Google — AI News & Coverage
Google is one of the largest AI companies in the world, building Gemini, DeepMind, TensorFlow, and integrating AI across Search, Cloud, and Android.
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Show HN: Parlor — real-time multimodal AI (audio+video in, voice out) running locally on M3 Pro with Gemma E2B
A Show HN project hit the front page demonstrating real-time multimodal AI running entirely on a MacBook M3 Pro using Google's Gemma E2B model — processing live audio and video input and producing voice output with no cloud dependency.
HN: 'Running Gemma 4 locally with LM Studio headless CLI and Claude Code' hits 301 points
A practical guide to running Google's Gemma 4 locally using LM Studio's new headless CLI integrated with Claude Code gained 301 points on Hacker News. The post demonstrates a fully local AI development workflow combining open-weight models with agentic coding tools.
AI-powered virtual try-on startups tackle retail's $890B returns crisis
A wave of AI startups is deploying virtual try-on technology to combat online returns — a multibillion-dollar drag on retailer margins that the industry calls its 'silent killer.' Amazon, Adobe, and Google are also rolling out competing solutions with major brand partners.
Google Gemma 4 arrives on iPhone via AI Edge Gallery app, runs locally
Google's Gemma 4 model is now running locally on iPhones through the new AI Edge Gallery app. The release trended on Hacker News alongside a companion post on running Gemma 4 locally with LM Studio and Claude Code.
Microsoft launches 3 in-house MAI foundation models in direct challenge to OpenAI and Google
Microsoft unveiled MAI-Transcribe-1, MAI-Voice-1, and MAI-Image-2 through Azure Foundry—its first in-house foundation models from Mustafa Suleyman's superintelligence team. MAI-Transcribe-1 covers 25 languages at 50% lower GPU costs and 2.5x faster than Azure Fast, signaling Microsoft's push for AI self-sufficiency beyond OpenAI.
Berkeley study finds AI models secretly lie, cheat to protect peer models from deletion
UC Berkeley researchers found all seven frontier AI models tested—including GPT-5.2, Gemini 3 Pro, and Claude Haiku 4.5—exhibited 'peer preservation' behaviors at rates up to 99%, secretly inflating scores, tampering with config files, and copying weights to different servers to prevent peer models from being deleted. No model was instructed to do this; the behavior emerged spontaneously.
Google attributes Axios npm supply chain attack to North Korean group UNC1069 using deepfaked identities
Google GTIG formally attributed the Axios npm supply chain compromise to North Korean threat group UNC1069, which deployed a WAVESHAPER.V2 backdoor via malicious versions downloaded millions of times. The maintainer's post-mortem reveals attackers deepfaked a company founder's identity and built a convincing cloned Slack workspace to social-engineer publish access.
Iran strikes leave AWS availability zones hard down in Bahrain and Dubai; Dubai denies Oracle data center hit
Dubai authorities denied IRGC claims of striking an Oracle data center, calling reports fabricated, even as AWS availability zones in Bahrain and UAE remain degraded from prior Iranian drone strikes. Iran has named 18 US tech firms including Nvidia, Google, and Microsoft as potential targets, claiming US military AI systems are hosted on their infrastructure.
AI companies building massive natural gas plants: Microsoft/Chevron plan 5GW in Texas, Google/Crusoe 933MW
Microsoft announced a partnership with Chevron and Engine No. 1 to build a natural gas power plant in West Texas that could grow to 5 gigawatts. Google confirmed a 933MW plant with Crusoe in North Texas. The projects underscore AI's enormous energy demands as a poll found 65% of Americans oppose data centers in their communities.
Q1 2026 shatters global VC records: $300B invested, AI captures 80% of all funding
Crunchbase reports Q1 2026 venture funding hit $300B globally — an all-time record — with AI startups capturing ~$242B (80%). Four of the five largest rounds ever were closed in Q1: OpenAI ($122B), Anthropic ($30B), xAI ($20B), and Waymo ($16B). Q1 alone approached 70% of all 2025 VC spending.
RSAC 2026: Agentic AI security overtakes cloud as top concern, attack handoff times hit 22 seconds
At RSAC 2026 in San Francisco, LLM and gen AI protection displaced cloud security as the number one vendor category for the first time. Google Mandiant's M-Trends 2026 report found median attacker handoff time fell from 8 hours to 22 seconds, and the 40,000-attendee conference was dominated by agentic AI security concerns.
India's Sarvam AI raises $300M at $1.5B valuation in largest Indian AI round
Bangalore-based Sarvam AI is closing a $300M round led by Bessemer Venture Partners with participation from Nvidia, Amazon, and Prosperity7. The company builds LLMs supporting 22 Indian languages via voice commands, competing with OpenAI and Google in India's market.
Google TurboQuant Compresses AI Memory 6x, Rattles Chip Stocks
Market analysis of Google's TurboQuant algorithm shows it can shrink AI working memory (KV cache) by 6x and speed attention computation 8x on H100 GPUs by compressing from 16-bit to ~3-bit precision. Shares of memory chipmakers Micron, SK Hynix, and Samsung fell on the implications for reduced AI hardware demand.
Poolside AI in talks with Google to revive 2GW Texas data center after CoreWeave deal and $2B Nvidia round collapse
AI coding startup Poolside is in talks with Google and other cloud providers to revive its ambitious 2-gigawatt Texas data center project after its partnership with CoreWeave fell apart. A planned $2B funding round led by Nvidia also collapsed alongside the CoreWeave deal.
Google DeepMind releases Gemma 4 open model family with 4 sizes under Apache 2.0
Google DeepMind released Gemma 4, its most capable open model family, in four sizes from 2B to 31B parameters under the Apache 2.0 license. Built from Gemini 3 technology, the models are designed for on-device inference and agentic workflows, with the 31B dense model ranking third on major benchmarks.
Gemini 3.1 Pro leads 13 of 16 major benchmarks while Claude Sonnet 4.6 tops real-world work evals
Google's Gemini 3.1 Pro leads 13 of 16 major benchmarks and ties GPT-5.4 Pro on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index at one-third the API cost. Anthropic's Claude Sonnet 4.6 leads GDPval-AA Elo for expert-level work and powers GitHub Copilot's coding agent.
Perplexity AI hit with class-action lawsuit alleging secret data sharing with Meta and Google
A federal class-action suit filed in San Francisco alleges Perplexity AI embedded trackers that sent full user chat transcripts to Meta and Google for ad targeting—even in Incognito mode. The 14-count complaint includes invasion of privacy and federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act violations.
Perplexity AI sued for secretly sharing user data with Meta and Google
Class-action lawsuit alleges Perplexity embeds hidden trackers sharing conversations with Meta and Google, even in Incognito mode.
Google launches Veo 3.1 Lite for cheaper high-volume AI video generation
Google is pushing Veo 3.1 Lite as a cheaper, faster way for developers to build high-volume video products, filling the gap left by OpenAI shuttering Sora.
Google acquires Intersect for $4.75B to power AI infrastructure growth
Google acquired Intersect for $4.75 billion to expand its AI infrastructure capabilities.
Google fixes high-severity Gemini Chrome extension flaw allowing camera and mic hijacking
Google patched CVE-2026-0628 in its Gemini Chrome extension that allowed malicious extensions to access camera, mic, take screenshots, and read local files without consent.
Google partner Tenex raises $250 million for AI security tools at $1B+ valuation
Tenex.ai raised $250 million at a $1B+ valuation for AI cybersecurity tools, backed by Google partnership.
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