A bipartisan group of U.S. senators has introduced what they’re calling “a discussion draft” of a new anti-piracy bill, the Block Bad Electronic Art and Recording Distributors Act of 2025, known as the Block BEARD Act. Inspired by laws in the UK and Australia, Block BEARD proposes to allow federal courts to order ISPs to block foreign piracy websites that violate U.S. copyright law. It would provide copyright owners who have had their property stolen a new form of relief by having the courts interrupt foreign online piracy operations, preventing them from making unauthorized content available to U.S. households. Continue reading Bipartisan ‘Block BEARD’ Anti-Piracy Bill Surfaces in Senate

Google has added a new AI search tool called Web Guide. A Google Search Labs experiment, Web Guide will “intelligently organize” results pages according to specific aspects of the user’s query. Web Guide implements a custom version of Gemini AI “to better understand both a search query and content on the web” for what Google calls a “more powerful” search that enhances discovery of more on-point but obscure pages. Like AI Mode, a Google Labs experiment launched in March, Web Guide uses a query fan-out technique, “issuing multiple related searches to identify the most relevant results.” Continue reading Web Guide Is Google Search Labs Latest Gemini Experiment

Alphabet reported a 14 percent year-over-year revenue increase to $96.4 billion, propelled largely by growth in the Google Cloud and Google Search divisions. Artificial intelligence had a significant impact across the board, including in spending. Capital expenditure is expected to be roughly $85 billion in 2025, compared to $52.5 billion in 2024. Google Cloud generated $13.6 billion in Q2, up 32 percent from the same period last year. Advertising sales totaled $71.3 billion for the quarter, a 10.4 percent improvement from the year earlier frame. Google Search, which is integral to advertising sales, was up 11.7 percent. Continue reading Q2 Revenue Hits $96B as Google Invests in AI Search, Models

Nvidia-backed startup Perplexity AI is challenging Google with a new AI-powered web browser called Comet that is built on the company’s proprietary AI search engine. The new browser is initially available to those paying $200 per month to subscribe to the Perplexity Max plan and by invitation to those who register online for the company’s waitlist. The browser also comes with Comet Assistant, an agent that automates routine tasks such as summarizing emails and navigating webpages. Comet Assistant can be opened as a sidebar on any webpage to answer questions about the content being presented. Continue reading Perplexity Launches Comet AI Web Browser for Premium Subs

China’s Baidu has added AI and voice features to its Ernie search engine and as of June 30 officially made its generative Ernie large language model open source in a direct challenge to OpenAI and Anthropic as well as local Chinese rival DeepSeek. “This isn’t just a China story. Every time a major lab open-sources a powerful model, it raises the bar for the entire industry,” University of Southern California Associate Professor of Computer Science Sean Ren told CNBC. Baidu is also giving the Ernie mobile app more chatbot-like functionality, enabling it to help with drawing, writing and travel tasks. Continue reading Baidu Delivers AI Updates to Search, Open-Sources Ernie 4.5

Cloudflare, which spent the past year introducing tools to help content providers prevent unwanted AI scraping, is launching a marketplace that lets websites charge for the privilege of using a “pay-per-crawl” model. The Internet infrastructure and security company says it is the first to enable blocking AI crawlers by default, providing access only with permission and, if wanted, compensation. As of July 1, AI companies can use Cloudflare’s marketplace to “clearly state their purpose — if their crawlers are used for training, inference, or search — to help website owners decide which crawlers to allow.” Continue reading Cloudflare Pay-per-Crawl Lets Publishers Monetize Scrapes

YouTube is adding an AI-powered search results carousel that serves up video suggestions and topic descriptions. A search for “best beaches in Hawaii,” for example, could generate a carousel listing video clips and information on an assortment of snorkel spots and volcanic beaches. YouTube Premium subscribers in the U.S. can try the feature now on searches related to shopping, travel or location-based activities. The Google-owned platform is also expanding its test with conversational AI to some non-Premium users in the U.S. Premium members have been using it for search, recommendations and as a study aid. Continue reading YouTube Adds AI Search Results Carousel for Premium Subs

Google is launching Offerwall, which is designed to help publishers monetize by letting them offer their customers options as to how they would like to pay for content. “People might decide to watch a short ad, complete a quick survey or pay in micropayments,” Google explains, adding that “publishers can even add their own options, like newsletter sign-ups.” The choices aim to both empower audiences while supporting publishers to help ensure diverse content remains available to everyone. After testing Offerwall with more than 1,000 publishers, it is now available in Google Ad Manager. Continue reading Google Launches Offerwall Ad Manager to Support Publishers

