#google

#google

I started there in November 2006, when there were only around 10,000 employees, and became an executive - the director of American media relations - in 2022. Google's amazing; I bleed Google colors. I loved the impact I was having, the future of opportunities I saw for myself, and the feedback I was getting as a leader. I'm also the breadwinner for my family.

Corporate AI slop feels inescapable in 2025. From website banner ads to outdoor billboards, images generated by businesses using AI tools surround me. Hell, even the bar down the street posts happy hour flyers with that distinctly hazy, amber glow of some AI graphics. On Thursday, Google launched Nano Banana Pro, the company's latest image generating model. Many of the updates in this release are targeted at corporate adoption,

Nano Banana Pro is an updated version of the Nano Banana image generator, originally launched in August and already one of the fastest image-creation tools available. Built on Gemini 3 Pro, the new version promises better reasoning, more consistent image results and clearer text generation inside AI-created images. Google said the upgrade addresses a long-standing challenge in AI imaging: generating legible text. With Gemini 3's enhanced reasoning engine, Nano Banana Pro produces more accurate typography and better contextual understanding inside visual outputs.

Starbuck's claims against Google came after he filed a similar lawsuit against Meta, whose AI he claimed falsely asserted that he'd participated in the January 6th riot at the US Capitol. But Meta settled that lawsuit in August and even hired Starbuck as an advisor to help address "ideological and political bias" in its AI chatbot, The Wall Street Journal reported. The outlet noted last month that so far, no US court had awarded damages for defamation by an AI chatbot.

Alphabet Inc.'s Google was ordered to pay 573 million ($666 million) in two antitrust-damages cases brought by German price-comparison websites following on from a European Union case against the search-engine giant. In a suit brought by Axel Springer SE-owned Idealo, which sought 3.3 billion, the Berlin Regional Court awarded 374 million plus 91 million in interest. In a second case brought by Producto GmbH, another price-comparison service that sought 290 million, the judges granted 89.7 million plus 17.7 million in interest.

Google says it has pulled AI model Gemma from its AI Studio platform after a Republican senator complained the model, designed for developers, "fabricated serious criminal allegations" about her.

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.

It's the latest move by Google and other tech companies to revitalize nuclear energy in the US, which has struggled to compete with falling costs for gas, solar, and wind power over the years. As power grids scramble to keep up with growing electricity demand from AI, nuclear energy has become a more attractive option for generating carbon-free energy around-the-clock for data centers.

In one case, according to Starbuck, Google's AI claimed he had been a person of interest in a murder case when he was just two years old. For each source, Google's AI provides a URL, giving the impression that these are real news articles with headlines like, Robby Starbuck Responds to Murder Accusations,' he said. The only way to discover that these URLs are fake is to click on them.

The way we download apps onto our phones could be about to change after a ruling from the UK's competition regulator. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has designated the two tech giants as having "strategic market status" - effectively saying they have a lot of power over mobile platforms. This means Apple and Google may have to make changes, after the CMA said they "may be limiting innovation and competition".

"Having taken into account the feedback received following our proposed decision, we have today designated Google's search services with strategic market status," according to the authority.

The breakup that wasn't supposed to be possible: Publicly, Google has argued that breaking up its ad tech stack would be all but impossible. Privately, it's been mapping out how to do exactly that. Internal documents during the trial revealed that for years, Google has been pressure-testing how a separation might work. "Project Sunday", launched in 2020 and revisited in 2021, explored how to split key components of its ad tech stack within its own infrastructure.

Google upgraded the Try On feature to now support shoes, in addition to other forms of clothing. Plus, Try on will soon also work in Australia, Canada and Japan, Google announced. Google wrote, "Try on's state-of-the-art AI accurately perceives shapes and depths, preserving those subtleties when showing you what something would look like on you. Finally, you can answer the age-old question: "Can I pull off these shoes?."