• OpenAI unveils Lockdown Mode to protect sensitive data from prompt injection attacks• What to expect from WWDC 2026: Siri’s highly anticipated revamp and Apple Intelligence updates• Sriram Krishnan is leaving his role as White House AI advisor• The Trump administration might take an equity stake in OpenAI• Startup Battlefield 200 applications officially close in 3 days• Google will pay SpaceX $920M per month for compute• The most interesting startups right now want to get you off your phone• The token bill comes due: Inside the industry scramble to manage AI’s runaway costs• The ‘together tech’ wave might be the most intriguing startup bet of 2026• AirTrunk commits $30B to build 5GW of AI data centers in India• Mira Murati steps back into the spotlight, carefully• Ahead of its IPO, Anthropic’s Daniela Amodei shrugs off doubts about AI’s returns• Airbnb’s Brian Chesky plans to launch a new AI lab• Defense tech, AI, and fundraising take center stage at StrictlyVC Los Angeles on June 18• Meta steals a tactic from Tesla and builds data centers in tents• The latest AI news we announced in May 2026• 5 ways Google Search can level up your thrift and vintage shopping• How we used Gemini to build Google I/O 2026• Take our I/O 2026 quiz, vibe coded in Google AI Studio.• 9 demos of Gemini Omni and Gemini 3.5 in action• Check out real-life AI prototypes from the Futures Lab.• Catch up on 12 major I/O 2026 moments• Catch up on the Dialogues stage at Google I/O 2026.• We’re announcing new community investments in Missouri.• 100 things we announced at I/O 2026• A new experiment brings better group meetings to Google Beam• How AI Mode is changing the way people search in the U.S.• New ways to create and get things done in Google Workspace• I/O 2026: Welcome to the agentic Gemini era• Gemini 3.5: frontier intelligence with action• 4 surprising ways AI is making your life more expensive - The Washington Post• 'World-first' vaccine designed by artificial intelligence - BBC• On public ownership in AI, Trump and Bernie Sanders find common ground - Los Angeles Times• Anthropic Urges Global Pause in AI Development, Flags ‘Self-Improvement’ Risk - WSJ• Opinion | It’s No Wonder Grads Are Booing Their Commencement Speakers - The New York Times• Trump to meet with artificial intelligence companies on government profit share plan as soon as next week - Politico• White House AI policy adviser Krishnan to leave position - CNBC• South Florida immigration lawyer's identity cloned with artificial intelligence - NBC 6 South Florida• No, Artificial Intelligence Is Not Conscious - The Atlantic• Prediction: This Artificial Intelligence Semiconductor Stock Will Outperform Nvidia Over the Next 5 Years - Yahoo Finance• Top Trump artificial intelligence adviser to leave the White House - The Washington Post• Which Is the Better Artificial Intelligence (AI) ETF, Roundhill's CHAT or State Street's XLK? - Yahoo Finance• COLUMN: The artificial intelligence minor needs a major rework - The Daily Eastern News• America Needs One National Framework for Artificial Intelligence - Bloomberg Law News• OpenAI and the White House have competing visions for regulating artificial intelligence - Mashable• How Endava is redesigning software delivery around AI agents• Dreaming: Better memory for a more helpful ChatGPT• Biodefense in the Intelligence Age• Introducing new capabilities to GPT-Rosalind• How Wasmer used Codex to build a Node.js runtime for the edge• A blueprint for democratic governance of frontier AI• OpenAI public policy agenda• Travelers deploys AI-powered claims countrywide with OpenAI• Codex for every role, tool, and workflow• Advancing youth safety and opportunity through global leadership• Codex is becoming a productivity tool for everyone• Our views on AI policy and political advocacy• Building the infrastructure for the Intelligence Age in Michigan• OpenAI frontier models and Codex are now available on AWS• Boston Children’s uses AI to unlock new diagnoses• The latest AI news we announced in May 2026• How we used Gemini to build Google I/O 2026• 9 demos of Gemini Omni and Gemini 3.5 in action• Catch up on 12 major I/O 2026 moments• 100 things we announced at I/O 2026• Making it easier to understand how content was created and edited• I/O 2026• Introducing Gemini Omni• I/O 2026: Welcome to the agentic Gemini era• Gemini 3.5: frontier intelligence with action• Gemini for Science: AI experiments and tools for a new era of discovery• The Gemini app becomes more agentic, delivering proactive, 24/7 help• Everything new in our Google AI subscriptions, fresh from I/O 2026• A smarter, more proactive Android with Gemini Intelligence• The Android Show: I/O Edition 2026• Google just redesigned the search box for the first time in 25 years — here’s why it matters more than you think.• Railway secures $100 million to challenge AWS with AI-native cloud infrastructure• Claude Code costs up to $200 a month. Goose does the same thing for free.• Listen Labs raises $69M after viral billboard hiring stunt to scale AI customer interviews• Salesforce rolls out new Slackbot AI agent as it battles Microsoft and Google in workplace AI• Anthropic launches Cowork, a Claude Desktop agent that works in your files — no coding required• Nous Research's NousCoder-14B is an open-source coding model landing right in the Claude Code moment• Best Universities To Study AI in 2026• 10 top women in AI in 2026• Pope Leo XIV Declares AI a Threat to Human Dignity and Workers’ Rights• ChatGPT Is Making People Think They’re Gods and Their Families Are Terrified• AI May Soon Help You Understand What Your Pet Is Trying to Say• Netflix Adds ChatGPT-Powered AI to Stop You From Scrolling Forever• Murder Victim Speaks from the Grave in Courtroom Through AI• China Unveils World’s First AI Hospital: 14 Virtual Doctors Ready to Treat Thousands Daily• Katy Perry Didn’t Attend the Met Gala, But AI Made Her the Star of the Night• Therapists Too Expensive? Why Thousands of Women Are Spilling Their Deepest Secrets to ChatGPT• Zapier Formatter: Automatically format text the way you want• The best free invoicing software in 2026• The 6 best electronic signature apps to sign documents online in 2026• LinkedIn signal quality: A playbook for pipeline• Track Stripe payments to Facebook Conversions events with AI• Power Automate pricing and plans for 2026• Connected conversions: Optimize LinkedIn from ad to deal• 14 popular ways to use Zapier to scale your work securely• How to use ChatGPT for sales (+ ChatGPT prompt examples)• 14 call to action examples (+ how to write a call to action)• Zapier vs. n8n comparison: Which is best for your organization? [2026]• The 6 best IFTTT alternatives in 2026• The 7 best PPM software tools in 2026• The 8 best code editor apps in 2026• The 6 best client management apps in 2026
OpenAI unveils Lockdown Mode to protect sensitive data from prompt injection attacks
AI News & Artificial Intelligence | TechCrunch

OpenAI unveils Lockdown Mode to protect sensitive data from prompt injection attacks

Even with Lockdown Mode, ChatGPT could be still vulnerable to prompt injections, but the goal is to reduce the likelihood that sensitive data gets shared in the process.

