If you like Google's AI services (and I mean really like them), there's a new subscription for you. At its Google I/O keynote event (and in a company blog post), Google revealed that a new AI subscription plan for professionals is ready to roll out in the United States. The new Google AI Ultra subscription is intended for the hardest of hardcore AI users, and it costs a whopping 250 a month. Yes, you read that right: Two hundred and fifty U.S. dollars per month. While business owners and professionals may be used to paying for Google Workspace access, the average user is probably not accustomed to paying for Google services.

AI and creators mix much like oil and vinegar -- not at all unless you use a very specific technique (whisking) for a very specific purpose (making salad dressing). For Darren Aronofsky, the director behind Requiem for a Dream, The Whale, and Black Swan, that technique involves using Google DeepMind's research team and three filmmakers to produce short films that embrace new technology and storytelling. The partnership between Aronofsky's venture Primordial Soup and Google DeepMind will create frameworks for AI's role in filmmaking in an effort to prioritize artists in the conversation. It was announced during Tuesday's Google I/O, the company's annual developer conference. "Filmmaking has always been driven by technology," Aronofsky said in a press release.

When I was a child, computers were a fixture in my home, from the giant Atari on which I learned my ABCs, to the Commodore Amiga that my dad used for his videography business, to the PC towers that facilitated my first forays onto the internet. But tech was still a niche hobby back then. Even in college in the late 1990s and early 2000s, many of my friends got by just fine without computers. For people in college now--namely, my students--things are decidedly different. Gadgets are everywhere, and are increasingly designed to insert themselves into every aspect of our consciousness, colonizing every spare moment of our time and attention.

This year, Google I/O 2025 had one focus: Artificial intelligence. We've already covered all of the biggest news to come out of the annual developers conference: a new AI video generation tool called Flow. Yet over nearly two hours of Google leaders talking about AI, one word we didn't hear was "hallucination". Hallucinations remain one of the most stubborn and concerning problems with AI models. The term refers to invented facts and inaccuracies that large-language models "hallucinate" in their replies.

At Google I/O, the company unveiled a major push to infuse AI deeper into Gmail. The tech giant is promising users that the change will translate to less time spent writing emails and more time doing literally anything else. With the help of Gemini, Google's flagship AI model, Gmail is moving from a helpful assistant to a full-on writing partner, scheduler, and inbox manager. Here are all the new Gemini-powered features coming this summer to Gmail. Google's first big update is personalized smart replies. Unlike the canned one-liners we're used to ("Sounds good," "Thanks!"), this new system draws context from your inbox and Google Drive.

From real-time translation in Google Meet to AI-video creation tools, we're recapping all the biggest Google Workspace updates revealed during the Google I/O 2025 keynote address. This year's Google I/O 2025 was packed with big announcements, and the event signalled the start of a new era of AI search. So, it should come as no surprise that the event focused primarily on AI and Google Gemini. Google has already integrated AI into Google Workspace, the subscription-based suite of productivity apps and business tools from the company, which includes popular tools like Gmail, Drive, Sheets, and Meet. But Google is just getting started with AI in Workspace, and today the company announced a ton of new AI-related features coming to the subscription service.

At Google I/O 2025, the company revealed a bunch of new Gemini updates and features that position the app as your AI assistant for practically everything. Today, Google announced a new Sora competitor called Flow, updates to your AI-powered researcher, and free Gemini Live. Free is the operative word here, since many of the other features are bundled into the paid subscription plans -- Google AI Pro (formerly AI Premium) for 20 a month and a new plan called AI Ultra for a whopping 250 a month. The features showcased today demonstrate AI's increasingly agentic capabilities, in other words, AI tools that can perform tasks on your behalf. "This is our ultimate goal for the Gemini app," said Google Labs and Gemini lead Josh Woodward in a pre-event briefing, "an AI that's personal, proactive and powerful."

TL;DR: Simplify how you work with AI thanks to this lifetime subscription to 1min.AI's Advanced Business Plan, now 79.97 (reg. Cutting-edge technology can be intimidating. And if you're new to AI, all the various platforms can be overwhelming. Right now, you can secure a lifetime subscription to 1min.AI's Advanced Business Plan for just 79.97 (reg. It's hard to keep up with all the AI platforms popping up, much less know their individual strengths.

There has been one pressing question about the Roborock Saros Z70 since it was announced at CES 2025: Could a robot vacuum with a robotic arm possibly be a practical purchase for a normal person? The Saros Z70 takes the "robot" in robot vacuum to a whole new level. Past referring to the brains of the automated cleaning operation, "robot" also refers to a whole ass robotic arm that unfolds from the vacuum to move pesky obstacles out of the way. This is cool in theory for anyone whose home has random stuff lying around on the floor at any given time, but the practicality bubble is quickly burst when you realize that the Saros Z70 costs 2,599. That's a full 1,000 more than Roborock's other two CES flagship releases, the Saros 10 and 10R, that I also happen to have at home right now. Multiple friends who have come over recently have literally laughed in my face when I told them that one of those three costs 2,599.

Google I/O 2025 is nearly upon us. The tech giant's annual developers conference begins Tuesday, May 20, in Mountain View, California, and all things AI are on the menu. As in years past, Google I/O is set to open with a company keynote (likely led by CEO Sundar Pichai) followed by a developers keynote. The company is expected to drop its biggest I/O news and announcements during these presentations. If you're not attending I/O in person, here's how you can watch both keynotes live from the comfort of your own couch.