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Barret Zoph, the Thinking Machines Co-Founder Ousted Before Joining OpenAI, Is Now at Google

August 28, 2026
Artificial Intelligence
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Barret Zoph announced on 26 August 2026 that he is joining Google DeepMind as vice president of research, working on reinforcement learning and post-training for Gemini. It closes a twenty-two month sequence that took him from OpenAI to co-founding Thinking Machines Lab with Mira Murati, to a disputed firing on 14 January 2026, to five months leading enterprise business back at OpenAI. This breakdown covers what the new role is and is not, both accounts of the Thinking Machines termination, his 2016-2022 Google Brain record, the 2026 departures that emptied the seat he is filling, where Thinking Machines stands now, and what any organisation buying AI should take from it.

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Google Brings Trip-Planning Features to Search’s AI Mode

August 27, 2026
AI News
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Google has added flight price tracking, conversational hotel booking and miles-and-points pricing to AI Mode, the conversational surface inside Search. Announced on 27 August 2026, the three features complete a nine-month build that started with the Canvas itinerary panel in November 2025 and turns AI Mode from a place where you research a trip into a place where you arrange one. The rollout is far more uneven than the headline suggests: price tracking reaches more than 180 countries and the points display is global, but hotel booking is live in a single country, in English, with ten named partners including Booking.com, Expedia, Marriott and Hilton. This breakdown covers exactly what shipped, where each feature actually works, what Google’s own usage data says about why travel was the obvious target, and what the shift does to the travel websites that used to be the destination.

AI Comparison: The Ultimate AI Test – ChatGPT vs. Gemini vs. Perplexity vs. Copilot vs. Claude – Who’s the Smartest?

July 23, 2026
Artificial Intelligence
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AI Comparison has become one of the most searched topics in artificial intelligence as organizations and individuals increasingly depend on AI assistants to write content, generate software, conduct research, automate workflows, solve technical problems, and improve daily productivity. With multiple frontier AI models now competing for leadership, selecting the right assistant is no longer a […]

Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite Browser shown on a laptop with a web browser open for web-aware AI workflows

Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite Browser: 9 Critical Rules for Low-Cost Web-Aware AI

May 9, 2026
Artificial Intelligence
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Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite Browser is a practical architecture pattern for low-cost web-aware AI using URL Context, Search grounding, function calling, and safe routing.

What is Google Assistant shown as Google's voice assistant across Android phones, smart speakers, smart home devices, and evolving Gemini-powered experiences

What Is Google Assistant? 5 Essential Facts About Google’s Voice Assistant

April 11, 2026
Artificial Intelligence
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A practical guide to Google Assistant, including what it is, what it does well, how it fits into Google’s ecosystem, and what the Gemini transition means.

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Gemini Desktop App to Add MCP Support and Media Generation Tabs

May 5, 2023
Technology
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Google is testing custom MCP server connections and dedicated image and video generation tabs in the Gemini desktop app. Here is what each change does, why MCP support matters more than the media tabs, the security questions to settle first, and what businesses should do before the features reach general availability.

NotebookLM Gemini upgrades: NotebookLM research workspace for Gemini 3.5 Flash and Gemini Omni upgrades

NotebookLM Expected to Receive Gemini 3.5 Flash and Gemini Omni Upgrades

May 31, 2021
Artificial Intelligence
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A practical look at the expected NotebookLM path toward Gemini 3.5 Flash and Gemini Omni, including research workflows, multimodal outputs, governance, and adoption planning.

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AI Studio Artifacts Folder: Why Generated Files Finally Have a Permanent Home

December 7, 2019
AI News
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Generated files have been the least-managed output in modern development. A model produces exactly the code, document, or export you asked for, it renders inside a conversation, and within a day nobody can find it again. The AI Studio Artifacts folder is the correction: one project-scoped location where generated output persists as files rather than […]

NotebookLM agentic reasoning: charts and financial analysis representing source-grounded AI research outputs

NotebookLM Adds Agentic Reasoning and Exportable Output Formats for Ultra Users

December 4, 2019
Artificial Intelligence
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A practical look at Google’s NotebookLM upgrade for Ultra users, including agentic reasoning, cloud code execution, source discovery, and new downloadable output formats.

Gemini

Barret Zoph, the Thinking Machines Co-Founder Ousted Before Joining OpenAI, Is Now at Google

Google Brings Trip-Planning Features to Search’s AI Mode

AI Comparison: The Ultimate AI Test – ChatGPT vs. Gemini vs. Perplexity vs. Copilot vs. Claude – Who’s the Smartest?

Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite Browser: 9 Critical Rules for Low-Cost Web-Aware AI

What Is Google Assistant? 5 Essential Facts About Google’s Voice Assistant

Gemini Desktop App to Add MCP Support and Media Generation Tabs

NotebookLM Expected to Receive Gemini 3.5 Flash and Gemini Omni Upgrades

AI Studio Artifacts Folder: Why Generated Files Finally Have a Permanent Home

NotebookLM Adds Agentic Reasoning and Exportable Output Formats for Ultra Users

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