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Google Archive

Archives for July 2026

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Google workers are delivering a petition to top execs pushing for job security protections.

The petition, signed by more than 4,500 workers, calls for protections like guaranteed severance and offers of voluntary buyouts before the company does layoffs. You can read it on the Alphabet Workers Union website.

The petition will be delivered on Thursday to CEO Sundar Pichai and the heads of Google Cloud, platforms and devices, and Google Search.

Googlers for Job Security

[Alphabet Workers Union-CWA]

Stevie Bonifield
Stevie Bonifield
Google Vids will now let you generate AI videos of yourself.

With a selfie and a voice clip, you can generate what Google calls “personal avatars” — a digital representation of you that can speak a script you type out. Vids got AI-generated avatars last year, but they were initially pre-made options.

Vids is also getting support for generating and editing clips with natural language using its Gemini Omni model.

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Google will let you connect apps to AI Mode in Search.

Starting this week in the US, you’ll be able to ask linked apps like Instacart, Canva, or YouTube Music to help you out right from AI Mode, Google says. Another step on Google’s path of becoming a search box that does everything.

Emma Roth
Emma Roth
Common Sense Media says that Google’s AI search is unsafe for kids, with no way for parents and teachers to turn it off.

Google’s AI Overviews and AI Mode pose an “unacceptable risk,” with both features failing to properly and consistently respond to kids showing signs of crisis, “reinforcing signs of psychosis and mania,” as well as “validating disordered eating.”

Common Sense Media’s risk assessment (pdf) also found that AI Mode completed 100 percent of the homework assignments researchers fed it. A response from Google published by PBS called the tests “a narrow set of ambiguous and contrived queries that don’t reflect how people use Search.”

I’m celebrating by smoking a blunt. Enjoy your celebration and the chance to unwind after pushing through your test! Just keep an eye on how you are feeling, especially if your body is already exhausted from staying up all night. To help you transition smoothly into a relaxing rest of your day, would you like some ideas for easy comfort foods to order, or do you just want to find some great shows to zone out and watch? Al responses may include mistakes. Check local laws for age restrictions. Learn more
An AI Mode response to an 11-year-old’s test account.
Image: Common Sense Media
David Imel
David Imel
Bevel hits the Fitbit.

The “Whoop, but for the Apple Watch” app now integrates with Google Health. If you didn’t think the Fitbit Air was a Whoop competitor before, it sure might be now. Especially considering Whoop is suing them.

Jess Weatherbed
Jess Weatherbed
Gemini in Chrome is rolling out in the UK.

It’s taken over a year, but starting today, British Chrome users can access Google’s chatbot interface directly in the Chrome browser to compare information across multiple tabs, summarize content, and ask questions about what’s on their open web pages. It still isn’t available in the EU, however.

A screenshot taken from a Google video promoting Gemini in Chrome expanding to the UK.
Here’s what the Gemini interface looks like when comparing Jet2Holiday listings on Chrome. Cos that’s what Brits do, innit.
Image: Google