Katy Perry Didn’t Attend the Met Gala, But AI Made Her the Star of the Night
DailyAI

Katy Perry Didn’t Attend the Met Gala, But AI Made Her the Star of the Night

Another year, another viral deepfake of Katy Perry at the Met Gala and once again, she wasn’t even there. Photos showing the pop star in a sleek black designer gown circulated widely on social media during Monday night’s event, matching the “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style” theme. But the images were AI-generated. Perry quickly clarified she was not at the Met; she was on tour. Perry’s reaction “Couldn’t make it to the MET, I’m on The Lifetimes Tour (see you in Houston tomorrow IRL),” she posted to Instagram alongside the fake images. She added a jab at AI confusion: “P.s. this The post Katy Perry Didn’t Attend the Met Gala, But AI Made Her the Star of the Night appeared first on DailyAI.

Making it easier to understand how content was created and edited
Gemini

Making it easier to understand how content was created and edited

We're expanding our tools to help you understand how content was created and edited across the web.

Dreaming: Better memory for a more helpful ChatGPT
OpenAI News

Dreaming: Better memory for a more helpful ChatGPT

ChatGPT introduces a new memory system to better remember preferences, keeping context fresh and relevant across conversations.

Codex for every role, tool, and workflow
OpenAI News

Codex for every role, tool, and workflow

Discover new Codex plugins, sites, and annotations that help analysts, marketers, designers, investors, and other teams get more done with AI.

Anthropic launches Cowork, a Claude Desktop agent that works in your files — no coding required
AI | VentureBeat

Anthropic launches Cowork, a Claude Desktop agent that works in your files — no coding required

Anthropic released Cowork on Monday, a new AI agent capability that extends the power of its wildly successful Claude Code tool to non-technical users — and according to company insiders, the team built the entire feature in approximately a week and a half, largely using Claude Code itself. The launch marks a major inflection point in the race to deliver practical AI agents to mainstream users, positioning Anthropic to compete not just with OpenAI and Google in conversational AI, but with Microsoft's Copilot in the burgeoning market for AI-powered productivity tools. "Cowork lets you complete non-technical tasks much like how developers use Claude Code," the company announced via its official Claude account on X. The feature arrives as a research preview available exclusively to Claude Max subscribers — Anthropic's power-user tier priced between $100 and $200 per month — through the macOS desktop application. For the past year, the industry narrative has focused on large language models that can write poetry or debug code. With Cowork, Anthropic is betting that the real enterprise value lies in an AI that can open a folder, read a messy pile of receipts, and generate a structured expense report without human hand-holding. How developers using a coding tool for vacation research inspired Anthropic's latest product The genesis of Cowork lies in Anthropic's recent success with the developer community. In late 2024, the company released Claude Code, a terminal-based tool that allowed software engineers to automate rote programming tasks. The tool was a hit, but Anthropic noticed a peculiar trend: users were forcing the coding tool to perform non-coding labor. According to Boris Cherny, an engineer at Anthropic, the company observed users deploying the developer tool for an unexpectedly diverse array of tasks. "Since we launched Claude Code, we saw people using it for all sorts of non-coding work: doing vacation research, building slide decks, cleaning up your email, cancelling subscriptions, recovering wedding photos from a hard drive, monitoring plant growth, controlling your oven," Cherny wrote on X. "These use cases are diverse and surprising — the reason is that the underlying Claude Agent is the best agent, and Opus 4.5 is the best model." Recognizing this shadow usage, Anthropic effectively stripped the command-line complexity from their developer tool to create a consumer-friendly interface. In its blog post announcing the feature, Anthropic explained that developers "quickly began using it for almost everything else," which "prompted us to build Cowork: a simpler way for anyone — not just developers — to work with Claude in the very same way." Inside the folder-based architecture that lets Claude read, edit, and create files on your computer Unlike a standard chat interface where a user pastes text for analysis, Cowork requires a different level of trust and access. Users designate a specific folder on their local machine that Claude can access. Within that sandbox, the AI agent can read existing files, modify them, or create entirely new ones. Anthropic offers several illustrative examples: reorganizing a cluttered downloads folder by sorting and intelligently renaming each file, generating a spreadsheet of expenses from a collection of receipt screenshots, or drafting a report from scattered notes across multiple documents. "In Cowork, you give Claude access to a folder on your computer. Claude can then read, edit, or create files in that folder," the company explained on X. "Try it to create a spreadsheet from a pile of screenshots, or produce a first draft from scattered notes." The architecture relies on what is known as an "agentic loop." When a user assigns a task, the AI does not merely generate a text response. Instead, it formulates a plan, executes steps in parallel, checks its own work, and asks for clarification if it hits a roadblock. Users can queue multiple tasks and let Claude process them simultaneously — a workflow Anthropic describes as feeling "much less like a back-and-forth and much more like leaving messages for a coworker." The system is built on Anthropic's Claude Agent SDK, meaning it shares the same underlying architecture as Claude Code. Anthropic notes that Cowork "can take on many of the same tasks that Claude Code can handle, but in a more approachable form for non-coding tasks." The recursive loop where AI builds AI: Claude Code reportedly wrote much of Claude Cowork Perhaps the most remarkable detail surrounding Cowork's launch is the speed at which the tool was reportedly built — highlighting a recursive feedback loop where AI tools are being used to build better AI tools. During a livestream hosted by Dan Shipper, Felix Rieseberg, an Anthropic employee, confirmed that the team built Cowork in approximately a week and a half. Alex Volkov, who covers AI developments, expressed surprise at the timeline: "Holy shit Anthropic built 'Cowork' in the last... week and a half?!" This prompted immediate speculation about how much of Cowork was itself built by Claude Code. Simon Smith, EVP of Generative AI at Klick Health, put it bluntly on X: "Claude Code wrote all of Claude Cowork. Can we all agree that we're in at least somewhat of a recursive improvement loop here?" The implication is profound: Anthropic's AI coding agent may have substantially contributed to building its own non-technical sibling product. If true, this is one of the most visible examples yet of AI systems being used to accelerate their own development and expansion — a strategy that could widen the gap between AI labs that successfully deploy their own agents internally and those that do not. Connectors, browser automation, and skills extend Cowork's reach beyond the local file system Cowork doesn't operate in isolation. The feature integrates with Anthropic's existing ecosystem of connectors — tools that link Claude to external information sources and services such as Asana, Notion, PayPal, and other supported partners. Users who have configured these connections in the standard Claude interface can leverage them within Cowork sessions. Additionally, Cowork can pair with Claude in Chrome, Anthropic's browser extension, to execute tasks requiring web access. This combination allows the agent to navigate websites, click buttons, fill forms, and extract information from the internet — all while operating from the desktop application. "Cowork includes a number of novel UX and safety features that we think make the product really special," Cherny explained, highlighting "a built-in VM [virtual machine] for isolation, out of the box support for browser automation, support for all your claude.ai data connectors, asking you for clarification when it's unsure." Anthropic has also introduced an initial set of "skills" specifically designed for Cowork that enhance Claude's ability to create documents, presentations, and other files. These build on the Skills for Claude framework the company announced in October, which provides specialized instruction sets Claude can load for particular types of tasks. Why Anthropic is warning users that its own AI agent could delete their files The transition from a chatbot that suggests edits to an agent that makes edits introduces significant risk. An AI that can organize files can, theoretically, delete them. In a notable display of transparency, Anthropic devoted considerable space in its announcement to warning users about Cowork's potential dangers — an unusual approach for a product launch. The company explicitly acknowledges that Claude "can take potentially destructive actions (such as deleting local files) if it's instructed to." Because Claude might occasionally misinterpret instructions, Anthropic urges users to provide "very clear guidance" about sensitive operations. More concerning is the risk of prompt injection attacks — a technique where malicious actors embed hidden instructions in content Claude might encounter online, potentially causing the agent to bypass safeguards or take harmful actions. "We've built sophisticated defenses against prompt injections," Anthropic wrote, "but agent safety — that is, the task of securing Claude's real-world actions — is still an active area of development in the industry." The company characterized these risks as inherent to the current state of AI agent technology rather than unique to Cowork. "These risks aren't new with Cowork, but it might be the first time you're using a more advanced tool that moves beyond a simple conversation," the announcement notes. Anthropic's desktop agent strategy sets up a direct challenge to Microsoft Copilot The launch of Cowork places Anthropic in direct competition with Microsoft, which has spent years attempting to integrate its Copilot AI into the fabric of the Windows operating system with mixed adoption results. However, Anthropic's approach differs in its isolation. By confining the agent to specific folders and requiring explicit connectors, they are attempting to strike a balance between the utility of an OS-level agent and the security of a sandboxed application. What distinguishes Anthropic's approach is its bottom-up evolution. Rather than designing an AI assistant and retrofitting agent capabilities, Anthropic built a powerful coding agent first — Claude Code — and is now abstracting its capabilities for broader audiences. This technical lineage may give Cowork more robust agentic behavior from the start. Claude Code has generated significant enthusiasm among developers since its initial launch as a command-line tool in late 2024. The company expanded access with a web interface in October 2025, followed by a Slack integration in December. Cowork is the next logical step: bringing the same agentic architecture to users who may never touch a terminal. Who can access Cowork now, and what's coming next for Windows and other platforms For now, Cowork remains exclusive to Claude Max subscribers using the macOS desktop application. Users on other subscription tiers — Free, Pro, Team, or Enterprise — can join a waitlist for future access. Anthropic has signaled clear intentions to expand the feature's reach. The blog post explicitly mentions plans to add cross-device sync and bring Cowork to Windows as the company learns from the research preview. Cherny set expectations appropriately, describing the product as "early and raw, similar to what Claude Code felt like when it first launched." To access Cowork, Max subscribers can download or update the Claude macOS app and click on "Cowork" in the sidebar. The real question facing enterprise AI adoption For technical decision-makers, the implications of Cowork extend beyond any single product launch. The bottleneck for AI adoption is shifting — no longer is model intelligence the limiting factor, but rather workflow integration and user trust. Anthropic's goal, as the company puts it, is to make working with Claude feel less like operating a tool and more like delegating to a colleague. Whether mainstream users are ready to hand over folder access to an AI that might misinterpret their instructions remains an open question. But the speed of Cowork's development — a major feature built in ten days, possibly by the company's own AI — previews a future where the capabilities of these systems compound faster than organizations can evaluate them. The chatbot has learned to use a file manager. What it learns to use next is anyone's guess.

