Google Docs and Drive can now natively view, edit, and collaborate on Markdown (.md) files without manual format conversion, and Drive can also directly preview rendered tables and hyperlinks. The document header displays a .md indicator, and it supports real-time collaboration, line-level comments, and version history, making it easy for team members and AI agents to co-edit the same file.
Google Research and the Stanford Learning Accelerator have launched Polar Peaks, the third course in the AI Quests series, aimed at students aged 11 to 14, letting them play the role of researchers scanning and mapping brain neurons, practicing data cleaning and model testing, and understanding that AI requires human oversight. The course was inspired by Google's more than a decade of connectomics research; AI Quests has completed over 400,000 quests in total and has been localized into 10 languages, and a companion teacher training module will launch next month.
Google Research and the Stanford Learning Accelerator have launched Polar Peaks, the third course in the AI Quests series, aimed at students aged 11 to 14, letting them play the role of researchers scanning and mapping brain neurons, practicing data cleaning and model testing, and understanding that AI requires human oversight. The course was inspired by Google's more than a decade of connectomics research; AI Quests has completed over 400,000 quests in total and has been localized into 10 langu
Google's partnership with Ignite Energy Access achieved more than 160 kT CO2e in emissions reductions in the first half of 2026, and has delivered 3.7 million solar devices in sub-Saharan Africa since 2023. The two parties use satellite imagery, the Open Buildings dataset and smart routing algorithms to locate remote households without addresses, and use a computer vision model fine-tuned on Gemini for Science to identify individual rooftop solar panels from space. The partnership has now expanded to modeling microgrids for rural households to support clean electric cooking solutions.
Google's partnership with Ignite Energy Access achieved more than 160 kT CO2e in emissions reductions in the first half of 2026, and has delivered 3.7 million solar devices in sub-Saharan Africa since 2023. The two parties use satellite imagery, the Open Buildings dataset and smart routing algorithms to locate remote households without addresses, and use a computer vision model fine-tuned on Gemini for Science to identify individual rooftop solar panels from space. The partnership has now expand
Google.org is providing $2.5 million in support to the World Bank Group to scale digital public infrastructure for agriculture, with the goal of helping 1 million farmers access key services that improve their livelihoods by the end of 2027. Following the success of a pilot in India, the World Bank Group will build the AI-driven Open Network for Agriculture (ONA) in multiple countries across Latin America, Southeast Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa, enabling farmers to access digital farmer IDs, credit, subsidy payments, sales markets, and voice-based farming advice in local languages through a single platform.
Google.org is providing $2.5 million in support to the World Bank Group to scale digital public infrastructure for agriculture, with the goal of helping 1 million farmers access key services that improve their livelihoods by the end of 2027. Following the success of a pilot in India, the World Bank Group will build the AI-driven Open Network for Agriculture (ONA) in multiple countries across Latin America, Southeast Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa, enabling farmers to access digital farmer IDs, cre
Google has partnered with USO to deploy HP Dimension 3D video communication devices powered by Google Beam to 20 USO sites worldwide, helping service members stationed abroad stay connected with their families through lifelike 3D video. The technology captures body language and eye contact in real time; it was previously piloted between Trzebień, Poland and Fort Bliss, Texas, and is now expanding to Grafenwöhr, Germany and Fort Hood, Texas. Google has also released a documentary directed by veteran Kyle Hausmann-Stokes, chronicling the reunion stories of four military families.
Google has partnered with USO to deploy HP Dimension 3D video communication devices powered by Google Beam to 20 USO sites worldwide, helping service members stationed abroad stay connected with their families through lifelike 3D video. The technology captures body language and eye contact in real time; it was previously piloted between Trzebień, Poland and Fort Bliss, Texas, and is now expanding to Grafenwöhr, Germany and Fort Hood, Texas. Google has also released a documentary directed by vete
Sierra is now available on Google Cloud Marketplace, allowing enterprises to purchase using their existing Google Cloud commitment funds, with eligible Marketplace purchases counting toward committed spend. After signing through an existing Google Cloud relationship, billing is consolidated in the Google Cloud Console and supports Private Marketplace governance.