Google has launched Search Live with voice-input, a two-way conversational query function for exploring online resources. Presently available via the Google app for Android and iOS to U.S. users enrolled in Google Labs’ AI Mode experiment, Search Live is designed to handle complex, multi-part questions. Google suggests the new feature is “perfect for when you’re on the go or multitasking, like if you’re packing for a trip.” The discursive voice feature follows Google’s general rollout of AI Mode, recently launched to compete against products such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT Search and Perplexity AI. Continue reading Google Search Live Features Conversational Voice Capability

A little over a year since the beta release of its conversational AI search and discovery tool, Cineverse is making cineSearch commercially available to business customers. The Los Angeles startup says its AI-powered framework “solves” the content-hunt quandary for digital networks and streaming services, finding programming across all streaming platforms. Cineverse is making cineSearch available for commercial licensing to OEMs and streaming platforms via the company’s own sales team and through Google Cloud Marketplace. CineSearch was developed using Google’s AI ecosystem — specifically Vertex AI platform and the Gemini 2.0 Pro model. Continue reading CineSearch Is a New AI Discovery Tool for Streaming Content

Meta Platforms is opening its WhatsApp messaging service to advertising. The company revealed that three ad modules will roll out gradually. The ads will be positioned under WhatsApp’s Updates tab, a section discreet from WhatsApp’s users’ message inboxes and private chats. The Updates tab is also the entry point to WhatsApp’s Status feature, which lets users share photos, videos and text that disappear after 24 hours, similar to Instagram Stories. Meta says the Updates tab gets 1.5 billion visitors per day. The company is also seeking to monetize WhatsApp’s Channels feature by offering paid subscriptions and promoted Channels. Continue reading Meta Platforms Is Gradually Bringing Advertising to WhatsApp

Google is testing podcast-like audio search summaries generated by AI. Audio Overviews uses Google’s latest Gemini models to generate “quick, conversational audio overviews for certain search queries.” It can be enabled through Google Labs, the company’s public-facing portal to AI experiments. An Audio Overview “can help you get a lay of the land, offering a convenient, hands-free way to absorb information,” Google says, noting that the feature displays search results “right within the audio player” to make it easy to delve further. Google already had AI audio summaries in NotebookLM and Gemini. Like those, Search features AI discussion “hosts.” Continue reading Google Is Testing ‘Hosted’ GenAI Audio Summaries in Search

Bytedance-owned social video platform TikTok is improving ways in which users can customize their For You feed, letting them increase emphasis on subjects of interest with Manage Topics and adding AI-powered Smart Keyword Filters to suppress content they don’t want to see. While the social platform has featured keyword filters for some time, the new filters are smart enough to catch a broader range of unwanted content. Users can now include up to 200 filtering keywords and let AI do the rest “to capture additional videos featuring similar words, synonyms and slang variations” that reduce unwanted content in the For You feed. Continue reading TikTok Adds Features Letting Users Fine-Tune ‘For You’ Feed

Microsoft’s Bing mobile search app for Android and iOS is adding a free Bing Video Creator feature powered by OpenAI’s Sora. Text-to-video model Sora was previously available only by subscription through ChatGPT Plus for $20 per month or the $200 monthly ChatGPT Pro. The integration will enable creation of five-second vertical video clips on mobile, with horizontal capability coming soon. Although a major investor in OpenAI, Microsoft has made headway with its own signature AI offerings, including Bing Image Creator and the Copilot AI assistant. The Bing Mobile app is available worldwide via the App Store for iOS and the Play Store for Android. Continue reading Microsoft Debuts Mobile Bing Video Creator Powered by Sora

An internal OpenAI document revealed as part of a discovery demand in the U.S. Justice Department’s antitrust case against Google reveals OpenAI’s plan to turn ChatGPT into the public’s primary Internet interface. Although heavily redacted, the document effectively reveals OpenAI’s goal is to have ChatGPT replace Google Chrome and Search with an “AI super assistant that deeply understands you and is your interface to the Internet.” Aside from bolstering Google’s position that it has competition and is not an impregnable monopoly, the information contained therein provides an in-depth look at OpenAI’s roadmap. Continue reading OpenAI Seeks to Make ChatGPT New Gateway to the Internet