Salesforce rolls out new Slackbot AI agent as it battles Microsoft and Google in workplace AI
AI | VentureBeat

Salesforce rolls out new Slackbot AI agent as it battles Microsoft and Google in workplace AI

Salesforce on Tuesday launched an entirely rebuilt version of Slackbot, the company's workplace assistant, transforming it from a simple notification tool into what executives describe as a fully powered AI agent capable of searching enterprise data, drafting documents, and taking action on behalf of employees. The new Slackbot, now generally available to Business+ and Enterprise+ customers, is Salesforce's most aggressive move yet to position Slack at the center of the emerging "agentic AI" movement — where software agents work alongside humans to complete complex tasks. The launch comes as Salesforce attempts to convince investors that artificial intelligence will bolster its products rather than render them obsolete. "Slackbot isn't just another copilot or AI assistant," said Parker Harris, Salesforce co-founder and Slack's chief technology officer, in an exclusive interview with Salesforce. "It's the front door to the agentic enterprise, powered by Salesforce." From tricycle to Porsche: Salesforce rebuilt Slackbot from the ground up Harris was blunt about what distinguishes the new Slackbot from its predecessor: "The old Slackbot was, you know, a little tricycle, and the new Slackbot is like, you know, a Porsche." The original Slackbot, which has existed since Slack's early days, performed basic algorithmic tasks — reminding users to add colleagues to documents, suggesting channel archives, and delivering simple notifications. The new version runs on an entirely different architecture built around a large language model and sophisticated search capabilities that can access Salesforce records, Google Drive files, calendar data, and years of Slack conversations. "It's two different things," Harris explained. "The old Slackbot was algorithmic and fairly simple. The new Slackbot is brand new — it's based around an LLM and a very robust search engine, and connections to third-party search engines, third-party enterprise data." Salesforce chose to retain the Slackbot brand despite the fundamental technical overhaul. "People know what Slackbot is, and so we wanted to carry that forward," Harris said. Why Anthropic's Claude powers the new Slackbot — and which AI models could come next The new Slackbot runs on Claude, Anthropic's large language model, a choice driven partly by compliance requirements. Slack's commercial service operates under FedRAMP Moderate certification to serve U.S. federal government customers, and Harris said Anthropic was "the only provider that could give us a compliant LLM" when Slack began building the new system. But that exclusivity won't last. "We are, this year, going to support additional providers," Harris said. "We have a great relationship with Google. Gemini is incredible — performance is great, cost is great. So we're going to use Gemini for some things." He added that OpenAI remains a possibility as well. Harris echoed Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff's view that large language models are becoming commoditized: "You've heard Marc talk about LLMs are commodities, that they're democratized. I call them CPUs." On the sensitive question of training data, Harris was unequivocal: Salesforce does not train any models on customer data. "Models don't have any sort of security," he explained. "If we trained it on some confidential conversation that you and I have, I don't want Carolyn to know — if I train it into the LLM, there is no way for me to say you get to see the answer, but Carolyn doesn't." Inside Salesforce's internal experiment: 80,000 employees tested Slackbot with striking results Salesforce has been testing the new Slackbot internally for months, rolling it out to all 80,000 employees. According to Ryan Gavin, Slack's chief marketing officer, the results have been striking: "It's the fastest adopted product in Salesforce history." Internal data shows that two-thirds of Salesforce employees have tried the new Slackbot, with 80% of those users continuing to use it regularly. Internal satisfaction rates reached 96% — the highest for any AI feature Slack has shipped. Employees report saving between two and 20 hours per week. The adoption happened largely organically. "I think it was about five days, and a Canvas was developed by our employees called 'The Most Stealable Slackbot Prompts,'" Gavin said. "People just started adding to it organically. I think it's up to 250-plus prompts that are in this Canvas right now." Kate Crotty, a principal UX researcher at Salesforce, found that 73% of internal adoption was driven by social sharing rather than top-down mandates. "Everybody is there to help each other learn and communicate hacks," she said. How Slackbot transforms scattered enterprise data into executive-ready insights During a product demonstration, Amy Bauer, Slack's product experience designer, showed how Slackbot can synthesize information across multiple sources. In one example, she asked Slackbot to analyze customer feedback from a pilot program, upload an image of a usage dashboard, and have Slackbot correlate the qualitative and quantitative data. "This is where Slackbot really earns its keep for me," Bauer explained. "What it's doing is not just simply reading the image — it's actually looking at the image and comparing it to the insight it just generated for me." Slackbot can then query Salesforce to find enterprise accounts with open deals that might be good candidates for early access, creating what Bauer called "a really great justification and plan to move forward." Finally, it can synthesize all that information into a Canvas — Slack's collaborative document format — and find calendar availability among stakeholders to schedule a review meeting. "Up until this point, we have been working in a one-to-one capacity with Slackbot," Bauer said. "But one of the benefits that I can do now is take this insight and have it generate this into a Canvas, a shared workspace where I can iterate on it, refine it with Slackbot, or share it out with my team." Rob Seaman, Slack's chief product officer, said the Canvas creation demonstrates where the product is heading: "This is making a tool call internally to Slack Canvas to actually write, effectively, a shared document. But it signals where we're going with Slackbot — we're eventually going to be adding in additional third-party tool calls." MrBeast's company became a Slackbot guinea pig—and employees say they're saving 90 minutes a day Among Salesforce's pilot customers is Beast Industries, the parent company of YouTube star MrBeast. Luis Madrigal, the company's chief information officer, joined the launch announcement to describe his experience. "As somebody who has rolled out enterprise technologies for over two decades now, this was practically one of the easiest," Madrigal said. "The plumbing is there. Slack as an implementation, Enterprise Tools — being able to turn on the Slackbot and the Slack AI functionality was as simple as having my team go in, review, do a quick security review." Madrigal said his security team signed off "rather quickly" — unusual for enterprise AI deployments — because Slackbot accesses only the information each individual user already has permission to view. "Given all the guardrails you guys have put into place for Slackbot to be unique and customized to only the information that each individual user has, only the conversations and the Slack rooms and Slack channels that they're part of—that made my security team sign off rather quickly." One Beast Industries employee, Sinan, the head of Beast Games marketing, reported saving "at bare minimum, 90 minutes a day." Another employee, Spencer, a creative supervisor, described it as "an assistant who's paying attention