Our Field Trip to Google I/O + A Sit-Down With Sundar Pichai + System Update
“This is the only recent gathering of a large number of people where mentions of A.I. did not produce a large chorus of boos.”
MIT AI Technology Review·
During Tuesday’s Google I/O keynote, Demis Hassabis, the CEO of Google DeepMind, proclaimed that we are currently “standing in the foothills of the singularity.” It was a striking statement—the singularity is the theoretical future moment when AI rapidly exceeds human intelligence and dramatically transforms the world. But what struck me as I listened in the…
Read full article“This is the only recent gathering of a large number of people where mentions of A.I. did not produce a large chorus of boos.”
At this year’s Google I/O developer conference, Kevin Roose and Casey Newton, hosts of the “Hard Fork” podcast, sat down with Sundar Pichai, chief executive of Google, and talked about where he feels it is succeeding in the A.I. race, and where he thinks the company can do better.
In this episode of Uncanny Valley, we unpack the mass layoffs at Meta, big announcements at Google I/O, and the latest backlash against AI.
Let’s unpack what Demis Hassabis said at the end of yesterday’s Google I/O keynote. This is Optimizer, a weekly newsletter sent from Verge senior reviewer Victoria Song that dissects and discusses the latest gizmos and potions that swear they're going to change your life. This week's issue is a special early edition tied to The Verge's Google I/O coverage. You can expect our next issue at its usual time next Friday. Opt in for Optimizer here. Toward the end of this year's Google I/O keynote, Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis declared, with a completely deadpan face, that the company hopes to "reimagine the drug discovery process with the goal of one day solving all disease." This is the sort of statement that the phras … Read the full story at The Verge.
Bank of America analysts believe Alphabet is still a buy, seeing potential 10% upside in stock price following Google I/O 2026.
Exclusive: Workers sign petitions over applications of AI by governments for defence and intelligence, and vote to unionise Google DeepMind has agreed to enter formal talks with UK tech workers that could lead to trade union representation, in a groundbreaking move that comes amid growing staff concerns about the use of its AI by the US and Israeli governments’ defence and intelligence. The artificial intelligence arm of the multi-trillion dollar Google empire, led by the Nobel prize winner Demis Hassabis, has agreed to meet the Communications Workers Union and Unite at the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas) after several hundred workers based at its London headquarters earlier this month voted to unionise. Continue reading...
Google is recasting its enterprise AI roadmap around autonomous systems and AGI, with DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis telling I/O attendees the industry now sits at the “foothills of the singularity.” “When we look back at this time, I think we all realise that we were standing in the foothills of the singularity,” Hassabis said in his speech at Google I/O. “It will be a profound moment for humanity.” The remarks capped a keynote spanning AI agents, cybersecurity systems, scientific research tools, coding platforms, and simulations — suggesting Google increasingly views AI not as standalone enterprise features, but as a broader operational platform capable of executing complex tasks across environments. “AGI is now on the horizon, and it will be the most profound and impactful technology ever invented,” Hassabis said. “If built right, it could propel human progress and flourishing beyond our imaginations.” While terms such as AGI and singularity have historically remained largely confined
Google has launched Gemini 3.5 Flash, a new AI model designed to support agentic workflows across its products and enterprise platforms, as the company looks to move generative AI beyond chatbot-style interactions and deeper into business operations. The model, announced at the annual Google I/O developer conference, is available through the Gemini app, AI Mode in Google Search, Google Antigravity, the Gemini API in Google AI Studio and Android Studio, Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform, and Gemini Enterprise. In a blog post, Google said Gemini 3.5 Flash is built for tasks including software development, financial document preparation, customer onboarding, OCR, tax workflows, and data diagnostics. Google also sought to position the model as a faster alternative to larger flagship systems. It described Gemini 3.5 Flash as its strongest model yet for agentic and coding tasks, claiming it outperforms Gemini 3.1 Pro on benchmarks including Terminal-Bench 2.1, GDPval-AA, and MCP Atlas. The co