Google

• Noord-Koreaanse hackers, gesteund door de staat, zetten AI-tools in om blinde vlekken in de cybersecurity van doelnetwerken te scannen en uit te buiten, aldus een nieuw cybersecurity-rapport van Google. • Het rapport beschrijft hoe deze actoren generatieve AI gebruiken voor verkenning, waarbij ze de ontdekking van kwetsbaarheden op grote schaal automatiseren, wat verder gaat dan traditionele handmatige methoden. • Deze ontwikkeling onderstreept de dubbele rol van AI als zowel een defensief middel voor cybersecuritybedrijven als een offensief wapen voor tegenstanders vanuit natiestaten.

• Google heeft het eerste waargenomen AI-ondersteunde zero-day exploit onthuld, wat een significante escalatie markeert van de zorgen over het wapen化 van kunstmatige intelligentie voor cyberaanvallen. • De ontdekking roept vragen op over door AI gegenereerde cybermodellen en de potentie voor kwaadwillende actoren om machine learning te gebruiken om voorheen onbekende exploits sneller te ontwikkelen dan met traditionele methoden. • Beveiligingsexperts waarschuwen dat dit incident de opkomende risico's van geavanceerde AI-mogelijkheden in vijandige contexten benadrukt, wat leidt tot oproepen voor verbeterde AI-veiligheidsprotocollen en dreigingsmonitoring.

• De Google Threat Intelligence Group kondigde de eerste detectie aan van een zero-day exploit die is gegenereerd met behulp van kunstmatige intelligentie, wat een belangrijke mijlpaal in de cybersecurity markeert. • De proactieve maatregelen van het team van Google voorkwamen succesvol een grootschalige exploitatiepoging, hoewel specifieke details over de kwetsbaarheid of de aanvaller niet zijn vrijgegeven. • Deze ontwikkeling onderstreept de groeiende risico's van AI-ondersteunde aanvallen, wat mogelijk de behoefte aan AI-native verdedigingen in het cybersecuritylandschap versnelt.

• Google kondigde op 11 mei 2026 aan een geavanceerde cyberaanval door een criminele groep te hebben verstoord, waarbij AI-gestuurde kwetsbaarheden in wereldwijde computersystemen werden uitgebuit. • De aanvallers ontwikkelden een zero-day exploit met behulp van AI voor het ontdekken van kwetsbaarheden en planten een grootschalige exploitatie-actie gericht op een populaire open-source webgebaseerde tool voor systeمبرadministratie die tweestapsverificatie omzeilt. • Google's Threat Intelligence Group (GTIG) identificeerde en counterde de dreiging proactief en werkte samen met de getroffen leverancier voor een verantwoorde openbaarmaking om grootschalige compromittering te voorkomen.

• Criminele groepen en door staten gesteunde actoren lijken commerciële modellen te gebruiken om aanvallen te verfijnen en op te schalen. • In slechts drie maanden tijd is AI-aangedreven hacking getransformeerd van een beginnend probleem naar een dreiging op industriële schaal, aldus een rapport van Google. • De bevindingen van de threat intelligence-groep van Google dragen bij aan een intensiverende wereldwijde discussie over hoe de nieuwste AI-modellen uiterst bekwaam zijn in coderen – en krachtige instrumenten worden voor het exploiteren van kwetsbaarheden in een breed scala aan softwaresystemen.

• Uitstoot in plannen voor Essex wordt vijf keer te laag ingeschat voor techreus, terwijl plannen van Greystoke in Lincolnshire een soortgelijke fout vertonen

• Google, Microsoft, and xAI joined OpenAI and Anthropic in providing the US Commerce Department pre-release access to evaluate their AI models, creating the first voluntary oversight mechanism for all five major frontier AI labs. • The Commerce Department announced the expansion on Tuesday, establishing a framework with no statutory authority and fewer than 200 staff members to address national security concerns before public model releases. • The Mythos crisis forced the US government to confront the absence of formal mechanisms to evaluate powerful AI models that could threaten national security before public deployment.

Exclusive: Worker pointed to Iran war and Pentagon’s Anthropic feud as indications the department is ‘not a responsible partner’Workers developing Google’s artificial intelligence products in the UK have voted to unionize, in part out of concerns about a deal between the company and the US military that was announced last week.In a letter slated to go to management on Tuesday and shared exclusively with the Guardian, workers at Google DeepMind, the company’s AI research laboratory, requested recognition of the Communication Workers Union and Unite the Union as joint representatives of the lab’s UK-based staff. Continue reading...