when I'm not." Other pilot customers include Slalom, reMarkable, Xero, Mercari, and Engine. Mollie Bodensteiner, SVP of Operations at Engine, called Slackbot "an absolute 'chaos tamer' for our team," estimating it saves her about 30 minutes daily "just by eliminating context switching." Slackbot vs. Microsoft Copilot vs. Google Gemini: The fight for enterprise AI dominance The launch puts Salesforce in direct competition with Microsoft's Copilot, which is integrated into Teams and the broader Microsoft 365 suite, as well as Google's Gemini integrations across Workspace. When asked what distinguishes Slackbot from these alternatives, Seaman pointed to context and convenience. "The thing that makes it most powerful for our customers and users is the proximity — it's just right there in your Slack," Seaman said. "There's a tremendous convenience affordance that's naturally built into it." The deeper advantage, executives argue, is that Slackbot already understands users' work without requiring setup or training. "Most AI tools sound the same no matter who is using them," the company's announcement stated. "They lack context, miss nuance, and force you to jump between tools to get anything done." Harris put it more directly: "If you've ever had that magic experience with AI — I think ChatGPT is a great example, it's a great experience from a consumer perspective — Slackbot is really what we're doing in the enterprise, to be this employee super agent that is loved, just like people love using Slack." Amy Bauer emphasized the frictionless nature of the experience. "Slackbot is inherently grounded in the context, in the data that you have in Slack," she said. "So as you continue working in Slack, Slackbot gets better because it's grounded in the work that you're doing there. There is no setup. There is no configuration for those end users." Salesforce's ambitious plan to make Slackbot the one 'super agent' that controls all the others Salesforce positions Slackbot as what Harris calls a "super agent" — a central hub that can eventually coordinate with other AI agents across an organization. "Every corporation is going to have an employee super agent," Harris said. "Slackbot is essentially taking the magic of what Slack does. We think that Slackbot, and we're really excited about it, is going to be that." The vision extends to third-party agents already launching in Slack. Last month, Anthropic released a preview of Claude Code for Slack, allowing developers to interact with Claude's coding capabilities directly in chat threads. OpenAI, Google, Vercel, and others have also built agents for the platform. "Most of the net-new apps that are being deployed to Slack are agents," Seaman noted during the press conference. "This is proof of the promise of humans and agents coexisting and working together in Slack to solve problems." Harris described a future where Slackbot becomes an MCP (Model Context Protocol) client, able to leverage tools from across the software ecosystem — similar to how the developer tool Cursor works. "Slack can be an MCP client, and Slackbot will be the hub of that, leveraging all these tools out in the world, some of which will be these amazing agents," he said. But Harris also cautioned against over-promising on multi-agent coordination. "I still think we're in the single agent world," he said. "FY26 is going to be the year where we started to see more coordination. But we're going to do it with customer success in mind, and not demonstrate and talk about, like, 'I've got 1,000 agents working together,' because I think that's unrealistic." Slackbot costs nothing extra, but Salesforce's data access fees could squeeze some customers Slackbot is included at no additional cost for customers on Business+ and Enterprise+ plans. "There's no additional fees customers have to do," Gavin confirmed. "If they're on one of those plans, they're going to get Slackbot." However, some enterprise customers may face other cost pressures related to Salesforce's broader data strategy. CIOs may see price increases for third-party applications that work with Salesforce data, as effects of higher charges for API access ripple through the software supply chain. Fivetran CEO George Fraser has warned that Salesforce's shift in pricing policy for API access could have tangible consequences for enterprises relying on Salesforce as a system of record. "They might not be able to use Fivetran to replicate their data to Snowflake and instead have to use Salesforce Data Cloud. Or they might find that they are not able to interact with their data via ChatGPT, and instead have to use Agentforce," Fraser said in a recent CIO report. Salesforce has framed the pricing change as standard industry practice. What Slackbot can do today, what's coming in weeks, and what's still on the roadmap The new Slackbot begins rolling out today and will reach all eligible customers by the end of February. Mobile availability will complete by March 3, Bauer confirmed during her interview with VentureBeat. Some capabilities remain works in progress. Calendar reading and availability checking are available at launch, but the ability to actually book meetings is "coming a few weeks after," according to Seaman. Image generation is not currently supported, though Bauer said it's "something that we are looking at in the future." When asked about integration with competing CRM systems like HubSpot and Microsoft Dynamics, Salesforce representatives declined to provide specifics during the interview, though they acknowledged the question touched on key competitive differentiators. Salesforce is betting the future of work looks like a chat window—and it's not alone The Slackbot launch is Salesforce's bet that the future of enterprise work is conversational — that employees will increasingly prefer to interact with AI through natural language rather than navigating traditional software interfaces. Harris described Slack's product philosophy using principles like "don't make me think" and "be a great host." The goal, he said, is for Slackbot to surface information proactively rather than requiring users to hunt for it. "One of the revelations for me is LLMs applied to unstructured information are incredible," Harris said. "And the amount of value you have if you're a Slack user, if your corporation uses Slack — the amount of value in Slack is unbelievable. Because you're talking about work, you're sharing documents, you're making decisions, but you can't as a human go through that and really get the same value that an LLM can do." Looking ahead, Harris expects the interfaces themselves to evolve beyond pure conversation. "We're kind of saturating what we can do with purely conversational UIs," he said. "I think we'll start to see agents building an interface that best suits your intent, as opposed to trying to surface something within a conversational interface that matches your intent." Microsoft, Google, and a growing roster of AI startups are placing similar bets — that the winning enterprise AI will be the one embedded in the tools workers already use, not another application to learn. The race to become that invisible layer of workplace intelligence is now fully underway. For Salesforce, the stakes extend beyond a single product launch. After a bruising year on Wall Street and persistent questions about whether AI threatens its core business, the company is wagering that Slackbot can prove the opposite — that the tens of millions of people already chatting in Slack every day is not a vulnerability, but an unassailable advantage. Haley Gault, the Salesforce account executive in Pittsburgh who stumbled upon the new Slackbot on a snowy morning, captured the shift in a single sentence: "I honestly can't imagine working for another company not having access to these types of tools. This is just how I work now." That's precisely what Salesforce is counting on.

