Google Search is becoming even more of a showpiece for its AI ambitions. Today at Google I/O 2026, the company announced that Search has been upgraded to the Gemini 3.5 Flash model, which it says offers faster inferencing, smarter results and the ability to process different types of media. As a result, Google is also launching a new Intelligent Search Box that can dynamically get larger to fit complex queries, as well as use videos, images, files and even Chrome tabs as inputs. None of this is a surprise, though. Over the past year, we've seen Google slowly upgrade the AI mode in Search -- now, the company is just making an AI a more essential part of searching the web. That's good news for users who like the more conversational capabilities of Google's AI, but it's even worse news for the people who are trying to maintain the simple purity of Google's original search engine.

Apple has agreed to pay some iPhone buyers a collective $250m (£184m) to end a lawsuit accusing the company of misleading people about new artificial intelligence (AI) features and capabilities. In a settlement filed Tuesday in California federal court, Apple did not admit any wrongdoing, but agreed to a deal that will resolve claims in a large consolidated class action lawsuit filed last year. It accused Apple of false advertising around its AI features on the iPhone, which the company called Apple Intelligence, including an enhancement of its Siri voice assistant. Apple will pay between $25 and $95 to people who bought an iPhone 15 and iPhone 16 between June 2024 and March 2025. An Apple spokeswoman said the lawsuit was focused on the availability of two additional features in a lineup of many released as part of its Apple Intelligence rollout.

The Kickstarter-funded glasses from L'Atitude 52 N have AI features bundled for 1 year, but the company doesn't know yet how much it will charge for access after that. Lots of smart glasses have AI bots inside them now. The one in L'Atitude 52 N's glasses is called Goya, named after Francisco Goya, the famous Spanish artist who painted renowned masterpieces of romanticism. CEO and founder Gary Chen, who has worked on wearable devices for companies like Oppo, OnePlus, and HTC, says his company's glasses are focused on travelers, with AI features that act like a tour guide and talk about all the paintings in famous museums. "Basically, you can say, 'Hey, Goya, what is the story about Mona Lisa?'" Chen says. "You can ask anything and, with your permission, they will take a photo to analyze what's in front of you."

PCWorld reports that Microsoft's latest Windows 11 preview update brings AI text generation and improvement tools to Notepad, similar to chatbot functionality. The update also expands Markdown support for easier formatting and adds AI-generated coloring book pages plus a smarter Fill tool to Paint. These AI features remain optional and can be disabled in settings, requiring a Microsoft account for users who choose to enable them. Microsoft has released a preview update for Windows 11 Insiders that adds AI features and easier formatting options to Notepad. The otherwise stripped-down text editor has also been given a new welcome screen that describes the app as "the essential text editor, enhanced."

Bungie's Marathon arrives on March 5 How to claim Verizon's $20 outage credit You'll soon be able to create Shorts using an AI-generated version of yourself. YouTube is just as wary of the rise of AI slop as you, and that's why more AI-generated content is coming to the platform in the near future. In a lengthy outlining YouTube's 2026 plans, CEO Neal Mohan said the company will continue to embrace this new creative frontier by soon allowing its creators to throw together Shorts using their AI-generated likeness. Mohan didn't elaborate further about how this feature will work when it launches, but acknowledged the critical issue of deepfakes currently polluting the web, and reaffirmed his company's support for new such as the NO FAKES Act. YouTube also allows its own creators to protect themselves against unauthorized use of their likeness using a detection feature that scans newly uploaded videos for matches. Other fresh AI (note: in no way slop) features referenced in the post include the currently-in-beta no-code platform, which lets you make games using Gemini 3 with a single text prompt, as well as new music creation tools.

PCWorld reports that laptop manufacturers rushed to meet Microsoft's 40 TOPS NPU requirement for Copilot+ PCs, only to see Microsoft shift strategy away from NPU dependence. Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm now offer powerful NPUs (48-80 TOPS) in new processors, but limited software applications currently utilize this specialized AI hardware.

PCWorld reports that Mozilla's new CEO Anthony Enzor-DeMeo plans to integrate AI features into Firefox while maintaining user choice to disable them. This strategic shift addresses Firefox's stagnant market share and aims to compete with AI-centric browsers without compromising privacy principles. The optional AI implementation reflects Mozilla's commitment to transparency and user control in an increasingly competitive browser landscape. Mozilla recently confirmed that it's shifting gears and bringing AI features to its Firefox browser. However, according to the newly appointed CEO Anthony Enzor-DeMeo, the AI features will always be optional and possible to switch off completely.

Microsoft's Copilot+ AI PC plan fizzled, but it still served a purpose At least Microsoft was able to reshape premium PCs. Microsoft's Copilot+ initiative launched last year with a clear goal: To produce capable laptops for people eagerly anticipating AI-powered features. Read that sentence again, and it's glaringly obvious that Microsoft's plan was flawed from the start. Most consumers aren't nearly as hyped for AI features as the companies eager to foist artificial intelligence upon us. Microsoft's Recall -- which snaps screenshots of your PC to create a database of everything you've done-was dogged by privacy concerns from the start.

When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. Local AI tools are more powerful than ever, but most of the magic ain't happening on NPUs--much to Microsoft's disappointment, I'm sure. For the last few years, the term "AI PC" has basically meant little more than "a lightweight portable laptop with a neural processing unit (NPU) ." Today, two years after the glitzy launch of NPUs with Intel's Meteor Lake hardware, these AI PCs still feel like glorified tech demos. But local AI is here!

Adobe Firefly is a deceptively powerful AI playground to generate images, videos, and more. Here's how to make the most of it. All products featured on WIRED are independently selected by our editors. However, we may receive compensation from retailers and/or from purchases of products through these links. Adobe Firefly feels like the best-kept secret in software right now.