Chrome users were caught off guard by a 4-GB Google AI model baked into Chrome, sparking privacy concerns. You might not want to. If you use Google's Chrome browser for desktop, there's probably a Gemini Nano AI model running on your computer right now and taking up about 4 GB of space. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but if you didn't know about it and don't want it, there's a way to turn it off. The file started auto-downloading for Chrome users in 2024 after Google built Gemini Nano into the browser.

This update matters significantly as it patches over double the vulnerabilities from the previous version, covering high-risk, medium-risk, and low-risk security issues. Chrome automatically updates across Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS platforms, though users can manually check via Help menu for immediate protection.

Google is sunsetting Google Fit by year’s end. While Fitbit remains very much alive, the rebranded Google Health app is your one-stop shop for all things health and fitness.

Powered by Gemini and designed around simplicity, the new Fitbit Air could be a compelling fitness tracker alternative to Whoop. Five years after acquiring Fitbit, and three years since it released the Charge 6, Google is finally expanding into a new phase of fitness tracking . With its screen-free design, the new Fitbit Air could be the first device to threaten Whoop's grip on this category, thanks in large part to Google's intuitive, user-friendly software. The Fitbit Air is Google's most minimalist wearable yet. There's no AMOLED display, no haptic side button, and none of the visual feedback loops that have defined Fitbit devices (and most fitness trackers) for years.

Google discontinued its sub-$50 Chromecast devices in 2024, exiting the budget streaming market and now only offers a $100 Google TV Streamer. Walmart's Onn brand filled this gap with Android TV streamers starting at $15, but PCWorld reports these devices now face stock shortages and price increases up to $60. This strategy backfired as Google lacks affordable options to compete with Roku and Amazon Fire TV sticks in the budget market. Google hasn't offered a streaming device for under $50 since it discontinued the Chromecast with Google TV in 2024. That's turning out to be a problem.

The company behind the long-running space sim has entered into a partnership with Google in which the search giant will take a minority stake. In exchange, Google's DeepMind will train its AI technology on the game, according to a report by . CCP Games, the dev who made and maintains, has also been rebranded as Fenris Creations . This happened just after the company purchased the rights to the game back from Korean developer Pearl Abyss. Google's investment is in the millions of dollars, according to Fenris Creations Chief Executive Officer Hilmar Veigar Pétursson.

If you've paid any attention to Google lately, you know that it wants us using its AI tools. Computer scientist Alexander Hanff published the details earlier this week on his website The Privacy Guy and goes into extreme detail on why this isn't a good look for Google. I just verified what he said about the file, named weights.bin Indeed, it's a 4+ GB file right where he said it would be. Hanff correctly notes that at no point does Chrome prompt users to ask if they'd like to install the Gemini Nano weights, which Chrome users for AI-powered features like help me write and on-device scam detection.

We learned earlier this month that Google and Anthropic had inked a deal that would grant the creator of the Claude AI models access to cloud servers and chips. Today, reported that Anthropic has agreed to pay a staggering $200 billion to Google over the next five years. Contracts like this, or Anthropic's other recent multi-billion dollar arrangement with Amazon, now account for a ludicrous amount of money promised to some of the world's largest tech companies. These cloud service providers have been early investors in the AI boom, gambling that the startups' need for their resources as they grow would yield lucrative dividends. So far, they've been correct.

New artificial intelligence (AI) tools and capabilities from Google, Microsoft and xAI will now be tested by the US Department of Commerce before they are released to the public. The tech firms have agreed to voluntarily submit their models for testing through Commerce's Center for AI Standards and Innovation (CAISI). The new pacts are an expansion on agreements by AI companies like OpenAI and Anthropic that were reached during the Biden Administration, and will see AI models from all of the companies evaluated for their capabilities and security. These expanded industry collaborations help us scale our work in the public interest at a critical moment, CAISI's director Chris Fall said. Overall, the evaluations of the AI tools will cover testing, collaborative research and best practice development related to commercial AI systems.

Tech giants Microsoft, Google and xAI say they will allow the United States federal government access to their new artificial intelligence models for national security testing. The Center for AI Standards and Innovation (CAISI) at the Department of Commerce announced the agreement on Tuesday amid increasing concerns about the capabilities that Anthropic's newly unveiled Mythos model could give hackers. The agreement fulfils a pledge the administration of US President Donald Trump made in July to partner with technology companies to vet their AI models for "national security risks". Microsoft will work with US government scientists to test AI systems "in ways that probe unexpected behaviors", the company said in a statement. Together they will develop shared data sets and workflows for testing the company's models, the company said.