Google Archives | Digital Watch Observatory

Berlin becomes home to Google AI research centre

Google has launched its new AI Centre in Berlin, creating a hub for researchers, developers, and leaders from Google DeepMind, Google Research, and Google Cloud. The centre aims to foster collaboration, debate, and innovation in AI.

The opening event highlighted the company’s work in advancing science and healthcare through AI-enabled agents and platforms. Google announced long-term research partnerships with the Technical University of Munich and Helmholtz Munich, backed by the Google.org AI for Science fund.

Built on Google’s existing research and engineering foundations in Germany and globally, the Berlin centre emphasises AI innovations with societal benefits. It will connect experts from science, business, academia, and politics to drive forward responsible AI development.

The centre will also serve as a platform for public engagement, hosting workshops, lectures, and events to raise awareness about AI applications, ethical considerations, and future opportunities across industries and communities.

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Epic Games dispute leads to changes in Google Play policies

Google has agreed to major changes to its Play Store policies after settling a long-running legal dispute with Epic Games, the developer behind the popular game Fortnite.

The agreement will reduce the commission Google charges on in-app purchases and introduce new options that make it easier for users to install alternative app stores on Android devices.

Under the new structure, Google will lower its standard commission to 20% on in-app purchases. Developers who choose to use Google’s billing system will pay an additional 5% fee. The company also announced that recurring subscription fees will drop to 10%.

The revised fee structure will begin rolling out in the United States, the European Economic Area and the United Kingdom by June 2026, with expansion to other regions over the following years.

The settlement also introduces a new initiative called the Registered App Stores programme. The programme aims to simplify the installation of alternative app stores on Android while maintaining certain security and quality standards.

Approved third-party stores will be able to offer apps through a more streamlined installation process, addressing long-standing developer complaints that warnings about sideloading discouraged users from installing legitimate alternative marketplaces.

As part of the agreement, Epic Games plans to bring Fortnite back to the Google Play Store globally while continuing to develop its own Epic Games Store for Android. Both companies described the settlement as a step toward a more competitive Android ecosystem.

The dispute between Epic Games and Apple over App Store policies continues separately, reflecting broader industry debates over platform control, developer fees and competition in digital marketplaces.

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Gemini Canvas reaches millions as Google expands AI Search tools

Google has expanded access to the Canvas feature in Google Search’s AI Mode, making it available to all US users.

Canvas allows users to organise research, draft documents and develop small applications directly inside search.

Prompts can generate code, transform reports into webpages or quizzes, and produce audio summaries from uploaded material. The tool was previously introduced as part of experimental projects in Google Labs.

The feature builds on capabilities already available in Google Gemini and partly overlaps with NotebookLM, which supports research analysis and document processing.

Within Canvas, users can gather information from the web and the Google Knowledge Graph while refining projects through interaction with the Gemini model.

Competition is intensifying across AI development platforms. OpenAI and Anthropic offer similar tools, though their design approaches differ in how collaborative workspaces are triggered and used.

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Chrome moves to rapid releases as Google responds to AI disruption

Google is accelerating Chrome’s release cycle rather than maintaining its long-standing four-week cadence.

From September, users on desktop and mobile platforms will receive new stable versions every two weeks, doubling the frequency of feature milestones across speed, stability and usability. Weekly security updates introduced in 2023 remain unchanged.

The faster pace comes as AI-driven browsers seek a foothold in a market long dominated by Chrome.

Products, such as ChatGPT Atlas and Perplexity’s Comet, embed agentic assistants directly into the browsing experience, automating tasks from summarising pages to scheduling meetings.

Chrome has responded with deeper Gemini integration, including the rollout of autonomous features across its interface.

Google maintains that the accelerated schedule reflects the needs of the evolving web platform, arguing that developers require quicker access to updated tools.

Yet the timing aligns with growing competitive pressure from AI-native browsers, prompting speculation that Chrome’s dominance can no longer be taken for granted.

The shift will begin with Chrome version 153 in beta and stable channels on 8 September 2026. Enterprise administrators and Chromebook users will continue to rely on the eight-week Extended Stable branch, which remains unchanged for organisations that need slower, controlled deployments.

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Chrome unveils 3-phase quantum-resistant HTTPS upgrade with Merkle Tree Certificates

Google has outlined a plan to strengthen Chrome’s HTTPS security against future quantum-computing threats. Rather than expanding traditional X.509 certificate chains in Chrome with post-quantum cryptography, the company is developing a new model based on Merkle Tree Certificates (MTCs).

The proposal from the PLANTS working group seeks to modernise the web public key infrastructure. Under the MTC model, a Certification Authority signs a single ‘Tree Head’ covering many certificates. Browsers receive a lightweight proof instead of a full certificate chain.

Google said this structure reduces authentication data exchanged during TLS handshakes while supporting post-quantum algorithms. By decoupling cryptographic strength from certificate size, the approach seeks to preserve performance as stronger security standards are adopted.

The company is already testing MTCs with real internet traffic. Phase one involves feasibility studies with Cloudflare, while phase two, in early 2027, will invite selected Certificate Transparency log operators to support initial public deployment.

By the third quarter of 2027, Google plans to establish requirements for onboarding certificate authorities to the quantum-resistant Chrome Root Store, which exclusively supports MTCs. The company described the initiative as foundational to maintaining long-term web security resilience.

