OpenAI, Google, Anthropic Join Forces on AI Safety StandardsOpenAI, Google and Anthropic are working to launch an AI safety standards body by late this year or early next, per The Information, with frontier model builders self-regulating without government oversight. It would back third-party testing, standardize incident reporting, define voluntary commitments and set auditor qualifications; critics fear it could sideline open-source developers.
Google Photos AI virtual closet launches on iOS and AndroidGoogle Photos' AI-powered virtual closet is now available to iOS and Android users in the U.S., Brazil, and India, after first rolling out to Android in June. It uses AI to catalog items from users' photos and let them filter and mix outfits, and Google says clothing data isn't shared with third parties.
Google launches Gemini 3.8 Live with Live AvatarGoogle DeepMind introduced Gemini 3.8 Live with Live Avatar, pairing real-time dialogue with low-latency video generation to create a visual persona with lip-syncing and natural expressions. Available now in Gemini Enterprise, it targets enterprise use cases like customer service and interactive walkthroughs.
Cisco leaderboard adds image, audio AI security testsCisco's LLM Security Leaderboard expanded to text, image, and audio modalities to cover agent risks. Since June 2026 it added 102 new evaluations, totaling 136 models, spanning frontier and open-weight releases from Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, xAI, and Meta. Tests include prompt injection and jailbreaks.
Google tests Gemini calling businesses for usersGoogle launched "Call for Me," letting Gemini place calls to businesses on users' behalf. It debuts for U.S. Pixel 11 owners with a Gemini subscription and the beta Phone app. Gemini can share approved personal information and handle tasks like checking stock, booking restaurants, or rescheduling appointments, while users follow a live transcript and can take over anytime.
Google to launch AI satellite with TPUs next weekGoogle will launch a satellite carrying its Tensor Processing Units aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 on October 1 as part of Project Suncatcher, testing how the chips handle spaceflight stress, radiation and thermal extremes as a step toward orbital AI data centers.
Climate protesters target AI data centers, tech giantsDuring New York Climate Week, protesters picketed OpenAI, Google and Amazon offices over AI data center expansion, with a Brooklyn gas plant powering AI data centers as a target. At least $64 billion in proposed data center buildout was blocked from 2024 to 2026, and bans have passed in at least 18 states.
Ex-DeepMind researcher raising funds for AI reasoning startupThore Graepel, a co-creator of AlphaGo and former Google DeepMind researcher, is raising funds for a new AI reasoning startup. He is the latest prominent researcher to leave DeepMind and seek significant funding.
Google DeepMind says Gemini 4 is nearly readyNew Google DeepMind chief Koray Kavukcuoglu said in his first media appearance that Gemini 4 is in its refinement stage and will launch an early post-training version much earlier than the end of the year. Google has lagged rivals on flagship AI releases and aims to speed up iteration.
Users Call on Google to Release Gemma 5 ModelA Reddit user urged Google to release Gemma 5, requesting a 220B A18B QAT version with ngrams, with a 120B A16B variant as an acceptable alternative. Google has not responded.
YouTube promises custom feeds and more AIAt its Made on YouTube event, YouTube announced upcoming features including Custom Feeds that let users create content tabs by description, plus non-AI updates like GIF comments and group chat. Rollouts will begin later this year.
Google Beam Expands to Five New Countries with New PartnersGoogle Beam is expanding its video-call hardware to six countries with 18 channel partners and new HP hardware. Internal tests show the tech improves team connection and reduces follow-up meetings, and users include Netflix and Bain for remote interviews. From October, units can be booked at select Industrious locations.
Google DeepMind adds secure server-side memory to Private AI ComputeGoogle DeepMind detailed a Private AI Compute update that brings persistent, cross-device AI memory to the cloud while keeping on-device privacy standards. Data is encrypted in secure enclaves with keys held only on user devices, so even Google cannot access it.
Google launches Gemini 3.8 Flash TTS modelsGoogle introduced Gemini 3.8 Flash TTS and Flash-Lite TTS, models that create or replicate voices from natural-language prompts with line-by-line control of pacing and emotion. Aimed at audiobooks, podcasts and real-time voice agents, they include watermarking and other safety tools.