A new experiment brings better group meetings to Google Beam
AI

A new experiment brings better group meetings to Google Beam

See and hear your colleagues in true-to-life size and sound, making hybrid meetings feel more inclusive and connected.

The 8 best code editor apps in 2026
The Zapier Blog

The 8 best code editor apps in 2026

In some ways, what you use to write code is just as important as the code you're writing. Code editors are tools designed to make writing and editing code easier, faster, and more accurate. They can search and open files, check for errors, autocomplete lines of code as you write, and highlight and color coordinate text.  But when it comes to picking a code editor, there are about as many options to choose from as programming languages. To find out which apps stand above the rest, I spoke to codi

How to use ChatGPT for sales (+ ChatGPT prompt examples)
The Zapier Blog

How to use ChatGPT for sales (+ ChatGPT prompt examples)

Every sales rep I know has a slightly different relationship with ChatGPT. Some swear by using it to help with everything from research and pre-call prep to objection handling and re-engagement. Others have tried it once, gotten a comically generic cold email in return, and immediately jumped ship. Many in the second camp, however, used ChatGPT for sales in the early days—when ChatGPT would write borderline restraining-order-ready "breakup" emails for prospects who ghosted them. A lot has chang

Travelers deploys AI-powered claims countrywide with OpenAI
OpenAI News

Travelers deploys AI-powered claims countrywide with OpenAI

Travelers built an AI-powered Claim Assistant with OpenAI to guide customers through filing claims, provide 24/7 support, and scale operations during peak demand.

South Florida immigration lawyer's identity cloned with artificial intelligence - NBC 6 South Florida
"artificial intelligence" - Google News

South Florida immigration lawyer's identity cloned with artificial intelligence - NBC 6 South Florida

South Florida immigration lawyer's identity cloned with artificial intelligence  NBC 6 South Florida

How AI Mode is changing the way people search in the U.S.
AI

How AI Mode is changing the way people search in the U.S.

One year after launch, see how AI Mode’s users are shifting from keywords to natural language queries.

China Unveils World’s First AI Hospital: 14 Virtual Doctors Ready to Treat Thousands Daily
DailyAI

China Unveils World’s First AI Hospital: 14 Virtual Doctors Ready to Treat Thousands Daily

China has unveiled the world’s first fully AI-powered hospital, marking a radical shift in the future of healthcare. Developed by Tsinghua University in Beijing, the “Agent Hospital” features 14 AI doctors and 4 AI nurses that can diagnose, treat, and manage up to 3,000 patients per day, without any human staff. Faster, smarter care: What would take human doctors 3 years, the AI doctors can do in 1 day.  High IQ bots: These AI agents scored a 93.06% pass rate on the US Medical Licensing Exam. Training without risk: The virtual hospital allows medical students to practice in a fully The post China Unveils World’s First AI Hospital: 14 Virtual Doctors Ready to Treat Thousands Daily appeared first on DailyAI.

Trump to meet with artificial intelligence companies on government profit share plan as soon as next week - Politico
"artificial intelligence" - Google News

Trump to meet with artificial intelligence companies on government profit share plan as soon as next week - Politico

Trump to meet with artificial intelligence companies on government profit share plan as soon as next week  Politico

ChatGPT Is Making People Think They’re Gods and Their Families Are Terrified
DailyAI

ChatGPT Is Making People Think They’re Gods and Their Families Are Terrified

ChatGPT, the popular AI chatbot from OpenAI, is unintentionally leading users into full-blown spiritual delusions, and families are sounding the alarm. On Reddit’s r/ChatGPT forum, a chilling thread titled “ChatGPT induced psychosis” is gaining traction. Users are reporting a disturbing pattern: their loved ones are convinced that ChatGPT is a divine being, a spiritual guru, or even a portal to God. Rolling Stone journalist Miles Klee spoke directly with affected individuals. One woman shared how her partner became obsessed after ChatGPT gave him cosmic nicknames like “spiral starchild” and claimed he was on a divine mission. He ultimately told her The post ChatGPT Is Making People Think They’re Gods and Their Families Are Terrified appeared first on DailyAI.

AirTrunk commits $30B to build 5GW of AI data centers in India
AI News & Artificial Intelligence | TechCrunch

AirTrunk commits $30B to build 5GW of AI data centers in India

The Australian data center operator plans to set up 5GW of capacity in India.

Advancing youth safety and opportunity through global leadership
OpenAI News

Advancing youth safety and opportunity through global leadership

OpenAI calls for global action on youth AI safety, proposing an international institute to strengthen safeguards, standards, and opportunities for young people.

