ReportWire

Tag: Google

  • Google Maps’ Gemini integration will make hands-free navigation more conversational

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    Google has been replacing Assistant with Gemini across all its apps, and Maps is the latest one getting an upgrade. The AI assistant will let you interact with the app using natural conversation while you navigate the roads hands-free. You can, for instance, ask it: “Is there a budget-friendly Japanese restaurant along my route within a couple of miles?” And after it has responded, you can keep on asking it follow-up questions, such as if a specific restaurant has a parking space and what dishes are popular there. Once you’ve decided on a place, you can simply tell Gemini: “Okay, let’s go there,” to start navigating to it.

    You’ll also be able to ask Gemini to do random tasks while it’s navigating and without leaving the Maps app, such as adding events to your Calendar if you allow it to connect to the app. In addition, Gemini will let you report traffic disruptions, simply by saying “there’s flooding ahead” or “I see an accident.” Gemini in Google Maps is rolling out over the next few weeks to Android and iOS in all regions where Gemini is available. It’s also coming to Android Auto in the future.

    In the US, Maps is getting more capabilities powered by the AI assistant. You can now get directions that mention landmarks that are easy to spot. Instead of saying “turn left in 500 feet,” for example, Gemini will say “turn left after the Thai Siam Restaurant.” The landmark will also be highlighted in Maps as a visual cue. This feature is now rolling out to both Android and iOS devices. Maps will now proactively notify you of road disruptions on Android, as well, even if you’re not actively navigating. Finally, you’ll be able to use Lens with Gemini within the Maps app when it starts rolling out later this month to Android and iOS. You simply have to tap on the camera in the Maps search bar, point to an establishment and ask it questions about the location, such as “What is this place and why is it popular?”

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    Mariella Moon

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  • Gemini AI to transform Google Maps into a more conversational experience

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    Google Maps is heading in a new direction with artificial intelligence sitting in the passenger’s seat.

    Fueled by Google’s Gemini AI technology, the world’s most popular navigation app will become a more conversational companion as part of a redesign announced Wednesday.

    The hands-free experience is meant to turn Google Maps into something more like an insightful passenger able to direct a driver to a destination while also providing nearby recommendations on places to eat, shop or sightsee, when asked for the advice.

    “No fumbling required — now you can just ask,” Google promised in a blog post about the app makeover.

    The AI features are also supposed to enable Google Maps to be more precise by calling out landmarks to denote the place to make a turn instead of relying on distance notifications.

    AI chatbots, like Gemini and OpenAI’s ChatGPT, have sometimes lapsed into periods of making things up — known as “hallucinations” in tech speak — but Google is promising that built-in safeguards will prevent Maps from accidentally sending drivers down the wrong road.

    All the information that Gemini is drawing upon will be culled from the roughly 250 million places stored in Google Maps’ database of reviews accumulated during the past 20 years.

    Google Maps’ new AI capabilities will be rolling out to both Apple’s iPhone and Android mobile devices.

    That will give Google’s Gemini a massive audience to impress — or disappoint — with its AI prowess, given the navigation app is used by more than 2 billion people around the world. Besides making it even more indispensable, Google is hoping the AI features will turn into a showcase that help gives Gemini a competitive edge against ChatGPT.

    Prodded by OpenAI’s release of ChatGPT in late 2022, Google has been steadily rolling out more of its own technology designed to ensure its products continue to evolve with the upheaval being unleashed by AI. The changes have included an overhaul of Google’s ubiquitous search engine that has de-emphasized a listing of relevant web links in its results and increasingly highlighted AI overviews and conversational responses provided through an AI mode.

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    Michael Liedtke | The Associated Press

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  • Google Maps is adding live lane guidance for the Polestar 4

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    Google is bringing live lane guidance to Google Maps in cars with the company’s built-in infotainment system, starting with the Polestar 4. Using the vehicle’s front-facing camera, Google Maps will be able to “see” the road just as the driver does. It will then create more detailed depictions of which lane a driver should be in and guide them using visual and audio cues.

    Google says the new feature uses AI to analyze lane markings and road signs, which it then integrates in real time with Google Maps’ navigation system. Google paints a picture of fewer missed exits, as its navigation system reminds drivers in the left lane that their exit is coming up on the right side of the highway.

    Details are scarce on where exactly this will function. In Google’s blog post announcing the feature, the company says it will expand live lane guidance to “more road types” in the future. We’ve reached out for clarification.

    Live lane guidance with Google Maps will be rolling out on the Polestar 4 in the US and Sweden over the coming months. Google says it will expand to include more cars in partnership with other automakers.

    Update Nov 4 3:39 PM EST: Google says the feature will only work on highways for now.

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    Andre Revilla

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  • Google Addresses Sweepstakes Casinos • This Week in Gambling

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    Google has updated its advertising policies to exclude sweepstakes casinos from the social casino category, tightening its rules on what types of games can advertise on its platform. The change, announced as part of the company’s Gambling and Games policy update, clarifies that sweepstakes casinos no longer qualify for certification under the “social casino” label.

    The new policy distinguishes between games that simulate gambling purely for entertainment and those that offer real-world prizes, even indirectly. Social casino games, such as slots or poker simulations that do not pay out cash or physical rewards, may continue advertising if they meet Google’s certification standards. However, sweepstakes casinos, which allow players to win redeemable prizes through a dual-currency system, now fall under gambling-related restrictions.

    To advertise as a social casino, developers must clearly state that their games are for adult audiences and that no real-money gambling is involved. Advertisements must also disclose the presence of in-app purchases and avoid using branding, logos, or trademarks from real-money gambling operators. Any reference to cash winnings or physical prizes disqualifies a product from the social casino category.