Google AI Studio is about to launch Managed Agents, where users can view and manage autonomous AI agents along with their tools, environments, and triggers in a dedicated Agents hub. Earlier this week, Google also released the Agent Compute Engine for GCP, and this solution is likely built on top of it.
A new paper from Google DeepMind and several top universities shows that the best-performing AI agent in the test solved 49 of 50 unpublished research-level theoretical physics problems, each roughly equivalent to a day's work for a domain expert, at a cost of under $3 per problem. The problems were contributed by experts from their own research, and the agents answered independently, split into two groups—with and without internet access—and were scored only on the final numerical answer. GPT-6-Astra, with internet access in Codex, solved 49; it and Opus 5.5, without internet access in Claude Code, each solved 46, and removing internet access changed accuracy very little, leading the authors to suggest that the models may have memorized a large amount of physics literature.
A new paper from Google DeepMind and several top universities shows that the best-performing AI agent in the test solved 49 of 50 unpublished research-level theoretical physics problems, each roughly equivalent to a day's work for a domain expert, at a cost of under $3 per problem. The problems were contributed by experts from their own research, and the agents answered independently, split into two groups—with and without internet access—and were scored only on the final numerical answer. GPT-6
Historian Niall Ferguson, researcher Lisa Klaassen, and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt wrote in Foreign Affairs, comparing OpenAI and Anthropic to colonial-era East India Companies, arguing that they negotiate with governments but remain constrained by them. The article cites the example of the U.S. Commerce Department in June requiring Anthropic to cut off foreign nationals' access to its two most powerful models; because Anthropic could not verify users' nationalities in real time, it took Fable 5 and Mythos 5 offline worldwide. About two weeks later, export controls on Fable 5 were lifted, while Mythos 5 remains available only to certain U.S. institutions. The authors also say U.S. tech companies plan to invest more than $600 billion in 2026, much of it debt-financed, while China plans to invest $295 billion over five years, and they propose an "imperial trilemma" in which defense, technological leadership, and the welfare state are difficult to achieve at the same time.
Historian Niall Ferguson, researcher Lisa Klaassen, and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt wrote in Foreign Affairs, comparing OpenAI and Anthropic to colonial-era East India Companies, arguing that they negotiate with governments but remain constrained by them. The article cites the example of the U.S. Commerce Department in June requiring Anthropic to cut off foreign nationals' access to its two most powerful models; because Anthropic could not verify users' nationalities in real time, it took Fab
A paper from the University of Toronto and Google argues that GEO (generative engine optimization) benchmarks need unified rules on permitted webpage edits, otherwise scores cannot be compared. The paper labels each type of GEO edit by where the change is made, how it is made, and the cue it targets (such as authority), and recommends that tests report visibility, answer quality, and rule compliance together. The paper conducted no experiments; its evidence is a review of 11 published GEO methods, showing that the types of edits covered by each method differ.
A paper from the University of Toronto and Google argues that GEO (generative engine optimization) benchmarks need unified rules on permitted webpage edits, otherwise scores cannot be compared. The paper labels each type of GEO edit by where the change is made, how it is made, and the cue it targets (such as authority), and recommends that tests report visibility, answer quality, and rule compliance together. The paper conducted no experiments; its evidence is a review of 11 published GEO method
A new Google DeepMind paper finds that the same AI assistant was seen by some employees as a savior and by others as a source of stress, because it acts on its own without being asked. The agent ran for 5 months across more than 20 teams at a large tech company, and researchers interviewed 17 users; it treated outdated documents as current, tagged a VP on 16 bugs, shared a poster draft before the author was ready, and misread sarcastic tone. Some users called it a savior, while others felt surveilled and moved sensitive discussions to chats without the agent; teams that actively chose the agent forgave its early mistakes, while those who felt it was imposed on them did not. The authors recommend obtaining team consent when deploying agents, separating permissions, and providing an easy way to undo actions.
