Google has officially confirmed the existence of the Pixel 9 Pro smartphone ahead of August's Made By Google livestream event. This follows a leak earlier this week in which images and videos of the handset started popping up everywhere. The company confirmed the smartphone via an announcement video, one that could have been waiting for August 13. The video isn't big on details, but there is some footage of the phone in action that confirms one major suspicion about the Pixel 9 Pro. The absolutely gigantic camera bump is real and is ready to make obvious indentations in pockets everywhere.

Google has really tried to go all in on automation since the rollout of its redesigned Home app in May. There's been the introduction of a new script editor, Nest Cam Indoor integration and, now, a whole slew of new routines to use. The company has announced 18 new routines -- half starters and half actions -- immediately available for Google Home users. Starters allow you to activate or turn off something in response to another device. For example, you can now have the thermostat automatically turn off when the window is open or have lights dim and the fireplace light up if you pause your show.

Google has a lot riding on this launch. Microsoft partnered with OpenAI to make an aggressive play for Google's top spot in search. Meanwhile, Google blundered straight out of the gate when it first tried to respond. In a teaser clip for Bard that the company put out in February, the chatbot was shown making a factual error. Google's value fell by $100 billion overnight.

Yesterday at Google's I/O developer conference, the company outlined ambitious plans for its future built on a foundation of advanced language AI. These systems, said Google CEO Sundar Pichai, will let users find information and organize their lives by having natural conversations with computers. All you need to do is speak, and the machine will answer. But for many in the AI community, there was a notable absence in this conversation: Google's response to its own research examining the dangers of such systems. In December 2020 and February 2021, Google first fired Timnit Gebru and then Margaret Mitchell, co-leads of its Ethical AI team. The story of their departure is complex but was triggered by a paper the pair co-authored (with researchers outside Google) examining risks associated with the language models Google now presents as key to its future.

Google just made good on its promise to bring back its AI-based Photos printing service, and this time it's more affordable. The upcoming premium print series will once again have machine learning select your 10 best photos each month, but you'll now pay a slightly more affordable $7 per month (shipping already included) to get hard copies instead of the previous $8. Like before, you can skip a given month if life hasn't been eventful enough to capture interesting snapshots. The printing subscription should be available later in October. You'll have also have another option if you prefer on-demand printing.

With the availability of a comprehensive and flexible ecosystem of tools and community contributors, TensorFlow (TF) has gained significant popularity for machine learning (ML). Numerous students and developers have been eagerly learning this framework, and applying it vigorously to solve challenging ML questions in various domains, such as computer vision and natural language processing. When these TF developers look for jobs, is there any easy way to showcase their expertise on ML, especially the proficiency of using the TF framework to address real-world questions? TensorFlow Developer Certificate comes to the rescue! On Mar 12, Google Brain, the one behind the TF framework, launched its first TensorFlow Developer Certificate program, which allows all TF developers around the world to get a formal recognition of their ML skills.

Google just announced the 10 startups that have been shortlisted for the second calls of its Launchpad Accelerator program in India. All of the startups on the list have used artificial intelligence and machine learning to formulate their products. Google just announced the second wave of startups selected for their Launch Accelerator program in India. The program kicks off today with a one week mentorship programme boot camp organised by Google in Bengaluru which will be followed by more classes in April and May to address more specific issues -- lasting a total of three months. Aside from guidance, Google will also provide support for AI and ML, cloud computing, developing user interfaces, using the Android platform, online presence, product strategy and marketing.

On paper, Google has all the ingredients to deliver a killer streaming TV player. It has a powerful software platform in Android, a first-rate voice assistant in Google Assistant, and a knack for designing slick software and hardware. What we've ended up with instead is Android TV, a platform that's gotten some traction on smart TVs and cable boxes, but hasn't been a hit on standalone streaming players. Devices like the Nvidia Shield TV and the Xiaomi Mi Box S offer some niche appeal, and Android TV has always offered some interesting ideas, but it's never met its potential as Google put more energy into Chromecast as a consumer streaming option. This will change in 2019, says Shalini Govil-Pai, Google's senior director of product management for Android TV.

With barely a month to go until Google holds its annual Pixel event, it seems as though one of the most anticipated announcements won't be happening. In an interview at IGA on Friday with Miles Barr, director of engineering for Wear OS, former Macworld reporter Caitlin McGarry of Tom's Hardware learned that Google won't be releasing a watch this year, as had been previously rumored. Well, at least we now know how Google was actually able to keep something secret. We'll likely never know whether the project was canceled, delayed, or simply never existed, but the fact of the matter is that we haven't seen any leaked Pixel Watch shots because there weren't any to take. So now there probably won't be any surprises at the event since we've already seen every square inch of the Pixel phones.

The future is here, and it's weird: Google is now putting a self-taught algorithm in charge of a part of its infrastructure. It should surprise no one that Google has been intensively working on artificial intelligence (AI). The company managed to develop an AI that beat the world champion at Go, an incredibly complex game, but that's hardly been the only implementation. Google taught one of its AIs how to navigate the London subway, and more practically, it developed another algorithm to learn all about room cooling. They had the AI learn how to adjust a cooling system in order to reduce power consumption, and based on recommendations made by the AI, they almost halved energy consumption at one of their data centers.