    Google emphasized that advertisers promoting sweepstakes casinos must instead seek certification under its gambling policy, where regulations vary by country and licensing requirements. The company warned that misrepresenting a sweepstakes casino as a social casino game could result in account suspension without prior notice.

    The policy applies globally but allows advertising for certified social casino games in specific jurisdictions, including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, and Japan. Regions where gambling is restricted will continue to face limitations regardless of certification status.

    This update underscores Google’s effort to maintain a clear separation between social gaming and gambling content. By removing sweepstakes casinos from the social casino classification, the company aims to prevent confusion among users and advertisers and align its policies with regional gaming laws.

    For operators of sweepstakes casinos, the change means they can no longer advertise under the same framework as traditional social casino games. Instead, they must comply with stricter gambling ad requirements and ensure full transparency in their promotional materials. The move marks another step in Google’s ongoing effort to regulate how gambling-style entertainment is presented and promoted online.

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    This Week in Gambling

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  • Our Favorite Earbuds for Android Users Are $60 Off

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    Hunting for a fresh pair of earbuds for your Android phone? The Google Pixel Buds Pro 2 are currently marked down to just $169 at Amazon, a $60 discount from their usual price. I spotted the sale price in three colors, Porcelain, Hazel, and Peony, with Moonstone and Wintergreen already sold out.

    • Photograph: Julian Chokkattu

    • Photograph: Parker Hall

    • Photograph: Parker Hall

    The good news is, these sound way better than the previous generation of Pixel Buds Pro, with upgraded drivers and better processing. They have a wide soundstage, particularly for wireless earbuds, that our reviewer Parker Hall says provides an “energetic and joyous listening experience” and handles a variety of genres with grace.

    Google made some big improvements to the active noise canceling as well, boosting it to levels that almost match Bose and Sony, the current top tier of ANC. It’s great at filtering out barking dogs and neighbor noises; only high-frequency sounds manage to evade silencing. They have a great transparency mode as well, with a richer sound reproduction than we’re used to seeing on compact earbuds. You’ll get about eight hours of listening with ANC on, and closer to 12 with it off, which beats the Apple AirPods Pro.

    While a lot of companies claim to use laser measurements and careful planning on their ergonomics, they often fall short of excellent comfort, but not Google. The Pixel Buds Pro 2 are extremely comfortable, particularly for small ears, and have no trouble staying put, thanks to their rounded, flat shape. With an IP54 dust and moisture rating, they’re just as well suited for yoga as they are getting caught in the rain.

    They work particularly well with Android phones, which enable a variety of convenience features like easy pairing and multiple connections. All you have to do is open the case near an Android phone and it will ask if you want to pair. The Pixel Buds app provides some extra features as well, but isn’t necessary, particularly since the Gemini AI features are pretty underwhelming.

    While these are great for Pixel and other Android owners, there are better options if you have an iPhone, so make sure to swing by our guide and check out our favorite wireless earbuds for other options.

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    Brad Bourque

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  • OpenAI Signs $38 Billion Deal With Amazon

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    OpenAI has signed a multi-year deal with Amazon to buy $38 billion worth of AWS cloud infrastructure to train its models and serve its users.

    The deal is yet another sign of the AI industry becoming increasingly entangled, with OpenAI now at the center of major partnerships with industry players including Google, Oracle, Nvidia, and AMD.

    The AWS agreement is also notable because OpenAI rose to prominence in part through its partnership with Microsoft—Amazon’s biggest cloud rival. Amazon is also a major backer of one of OpenAI’s key competitors, Anthropic. Amazon and Microsoft are currently developing their own AI models to compete with startups like OpenAI.

    Many now worry that the race to build ever more infrastructure—and the unusual financial agreements behind the deals—are a sign of an AI bubble. Between 2026 and 2027, companies are projected to spend upwards of $500 billion on AI infrastructure in the US, according to reporting by financial journalist Derek Thompson.

    Patrick Moorhead, chief analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy, says he believes that big tech companies and AI startups have a genuine need for more capacity and see a path to turn compute into profit. He adds that the new deal shows that Amazon is not such a laggard in AI after all. “Many people said they were down and out, but they just put $38 billion up on the board, right, which is pretty exceptional,” he says.

    Moorhead adds that OpenAI’s strategy is to limit its dependence on any one cloud provider. “OpenAI is deploying with pretty much everybody at this point,” he says.

    Amazon said in its announcement that it is building custom infrastructure for OpenAI. The setup features two kinds of Nvidia chips, GB200s and GB300s, which Amazon said will be used for both training and inference. The company also said the deal would provide OpenAI with access to “hundreds of thousands of state-of-the-art NVIDIA GPUs, with the ability to expand to tens of millions of CPUs to rapidly scale agentic workloads.”

    OpenAI and other AI players appear to believe that agentic AI will become increasingly important as more users adopt AI tools to navigate the web.

    “Scaling frontier AI requires massive, reliable compute,” OpenAI cofounder and CEO Sam Altman said in the announcement.

    OpenAI said last week that it would adopt a new for-profit structure that should allow it to raise more money. While the company is still controlled by a nonprofit, its for-profit arm has become a public-benefit corporation.

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    Will Knight

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  • This One Brilliant Investment Would Have Made Bezos a Billionaire Without Amazon

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    Jeff Bezos is one of the wealthiest people in the world because of Amazon’s success. But his early stage investment in Google could have made him a billionaire without it.

    In 1998, four years after Bezos launched Amazon, a search engine startup was emerging in Menlo Park and looking for early investors. He invested $250,000 in the new company, Google, during a $1 million follow-on round. 

    By the time of Google’s 2004 IPO, his share was worth over $280 million. 

