Bilal Chughtai, a former Google DeepMind research engineer who left in July 2026, publicly warned that AI could kill everyone and that time may be running out, echoing similar statements from Anthropic's Jacob Coxon and Evan Hubinger, who put the odds of AI causing human extinction within a decade above 10%. Separately, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said each AI company should be responsible for its own model's safety rather than backing calls for industry-wide coordination, citing legal liability as sufficient incentive and pointing to Meta's delayed release of its Muse AI agent as proof of self-regulation.
slashdot.org
· 2026-09-18
Google has repurposed its experimental CC tool into an agentic AI assistant designed for households, allowing up to six family members to share emails, a calendar, and a task list with one shared account. The agent sends daily briefings on upcoming events and can handle logistics like registration forms or shopping lists, though it asks permission before acting. CC previously existed as a solo daily-briefing feature before Google redesigned it based on tester feedback.
engadget.com
· 2026-09-17
Code strings found in version 17.59.17.sa.arm64 of the Google app reveal a feature called 'Ephemeral Video Mode' tied to Gemini's internal codename Robin. The strings describe enabling an ephemeral mode specifically for video input during Gemini Live sessions, suggesting Google is testing a way to keep certain video interactions from being saved.
androidauthority.com
· 2026-09-17
Google is expanding its CC AI agent, previously a solo daily-briefing tool, into a household assistant that up to six family members can share information with via its own dedicated Google account. Members can forward emails, calendar invites, PDFs, receipts and images to CC, which compiles them into a shared Daily Brief covering upcoming events and to-dos. CC can also assist with chores such as filling out forms, building shopping lists and planning meals.
androidauthority.com
· 2026-09-17
Google has introduced CC, an experimental Google Labs project that extends its Daily Brief concept to households of up to six people. Each family member can link a separate Google account to CC, choosing which emails, calendar events, or Drive files the assistant can access, and CC compiles a shared 'Your Day Ahead' email each morning summarizing schedules and tasks.
arstechnica.com
· 2026-09-17
The United Nations unveiled the UN System Data Commons, a new platform built on Google's open-source Data Commons technology that lets people query UN statistics using plain-language questions and supports the Model Context Protocol so AI systems can pull data directly. It replaces the older UNData portal, which relied on manual browsing rather than conversational search. The announcement came alongside a UNICEF study showing leading chatbots answered development-data questions correctly only about 21% of the time.
techcrunch.com
· 2026-09-17
Google has published details on how it designed its new Noto 3D emoji set, first unveiled at I/O in May, and confirmed which manufacturers will bring it to their phones. Partners include Nothing, Lenovo, Xiaomi, OPPO, OnePlus, realme, vivo, iQOO, HONOR, TECNO, Infinix, itel, and Motorola, alongside stock Android 17 devices like the Pixel 11. Samsung is notably absent, as it maintains its own emoji designs.
androidauthority.com
· 2026-09-17
Android Authority found new code strings in Android Canary 2609 revealing that Google's in-development AI clock feature will let users edit, delete, rate, and generate multiple custom lock screen clock styles. The strings also point to cloud backup and device-to-device transfer support, meaning custom clocks could carry over when someone switches to a new Pixel phone. The feature remains non-functional in current Canary builds, so it's still under active development.
androidauthority.com
· 2026-09-17
An Entrepreneur commentary argues that the backlash over Google's Gemini AI producing biased outputs was wrongly dismissed as a mere technical glitch. The author contends that because AI models learn from human-generated data, they inherit the assumptions and blind spots of that data, and scaling such systems only amplifies those flaws. The piece stresses that any business deploying AI tools—regardless of whether it built the model—inherits this bias risk.
entrepreneur.com
· 2026-09-17
Android Authority found new code in Google Photos version 7.93.0 that adds direct Copy and Download options to the app's QR code sharing screen for albums. Currently, the app only lets users take a screenshot of the generated code to share it, but this hidden feature would let them save or copy the code directly instead.
androidauthority.com
· 2026-09-17
A Hacker News user described being locked out of Google, banking, email and Drive accounts after their phone was stolen, since 2FA and account recovery relied on that device and an old email they could no longer access. The poster noted Google's automated recovery flow offers only options tied to the lost phone or an outdated backup email, leaving no clear path to a human for help.
news.ycombinator.com
· 2026-09-17
Executives at Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Microsoft and X are publicly floating the idea of pacing frontier AI development rather than racing ahead unchecked. This shift follows a summer marked by rogue AI agent incidents and researcher warnings about existential risks from advanced AI systems. Despite the rhetoric, no concrete commitments or regulatory actions have yet accompanied these statements.
theverge.com
· 2026-09-17
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