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Nano Banana 2 brings Flash speed to Gemini image generation

Google has introduced Nano Banana 2, branded Gemini 3.1 Flash Image, combining Flash speed with advanced reasoning. The update narrows the gap between rapid generation and visual quality, enabling faster edits. Improved instruction-following enhances the handling of complex prompts.

Nano Banana 2 integrates real-time web grounding to improve subject accuracy and contextual awareness. The model supports more precise text rendering and in-image translation for marketing and localisation tasks. It can also assist with diagrams, infographics, and data visualisations.

Upgrades include stronger subject consistency across multiple characters and objects within a single workflow. Users can create assets in aspect ratios and resolutions from 512px to 4K. Google highlighted improvements in lighting, textures, and photorealism while maintaining Flash-level speed.

The model is rolling out across the Gemini app, Search, Lens, AI Studio, Vertex AI, Flow, and Google Ads. In Gemini, Nano Banana 2 replaces Nano Banana Pro by default, though Pro remains available for specialised tasks. Availability is expanding to additional countries and languages.

Google also reinforced its provenance strategy by combining SynthID watermarking with C2PA Content Credentials. The company said verification tools in Gemini have been used millions of times to identify AI-generated media. C2PA verification will be added to the app in a future update.

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OpenClaw users face account suspensions under Google AI rules

Google has suspended access to its Antigravity AI platform for numerous OpenClaw users, citing violations of its terms of service. Developers had used OpenClaw’s OAuth plugin to access subsidised Gemini model tokens, triggering backend strain and service degradation.

OpenClaw, launched in November 2025, gained more than 219,000 GitHub stars by enabling local AI agents for tasks such as email management and web browsing. Users authenticated through Antigravity to access advanced Gemini models at reduced cost, bypassing official distribution channels.

Google said the third-party integration powered non-authorised products on Antigravity infrastructure, triggering usage flagged as malicious. In February 2026, AI Ultra subscribers reported 403 errors and account restrictions, with some citing temporary disruptions to Gmail and Workspace.

Varun Mohan of Google DeepMind said the surge had degraded service quality and that enforcement prioritised legitimate users. Limited reinstatement options were offered to those unaware of violations, while capacity constraints were cited as the reason.

The move follows similar restrictions by Anthropic on third-party OAuth usage. Developers are shifting to alternative forks, as debate intensifies over open tooling, platform control, and the risks of agentic AI ecosystems.

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Google’s Lyria 3 advances generative AI music with transparency and copyright safeguards

Google has introduced Lyria 3 inside its Gemini app, marking its expansion into AI-generated music. The model enables users to create 30-second tracks from text prompts, images, or short videos. It also supports Dream Track on YouTube Shorts, strengthening AI integration in creator tools.

The development reflects the growing convergence of multimodal AI systems. Gemini can already generate text, images, and video, and music is now added to this ecosystem. This positions Google within the broader race to embed generative AI across digital content infrastructures.

Lyria 3 lowers technical barriers to music production. Users can generate instrumentals and lyrics without prior composition skills, simply by describing a mood, genre, or memory. This aligns with wider efforts to democratise creative expression through AI tools.

The model also introduces technical improvements over earlier audio systems. It offers greater control over tempo, vocals, and style, while producing more realistic and musically complex outputs. However, tracks are currently limited to 30 seconds, suggesting a phased rollout approach.

Transparency measures are embedded through SynthID watermarking technology. All AI-generated tracks include an imperceptible identifier to signal synthetic origin. Such mechanisms respond to increasing policy discussions on labelling and traceability of AI-generated content.

Google also emphasises safeguards related to intellectual property. The system is designed for original expression rather than direct imitation of specific artists. Prompts referencing known artists are treated as stylistic inspiration, and outputs are filtered against existing works, with reporting mechanisms available for potential rights violations.

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Google plans $15bn AI push in India

Google CEO Sundar Pichai said at the India AI Impact Summit 2026 in New Delhi that he never imagined Visakhapatnam would become a global AI hub. Speaking in New Delhi, he recalled passing through the coastal city as a student and described its transformation as remarkable.

In New Delhi, Pichai announced that Google will establish a full-stack AI hub in Visakhapatnam as part of a $15 billion investment in India. The facility is expected to include gigawatt-scale compute capacity and a new international subsea cable gateway.

The project in Visakhapatnam is set to generate jobs and deliver advanced AI services to businesses and communities across India. Authorities in Andhra Pradesh have allotted more than 600 acres of land near the port city for the proposed hyperscale AI data centre.

Reacting in New Delhi, Andhra Pradesh IT and HRD Minister Nara Lokesh welcomed the announcement and thanked Pichai for expressing confidence in Visakhapatnam. The development positions Visakhapatnam as a major AI infrastructure hub within India’s expanding technology sector.

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Google outlines progress in responsible AI development

Google published its latest Responsible AI Progress Report, showing how AI Principles guide research, product development, and business decisions. Rising model capabilities and adoption have moved the focus from experimentation to real-world industry integration.

Governance and risk management form a central theme of the report, with Google describing a multilayered oversight structure spanning the entire AI lifecycle.

Advanced testing methods, including automated adversarial evaluations and expert review, are used to identify and mitigate potential harms as systems become more personalised and multimodal.

Broader access and societal impact remain key priorities. AI tools are increasingly used in science, healthcare, and environmental forecasting, highlighting their growing role in tackling global challenges.

Collaboration with governments, academia, and civil society is presented as essential for maintaining trust and setting industry standards. Sharing research and tools continues to support responsible AI innovation and broaden its benefits.

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