GoKawiil
Tech News
Google's threat intelligence team says cybercriminals and state-backed actors from China, Iran, and Russia are increasingly adopting autonomous AI agent systems rather than relying on simple prompt-and-response chatbots. These agents can independently execute multi-step tasks, expanding what threat actors can automate in their operations.
Google is revising how its Search results appear across the European Union, following an €460 million fine from the European Commission for allegedly favoring its own services over competitors. Under the new format, one specialized comparison engine, such as Expedia or Hotels.com, will appear prominently at the top of results, with two others shown with fewer details, while a carousel for hotels, airlines and restaurants will be stripped of features like real-time pricing. Google's own algorithm will still determine the rankings of these vertical search services.
Google has updated Sheets to support its entire Google Fonts web library, extending font options to chart titles, axis labels, data labels, and legends. Users can access these fonts via a new 'More fonts' option in the chart editor sidebar. The change also improves how custom fonts are preserved when importing or exporting files between Sheets and Excel.
Meta has released Muse, a personal AI agent designed to work independently once given a goal, handling tasks like drafting emails, organizing saved content, building grocery lists and booking travel. Unlike Meta's existing AI assistant, Muse can connect to third-party services such as Google Workspace, Spotify, Ticketmaster and Apple Health, and can even build its own integrations when a public API exists.
The UK government says Apple and Google failed to meet a three-month deadline to make it impossible to capture, view, or share child nudity images on their devices. In response, officials are introducing what they call world-first legislation that would impose fines and potential criminal liability on executives at companies that don't build these protections into phones and tablets sold in the UK.
Google has released version 3 of its WeatherNext AI weather forecasting model, which now incorporates raw satellite data instead of relying solely on six-hourly reanalysis snapshots used by most AI weather systems. The update allows the model to generate hourly forecasts instead of every six hours, while also increasing spatial resolution through a larger machine-learning model, according to a newly published white paper.
Google Maps users on Android Auto are reporting that the recently rolled-out live speedometer and speed-limit indicator have vanished from the app. Some drivers also say markers for stop signs and traffic lights, which had appeared alongside the feature, are no longer showing up. The speedometer had only begun reaching beta testers in July after Google added a feature long available on mobile and on Apple CarPlay.
Google DeepMind has launched AlphaGenome Atlas, a publicly available database that uses its AlphaGenome AI model to predict the likely effects of every possible single-letter mutation across the human genome, covering both protein-coding and regulatory regions. The tool is free for non-commercial research use starting immediately, with a paid licensing option for commercial users, including DeepMind's own drug-discovery affiliate Isomorphic Labs, expected to follow via Google Cloud.
Following a €460 million DMA fine over self-preferencing in travel and shopping searches, Google has altered its European search results to comply with EU rules. Instant hotel and flight pricing and availability are being removed, replaced by links to specialized search engines and a carousel ranked purely by Google's algorithm rather than business partnerships.
Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy told MPs the government will draft legislation requiring smartphone makers and app providers to prevent under-18s from taking or sharing nude photos. This follows a three-month deadline given in June to Apple and Google, whose voluntary commitments Nandy said still fall short of addressing the crisis. The law would extend blocking measures beyond device operating systems to individual apps used by children.
Scientists completed a full map of a male fruit fly's nervous system, detailing its neurons and connections. Programmers have since used this neural map to build simulations that let a virtual version of the fly's brain attempt to play games like Doom and Super Mario 64.
Google Cloud and Accenture are forming the Accenture Gemini Enterprise Business Group, a joint unit that will place trained engineers directly inside client companies to help them adopt Google's AI tools. Google plans to train up to 1,000 Accenture engineers for this 'forward-deployed' role, following similar moves by OpenAI, Anthropic, Microsoft, and Amazon.