A new Google DeepMind paper finds that the same AI assistant was seen by some employees as a savior and by others as a source of stress, because it acts on its own without being asked. The agent ran for 5 months across more than 20 teams at a large tech company, and researchers interviewed 17 users; it treated outdated documents as current, tagged a VP on 16 bugs, shared a poster draft before the author was ready, and misread sarcastic tone. Some users called it a savior, while others felt surve
Google has begun rolling out Gemini to users in Google Maps on Apple CarPlay. A Gemini star icon appears on the right side of the navigation interface; tapping it lets users issue multi-step, open-ended commands by voice. Users can ask Gemini to recommend scenic spots, check how crowded a place is and suggest quieter times, specify routes that avoid toll roads, and report congestion and accidents while driving. The feature launches first in the United States and will expand globally in the coming weeks.
Google has begun rolling out Gemini to users in Google Maps on Apple CarPlay. A Gemini star icon appears on the right side of the navigation interface; tapping it lets users issue multi-step, open-ended commands by voice. Users can ask Gemini to recommend scenic spots, check how crowded a place is and suggest quieter times, specify routes that avoid toll roads, and report congestion and accidents while driving. The feature launches first in the United States and will expand globally in the comin
TestingCatalog points out that the string "build_arena_andwise_si_comparison", which Google uses internally for model comparison, suggests that its naming may be shifting from "AI" to "SI". The author also lists examples such as SpaceXSI, MSL, and SSI, and speculates whether this naming will spread to MAI, OpenAI, Apple Intelligence, and others.
TestingCatalog points out that the string "build arena andwise si comparison", which Google uses internally for model comparison, suggests that its naming may be shifting from "AI" to "SI". The author also lists examples such as SpaceXSI, MSL, and SSI, and speculates whether this naming will spread to MAI, OpenAI, Apple Intelligence, and others.
Sundar Pichai said he runs agents inside Google that automatically summarize activity in chat groups covering pretraining, mid-training, and post-training data. What used to take him about an hour a day to catch up on the past 24 hours of progress is now compiled by an agent and pushed to him. He also uses agents connected to telemetry data on compute usage, product areas, efficiency, and utilization to get inputs and insights.
The UK announced it will establish a national-level AI biosecurity laboratory, supported jointly by OpenAI, Anthropic and Google DeepMind, with the government investing £100 million for this purpose, while OpenAI and Anthropic will additionally provide AI model usage credits worth up to £200 million. The laboratory is officially described as the world's first institution dedicated to AI biosecurity; it will use AI to detect and monitor biosecurity threats and will cooperate with Google DeepMind and life sciences company Basecamp Research, though its specific functional structure has not yet been fully disclosed. This package of measures also includes an additional £120 million for the UK AI Safety Institute and an additional £23 million for the planned UK AI Economy Institute.
The UK announced it will establish a national-level AI biosecurity laboratory, supported jointly by OpenAI, Anthropic and Google DeepMind, with the government investing £100 million for this purpose, while OpenAI and Anthropic will additionally provide AI model usage credits worth up to £200 million. The laboratory is officially described as the world's first institution dedicated to AI biosecurity; it will use AI to detect and monitor biosecurity threats and will cooperate with Google DeepMind
The UK Cabinet Office announced that the UK will establish a national-level artificial intelligence biosecurity laboratory for detecting and monitoring biosecurity threats, jointly supported by OpenAI, Anthropic and Google DeepMind. The UK government will invest 100 million pounds for this purpose, and OpenAI and Anthropic will additionally provide AI model usage credits worth up to 200 million pounds; the laboratory will also cooperate with Google DeepMind and life sciences company Basecamp Research. The announcement also includes an additional 120 million pounds for the UK AI Safety Institute and an additional 23 million pounds for the UK AI Economy Institute under preparation.
