The Download: Google playing AI search catchup, and forming relationships with chatbots

I've been mulling over something that Will Heaven, our senior editor for AI, pointed out not too long ago: all the big players in AI seem to be moving in the same directions and converging on the same things. It's just announced it's adding new AI features from Gemini to search, and adding search features to Gemini. What strikes me more than how well they work is that they are really just about catching up with OpenAI's ChatGPT. And their belated appearance in March of the year 2025 doesn't seem like a great sign for Google. This story originally appeared in The Debrief with Mat Honan, a weekly newsletter about the biggest stories in tech from our editor in chief.