Hiya, folks, welcome to TechCrunch’s regular AI newsletter. If you want this in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here. Longtime readers of the newsletter might’ve noticed that we skipped a week last week. That wasn’t our intent, and we do apologize. The reason was we’ve reached an inflection point in the AI news cycle. We’re […]
This Week in AI: Seeking balance in the deluge of news Read More »
Google’s next major AI model has arrived to combat a slew of new offerings from OpenAI. On Wednesday, Google announced Gemini 2.0 Flash, which the company says can natively generate images and audio in addition to text. 2.0 Flash can also use third-party apps and services, allowing it to tap into Google Search, execute code,
Gemini 2.0, Google’s newest flagship AI, can generate text, images, and speech Read More »
Google is upgrading Gemini, its chatbot platform, with the ability to “reason” through a research problem and compile a comprehensive report. The updated Gemini offers a feature called “Deep Research” that Google says uses “advanced reasoning” and “long context capabilities” to generate research briefs. The briefs are presented in the Gemini apps and can be
Google Gemini can now do more in-depth research Read More »
Google unveiled on Wednesday its first-ever AI agent that can take actions on the web, a research prototype from the company’s DeepMind division called Project Mariner. The Gemini-powered agent takes control of your Chrome browser, moves the cursor on your screen, clicks buttons, and fills out forms, allowing it to use and navigate websites much
Google unveils Project Mariner: AI agents to use the web for you Read More »
Google on Monday announced Willow, its latest, greatest quantum computing chip. The speed and reliability performance claims Google’s made about this chip were newsworthy in themselves, but what really caught the tech industry’s attention was an even wilder claim tucked into the blog post about the chip. Google Quantum AI founder Hartmut Neven wrote in
Google says its new quantum chip indicates that multiple universes exist Read More »
Nuclear power may have received the lion’s share of attention from energy hungry tech companies over the past few months, with Google among them. But it appears that those new reactors won’t be enough for their AI ambitions: Google is now working with partners to build gigawatts of renewable power, battery storage, and grid upgrades
Google kicks off $20B renewable energy building spree to power AI Read More »
YouTube is experimenting with multiplayer mini-games under its collection of lightweight, free games dubbed “Playables.” Currently, Ludo Club and Magic Tiles 3 support multiplayer mode. “We’re beginning to test a new multiplayer feature for a few select games on YouTube Playables. Multiplayer on Playables lets you play games in real-time with other users,” the company
YouTube is testing multiplayer mini-games Read More »
Google’s DeepMind team unveiled an AI model for weather prediction this week called GenCast. In a paper published in Nature, DeepMind researchers said they found that GenCast outperforms the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts’ ENS — apparently the world’s top operational forecasting system. And in a blog post, the DeepMind team offered a more
Google says its new AI model outperforms the top weather forecast system Read More »
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced Friday that it was placing Google’s payment arm under federal supervision. In response, Google filed a lawsuit seeking to block the move. Such supervision would subject Google to the same inspections that the bureau conducts with major banks and other financial institutions for potential violations of the law. The
Google pushes back against federal supervision of its payment arm Read More »
Welcome to Startups Weekly — your weekly recap of everything you can’t miss from the world of startups. Want it in your inbox every Friday? Sign up here. The week after Thanksgiving is usually rich in announcements, and this year was no exception. Blame it on the holiday season, but we would even go as
Hopeful hearts and other startup news Read More »
