As promised last month, Google Photos is getting AI enhancements powered by Gemini’s top-rated image editing model Nano Banana. Users can now open a photo, select “Help me edit” and type “Remove Riley’s sunglasses, open my eyes, make Engel smile and open her eyes” to quickly doctor a shot. Photos will draw on images from your private library of “face groups” to generate “personalized, accurate edits of people in your photo library,” Google says. The company is also introducing a new “Ask” button to get information about photos and make requests and expanding natural language instruction. Continue reading Gemini’s Nano Banana Image Editor Added to Google Photos

Determined not to be left behind in the race to own the future of AI-assisted online shopping — which has everyone from Walmart, Amazon and OpenAI to TikTok scrambling for digital shelf-space — Google is adding conversational shopping in Google Search. The new shopping features, accessible in AI Mode powered by Gemini, include agentic checkout and the ability to “Let Google Call” local stores to ask about product availability. “Say goodbye to endless filter clicks and picking perfect keywords” and hello to chatting with your search agent like you’re shopping with a friend, Google says, “just in time for this holiday season.” Continue reading Google AI Shopping Adds Chat Search and Agentic Checkout

Google announced the availability of Gemini 3 for select subscribers, with a broader release planned for the coming weeks. The tech giant’s latest AI model will be available via the Gemini app, AI Mode and AI Overviews search tools, and Google’s enterprise products. The model arrives nearly eight months after the launch of Gemini 2.5 as the company looks to compete with OpenAI’s ChatGPT. According to CEO Sundar Pichai, Gemini 3 is the company’s “most intelligent model, that combines all of Gemini’s capabilities together so you can bring any idea to life.” Pichai also announced the Google Antigravity agent platform, that enables developers to code “at a higher, task-oriented level.” Continue reading Google Making AI Search and Coding Smarter with Gemini 3

Google is investing $40 billion to build new data centers in Texas through 2027. Google describes the project as focused on “new cloud and AI infrastructure, including new data center campuses in Armstrong and Haskell Counties,” emphasizing their energy efficiency. The investment includes the creation of a $30 million Google-backed Energy Impact Fund, and one of the Haskell County facilities will be built housed adjacent to a new solar and battery storage plant. At a Dallas-area launch event announcing the project, Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai said the initiative will create thousands of new jobs. Continue reading Google Commits $40 Billion for New AI Data Centers in Texas

Tech entrepreneur Jack Dorsey, co-founder and former CEO of Twitter, is reviving Vine in an AI-free iteration that welcomes back 100,000 archived clips while barring generative AI content. The new app, diVine, maintains the concept of six-second continually looped videos, letting past users reclaim their old accounts while inviting new members — though there’s already a waitlist. In order to manage “AI slop,” diVine will identify suspected generative AI videos and prevent them from being uploaded. The refreshed app will draw on the decentralized elements Dorsey deployed in his other social media platform, Bluesky, including customizable content moderation controls and choice of feed algorithms. Continue reading Dorsey’s Vine Relaunch, diVine, Embraces Nostalgia, Shuns AI

San Francisco-based AI startup Anthropic, founded in 2021, announced plans to invest $50 billion in U.S. computing infrastructure, starting with the creation of data centers with Fluidstack in Texas and New York (with additional plans for future sites). Fluidstack builds and operates high-performance GPU clusters for researchers and AI teams. The new project with Anthropic is expected to create 800 permanent jobs and about 2,400 construction jobs. Sites are scheduled to come online throughout next year. “These facilities are custom built for Anthropic with a focus on maximizing efficiency for our workloads, enabling continued research and development at the frontier,” according to Anthropic. Continue reading Anthropic Plans to Invest $50 Billion in AI Data Centers in U.S.

Microsoft and Google are making big investments in European AI infrastructure, with the Seattle-based software giant spending more than $10 billion to build a data hub in Portugal, and Alphabet investing $6.35 billion on new construction and expansion of an existing complex in Germany. The moves are the latest in U.S. tech’s push for a global AI footprint. Microsoft is working with Nvidia, the UK startup Nscale and data center building specialist Start Campus. Google is bringing green initiatives to its project in Deutschland, which it estimates will bring 9,000 jobs and nearly $1.2 billion to German GDP. Continue reading Microsoft, Google Spending Heavily on European Data Hubs

