Latest news with #GoogleAI
Forbes
7 hours ago
- Business
- Forbes
From Reactive To Revolutionary: 3 Ways AI Is Modernizing Ad Operations
Written by Carlos Araujo, VP, Global Business Applied AI For today's marketing leaders, the operational landscape has become a paradox of opportunity and complexity. The pressure to deliver personalized experiences at a global scale while proving efficiency and ROI has stretched teams, tech, and budgets to their limits. The era of incremental gains through manual optimization is already over. The future of marketing is evolving, and with it, a new way of operating is emerging. We believe artificial intelligence will empower marketers to drive incremental growth for the business through augmentation, evolving ad operations specialists from tactical executors to strategic conductors of intelligent systems. Below are three operational trends marketers should be thinking about as they prepare their teams for the future. 1. Agentic capabilities unlock big picture thinking The future of work involves transforming our relationship with technology, shifting from passive tools to active, intelligent partners. Imagine AI as a proactive teammate offering strategic advice across your digital ecosystem—from Google Ads to your CMS. This means AI will do more than flag issues; it will proactively identify growth opportunities, diagnose complex campaign problems, and even outline fixes before they impact performance. Your teams can then focus on higher-value, strategic decisions rather than tactical problem-solving. This directly addresses one of the biggest bottlenecks in marketing: the delay between insight and action. Agentic AI dramatically shortens this cycle. Learning from vast datasets, agents will not only recommend actions but, with your approval, execute them. Think of AI building entire ad groups in Google Ads, quickly surfacing critical trends in Analytics, or even executing fixes for campaign issues—much like our Help Guide beta provides dynamic solutions and diagnostic workflows. Solutions like these transform lengthy, technical text into a streamlined workflow where AI suggests precise actions, enabling faster, more strategic decisions and blurring the lines between content and service. 2. Technological scaling decentralizes ad operations Exceptional support is foundational to effective ad operations. To continuously improve the Google Ads Help Center experience for millions of weekly visitors, we're leveraging intelligent systems that analyze user behavior and support ticket data. These insights help Google AI autonomously identify knowledge gaps on our Help Center and create new content, alongside refining our nearly 15K published support articles. Our objective is to transform static resources into a dynamic, self-improving knowledge base. The result for your teams is immediate access to more accurate and actionable guidance, enabling them to set up and manage campaigns more effectively and efficiently. What's more, we're empowering in-market teams to run their own campaigns, now with deep local understanding—a major step up from traditional centralized models. Historically, achieving local nuance required extensive regional teams and high operational overhead, but we believe AI is changing this dynamic. As of July 2025, the Google Ads Help Center offers real-time chat translation in over 26 languages. Multilingual help content and chat support means local teams can quickly find answers. It fosters a global operational model where regional expertise drives strategic agility, allowing your brand to execute global campaigns with the speed and consistency of a local one, breaking down barriers to truly scale growth across markets. 3. Big bets are being made on the engine room Effective ad operations teams are critical for the success of your digital advertising, particularly those who painstakingly sift through technical documentation to troubleshoot complex issues or implement new features. These are the individuals with "hands on keyboards everyday," meticulously managing the software that runs the ad campaigns that fuel your sales funnels. They are the backbone that translates strategic vision into tangible results. We understand the immense value and tireless effort put forth by these essential teams. To support them, we're investing in robust tools like Marketing Advisor, which will live inside the Chrome browser and is being developed to help advertisers manage marketing tasks across different platforms. Investment here isn't just about achieving operational efficiency; it's about unlocking precious time and shifting the thinking of these teams from mechanics to engineers. Ultimately, the future of marketing hinges on a collaborative relationship between human expertise and advanced AI. By embracing intelligent, agentic capabilities, leveraging technological scaling, and investing in the foundational 'engine room' of ad operations, marketing leaders can unlock unprecedented efficiency, performance, and strategic agility, meeting evolving expectations and driving impactful decisions in an increasingly complex digital landscape.