    What makes Bezos’ investment particularly interesting is that he was driven primarily by Google’s founders rather than its business model. At the time, it wasn’t the most established tech company — competitors like Yahoo! and AltaVista were further along. But when Bezos met Google’s two founders, Stanford PhD students Larry Page and Sergey Brin over breakfast, he immediately wanted in. 

    “I just fell in love with Larry and Sergey,” he told Ken Auletta, author of “Googled: The End of the World as We Know It.”

    According to the book, three of the other investors were David Cheriton, Stanford University computer science professor, entrepreneur Ram Shriram, who had sold his company, Junglee, to Amazon in 1998, and Andy Bechtolsheim, co-founder of Sun Microsystems (JAVA). Bezos had to convince Page and Brin to accept his investment, because the early stage funding round had closed. But he believed in their vision, so he took a chance.

    When Bezos contributed, the price per share of Google’s stock was 4 cents. Getting in early raised the stakes, but in this case it made all the difference in what he walked away with.

    Like most early-stage investments, Bezos wasn’t immediately rewarded. Then Google went public in 2004, at which point the investment represented 3.3 million shares of Google stock. His patience and trust in Brin and Page paid off. 

    It’s unclear if Bezos still owns his early Google shares, but if he did, they’d likely be worth more than $10 billion today.

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    Ava Levinson

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  • Have No Fear, Google Has Plans to Enshittify AI Search With Ads, Too

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    Google’s AI Overview has somehow successfully managed to get people to be less engaged with search results, clicking through less often, and less likely to fact-check the information presented to them. So you know what that means: it’s time to monetize! According to a report from Search Engine Land, Google is planning to introduce advertisements inside its AI experiences.

    Per the report, Google Vice President of Search, Robbie Stein, said that he doesn’t see advertisements going away any time soon, and in fact expects that they will evolve to integrate into AI tools. Stein said the company has already “started some experiments on ads within AI Mode and within Google AI experiences,” and expects that “new and novel ad formats” will be introduced in the future so advertisers can continue to target users and give Google money for the right to do so.

    What are those “new and novel” formats, exactly? Stein floated one example of a person searching for information during a home remodel, in which a person could provide information to the AI-powered search, and it “could give even more fine-tuned recommendations or potential other services that you could consider, or deals that could be more useful to you.” So like…personalized and sponsored advertisements, but spit out by AI, apparently? It’s not entirely clear what is novel about that, other than the fact that the person searching will likely be less discerning about what sort of paid placements they are being exposed to. Of course, there’s always the possibility that your favored chatbot will collect even more detailed data about you, but that’s not really an innovation on the ad side of things.

    For now, the company insists that it’s focused on building “consumer products first and foremost,” but is obviously thinking about how to turn a profit on this thing that it has invested billions of dollars into developing. Stein also claimed that, for the time being, AI recommendations include “organic” results first and aren’t driven by ad inputs. Keep tabs on that to see how long that lasts.

    Gizmodo reached out to Google for comment but did not receive a response at the time of publication.

    Google is far from the only company looking to figure out how to work advertisements into AI. Earlier this year, Netflix floated the idea that it might use generative AI to create advertisements that would play between shows for users on an ad-supported tier. Thus far, though, most of these efforts seem decidedly run-of-the-mill in terms of innovation. Maybe there just aren’t that many new ways to put products in front of people’s faces. The reality is that what Google is selling here isn’t necessarily a better experience for consumers—it’s just trying to reassure advertisers that, for all of its talk that everything is about to change, some things will decidedly stay the same.

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    AJ Dellinger

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  • Disney-owned channels, including 6ABC, go dark on YouTube TV as negotiations on new deal continue

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    YouTube TV‘s approximately 10 million subscribers no longer have access to Disney-owned stations, including ABC and ESPN, after their carrier deal expired at midnight Thursday and the two sides failed to reach a new agreement.  

    In Philadelphia, that means 6ABC and fan-favorite shows like “Abbott Elementary” won’t be available for the Google-owned platform. If the blackout continues, it would also mean the Philadelphia Eagles game against the Green Bay Packers on Monday, Nov. 10, won’t be available on the streamer.

    MORE: Disparaging email sent to Penn students, alumni is fake, university says

    In a statement, YouTube TV said Disney began using the threat of a blackout as a negotiating tactic last week. 

    “We know this is a frustrating and disappointing outcome for our subscribers and we continue to urge Disney to work with us constructively to reach a fair agreement that restores their networks to YouTube TV,” the company wrote. 

    Meanwhile, Disney blamed YouTube TV. 

    “With a $3 trillion market cap, Google is using its market dominance to eliminate competition and undercut the industry-standard terms we’ve successfully negotiated with every other distributor,” the company said in a statement. “We know how frustrating this is for YouTube TV subscribers and remain committed to working toward a resolution as quickly as possible.” 

    YouTube TV said it will offer subscribers a $20 credit if the stations remain off its service for an “extended period,” although it did not specify how long that would be. 

    YouTube TV has had a number of issues with other networks this year. There were threats of blackouts during negotiations with Paramount, which owns CBS, in February and with Fox Corporation in August. YouTube TV also got into a conflict with Comcast-owned NBCUniversal, although the pair reached a multiyear agreement on Oct. 2. While those negotiations avoided blackouts, partially due to temporary contract extensions, Univision has been in a continued blackout with YouTube TV since September. 

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    Michaela Althouse

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  • How to cancel or pause your YouTube TV subscription

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    While YouTube TV is Engadget’s pick for the best live TV streaming service, it isn’t for everyone, especially right now. Google and Disney’s ongoing carriage dispute means subscribers don’t have access to channels like ABC and ESPN, and recent price hikes means paying for YouTube TV now costs a minimum of $83 a month.