Google Cloud is rolling out its seventh-generation Tensor Processing Unit (TPU), Ironwood, and new Arm-based computing options that aim to meet exploding demand for AI model deployment in what the Alphabet company describes as a business shift from training models to serving end users. “Constantly shifting model architectures, the rise of agentic workflows, plus near-exponential growth in demand for compute, define this new age of inference,” explains Google Cloud. The company said that Anthropic — known for its Claude family of large language models — “plans to access up to 1 million” of the new TPUs. The deal is reportedly “worth billions.” Continue reading Google Unveils New AI Chips, Announces Deal with Anthropic

Amazon announced yesterday that its Prime Video service is introducing location-based interactive video advertisements in the U.S., allowing local businesses to reach target audiences in specific areas. The ad unit, Interactive Video Ads (IVA), will help advertisers customize national TV commercials with location-specific content such as local pricing and nearest business details based on state data and ZIP codes. The new format, expected to intensify the growing competition between streaming services and broadcasters, is part of a larger effort to bring more small businesses and local buyers to CTV. It also arrives as major streamers, including Prime Video, are pursuing new models such as pause ads. Continue reading Location-Based Interactive Video Ads Coming to Prime Video

Snap Inc. has secured San Francisco-based Perplexity as its new partner in artificial intelligence, with Perplexity’s AI-powered answer engine to become an in-app feature of social service Snapchat starting in early 2026. Snapchat’s community of over 943 million monthly active users will be able to converse with Perplexity, asking questions and getting “clear, conversational answers drawn from verifiable sources,” Snap explains. Perplexity will pay Snap $400 million over the next year through a combination of cash and equity, gaining access to Snap’s mobile-native audience, comprised of more than 75 percent of 13–34-year-olds in over 25 countries. Continue reading Perplexity Deal Will Bring Conversational AI to Snapchat App

YouTube is launching new features to help creators make the most of exposure on TV screens. “The living room is increasingly the new prime time for creators,” according to YouTube, which claims that “in the last year, the number of YouTube channels earning six figures or more in revenue from TV screens is up by over 45 percent.” To support that momentum, the Google-owned streaming platform is providing creators with “five new ways to make their content look incredible while making it easier for viewers to discover and shop.” YouTube is introducing AI-powered upscaling, improved search functionality, and QR codes to enable shopping for items in tagged videos. Continue reading New YouTube Tools Help Creators Optimize Content for TVs

Hyperscalers are gobbling up land for AI data centers and now Google is mapping out property in space. Known as Project Suncatcher, the plan is to launch solar-powered networks of orbiting Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) — Google’s custom-developed machine learning accelerator chips — connected by free-space optical links. Apparently, Google feels that deploying high-performance TPUs in space would not be that different from the satellites that relay Internet communications from orbit. A big advantage over Earth-based AI factories is proximity to the sun, which emits “more power than 100 trillion times humanity’s total electricity production,” per Google. Continue reading Google Shares Moonshot Plan to Build Data Center in Space

Increased demand for cloud computing and AI services has propelled revenue growth of 18 percent to $77.7 billion for Microsoft for its fiscal Q1, ending September 30. Net income was $27.7 billion for the quarter, an increase of 12 percent year-over-year. “Our planet-scale cloud and AI factory, together with Copilots across high value domains, is driving broad diffusion and real-world impact,” said Microsoft chairman and CEO Satya Nadella, noting “It’s why we continue to increase our investments in AI across both capital and talent to meet the massive opportunity ahead.” The news coincides with OpenAI’s next steps in becoming a for-profit company and an update in Microsoft’s stake in the AI startup. Continue reading Microsoft Market Cap Passes $4 Trillion Propelled by OpenAI

To coincide with Adobe MAX 2025 in Los Angeles, Adobe has released a new version of its generative AI tool Firefly, calling it “your all-in-one creative AI studio.” Firefly now offers under one subscription a collection of models that include not only Firefly Image Model 5 (in public beta) but those from partners including Google, OpenAI, Luma AI, ElevenLabs, Topaz Labs, and more. From concept to final product, Firefly is attempting to support every phase of the workflow with AI to generate music, narration and video clips, while supporting areas such as ideation and editing, Adobe says. Continue reading Adobe Firefly Adds Third-Party Models to Generative AI Suite

YouTube is strengthening its Community Guidelines around online gambling and graphic violence in gaming. Starting November 17, existing rules prohibiting content linking to online gambling sites or applications that are not certified by Google will also include links to sites involving digital goods with “monetary value,” including video game skins, cosmetics and NFTs. “Our policies are designed to evolve alongside the digital world,” Google says, explaining that the changes “keep pace with new trends, like gambling with digital goods, and to more closely align our guidelines for mature content with industry standards.” Continue reading Google Expands YouTube Rules Limiting Violence, Gambling