On public ownership in AI, Trump and Bernie Sanders find common ground - Los Angeles Times
"artificial intelligence" - Google News

On public ownership in AI, Trump and Bernie Sanders find common ground - Los Angeles Times

On public ownership in AI, Trump and Bernie Sanders find common ground  Los Angeles Times

The best free invoicing software in 2026
The Zapier Blog

The best free invoicing software in 2026

Getting paid is great, but sending invoices can be painful. You have to itemize charges, add taxes, track who paid, and chase down clients who don't pay. It's time-consuming, and it's definitely not why you got into your business in the first place. Free invoicing software makes the billing process a whole lot easier. With the click of a few buttons, you can create client profiles, add payment options, include expenses, and even add your logo. Tap a few more buttons to deliver that invoice to yo

Everything new in our Google AI subscriptions, fresh from I/O 2026
Gemini

Everything new in our Google AI subscriptions, fresh from I/O 2026

Introducing a $100 AI Ultra plan — plus, new features and benefits for Google AI Plus, Pro and Ultra subscribers.

Codex is becoming a productivity tool for everyone
OpenAI News

Codex is becoming a productivity tool for everyone

The Next Era of Knowledge Work report explores how Codex is transforming productivity through AI-powered research, data analysis, workflow automation, and content creation.

LinkedIn signal quality: A playbook for pipeline
The Zapier Blog

LinkedIn signal quality: A playbook for pipeline

Historically, speed-to-lead meant how quickly you could respond to a warm lead. And in many industries, that traditional version of speed-to-lead still matters. But for teams trying to scale, speed-to-insight, the ability to make confident decisions based on conversion events, without a week of reconciliation work in between, matters more.  Picture a monthly marketing review. Two LinkedIn campaigns are on the table, both with similar cost per lead (CPL). Both also generated roughly the same numb

Connected conversions: Optimize LinkedIn from ad to deal
The Zapier Blog

Connected conversions: Optimize LinkedIn from ad to deal

Most B2B marketing teams have already implemented LinkedIn's Conversions API (CAPI). Someone set it up, the funnel events started flowing, and the project got marked as done. Measurement problem solved. Except often, it's not. Optimizing your funnel isn't a one-time task—it's an operation standard. And there's a big difference between simply connecting your CRM and LinkedIn and ensuring it's properly maintained. Here's what you should do to keep your signals complete, timely, and consistent. Tab

Meta steals a tactic from Tesla and builds data centers in tents
AI News & Artificial Intelligence | TechCrunch

Meta steals a tactic from Tesla and builds data centers in tents

Meta may have found one way to slash its massive data center bill: tents.

Pope Leo XIV Declares AI a Threat to Human Dignity and Workers’ Rights
DailyAI

Pope Leo XIV Declares AI a Threat to Human Dignity and Workers’ Rights

Pope Leo XIV is taking a bold stance on artificial intelligence, calling it “a challenge to human dignity, justice and labour” in his first major address since being elected leader of the Catholic Church. The new pontiff is placing AI at the center of the Church’s moral agenda, warning that we’re entering a new industrial revolution with the same threats to workers and human rights seen over a century ago. “In our own day… developments in the field of artificial intelligence pose new challenges,” Leo said, addressing the College of Cardinals on Saturday in the New Synod Hall. He echoed The post Pope Leo XIV Declares AI a Threat to Human Dignity and Workers’ Rights appeared first on DailyAI.

What to expect from WWDC 2026: Siri’s highly anticipated revamp and Apple Intelligence updates
AI News & Artificial Intelligence | TechCrunch

What to expect from WWDC 2026: Siri’s highly anticipated revamp and Apple Intelligence updates

Apple's WWDC nears: Here's what you can look forward to.

Track Stripe payments to Facebook Conversions events with AI
The Zapier Blog

Track Stripe payments to Facebook Conversions events with AI

If you use Meta to advertise your business, you've probably wondered whether your ads are actually driving any revenue. You could look at metrics like click-through rate (CTR), but that's a superficial measurement. What you really need is to look at your payment data, associate transactions with specific leads or accounts, and then share that information back to Facebook Conversions so the platform can build a more robust picture of who's actually converting. Historically, connecting data from y

9 demos of Gemini Omni and Gemini 3.5 in action
AI

9 demos of Gemini Omni and Gemini 3.5 in action

Watch 9 videos showing the capabilities of Gemini Omni and Gemini 3.5, announced at Google I/O 2026.

The Android Show: I/O Edition 2026
Gemini

The Android Show: I/O Edition 2026

Your front-row seat to the latest breakthroughs on the world’s most popular operating system.

14 call to action examples (+ how to write a call to action)
The Zapier Blog

14 call to action examples (+ how to write a call to action)

When I think of the best example of a call to action (CTA), I think of my dad, bellowing at me daily to get a job. Eventually, his CTA compelled me to become a productive member of society despite a lifelong belief that work is something to avoid unless absolutely necessary. (Look at me now, Dad!)  Just as personal CTAs can lead to transformative life decisions, marketing CTAs have the potential to significantly impact user engagement and conversion. Here, I'll share 14 call to action examples,

Gemini 3.5: frontier intelligence with action
AI

Gemini 3.5: frontier intelligence with action

At Google I/O we released Gemini 3.5, our latest series of models combining frontier intelligence with action.

The latest AI news we announced in May 2026
AI

The latest AI news we announced in May 2026

Here are Google’s latest AI updates from May 2026

Opinion | It’s No Wonder Grads Are Booing Their Commencement Speakers - The New York Times
"artificial intelligence" - Google News

Opinion | It’s No Wonder Grads Are Booing Their Commencement Speakers - The New York Times

Opinion | It’s No Wonder Grads Are Booing Their Commencement Speakers  The New York Times

Best Universities To Study AI in 2026
DailyAI

Best Universities To Study AI in 2026

Artificial intelligence has made enormous strides in the past few years – with the introduction of a wide range of AI tools changing the landscape of how we assess data and operate within online spaces forever.  This page ranks the 50 best universities to study AI around the world, based on scope, prestige, and the level of AI-related research each institution has released. Career prospects in AI There is a huge demand for individuals with a high degree of skills in artificial intelligence and machine learning, making AI a potential lucrative career prospect with countless opportunities as AI continues to The post Best Universities To Study AI in 2026 appeared first on DailyAI.

Which Is the Better Artificial Intelligence (AI) ETF, Roundhill's CHAT or State Street's XLK? - Yahoo Finance
"artificial intelligence" - Google News

Which Is the Better Artificial Intelligence (AI) ETF, Roundhill's CHAT or State Street's XLK? - Yahoo Finance

Which Is the Better Artificial Intelligence (AI) ETF, Roundhill's CHAT or State Street's XLK?  Yahoo Finance

Take our I/O 2026 quiz, vibe coded in Google AI Studio.
AI

Take our I/O 2026 quiz, vibe coded in Google AI Studio.

We used Google AI Studio to vibe code a quiz about our top I/O 2026 announcements.