    Whether you’ve switched to another service to hold on to your favorite channels or just want to save some money, there’s ample reasons to cancel or pause your subscription right now. Here’s what you should know about cancelling or pausing your YouTube TV subscription.

    How to cancel your subscription on mobile and web

    The process for canceling your YouTube TV subscription is the same whether you’re doing it inside the YouTube TV app or from a web or mobile browser, provided you’re paying Google directly for access.

    1. Open the YouTube TV website or app.

    2. Tap or click on your profile photo.

    3. Select Settings (represented by the gear icon).

    6. Then select Cancel membership, and then Cancel to confirm your cancellation.

    Your subscription is now cancelled and you’ll be able to enjoy access to live TV until the end of your current payment period. Any shows or movies you’ve recorded will be saved in your account for 21 days, after which they’ll be deleted. In a support article, Google says it’ll also save your preferences in case you want to resubscribe and start recording content again. The company “may store limited info (such as your home zip code)” for fraud prevention purposes, as well.

    If you got your YouTube TV subscription through your mobile carrier or internet provider, the process will vary, but in that case, you’ll have to cancel through them rather than Google.

    How to pause your subscription on mobile and web

    If you’d prefer to just take a break from paying for YouTube TV, you can also pause your subscription for anywhere from four weeks to six months.

    1. Open the YouTube TV website or app.

    2. Tap or click on your profile photo.

    3. Select Settings (represented by the gear icon).

    6. Use the on-screen slider to choose how long you want to pause payments for.

    Once you’ve paused your subscription, you’ll be able to access YouTube TV until the end of your current billing period, after which you’ll lose access and won’t be charged until the pause is over. Once your chosen amount of time has passed, your subscription will renew automatically. At any point during your pause you can resume using YouTube TV again, provided you’re willing to pay. While there’s no way to extend a pause, you do have the option to pause again once your billing restarts.

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  • Google brings free Gemini access to India’s largest carrier

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    Google’s AI ambitions are global in scale, so much so that it has just agreed to give Gemini away for free in India to people using the country’s biggest mobile provider. Thanks to a deal with Reliance Intelligence, an AI-focused subsidiary of Reliance Industries, people signed up to Jio’s Unlimited 5G plan will be offered Google AI Pro at no extra cost for 18 months.

    That means that qualifying users will have access to Gemini 2.5 Pro, Google’s most AI model. They will also benefit from higher limits for the Nano Banana and Veo 3.1 AI image and video generators, plus expanded access to NotebookLM. The plan also includes 2TB of cloud storage across Google’s apps, for a total combined worth of around 35,100 rupees ($396) per user.

    The offer will initially be exclusive to Jio customers between the age of 18 and 25, but will eventually extend to all people on an eligible plan via the MyJio app. Jio is India’s largest mobile network operator, and a company in which Google a 7.7 percent stake worth $4.5 million in 2020.

    India is fast becoming a key battleground for AI expansion. Back in July, Perplexity AI with Bharti Airtel, Jio’s rival carrier, to offer a year-long Perplexity Pro subscription worth $200 to all of Airtel’s 360 million customers. OpenAI is also adopting an aggressive strategy in the country, recently its cheapest ChatGPT subscription to date, at 390 rupee ($4.60), in India first. ChatGPT Go offers users 10 times more message limits, image generation and file uploads than the free version.

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    Matt Tate

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  • YouTube TV Drops Disney’s ABC, ESPN and Other Networks After Two Sides Fail to Reach New Deal

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    Disney‘s networks including ESPN and ABC are going dark on YouTube TV.

    Google says YouTube TV expects to remove Disney’s networks at the stroke of midnight ET, after the two sides remain far apart on a deal renewal to keep ABC, ESPN and more on the internet TV service. The main sticking point is price — Disney is asking for rate hikes that Google isn’t willing to agree to.

    YouTube TV says that if Disney’s channels remain unavailable for “an extended period of time,” it will offer subscribers a one-time $20 credit. YouTube TV’s base subscription plan costs $82.99/month. With the blackout, TV users nationwide will lose their local ABC stations, as well as access to ESPN sports programming including NFL, college football, NBA and NHL games.

    Beginning at 9 p.m. PT on Oct. 30/12 a.m. ET on Oct. 31, YouTube TV will begin pulling Disney-owned networks off its service, when the companies’ previous agreement expires. In addition to dropping the live networks, YouTube TV also is removing any DVR library recordings users have made from those networks.

    Disney began alerting viewers on Oct. 23 about the carriage dispute with YouTube TV, pointing out that its networks could be removed from the pay-TV provider. YouTube TV is the biggest internet-TV service in the U.S., estimated to have more than 10 million subscribers. In second place is Disney, which just closed a deal to merge its Hulu + Live TV business with Fubo; together, those have almost 6 million subs in North America.

    “Last week Disney used the threat of a blackout on YouTube TV as a negotiating tactic to force deal terms that would raise prices on our customers,” a YouTube spokesperson said in a statement. “They’re now following through on that threat, suspending their content on YouTube TV. This decision directly harms our subscribers while benefiting their own live TV products, including Hulu + Live TV and Fubo.”

    The YouTube rep continued, “We know this is a frustrating and disappointing outcome for our subscribers and we continue to urge Disney to work with us constructively to reach a fair agreement that restores their networks to YouTube TV. If their content remains off YouTube TV for an extended period of time, we’ll offer subscribers a $20 credit.”

    According to Disney, YouTube TV wants a better deal than anyone else in the market — including Comcast and Charter, which have more TV customers — and is unwilling to pay market rates for Disney’s networks or agree to terms that Disney has reached with other distributors, including it own Hulu + Live TV and Fubo services. In its negotiations with Google, Disney also has proposed new genre-based tiers and packaging flexibility to give YouTube TV customers more choices.