Tom's Guide
a day ago
- Business
- Tom's Guide
Microsoft's Edge just got a major AI makeover — meet Copilot Mode
Microsoft is reimagining web browsing with Copilot Mode. Similar to OpenAI and Perplexity, this experimental new AI-powered mode in Edge understands your tabs, takes voice commands and even plans future tasks. Now available on Windows and Mac, Copilot Mode is completely free if you opt in. With Copilot Mode turned on, Edge replaces your new‑tab page with a simplified layout centered around a single input box, combining search, chat and navigation. Once enabled, Copilot can access all your open tabs (with your permission) and use that context to answer questions or compare information without flipping between pages. For instance, if you're researching restuarant options across several tabs, you can now ask Copilot to identify the soonest availability, most affordable choice or closest location, and it takes care of everything for you. Starting today, voice control is live. Users can now talk to Copilot and ask their queries that way instead of typing. Soon, Microsoft plans to allow Copilot to access browsing history and credentials (with your consent) to do things like book tickets or manage errands, truly acting on your behalf, which is similar to what ChatGPT Agent is currently doing. Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. Copilot can now compare price options (like Google AI), offer suggestions and make reservations. However, approving payment details manually is still something users need to do (thankfully). Copilot slips into the sidebar or new tab, allowing you to check summaries, translate content, convert units or ask questions without losing access to the original page. For tab hoarders like me, I expect this to help with productivity as it keeps distractions down and work flow up. For those feeling skeptical about a broswer takeover, rest assured that Copilot Mode is fully optional. Users enable it manually and can disable it anytime. When active, Microsoft makes it clear whenever Copilot is listening, viewing your tabs or accessing data. All data is handled under Microsoft's privacy standards and only used with your explicit permission. And while usage limits apply, the feature is free for now. Microsoft hasn't yet confirmed if it will join a subscription tier later. Microsoft says forthcoming updates will let Copilot identify ongoing browsing themes and surface helpful suggestions and next steps. Whether you're planning a trip or researching a project, Copilot Mode promises to track the thread of your tasks. The goal of this new feature is to proactively help users stay productive while always offering clear visual cues and only if you opt in. With AI-integrated browsers like Google AI, Comet, and others already in motion, Microsoft's upgrade places Edge back in the spotlight with other AI giants. If you're curious about how AI can change web browsing for planning, research or multitasking, this AI browser is worth a try. Copilot Mode trials are simple to enable, reversible and safe. And for the time it's free, it's worth seeing if AI-assisted browsing accelerates your workflow.
Android Authority
a day ago
- Android Authority
Google Search Live is getting a UI upgrade to match Gemini Live (APK teardown)
AssembleDebug / Android Authority TL;DR Google recently introduced Search Live, letting you chat with Google AI to search your screen. The tool has a lot of functionally in common with Gemini Live. Now it looks like Google's working to give Search Live the same sort of overlay it's building for Gemini Live. All the biggest players in tech are absolutely scared to death right now at the prospect of being left behind by the current wave of AI-driven advancements, so everyone's racing to stay at the forefront. With Google's efforts, that kind of momentum has resulted in a bit of overlap, and it feels like the company is sometimes in such a rush to introduce new AI features that it's doing the same thing in a lot of different ways. Today we're looking at something along exactly that kind of line, as we preview the evolution of Search Live. Authority Insights story on Android Authority. Discover You're reading anstory on Android Authority. Discover Authority Insights for more exclusive reports, app teardowns, leaks, and in-depth tech coverage you won't find anywhere else. An APK teardown helps predict features that may arrive on a service in the future based on work-in-progress code. However, it is possible that such predicted features may not make it to a public release. We've already been tracking Google's progress with some new interfaces for how we work with Gemini Live, moving to call-like notifications, and now building a compact new overlay. Back at I/O, Google first announced Search Live, and we've already spotted some signs of its own interface upgrades, working on that same call-like notification for controlling your session. Well, apparently Google's not done making Search Live look and act like Gemini Live, and in version of the Google app we're able to get an early look at some more in-development changes. Here, we see Search Live getting a minimalistic overlay of its own: just the Live icon, microphone, and an X to close. While we've been able to get the overlay to show up, in its current implementation we're not yet able to interact with it, so this could still be at an early stage of development. That said, it's also just Google retreading its steps from Gemini Live, so it's not like it should be any challenge to follow this through to completion. Like we said, it's not doing anything just yet, so there isn't a heck of a lot to see, but at least we can manage this quick peek at how Google's thinking about pulling this all together. Follow
WIRED
4 days ago
- Business
- WIRED
Trump's Anti-Bias AI Order Is Just More Bias
Jul 25, 2025 11:00 AM The Trump administration says it wants AI models free from ideological bias, as it pressures their developers to reflect the president's worldview. US President Donald Trump displays a signed executive order at an AI summit on July 23, 2025, in Washington, DC. Photo-Illustration: WIRED Staff; Photograph:On November 2, 2022, I attended a Google AI event in New York City. One of the themes was responsible AI. As I listened to executives talk about how they aligned their technology with human values, I realized that the malleability of AI models was a double-edged sword. Models could be tweaked to, say, minimize biases, but also to enforce a specific point of view. Governments could demand manipulation to censor unwelcome facts and promote propaganda. I envisioned this as something that an authoritarian regime like China might employ. In the United States, of course, the Constitution would prevent the government from messing with the outputs of AI models created by private companies. This Wednesday, the Trump administration released its AI manifesto, a far-ranging action plan