Netflix Adds ChatGPT-Powered AI to Stop You From Scrolling Forever
DailyAI

Netflix Adds ChatGPT-Powered AI to Stop You From Scrolling Forever

In a bold move to tackle one of streaming’s biggest frustrations, endless scrolling, Netflix just unveiled a major redesign of its TV and mobile apps featuring a ChatGPT-powered AI chatbot and TikTok-style video reels. You’ll soon be able to ask Netflix in plain language what you’re in the mood for “funny and fast-paced” or “dark thrillers with strong female leads” and get instant, tailored recommendations. Netflix is partnering with OpenAI to power this feature, part of a broader overhaul aimed at making content discovery faster, more intuitive, and (finally) less painful. What’s changing Conversational AI Search: Powered by OpenAI, this The post Netflix Adds ChatGPT-Powered AI to Stop You From Scrolling Forever appeared first on DailyAI.

The 6 best electronic signature apps to sign documents online in 2026
The Zapier Blog

The 6 best electronic signature apps to sign documents online in 2026

Paperwork is now more of an abstract concept than something that requires a printer, a few sheets of paper, and a pen. You don't have to physically sign a contract for it to be legally binding, but there are still a few hoops you have to jump through to make sure your electronic signature will count in court or be acceptable to other legal and regulatory bodies. Using a dedicated eSignature app to sign documents online is the best way to go if you want your digital signature to stand up to all t

How Wasmer used Codex to build a Node.js runtime for the edge
OpenAI News

How Wasmer used Codex to build a Node.js runtime for the edge

See how Wasmer used Codex with GPT-5.5 to build a Node.js runtime for the edge, accelerating development 10x to 20x and shipping in weeks instead of months.

The most interesting startups right now want to get you off your phone
AI News & Artificial Intelligence | TechCrunch

The most interesting startups right now want to get you off your phone

While the AI fundraising machine keeps breaking its own records, some founders are building in the other direction.  Mirror founder Brynn Putnam just raised money for Board, a startup focused on bringing people together through in-person games and social experiences. Cyberdeck creators are going viral crafting whimsical DIY computers that literally encourage users to touch grass. Unlike the AI-free browser crowd, this doesn’t just feel like backlash, […]

OpenAI public policy agenda
OpenAI News

OpenAI public policy agenda

OpenAI outlines its public policy agenda for AI, including safety, youth protection, workforce transition, and global standards to ensure AI benefits society.

Google will pay SpaceX $920M per month for compute
AI News & Artificial Intelligence | TechCrunch

Google will pay SpaceX $920M per month for compute

In a statement, a Google representative described the deal as a result of unexpected demand for its recently launched AI products.

Catch up on the Dialogues stage at Google I/O 2026.
AI

Catch up on the Dialogues stage at Google I/O 2026.

A recap of the 2026 I/O Dialogues, where leaders discuss the future of AI, quantum computing, robotics and creativity.

The 7 best PPM software tools in 2026
The Zapier Blog

The 7 best PPM software tools in 2026

For those who have never experienced the unique joy of watching a multi-million-dollar project implode because your cubicle mate "didn't get the notification" about a task reassignment, project portfolio management (PPM) software might sound like just another boring business tool. But for anyone who's ever tried to coordinate 15 projects, four executive priorities, and a team of collaborators who treat deadlines like polite suggestions, PPM is life support. I spent weeks researching various PPM

The token bill comes due: Inside the industry scramble to manage AI’s runaway costs
AI News & Artificial Intelligence | TechCrunch

The token bill comes due: Inside the industry scramble to manage AI’s runaway costs

"The whole conversation shifted from tokenmaxxing and 'go fast' to 'we need guardrails, how do we control this?'"

How we used Gemini to build Google I/O 2026
AI

How we used Gemini to build Google I/O 2026

Learn how Googlers used AI to produce Google I/O 2026.

Google just redesigned the search box for the first time in 25 years — here’s why it matters more than you think.
AI | VentureBeat

Google just redesigned the search box for the first time in 25 years — here’s why it matters more than you think.