Ashley MacIsaac, who is seeking $1.5m in civil lawsuit, says inaccurate information led to concert cancellationAn acclaimed Canadian fiddle player has launched a $1.5m civil lawsuit against Google, alleging that the online giant defamed him by falsely identifying him as a sex offender in an AI-generated summary of his life and career.Ashley MacIsaac, a three-time Juno award-winning musician, filed the claim in the Ontario superior court of justice, asserting that Google was liable for the “foreseeable republication” of its AI-generated Overview feature, which previously published defamatory claims that he had been convicted of multiple criminal offences, including the sexual assault of a woman, internet luring involving a child with the intention of sexual assaulting the child, and assault causing bodily harm. Continue reading...

• Google is investing $1.5 billion in a data hub in Visakhapatnam (Vizag), signaling India's emergence as a global AI powerhouse. • The project focuses on advanced AI infrastructure to support data center expansion and cloud services. • This investment underscores India's strategic importance in Google's global AI strategy amid rising demand.

• Google engineers developed TurboQuant, a method compressing AI data to require up to six times less working memory without performance loss. • The system enables AI algorithms to retain information and compute powerfully with reduced hardware needs. • This breakthrough lowers barriers for deploying advanced chatbots and AI models on resource-constrained devices.

Tech company is latest Silicon Valley firm to sign agreement with US military despite widespread employee oppositionGoogle has reportedly signed a deal with the US Pentagon to use its artificial intelligence models for classified work. The tech company joins a growing list of Silicon Valley firms inking agreements with US military.The agreement allows the Pentagon to use Google’s AI for “any lawful government purpose”, the report from the Information added, putting it alongside OpenAI and Elon Musk’s xAI, which also have deals to supply AI models for classified use. Similar agreements, both at Google and other AI firms, have sparked significant disagreements with the Pentagon and major employee pushback. Continue reading...

• Google and the U.S. Department of Defense have finalized an agreement allowing the Pentagon to use Google's AI models for classified military and defense purposes, amending an existing contract between the two entities. • The deal grants the DOD access to Google's artificial intelligence capabilities for what the company describes as "any lawful government purpose," expanding the scope of prior defense collaborations. • The partnership marks a significant expansion of Big Tech's involvement in U.S. defense operations, continuing a trend of major tech companies providing AI infrastructure to government agencies.

• Google unveiled seventh-generation TPUs on April 27, boasting 4.7x performance gains over prior versions for AI inference. • The chips support Google's $175-185 billion 2026 CapEx, aiming for margin expansion through in-house silicon. • Analysts note reduced reliance on Nvidia GPUs, potentially shifting U.S. AI hardware market dynamics worth $100 billion annually.

Government’s draft news bargaining incentive scheme includes 2.25% levy on local revenues of digital giantsAnthony Albanese has urged Google, Meta and TikTok to make deals with Australian media outlets to avoid a dedicated 2.25% levy on local revenues, warning digital giants should not be able to exploit the work of journalists to boost profits.Releasing an exposure draft for the government’s news bargaining incentive (NBI) scheme on Tuesday, the prime minister said platforms who sign new deals with publishers to pay for news content would receive offsets of between 150% to 170% from the new levy. Continue reading...

• Google announced a $750 million fund on April 27, 2026, targeting startups developing AI agents. • The fund aims to accelerate innovation in AI agent technologies amid intensifying competition. • This initiative underscores Google's commitment to fostering the AI ecosystem, potentially challenging rivals like OpenAI and Anthropic.

• Google's AI agent platform is taking the lead as enterprises transition from question-answering and content generation AI to systems that execute tasks and actions autonomously. • The platform enables practical AI applications in business workflows, accelerating adoption. • This positions Google dominantly in the US enterprise AI market, driving productivity gains and influencing competitive developments.

• Google Cloud Next 2026 concluded with more than 250 announcements on products, customers, and ecosystem developments focused on AI and enterprise tools. • Key security features include Agent Anomaly Detection using LLMs to flag unusual AI agent behavior in real time and Chrome Enterprise's AI-aware extension threat detections now in preview. • Chrome Enterprise will soon offer shadow AI reporting to identify unsanctioned web-based AI and SaaS use by employees, enhancing visibility into shadow AI risks.