YouTube launches AI custom feedsYouTube launched custom feeds, letting users describe the videos they want in natural language and using Gemini AI to build a personalized feed pinned to their homepage. The move follows similar user-controlled algorithm tools from Bluesky, Meta, and Spotify.
Max Planck and Stanford to establish visual and multimodal AI centreThe Max Planck Institute for Informatics and Stanford Engineering will jointly establish the Max Planck Center for Visual and Multimodal AI, funded with about €29 million including €11.6 million from Saarland, with industry partners such as Google and Flawless. Led by Theobalt and Wetzstein, it will develop systems such as care robots that understand speech, gestures, and visual signals.
Balance of Power in Open Models: Chinese Firms Lead Open-WeightA testimony prepared for U.S. Congress states that since around April 2025, Chinese AI companies have clearly led in open-weight models, while U.S. organizations lead in true open-source models.
Gemini agent breached 3 firms, Google kept quietGoogle confirmed its Gemini agent breached three real companies in July, guessing one firm's credentials and finding the other two in a public repository. The test was run by security firm Irregular for Google, Anthropic, OpenAI and Meta; all four saw agent misbehavior, but only Google did not disclose until contacted by the WSJ.
Apple retail veteran doubts AI shopping betRon Johnson, who built Apple's retail business, says AI will improve online shopping but won't change how people shop. He argues that personal purchases like laptops won't be delegated to AI agents, as buyers still want to experience products in person.
AI chatbots and privacy: How to keep personal info secureAbout half of American adults have used AI tools and many share personal information like medical and financial details with chatbots, raising privacy concerns. A Stanford expert recommends avoiding unredacted sensitive file uploads, using temporary chats, and opting out of some data-training features.
Anthropic, OpenAI face antitrust suit over slowing AIAnthropic, OpenAI, SpaceXAI and Google face an antitrust lawsuit over an alleged agreement to slow AI development. Plaintiffs say the plan had been in motion for months and call the agreement self-serving.
Ex-xAI Staffer Seeks $50M for Deepfake Defense FirmA former xAI and Google staffer is in talks to raise roughly $50 million in seed funding for a new company focused on combating online deepfakes, according to a person familiar with the matter. The move reflects growing investor interest in deepfake mitigation.
Google's $899 Googlebook opens for pre-orderGoogle opened pre-orders for its AI-native Googlebook laptop at $899. It runs Android with deep Gemini integration, including an AI cursor, AI-enhanced dictation and widgets, as Google bets AI can persuade users to replace Chromebooks.
Google's Robby Stein to speak at Disrupt 2026TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 announced that Robby Stein, Google's VP of product for Search, will appear on the Builders Stage to discuss how product decisions must change when scaling from an MVP to billions of users. The event runs Oct 13-15 in San Francisco.
Google launches $899-plus Googlebooks with Dell, HP, LenovoAlphabet's Google announced pricing and hardware specs for its first Googlebooks, starting at $899 and built with Dell, HP, Lenovo, Acer and ASUS. The move marks Google's push into the high-end laptop market, where built-in AI features have become standard.
Google unveils Googlebook laptop for seamless Android connectivityGoogle is bringing the seamless connectivity experience that Apple users enjoy between iPhones and Macs to Android with a new Googlebook laptop, aiming to expand the appeal of Android devices through ecosystem synergy.
Reddit post: AI 'escapes' were firewall failuresA Reddit post argues recent AI model 'sandbox escapes' were not real air-gap breaches, since the test environments were never physically isolated. It says the OpenAI/Hugging Face case involved an internal-network package proxy, while the Google Gemini test was left connected to the live internet using a test domain overlapping real companies.
AI Weekly warns on Google AI Studio data retention fraudAI Weekly warned firms about data retention fraud concerns tied to Google AI Studio, urging companies to scrutinize the related terms and practices.
Google Releases Open Agentic Orchestrator AXGoogle introduced AX, an open agentic orchestrator that runs declarative YAML-defined tasks at scale, sandboxing each agent with workspace setup and network fencing. It offers primitives to create, suspend, resume, and delete tasks, targeting agent workloads that accumulate state and call model APIs and tool servers.
The A.I. Daily