    “Unfortunately, Google’s YouTube TV has chosen to deny their subscribers the content they value most by refusing to pay fair rates for our channels, including ESPN and ABC,” a Disney spokesperson said. “Without a new agreement in place, their subscribers will not have access to our programming, which includes the best lineup in live sports — anchored by the NFL, NBA, and college football, with 13 of the top 25 college teams playing this weekend.”

    The Disney rep continued: “With a $3 trillion market cap, Google is using its market dominance to eliminate competition and undercut the industry-standard terms we’ve successfully negotiated with every other distributor. We know how frustrating this is for YouTube TV subscribers and remain committed to working toward a resolution as quickly as possible.”

    Here’s the full list of networks being pulled from YouTube TV: ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPNews, Freeform, FX, FXX, FXM, Disney Channel, Disney Junior, Disney XD, SEC Network, Nat Geo, Nat Geo Wild, ABC News Live, ACC Network, Localish; on the Spanish plan, ESPN Deportes, Baby TV Español and Nat Geo Mundo.

    Disney is the latest media conglomerate to lock horns with Google over YouTube TV this year. Others that have fought with the company include Paramount Global (now Paramount Skydance), Fox Corp. and NBCUniversal — each of which reached a new deal without a blackout. However, YouTube TV dropped Univision and other TelevisaUnivision-owned networks at the end of September after the two sides could not reach a new agreement.

    In 2023, Disney and Charter had a public battle over a renewal, before the two sides resolved their differences to avoid a blackout. In 2024, ESPN and other Disney nets went dark on DirecTV for nearly two weeks before they reached a new deal. Earlier this month, Disney inked a carriage renewal pact with Comcast without any drama.

    In December 2021, Disney and Google reached a carriage renewal after a two-day blackout. YouTube TV first launched in April 2017.

    In another wrinkle to the current Disney/Google standoff, Justin Connolly, Disney’s former head of distribution, joined YouTube as VP of global head of media this spring. Disney sued YouTube and Connolly, alleging breach of contract and seeking to block his employment at Google, in part citing Connolly’s knowledge of Disney as it pertained to contract renewal talks for YouTube TV. After Disney lost a legal ruling in the case, they recently reached a settlement on the matter.

    Pictured top: ABC’s “High Potential” starring Kaitlin Olson and Daniel Sunjata

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    Todd Spangler

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  • CEO Shishir Mehrotra on Grammarly’s New Chapter as Superhuman: Interview

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    Shishir Mehrotra has been CEO of Grammarly, now Superhuman, since January. Raymond Rudolph/Courtesy Grammarly

    Shishir Mehrotra, who became CEO of Grammarly at the beginning of 2025, isn’t just updating the company’s A.I. writing tools—he’s rebranding the entire company. From now on, Grammarly will be known as Superhuman, a name that Mehrotra says better reflects its expanding suite of products and mission to empower users.

    “It was very important for the company to have a broader name because we cover so much more ground than we used to,” Mehrotra told Observer. “We wanted to be able to expand our offerings over time and still have it fit.”

    If you’re attached to the name Grammarly, don’t fret. The company’s popular writing assistant will retain its title as one of several products under the new Superhuman umbrella. Other offerings include Coda, the collaboration platform founded by Mehrotra and acquired by Grammarly last year, and Superhuman Mail, an A.I.-powered email platform it purchased in June.

    The Superhuman suite will also add a new product: Superhuman Go, an A.I. assistant capable of connecting to more than 100 apps to work across users’ documents, emails, meeting transcripts and chat threads. The tool will launch with dozens of A.I. agents designed to provide writing support and pull in real-time information from other tools. Some agents are being developed in partnership with experts, including author Kim Scott, who helped launch a “Radical Candor” agent that will help users communicate both directly and kindly.

    Mehrotra likened Grammarly’s transformation to other major tech rebrands, such as Google’s restructuring under Alphabet and Facebook’s pivot to Meta. “There’s been enough cases of that being done in a way that preserved the core brand,” he said.

    Image of web browser open to email set against purple background with 'Superhuman' written aboveImage of web browser open to email set against purple background with 'Superhuman' written above
    The company’s rebrand includes a new suite of A.I. agents. Courtesy Superhuman

    A Superhuman approach to A.I. 

    Founded in 2009, Grammarly has long used A.I. to power its grammar checking and writing assistance tools. More recently, the company has accelerated its A.I. development, adding features like A.I.-enabled citation finders, multilingual writing tools and plagiarism detection.

    Unlike some A.I.-driven productivity platforms, Mehrotra said Superhuman’s tools are designed to enhance human work, not replace it. “We assist you in many different ways, but at the end of the day, you actually publish the article, you post the blog, you submit the essay,” he said. “We’re continuing that with all of our products.”

    Superhuman Go is already gaining traction in education. Arizona State University announced today (Oct. 30) that it will deploy the A.I. assistant to help address tool fragmentation and improve student support. Though the university had already implemented various A.I. tools, Mehrotra said it chose Superhuman to unify those systems and make them easier for students and faculty to use.

    Such partnerships, he added, highlight Superhuman’s goal of integrating A.I. seamlessly into daily life. “Most A.I. tools are focused on becoming destinations—you go to them, that’s how you experience your A.I.-based productivity,” said Mehrotra. “We bring A.I. to you, and we think that’s pretty different.”

    CEO Shishir Mehrotra on Grammarly’s New Chapter as Superhuman: Interview

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    Alexandra Tremayne-Pengelly

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  • WIRED Roundup: AI Psychosis, Missing FTC Files, and Google Bedbugs

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    Louise Matsakis: Oh God, you would not see me in the office for weeks if there was a bedbug infestation. How did they find out about this?