for one of the most vital issues facing the country—and even humanity. The plan generally focuses on besting China in the race for AI supremacy. But one part of it seems more in sync with China's playbook. In the name of truth, the US government now wants AI models to adhere to Donald Trump's definition of that word. You won't find that intent plainly stated in the 28-page plan. Instead it says, 'It is essential that these systems be built from the ground up with freedom of speech and expression in mind, and that U.S. government policy does not interfere with that objective. We must ensure that free speech flourishes in the era of AI and that AI procured by the Federal government objectively reflects truth rather than social engineering agendas.' That's all fine until the last sentence, which raises the question—truth according to whom? And what exactly is a 'social engineering agenda'? We get a clue about this in the very next paragraph, which instructs the Department of Commerce to look at the Biden AI rules and 'eliminate references to misinformation, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and climate change.' (Weird uppercase as written in the published plan.) Acknowledging climate change is social engineering? As for truth, in a fact sheet about the plan, the White House says, 'LLMs shall be truthful and prioritize historical accuracy, scientific inquiry, and objectivity.' Sounds good, but this comes from an administration that limits American history to 'uplifting' interpretations, denies climate change, and regards Donald Trump's claims about being America's greatest president as objective truth. Meanwhile, just this week, Trump's Truth Social account reposted an AI video of Obama in jail. In a speech touting the plan in Washington on Wednesday, Trump explained the logic behind the directive: 'The American people do not want woke Marxist lunacy in the AI models,' he said. Then he signed an executive order entitled 'Preventing Woke AI in the Federal Government.' While specifying that the 'Federal Government should be hesitant to regulate the functionality of AI models in the private marketplace,' it declares that 'in the context of Federal procurement, it has the obligation not to procure models that sacrifice truthfulness and accuracy to ideological agendas.' Since all the big AI companies are courting government contracts, the order appears to be a backdoor effort to ensure that LLMs in general show fealty to the White House's interpretation of history, sexual identity, and other hot-button issues. In case there's any doubt about what the government regards as a violation, the order spends several paragraphs demonizing AI that supports diversity, calls out racial bias, or values gender equality. Pogo alert—Trump's executive order banning top-down ideological bias is a blatant exercise in top-down ideological bias. Marx Madness It's up to the companies to determine how to handle these demands. I spoke this week to an OpenAI engineer working on model behavior who told me that the company already strives for neutrality. In a technical sense, they said, meeting government standards like being anti-woke shouldn't be a huge hurdle. But this isn't a technical dispute: It's a constitutional one. If companies like Anthropic, OpenAI, or Google decide to try minimizing racial bias in their LLMs, or make a conscious choice to ensure the models' responses reflect the dangers of climate change, the First Amendment presumably protects those decisions as exercising the 'freedom of speech and expression' touted in the AI Action Plan. A government mandate denying government contracts to companies exercising that right is the essence of interference. You might think that the companies building AI would fight back, citing their constitutional rights on this issue. But so far no Big Tech company has publicly objected to the Trump administration's plan. Google celebrated the White House's support of its pet issues, like boosting infrastructure. Anthropic published a positive blog post about the plan, though it complained about the White House's sudden seeming abandonment of strong export controls earlier this month. OpenAI says it is already close to achieving objectivity. Nothing about asserting their own freedom of expression. In on the Action The reticence is understandable because, overall, the AI Action Plan is a bonanza for AI companies. While the Biden administration mandated scrutiny of Big Tech, Trump's plan is a big fat green light for the industry, which it regards as a partner in the national struggle to beat China. It allows the AI powers to essentially blow past environmental objections when constructing massive data centers. It pledges support for AI research that will flow to the private sector. There's even a provision that limits some federal funds for states that try to regulate AI on their own. That's a consolation prize for a failed portion of the recent budget bill that would have banned state regulation for a decade. For the rest of us, though, the 'anti-woke' order is not so easily brushed off. AI is increasingly the medium by which we get our news and information. A founding principle of the United States has been the independence of such channels from government interference. We have seen how the current administration has cowed parent companies of media giants like CBS into apparently compromising their journalistic principles to favor corporate goals. Extending this 'anti-woke' agenda to AI models, it's not unreasonable to expect similar accommodations. Senator Edward Markey has written directly to the CEOs of Alphabet, Anthropic, OpenAI, Microsoft, and Meta urging them to fight the order. 'The details and implementation plan for this executive order remain unclear,' he writes, 'but it will create significant financial incentives for the Big Tech companies … to ensure their AI chatbots do not produce speech that would upset the Trump administration.' In a statement to me, he said, 'Republicans want to use the power of the government to make ChatGPT sound like Fox & Friends .' As you might suspect, this view isn't shared by the White House team working on the AI plan. They believe their goal is true neutrality, and that taxpayers shouldn't have to pay for AI models that don't reflect unbiased truth. Indeed, the plan itself points a finger at China as an example of what happens when truth is manipulated. It instructs the government to examine frontier models from the People's Republic of China to determine 'alignment with Chinese Communist Party talking points and censorship.' Unless the corporate overlords of AI get some backbone, a future evaluation of American frontier models might well reveal lockstep alignment with White House talking points and censorship. But you might not find that out by querying an AI model. Too woke. This is an edition of Steven Levy's Backchannel newsletter. Read previous coverage from Steven Levy here.