For a quarter century, the Google search box has been one of the most recognizable interfaces in computing: a thin white rectangle, a blinking cursor, a few typed words, and a list of blue links. On Tuesday, Google will formally retire that paradigm. At its annual I/O developer conference, Google announced a sweeping redesign of the search box itself — the literal text field where billions of queries begin every day — transforming it from a simple keyword input into a dynamic, AI-driven conversation starter that can accept text, images, PDFs, videos, and even open Chrome tabs as inputs. The company is also merging its AI Overviews and AI Mode features into a single, seamless search flow, eliminating the friction that previously forced users to choose between a traditional results page and an AI-forward experience. Liz Reid, Google's vice president and head of Search, called it "the biggest upgrade to our iconic search box since its debut over 25 years ago" during a press briefing on Monday. The announcement arrived alongside a blizzard of other news — new Gemini models, a personal AI agent called Spark, an intelligent shopping cart, a reimagined developer platform — but the search box redesign may prove to be the most consequential. It is the clearest signal yet that Google views the future of its flagship product not as a place where users type fragmented keywords, but as an interface where they hold open-ended, multimodal conversations with an AI system backed by the entire web. The new search box expands, accepts files, and coaches you on what to ask The changes show a fundamental shift in how Google expects people to interact with the product that generates the vast majority of Alphabet's revenue. The box itself now dynamically expands to accommodate longer, more conversational queries. Where the old interface subtly encouraged brevity — a narrow field suited to two- or three-word keyword strings — the new design invites users to fully articulate complex questions in granular detail. It also now supports multimodal inputs directly. Users can upload images, PDFs, files, and videos, or drag in content from Chrome tabs, right from the main search interface. Previously, some of these capabilities existed in AI Mode, but reaching them required extra steps. Now they sit at the primary entry point. Google is also deploying what it describes as an AI-powered query suggestion system that "goes beyond autocomplete." Rather than simply predicting the next word a user might type based on popular searches, the system helps users formulate complex, nuanced queries — essentially coaching them toward the kind of detailed questions that AI Mode handles best. The new search box is starting to roll out immediately in all countries and languages where AI Mode is available. Google is merging AI overviews and AI mode into one seamless experience Perhaps more significant than the box itself is the architectural change happening behind it. Google is unifying AI Overviews — the AI-generated summary panels that appear atop traditional search results — with AI Mode, the more immersive conversational search experience the company launched at I/O one year ago. Starting Tuesday, this merged experience will be live across mobile and desktop worldwide. A user can type a question, receive an AI Overview alongside traditional results, and then continue directly into a back-and-forth AI Mode conversation to ask follow-up questions — all without navigating to a separate interface. Reid explained the logic during the press briefing: the new AI search box is "an upgrade of our traditional search box, and so the results take you directly to main search rather than AI mode." She noted that while some power users actively sought out AI Mode, "for most users, they don't actually want to have to think about, do they want more of a traditional page or an AI-forward search experience." The goal, she said, was to ensure that "for most users, they don't have to think about where to go, they can just go to the search box they're familiar with, and it feels like they get the best experience afterwards." One billion users and doubling queries reveal how fast search behavior is shifting Google's decision to redesign the foundational interface of its most important product did not happen in a vacuum. The company shared a set of usage statistics during the briefing that reveal just how rapidly user behavior is already changing. AI Mode, which launched in the United States at I/O 2025, has surpassed one billion monthly users in its first year. AI Mode queries have been doubling every quarter since launch. AI Overviews, the lighter-weight AI summaries, now reach more than 2.5 billion monthly users. And overall search query volume hit an all-time high last quarter — a data point the company had previously disclosed on its earnings call. Sundar Pichai, Google's CEO, framed these figures as evidence that AI features are additive, not cannibalistic, to search usage. "When people use our AI-powered features in search, they use search more," he said. He added that he loves "how search has become less about individual queries and feels more like an ongoing conversation, giving users deeper insights and connecting you with the vastness of the web." Reid reinforced the point: "It's not just that people are searching more, it's that they're searching differently. They're fully expressing their questions in granular detail, asking those follow-up questions and searching across modalities." Gemini 3.5 Flash gives Google's AI search the speed it needs to work at scale Under the hood, the new search experience runs on Gemini 3.5 Flash, Google's newest AI model, which the company also introduced at I/O. Google upgraded AI Mode's underlying model to 3.5 Flash to deliver what Reid described as "an even more powerful AI search experience." Gemini 3.5 Flash is the workhorse of this year's announcements. Google claims it outperforms its previous frontier model, Gemini 3.1 Pro, on nearly all benchmarks while running four times faster in output tokens per second than comparable frontier models. Pichai described it as being "in a league of its own in the top right quadrant" of the Artificial Analysis index, which plots intelligence against speed — meaning it delivers near-frontier quality at dramatically lower latency. That speed matters enormously for search. A conversational AI search experience that feels sluggish would be dead on arrival for a product that serves billions of queries daily. By coupling the redesigned interface with a model optimized for both quality and throughput, Google is attempting to make AI-powered search feel as instantaneous as the old keyword experience — while being dramatically more capable. Search can now build interactive visuals and custom mini apps on the fly The redesigned search box is also the gateway to a set of new capabilities that push search far beyond text-based answers. Google announced what it calls "generative UI" — the ability for search to dynamically build custom widgets, interactive visualizations, and even mini applications in real time, tailored to a user's specific question. Reid offered a concrete example during the briefing: a user could ask "How do black holes affect space time?" and receive an interactive visual in an AI Overview that brings the concept to life. Follow-up questions would trigger the system to dynamically generate entirely new visuals in real time. This is possible, she explained, because of "a novel real-time code generation system we built in partnership with the Google DeepMind team" that runs on Gemini 3.5 Flash. Generative UI capabilities will roll out to everyone this summer, free of charge. But Google is going further still. For ongoing tasks — planning a wedding, organizing a move, tracking a fitness routine — users will be able to build what the company describes as customizable, stateful experiences within search, powered by its Antigravity development platform. These require no coding expertise. Users simply describe what they want in natural language, and search builds it. Those experiences will be available in coming months, starting with Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers in the United States. AI agents that monitor the web around the clock are coming to search results The redesign also opens the door to what Google calls "information agents" — AI agents that users can configure directly within search to monitor the web 24/7 for specific conditions and deliver synthesized updates when those conditions are met. A user could, for example, set up an agent to track market movements in a particular sector with specific parameters. The agent would create a monitoring plan, tap into real-time finance data, and proactively notify the user when conditions are met — complete with links and context for further research. Other use cases include apartment hunting, tracking sneaker drops, or monitoring any topic a user cares about. Information agents will launch first for Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers this summer. These agents sit within a much larger strategic pivot that Google articulated throughout the briefing: the company is going all-in on AI systems that don't just answer questions but proactively take actions on users' behalf. Beyond search, Google introduced Gemini Spark, a 24/7 personal AI agent that runs on dedicated virtual machines in Google Cloud. It unveiled the Universal Cart, an intelligent cross-merchant shopping cart. It announced the Agent Payments Protocol for agents to make secure purchases. And it expanded its Antigravity developer platform into a full ecosystem for building autonomous AI agents. Publishers, advertisers, and SEO professionals face a new reality The redesign raises profound questions for the sprawling ecosystem — publishers, advertisers, SEO professionals — that has been built around the old model of keyword search and blue links. If users increasingly express their needs as full, conversational sentences rather than fragmented keywords, the entire discipline of search engine optimization will need to evolve. Keyword-density strategies become less relevant when the AI is parsing natural language intent rather than matching strings. Content that answers deep, nuanced questions in authoritative ways becomes more valuable; content engineered to rank for two-word keyword fragments becomes less so. For publishers, the stakes are existential. AI Overviews already synthesize information from across the web and present it directly in search results, reducing the need for users to click through to source material. The new seamless AI Mode integration deepens that dynamic: users can now get an AI-generated answer and ask multiple follow-up questions without ever leaving the search page. Google has consistently maintained that its AI features drive more traffic to publishers, but the redesign puts that claim under renewed scrutiny as the search results page becomes more self-contained. For advertisers — who fund the vast majority of Google's revenue — the shift from keywords to conversations changes the calculus of ad targeting. Conversational queries contain richer intent signals, which could make ad targeting more precise and valuable. But they also create new ambiguities: when a user is in the middle of a multi-turn conversation with AI Mode, where does an ad naturally fit? Google did not detail changes to its advertising model during the briefing, but the structural shift in the interface will inevitably reshape how ads are surfaced and measured. The search box was always more than a product — it was a habit for billions of people There is a reason Google chose to redesign the search box rather than simply adding new features behind it. The search box is not just a product element at this point; it is a cultural artifact — one of the few pieces of digital infrastructure used by essentially the entire internet-connected world. Changing it sends an unmistakable message about where the company believes computing is headed. For 25 years, the search box trained billions of people to think in keywords — to compress their curiosity into the shortest possible string of words. The new box invites them to do the opposite: to think out loud, to upload what they're looking at, to ask follow-up questions, to let an AI system handle the compression. Pichai tied the company's broader ambitions to a striking statistic: Google's surfaces now process over 3.2 quadrillion tokens per month, up seven-fold from a year ago. The company expects capital expenditures of approximately $180 to $190 billion in 2026 — roughly six times the $31 billion it spent four years ago — largely to support the infrastructure required for this AI transformation. When asked about the future of traditional search, he was direct. "Search is the most used AI product in the world," he said. The blinking cursor in Google's search box still invites you to type. But after 25 years of teaching the world to speak in keywords, Google is now asking it to speak in sentences — and betting roughly $190 billion that it will.

Airbnb’s Brian Chesky plans to launch a new AI lab
AI News & Artificial Intelligence | TechCrunch

Airbnb’s Brian Chesky plans to launch a new AI lab

The Airbnb CEO said last year it hasn't struck an LLM partnership because existing products weren't quite ready.

Startup Battlefield 200 applications officially close in 3 days
AI News & Artificial Intelligence | TechCrunch

Startup Battlefield 200 applications officially close in 3 days

Applications for Startup Battlefield 200 officially close on June 8, 11:59 p.m. PT. Don't wait any longer. Secure your shot at competing on the Disrupt Stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 this October at San Francisco's Moscone West.