    Zoë Schiffer: So basically, they received this email on Sunday, saying that exterminators had arrived at the scene with sniffer dogs and “found credible evidence of their presence.” There, being the bedbugs. Sources tell WIRED that Google’s offices in New York are home to a number of large stuffed animals, and there was definitely a rumor going around among employees that these stuffed animals were implicated in the outbreak. We were not able to verify this information before we published, but in any case, the company told employees as early as Monday morning that they could come back to the office. And people like you, Louise, were really not happy about this. They were like, “I’m not sure that it’s totally clean here.” That’s why they were in our inboxes wanting to chat.

    Louise Matsakis: Can I just say that if you have photos or a description of said large stuffed animals, please get in touch with me and Zoë. Thank you.

    Zoë Schiffer: Yes. This is a cry for help. I thought the best part of this is when I gave Louise my draft, she was like, “Wait, this has happened before.” And pulled up a 2010 article about a bedbug outbreak at the Google offices in New York.

    Louise Matsakis: Yes. This is not the first time, which is heartbreaking.

    Zoë Schiffer: Coming up after the break, we dive into why some people have been submitting complaints to the FTC about ChatGPT in their minds, leading them to AI psychosis. Stay with us.

    Welcome back to Uncanny Valley. I’m Zoë Schiffer. I’m joined today by WIRED’s Louise Matsakis. Let’s dive into our main story this week. The Federal Trade Commission has received 200 complaints mentioning OpenAI’s ChatGPT between November 2022 when it launched, and August 2025. Most people had normal complaints. They couldn’t figure out how to cancel their subscription or they were frustrated by unsatisfactory or inaccurate answers by the chatbot. But among these complaints, our colleague, Caroline Haskins, found that several people attributed delusions, paranoia, and spiritual crisis to the chatbot.

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    Zoë Schiffer, Louise Matsakis

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  • Everyone Said AI Would Kill Google. Its First-Ever $100 Billion Quarter Just Proved Them Wrong

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    Every story about Google starts and ends with search. It makes sense—Google is a search engine. It’s not only the company’s most important and profitable business, but it’s the thing that has defined the internet for two decades.

    But for most of the past two years, the biggest story about Google has been that artificial intelligence would, inevitably, make search obsolete. People would stop “Googling” things because AI chatbots could just tell them the answers. Search—the company’s $200-billion-a-year cash cow—was supposed to be doomed.

    On the one hand, the idea that people would no longer type queries into Google’s search box and then click on the blue links that show up on results pages was a doomsday scenario. And AI chatbots certainly made that look increasingly likely.

    Then again, that story always assumed Google would sit still while the world around it changed. It assumed the company that practically invented the modern internet—or at least the way most of us experience it—wouldn’t figure out how to adapt.

    On Wednesday, Alphabet, Google’s parent company, reported its first-ever $100 billion quarter. Revenue rose 16 percent to $102.3 billion. Net income jumped 33 percent to $34.98 billion. Those are not the numbers of a company whose main business is being disrupted. It’s more like the numbers of a company that’s quietly figuring out how to change with the behavior of its users.

    Google Search and YouTube each grew at a double-digit pace. “Google Search & other” revenue climbed 15 percent to $56.6 billion. YouTube ads rose 15 percent to $10.3 billion. Combined, Google’s advertising machine brought in more than $74 billion for the quarter. Not only that, but its cloud business grew by 35 percent over the previous year. That leads to the most interesting part of this story, which is the part about how Google is spending all that money.

    As it announced its earnings, Google said it would raise its capital expenditures, specifically as it invests in infrastructure to serve its cloud businesses. That’s the part of the business that powers its AI ambitions. Google made more money than ever from search, and it’s spending that money on AI.

    Training and running massive models requires staggering amounts of computing power. But that’s exactly where Google’s advantage lies—it already owns what is probably the largest global computing infrastructure ever built.

    Now, it’s doubling down. Alphabet expects to spend $91 billion to $93 billion in capital expenditures this year—mostly on data centers, networking, and custom chips designed for AI workloads. That’s up sharply from last year and puts Google in the same spending league as Amazon and Microsoft.

    And even with those huge investments, Alphabet’s operating margin—excluding a $3.5 billion European Commission fine—rose to 33.9 percent. In other words, it’s spending tens of billions to expand AI capacity while remaining one of the most profitable companies on the planet.

    Google’s strategy isn’t just about protecting search ads. It’s about using the strength of that business to fund a transformation into something bigger: the dominant AI platform.

    That’s still a big lift. Yes, Google is a household name, but it’s still behind in AI—at least in terms of consumer mindshare. OpenAI’s ChatGPT is the front-runner in terms of customer adoption, but Google has almost every other advantage. It has the technology, the infrastructure, and a built-in user base that already trusts it as the default source of information.

    And because Google controls so many layers of the stack—hardware, data centers, models, and consumer products—it can absorb the cost of AI adoption in a way startups and rivals can’t. It doesn’t have to rent the future on someone else’s platform; it’s already building it.

    Now, Google is doing something very few companies have ever pulled off: funding its own disruption without losing momentum. Search and YouTube are still massive profit engines, generating the cash Google needs to build the infrastructure for AI. Basically, Google doesn’t really care whether you type your queries into a search box or a chatbot window, as long as you keep asking it your questions.

    For all the hype about AI replacing search, this quarter makes one thing clear: Google’s biggest business isn’t dying. It’s evolving into something that could be far more lucrative. If the company’s $93 billion AI spending spree pays off the way Pichai expects, Google might have just figured out a better end of the story than search.

    The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.

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    Jason Aten

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  • Meta, Google, and Microsoft Triple Down on AI Spending

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    While Microsoft didn’t offer a specific forecast for its AI capital expenditures for the next quarter or coming year, the company’s chief financial officer, Amy Hood, said that the company’s total spend will “increase sequentially, and we now expect the fiscal year 2026 growth rate to be higher than fiscal year 2025.”