• Anthropic announced a $4 billion Series E funding round on April 25, 2026, with lead investments from Amazon and Google, valuing the AI safety firm at $61.5 billion post-money. • The capital will accelerate development of Claude 4 models and expand enterprise AI infrastructure across US data centers in California and Virginia. • This funding underscores intensifying competition in AI amid regulatory scrutiny, positioning Anthropic as a key challenger to OpenAI's dominance.

• Google DeepMind released AlphaFold 4 on April 25, 2026, predicting protein structures with 98.5% accuracy, including dynamics for drug discovery. • Model simulates folding pathways in seconds for proteins up to 5,000 residues, licensed to 200 US biotech firms. • Advances could accelerate FDA approvals for 50+ new therapies, valued at $100 billion market impact.

• Google Cloud and Wiz demonstrated integrated security platforms at Google Cloud Next '26 designed to defend against threats operating at machine speed while protecting AI and multicloud environments. • The partnership addresses the convergence of AI deployment, cloud infrastructure expansion, and sophisticated cyber threats, offering coordinated threat detection and response capabilities across distributed architectures. • The showcase reflects industry-wide recognition that traditional security models are obsolete against AI-accelerated attacks and that cloud providers must embed security-by-design into AI and multicloud infrastructure.

• Google unveiled a new quantum processor featuring 10,000 qubits on April 19, claiming achievement of quantum advantage for practical optimization problems with error rates reduced by 60% compared to previous generations. • The chip, named Willow, successfully solved complex combinatorial optimization problems approximately one million times faster than classical supercomputers according to Google Quantum AI division testing. • The breakthrough potentially accelerates commercialization of quantum computing for applications including drug discovery, financial modeling, and supply chain optimization, attracting increased competition from IBM and IonQ.

• AI integration is delivering measurable spending momentum for Google Cloud, with enterprise technology research data confirming AI as a primary driver of cloud adoption. • The ML/AI segment is pulling Google's broader cloud business forward, explaining significant improvements in Google Cloud's performance over the past two years. • This trend indicates that AI is not merely a marketing narrative for Google but a concrete factor influencing enterprise purchasing decisions and cloud strategy prioritization.

Experts warn lapse could sharply reduce reports of abuse, echoing a 58% drop during a similar legal gap in 2021Sign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inboxThe European parliament has blocked the extension of a law that permits big tech firms to scan for child sexual exploitation on their platforms, creating a legal gap that child safety experts say will lead to crimes going undetected.The law, which was a carve-out of the EU Privacy Act, was put in place in 2021 as a temporary measure allowing companies to use automated detection technologies to scan messages for harms, including child sexual abuse material (CSAM), grooming and sextortion. However, it expired on 3 April, and the EU parliament decided not to vote to extend it, amid privacy concerns from some lawmakers. Continue reading...

• OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google's Alphabet began sharing information via the Frontier Model Forum to detect Chinese firms' adversarial distillation of US AI models, violating terms of service. • US officials estimate this unauthorized copying costs Silicon Valley labs billions in annual profits, with OpenAI accusing DeepSeek of free-riding on American innovations. • The rare cooperation highlights national security risks and competitive threats in the global AI race, as imitation models undercut prices and siphon customers.

• Google open-sourced Gemma 4 AI model under Apache 2.0 license, enabling broad customization and commercial applications. • The release advances accessible AI development following prior Gemma iterations. • Model strengthens Google's position in open source AI competition with rivals like Arcee.

• Amazon is expanding its Alexa+ AI assistant to web platforms, moving beyond device-only deployment and positioning itself to compete directly with ChatGPT and Google Gemini. • The expansion reflects Amazon's strategic shift toward agentic AI workflows, enabling Alexa+ to perform complex tasks across web and mobile interfaces. • The move signals intensifying competition among major tech companies to build comprehensive AI assistants that operate across all user touchpoints and verticals.

• Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced on March 31 that it will target 18 major US technology and industrial companies in the West Asia region starting 8 PM Tehran time on April 1 (1630 GMT), in retaliation for US and Israeli attacks on Iranian pharmaceutical facilities and leadership. • The hit list includes Microsoft, Google, Apple, Meta, Intel, IBM, Tesla, Nvidia, Boeing, HP, Cisco, Oracle, Dell, and others, accused of enabling high-tech warfare through AI, ICT, and satellite tracking for assassinations. • IRGC urged employees to immediately evacuate workplaces and residents within a one-kilometer radius to leave for safety, labeling the firms as 'terrorist companies' and promising destruction of their regional units.