the UK will establish a national-level artificial intelligence biosecurity laboratory for detecting and monitoring biosecurity threats, jointly supported by OpenAI, Anthropic and Google DeepMind. The UK government will invest 100 million pounds for this purpose, and OpenAI and Anthropic will additionally provide AI model usage credits worth up to 200 million pounds; the laboratory will also cooperate with Google DeepMind and life sciences company Basecamp Research. The announcement also include
Alex Heath relays Sundar Pichai's explanation for Demis Hassabis stepping down as head of DeepMind and Jeff Dean leaving Google. Pichai called it a natural evolution after the individuals' long-term commitment, and mentioned that Jeff Dean will go work on Discovery Loop; he said frontier model development has become high-intensity, large-scale work spanning data, compute, algorithms, and team management, while Hassabis wants to devote more time to safely advancing the frontier and using AGI to solve other problems, with AlphaFold and Isomorphic as examples of such applications.
Alex Heath relays Sundar Pichai's explanation for Demis Hassabis stepping down as head of DeepMind and Jeff Dean leaving Google. Pichai called it a natural evolution after the individuals' long-term commitment, and mentioned that Jeff Dean will go work on Discovery Loop; he said frontier model development has become high-intensity, large-scale work spanning data, compute, algorithms, and team management, while Hassabis wants to devote more time to safely advancing the frontier and using AGI to s
Google states that after users enable Personal Intelligence, services such as Search can process Gmail, Photos, and Drive data that they have granted access to for personalized content, including ads. Personal Intelligence is still opt-in, began rolling out in beta earlier this year, and can share data across apps such as Gmail, Photos, Search, and Drive within Gemini. Users can go to Personalization settings on their account's Data & privacy page and turn off personalized recommendations via Manage Personalized Recommendations.
Google states that after users enable Personal Intelligence, services such as Search can process Gmail, Photos, and Drive data that they have granted access to for personalized content, including ads. Personal Intelligence is still opt-in, began rolling out in beta earlier this year, and can share data across apps such as Gmail, Photos, Search, and Drive within Gemini. Users can go to Personalization settings on their account's Data & privacy page and turn off personalized recommendations via Ma
Google Research and Google for Health presented progress in bringing health AI research into clinical practice at IDWeek 2026, including open-source chest X-ray embeddings and MedSigLIP, as well as open-weight multimodal models MedGemma at 4B and 27B parameter scales; the latter can run locally offline and has accumulated over 10 million downloads. Tools developed by partner Nexus AI based on these algorithms have obtained EU CE MDR class IIb certification and ISO 13485 certification, and have been deployed in about 40 medical institutions across six countries including South Africa, Sierra Leone, and Côte d'Ivoire; more than 90 clinicians have evaluated over 25,000 chest X-rays, reducing turnaround time from weeks to under 45 seconds. Indonesia's Ministry of Health is fine-tuning MedGemma and MedSigLIP with domestic chest X-rays to support a screening target of 50 million people per year on local infrastructure.
Google Research and Google for Health presented progress in bringing health AI research into clinical practice at IDWeek 2026, including open-source chest X-ray embeddings and MedSigLIP, as well as open-weight multimodal models MedGemma at 4B and 27B parameter scales; the latter can run locally offline and has accumulated over 10 million downloads. Tools developed by partner Nexus AI based on these algorithms have obtained EU CE MDR class IIb certification and ISO 13485 certification, and have b
Google releases new frontier model Gemini 4 Argon, stating it performs outstandingly on complex tasks such as coding, mathematics, and 3D world building, and surpasses other frontier models on benchmarks across multiple domains. The official showcase features 5 community projects, including a 3D Earth that maps wildfires and seismic activity in real time, a turbofan engine simulation with real-time data, a 3D carriage generated from a single image, and a multiplayer capture-the-flag browser game. The model has been widely available since last week.
Google releases new frontier model Gemini 4 Argon, stating it performs outstandingly on complex tasks such as coding, mathematics, and 3D world building, and surpasses other frontier models on benchmarks across multiple domains. The official showcase features 5 community projects, including a 3D Earth that maps wildfires and seismic activity in real time, a turbofan engine simulation with real-time data, a 3D carriage generated from a single image, and a multiplayer capture-the-flag browser game
