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Google has expanded access to its Gemini Daily Brief feature, previously limited to Google AI Plus, Pro, and Ultra subscribers, to free-tier users in the US. The company confirmed the change via an X post and updated its support documentation to remove subscription requirements. The rollout is gradual, so not all eligible users may see the feature immediately.
Google released security updates fixing 230 vulnerabilities, including a Chrome zero-day flaw that attackers are already exploiting in the wild. This marks the seventh Chrome zero-day patched by Google since the beginning of the year.
On September 4, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution to phase out the 16th-century Mercator map projection in favor of the Equal Earth projection, which more accurately represents the relative sizes of continents and countries. The Mercator map, created by Gerardus Mercator in 1569, has long been criticized for exaggerating the size of Northern Hemisphere landmasses like Canada and Russia while shrinking equatorial regions such as Africa.
Google DeepMind's Demis Hassabis proposed training a large language model only on scientific knowledge available before 1911 to see if it could independently derive general relativity, calling it a meaningful test for artificial general intelligence. Several research teams, including one led by Ido Kaminer at Technion, have since built such 'vintage' AI models restricted to historical data, but early results have exposed shortcomings in current systems rather than demonstrating breakthrough reasoning.
Google has signaled it will scale back certain search functionality for European users rather than fully comply with EU antitrust rules, aiming to sidestep potential fines. The company frames this as a response to regulatory demands it considers overly burdensome or conflicting with its business model.
Google has rolled out a fix for a glitch that left some YouTube users seeing missing thumbnails and YouTube TV users staring at fully blacked-out screens. The company confirmed the issue, which mainly hit users in Texas, is now resolved after previously suggesting a workaround of switching internet connections.
UK Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy announced plans to introduce legislation forcing Apple and Google to build device-level safeguards preventing children from taking, sharing, or viewing nude images on phones and tablets. The move comes after a three-month voluntary compliance deadline given in June, which Nandy says produced only partial improvements from the companies.
Android Authority polled over 2,500 readers on Google Messages' new chat theme feature, which lets users customize individual RCS conversations with colors, preset wallpapers, or personal images visible only on their own device. The results split nearly evenly: 36% said they'd long wanted the feature, 33% were undecided but willing to try it, and just over 31% said they'd never use it.
Attackers are exploiting a chain of legitimate Google services, including redirect links, to disguise malicious URLs and slip past email security filters. Victims who follow the multi-hop links are directed either to credential-harvesting phishing pages or prompted to install ScreenConnect remote access software.
Google has started rolling out a new 'Remembered' tab within its Find Hub app, letting users log the locations of untracked physical objects using Gemini AI or manual entry. The feature, previously announced as part of the September Android Drop, appears in app version 3.1.732-02 but is not yet widely available to all users.
Some iOS users reported that Nest camera and doorbell alerts stopped appearing on their iPhones over the past several days, even though the app still logged the events when opened manually. Google has confirmed it identified the cause and deployed a fix, apologizing for the delayed communication about the issue.
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.