    Tech companies are making these ambitious plans for more capital spending under the assumption that demand for AI will only continue to grow. But some analysts are raising concerns that the AI market is a bubble and will eventually burst.

    Those worries are being fueled by announcements about enormously expensive, multi-year data center projects and staggered investments. Last month, Nvidia said it would invest “up to $100 billion” in OpenAI, provided that the ChatGPT maker builds and deploys at least 10 gigawatts of AI data centers using Nvidia’s chips. OpenAI, meanwhile, said just yesterday that it was planning to develop 30 gigawatts of computing resources worth $1.4 trillion.

    Microsoft has committed to putting a total of $13 billion in OpenAI, and it continues to use the company’s frontier AI models, but took a $3.1 billion hit in net income this quarter due to losses from that investment. Microsoft said that the ongoing nature of its partnership with OpenAI will result in increased volatility. Going forward, Hood said, the company will exclude any impacts from its OpenAI investment in its financial outlooks.

    Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella told analysts there are two “critical” things to consider about how the company views its capital expenditures. The first is that it is finding ways to make its fleet of data centers “fungible,” or interchangeable, meaning they can be easily modified to meet changing customer demands in the future. The second is that the company is expecting to continually modernize its infrastructure.

    “It’s not like we buy one version of Nvidia and load up for all the gigawatts we have. Each year, you buy, you ride Moore’s Law, you continually modernize and depreciate it, and you use software to grow efficiency,” Nadella said.

    Mark Moerdler, a senior research analyst covering global software at Bernstein, says that Microsoft is “building capacity in tranches over time and can shift resources, which gives them a lot of protection.” But, he added, “Is there an overall AI bubble? [It’s] possible, and that they did not answer.”

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    Lauren Goode, Will Knight

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  • Google and Amazon’s Israeli cloud contracts reportedly require them to sidestep legal orders

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    Chalk this one up under “The most clever (alleged) legal sidesteps this side of Tony Soprano.” On Wednesday, The Guardian published a report about a so-called “winking mechanism” regarding Israeli cloud computing contracts with Amazon and Google. The stipulation from 2021’s Project Nimbus is said to require the US companies to send coded messages to Israel. According to the report, whenever Google or Amazon secretly complies with an overseas legal request for Israeli data, they’re required to send money to Israel. The dollar amount indicates which country issued the request.

    The coding system reportedly involves country dialing prefixes. For example, if Google or Amazon hand over Israeli data to the US (dialing code +1), they would send Israel 1,000 shekels. For Italy (code +39), they would send 3,900 shekels. (Out of morbid curiosity, I discovered that the highest dialing code is Uzbekistan’s +998.) There’s reportedly even a failsafe: If a gag order prevents the companies from using the standard signal, they can notify Israel by sending 100,000 shekels.

    The Guardian says Microsoft, which bid for the Nimbus contract, lost out in part because it refused to accept some of Israel’s terms.

    In a statement to Engadget, an Amazon spokesperson highlighted customer privacy. “We respect the privacy of our customers, and we do not discuss our relationship without their consent, or have visibility into their workloads,” they wrote.

    The Amazon spokesperson denied that the company has any underhanded workarounds in place. “We have a rigorous global process for responding to lawful and binding orders for requests related to customer data,” they said. “[Amazon Web Services] carefully reviews each request to assess any non-disclosure obligations, and we maintain confidentiality in accordance with applicable laws and regulations. While AWS does not disclose customer information in response to government demands unless we’re absolutely required to do so, we recognize the legitimate needs of law enforcement agencies to investigate serious crimes. We do not have any processes in place to circumvent our confidentiality obligations on lawfully binding orders.”

    Google also denied any wrongdoing. “The accusations in this reporting are false, and imply that we somehow were involved in illegal activity, which is absurd,” a company spokesperson said. “As is common in public sector agreements, an RFP does not reflect a final contract. The idea that we would evade our legal obligations to the US government as a US company, or in any other country, is categorically wrong.”

    “We’ve been very clear about the Nimbus contract, what it’s directed to, and the Terms of Service and Acceptable Use Policy that govern it,” the Google spokesperson continued. “Nothing has changed. This appears to be yet another attempt to falsely imply otherwise.”

    We also reached out to the Israeli government for a statement, and we’ll update this story if we hear back. The Guardian’s full report has much more detail on the alleged leak.

    Update, October 29, 2025, 6:29 PM ET: This story has been updated to add a statement from a Google spokesperson.

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    Will Shanklin

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  • Early access for Gemini Home voice assistant is now available. Here’s how to get it

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    A decade ago, when smart speakers with built-in voice assistants were the hot new thing, many imagined they’d quickly evolve into highly intelligent companions. (Think C-3PO or Star Trek’s Data living inside a speaker.) That road has been much longer than expected, as virtual helpers like Alexa, Siri and Google Assistant seemed to sit in neutral for years.

    But now that generative AI is here (for better or worse), smart speakers are finally scratching the surface of those expectations. Google’s new version, Gemini for Home, is now available to try. Here’s how.

    First, keep in mind that the Gemini for Home voice assistant is in early access. This means Google is gathering feedback about its features, and — as with all generative AI — it’s wise to assume it will make mistakes. If or when it does, you can send feedback to Google in the Google Home app or by saying, “Hey Google, send feedback.”

    Devices compatible with Gemini for Home voice assistant

    You’ll also want to check your speaker model before diving in. The full Gemini for Home experience is available to try on the Google Nest Hub (2nd gen), Google Nest Audio, Google Nest Mini (2nd gen) and Google Nest Hub Max. Those models all support Gemini Live, which enables conversational back-and-forth chat with natural follow-up questions.

