Google just bundled NotebookLM Plus into its $19.99/month One AI Premium plan at no extra charge. Subscribers get five times more Audio Overviews, notebooks, and queries, plus custom chat responses and viewer analytics. It makes Google's AI bundle a lot more compelling for heavy researchers.
Google, OpenAI, Roblox, and Discord just launched ROOST, a non-profit providing free open-source AI tools to detect and report child exploitation material. Backed by over $27 million, the group plans to share vetted datasets and host moderation APIs. Why it matters: Amid intense regulatory pressure, tech giants are pooling resources to set shared safety standards.
Andrew Ng just backed Google's decision to drop its seven-year pledge against building AI weapons. Speaking at a veterans event, the Google Brain cofounder argued American firms shouldn't refuse to help U.S. troops, stressing that competing with China is vital. The shift marks a broader pivot as tech giants seek lucrative military partnerships.
Google just opened up its flagship Imagen 3 image generation model to developers via the Gemini API. Priced at $0.03 per image, it delivers high-fidelity visuals across styles while embedding SynthID watermarks. Paid API users get access first, with a free-tier rollout coming soon.
AI researchers at Stanford and the University of Washington just created an open-source reasoning model called s1 for under $50 in cloud compute. By distilling thinking steps from Google's Gemini into a Qwen base model using 1,000 curated questions, s1 matches frontier reasoning models like OpenAI's o1 on math and coding tests.
Google just made Gemini 2.0 Flash generally available to everyone and introduced an experimental Gemini 2.0 Pro packing a massive 2M-token context window for heavy coding and reasoning tasks. The lineup also adds Flash-Lite, offering 1.5 Flash performance at cut-rate pricing. Gemini Advanced users can already pick the Pro model from the app switcher.
Freepik just integrated Google's Imagen 3 into its AI Suite, touting its lighting and fine detail. Users can claim two free image generations within the first 24 hours of launch.
Google has reportedly invested another $1 billion into Anthropic, pushing the tech giant's total stake to roughly $3 billion. The fresh cash arrives as Anthropic eyes a massive $60 billion valuation and preps an ambitious 2025 roadmap, which includes voice chat for Claude and a PC-controlling "Virtual Collaborator" agent.
Google is rolling out head and facial expression tracking to more Chromebooks, letting users navigate hands-free without a mouse. Built for users with motor impairments and based on its Project Gameface tool, it recommends at least 8GB of RAM. The company also unveiled new real-time classroom screen-sharing controls and teased over 20 upcoming laptops for 2025.
Samsung just unveiled the Galaxy S25 lineup at Unpacked 2025, turning the hardware into a vehicle for a new integrated AI platform powered by Gemini. A long-press of the power button lets the assistant run tasks across Samsung and Google apps, while adding features like video audio erasing. Why it matters: Phone AI is finally moving past chatbots to actually doing multi-step chores across your phone.
Google just updated its Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking model, hitting 73.3% on math benchmark AIME and 74.2% on GPQA Diamond. The latest release introduces code execution, a 1M token context window, and reduces contradictions between reasoning steps and final answers. Why it matters: Google is moving fast on reasoning models, combining long-time planning research with frontier LLMs.
X Games just partnered with Google Cloud to test experimental AI judging at the Aspen 2025 Superpipe competition. Powered by Vertex AI, the system analyzes video footage to calculate airtime and execution difficulty while generating multi-language commentary. Human judges still decide the podium, but live fans will get to see how the AI scores stack up against human eyes.
Perplexity just rolled out its Sonar API, letting developers bake real-time web search with citations straight into their apps. The service comes in two tiers—standard Sonar and 200k-token Sonar Pro—with base pricing starting at $5 per 1,000 searches. Why it matters: Perplexity is productizing its core consumer moat into an API, taking direct aim at Google and OpenAI.
Keras creator François Chollet just teamed up with Zapier co-founder Mike Knoop to launch Ndea, a new research lab betting on program synthesis over raw model scaling. The team aims to combine deep learning with automated code generation so AI can adapt and reason like humans. Why it matters: Instead of throwing more compute at the same LLM architectures, Chollet is building an alternative path toward true intelligence.
Google just struck a deal with The Associated Press to integrate a real-time information feed directly into Gemini. The move aims to boost up-to-date answers for news queries, though Google hasn't revealed when the feature will launch or which regions get it first.
OpenAI and Google are now buying YouTubers' unpublished, raw video footage for $1 to $4 per minute to train video generators like Sora and Veo. Licensing middleman Troveo AI has already paid creators over $5 million for unused 4K and drone clips. Why it matters: The race for video training data is turning cutting-room-floor scraps into an unexpected cash windfall.
Mercedes-Benz just partnered with Google Cloud to power its next-gen MBUX Virtual Assistant using Gemini. The smart navigation agent can handle complex multi-turn chats and remember conversation context throughout a trip, debut set for the new CLA running MB.OS later this year.
Vectara's benchmark shows Zhipu AI's GLM-4-9B-Chat and Google's Gemini-2.0-Flash-Exp tied for the lowest hallucination rate at just 1.3%, followed by OpenAI's o1-mini at 1.4%. The numbers prove that smaller, specialized models can easily match or beat giant frontier LLMs when it comes to factual accuracy.
Google just rolled out Daily Listen in Search Labs, an experimental feature that turns your search habits and Discover feed into a customized five-minute AI podcast. It uses the same Audio Overview magic found in NotebookLM, complete with scrubbers and full transcripts. For now, it's strictly an opt-in test for iOS and Android users in the US.
Google DeepMind is building a new team dedicated to AI that simulates the physical world, led by former OpenAI Sora co-lead Tim Brooks. The group plans to build on Gemini, Veo, and Genie to advance visual reasoning, robotics planning, and real-time generation, viewing world models as essential on the path to AGI.