Android Authority
6 days ago
- Android Authority
Could Google be working on a more affordable Gemini plan? (APK teardown)
Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority TL;DR Code spotted in the latest Google app and Google One app suggests a potential new 'Google AI Lite' plan. This new tier could potentially sit between the current free and Pro subscriptions, offering increased rate limits for features like deep research and video generation. Google has not officially announced this plan, and it's unclear if and when it will launch. Google Gemini is available for free to all users with a personal Google account. If you want to try out what Gemini can do for you, the free plan gives you a fairly extensive trial, but understandably, there are rate limits for features like image generation, Deep Research, and more. If you want more generous limits or access to features like newer models, you need to pay $19.99 a month for Google AI Pro or $249.99 a month for the Google AI Ultra plan. While the pricing feels fair, it can still be steep for users who want just a bit more than the free tier. There might be good news coming for such users, as Google could be exploring a 'Google AI Lite' plan that could slot in between the free and Pro plans. Authority Insights story on Android Authority. Discover You're reading anstory on Android Authority. Discover Authority Insights for more exclusive reports, app teardowns, leaks, and in-depth tech coverage you won't find anywhere else. An APK teardown helps predict features that may arrive on a service in the future based on work-in-progress code. However, it is possible that such predicted features may not make it to a public release. Within the latest Google app beta, we spotted code that hints towards an upcoming 'Google AI Lite' plan. Some pieces of code refer to it as 'Lite Mode' too. Code Copy Text ROBIN_G1_UPGRADE_LITE_DISCOVERY_CARD_ENTRY_POINT ROBIN_G1_UPGRADE_LITE_FREEMIUM_DEEP_RESEARCH_ENTRY_POINT ROBIN_G1_UPGRADE_LITE_FREEMIUM_TWO_POINT_FIVE_PRO_ENTRY_POINT ROBIN_G1_UPGRADE_LITE_FREEMIUM_VIDEO_GENERATION_ENTRY_POINT ROBIN_G1_UPGRADE_LITE_MODE_PICKER_ENTRY_POINT ROBIN_G1_UPGRADE_LITE_ZERO_STATE_ENTRY_POINT In the code snippet above, 'robin' is the codename for Google Gemini. The code snippet seemingly describes some of the entry points where the Lite plan will be upsold to users, namely around features like Deep Research and Video Generation. Users might even get some limited access to newer models like Gemini 2.5 Pro. Another set of code within the Google One app refers to this Lite plan as 'AIL,' as you can see below: AssembleDebug / Android Authority We think that Google could be working on a Google AI Lite plan that would be upsold to users when they reach the free limits for features like video generation and deep research. The clues are admittedly a bit muddled, so things can turn out differently than our interpretation. Google already offers a Google One Lite plan in some regions. For just $0.7 a month (regional pricing), the plan doubles the storage from the free 15GB limit to a more practical 30GB limit. It makes sense for users who don't want to pay $2 monthly for the 100GB storage space and the family sharing features. The Google AI Lite plan could be similar, bumping up some of the rate limits without introducing any substantially new features or benefits. Google hasn't yet announced the Google AI Lite plan, and there's always a chance it may not either, or it could take some other form. We'll keep you updated when we learn more. Got a tip? Talk to us! Email our staff at Email our staff at news@ . You can stay anonymous or get credit for the info, it's your choice.