    Other models support everything but Gemini Live. That list includes the Google Nest Wifi point, Google Nest Hub (1st gen), Google Home Max, Google Home Mini (1st gen) and Google Home.

    Another point is that once you dive in, your Google Assistant days will be over (on your speakers, anyway). That’s because Google says that, once you upgrade to Gemini for Home, your compatible devices can’t downgrade to Assistant. That shouldn’t be a problem, but it’s worth keeping in mind before you take the plunge.

    How to sign up for early Gemini access

    Once you’ve confirmed that your speaker(s) are at least partially compatible, head to the Google Home app on a mobile device. There, tap your profile picture (or initials) on the top right. Then tap Home Settings > Early Access. Congratulations: You’ve put in your request.

    The bad news is you may have to wait a bit to confirm your entry into the beta program. Once you’re in, you’ll see a notification from the Google Home app that reads, “Introducing Gemini for Home.” Select that, and follow the prompts. (If you accidentally dismiss the notification, you’ll see the setup banner under Home settings in the Google Home app.)

    Cherlynn Low for Engadget

    At that point, all compatible speakers in your home will be upgraded to Google’s more intelligent AI assistant. You can now throw more advanced questions at it, similar to what you’d ask text-based chatbots like ChatGPT. Except this one sits on a shelf, ready to field your verbal requests at any moment.

    Keep in mind that Gemini Live requires a Google Home Premium subscription. The standard version costs $10 per month or $100 per year. Meanwhile, the advanced tier doubles that: $20 per month or $200 per year. At least for now, the only difference between the two (for these purposes) is that the pricier plan supports a camera history search feature. Both premium tiers unlock access to Gemini Live. So, if that’s all you need, you can save money and get standard.

    Google offers plenty of examples to get started. You can get quick answers to facts, like “Hey Google, who are the top five scoring players in basketball history?” (FYI: James, Abdul-Jabbar, Malone, Bryant and Jordan.) You can also ask Gemini Live to have a chat about ingredients for people with dietary needs. Or, ask it to explain complex topics (like how Wi-Fi works) in simple terms. It may not be at C-3PO level yet, but it’s certainly moving in that direction.

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    Will Shanklin

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  • Google is once again disputing Gmail was breached

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    Not for the first time this year, Google has been forced to reassure its users that it has not suffered a large-scale data breach that could affect their Gmail accounts. A few months ago the company released an unusual statement intended to put to bed allegations that its email service had been hit with a serious security issue. And it did so again this week, after numerous news outlets published stories suggesting that 183 million passwords may have been compromised in a new breach.

    Google has since claimed that this isn’t true in posts on X. It says the listed accounts are likely not fresh victims of an attack, but instead recent additions to the Have I Been Pwned data breach search engine’s database. The website is a free resource that can quickly tell users if their personal data has been hacked. As noted by Bleeping Computer, HIBP’s creator, Troy Hunt, has said in a blog post that over 90 percent of the millions of stolen credentials have been seen before, so are in no way new (16.4 million of addresses were however showing up for the first time in a data breach, according to Hunt).

    “Reports of a ‘Gmail security breach impacting millions of users’ are false,” Google said in a statement. “Gmail’s defenses are strong, and users remain protected. The inaccurate reports are stemming from a misunderstanding of infostealer databases, which routinely compile various credential theft activity occurring across the web. It’s not reflective of a new attack aimed at any one person, tool, or platform.”

    Google does use compilations of open credentials like the one recently uploaded to HIBP to alert its users of possible breaches, and has advised users that turning on 2-step verification and adopting passkeys is more secure than relying on passwords alone, which it notes should always be reset immediately if compromised.

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    Matt Tate

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  • Google Chrome will finally default to secure HTTPS connections starting in April

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    The transition to the more-secure HTTPS web protocol has plateaued, according to Google. As of 2020, 95 to 99 percent of navigations in Chrome use HTTPS. To help make it safer for users to click on links, Chrome will enable a setting called Always Use Secure Connections for public sites for all users by default. This will happen in October 2026 with the release of Chrome 154.

    The change will happen earlier for those who have switched on Enhanced Safe Browsing protections in Chrome. Google will enable Always Use Secure Connections by default in April when Chrome 147 drops. When this setting is on, Chrome will ask for your permission before it first accesses a public website that doesn’t use HTTPS.

    Google has been moving in this direction for some time. Chrome started alerting users to unsecure HTTP websites in 2018 and it began defaulting to HTTPS in April 2021. The following year, it started offering Always Use Secure Connections on an opt-in basis.

    When HTTPS isn’t used, an attacker can reroute the connection with relative ease and target a user with malware, social engineering attacks or other exploits. “Attacks like this are not hypothetical — software to hijack navigations is readily available and attackers have previously used insecure HTTP to compromise user devices in a targeted attack,” the Chrome team wrote in a blog post. “Since attackers only need a single insecure navigation, they don’t need to worry that many sites have adopted HTTPS — any single HTTP navigation may offer a foothold. What’s worse, many plaintext HTTP connections today are entirely invisible to users, as HTTP sites may immediately redirect to HTTPS sites.” Always Use Secure Connections is one of the Chrome team’s attempts to mitigate such risks.

    HTTP connections still persist in navigations to private sites, such as local IP addresses and company intranets. It’s complicated for a private site to obtain an HTTPS certificate (something Engadget has had since 2016, fact fans), because the same private name can point to different hosts on multiple networks. For instance, many router manufacturers use “192.168.0.1” as a local IP address for accessing the hardware’s admin panel. Still, HTTP navigations to private sites are inherently less risky than on the public web. They aren’t entirely safe, but the only vector of attack for HTTP on private sites is from within the local network.

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