Computerworld

Google touts new genAI features for its NotebookLM NotebookLM can now generate AI video summaries from reference documents in the form of narrated slides.

Google is adding more features to its NotebookLM software — the targeted workspace where users can gather information on specific subjects, understand it, and use generative AI to analyze reference documents, brainstorm ideas and generate summaries. Story by @agamsh.bsky.social

Google backs EU’s AI code despite concerns over innovation risks The move is expected to increase pressure on other providers, including Meta and Anthropic, to follow suit.

Google has said it will adopt the EU’s voluntary code of practice for general-purpose AI, despite expressing concerns that the AI Act and accompanying code could hinder Europe’s progress in developing and deploying AI technologies.

9 ways Copilot can turbocharge OneNote OneNote users, take note: Microsoft’s AI assistant can speed up your workflow and perform tasks you never expected in a note-taking app. Here are nine things to try with Copilot in OneNote.

This handful of Copilot functions in OneNote can speed up and enhance how you work with your notes, from summarizing the contents of a notebook to creating visual materials from its data.

Copilot is getting a face, a room — and a place in your life Microsoft wants to give your Copilot a "permanent identity" — like a Tamagotchi.

"your AI will be a “continuous observer and participant in creating new culture alongside you” and “it’s going to have a lasting, stable presence with memory,” says Mustafa Suleyman, CEO of Microsoft AI.

Again? Microsoft hit for poor security in major SharePoint hack The company has been called out repeatedly for inadequate security practices, and now we have another case in point: a successful SharePoint hack that’s among the worst in Microsoft’s history.

"As with past hacks, Microsoft’s poor security practices are under the spotlight. The company did such a bad job patching the flaw that hackers were able to make their way through even after the patch was issued, according to security firm Sophos."

Microsoft is turning Edge into an AI browser The company on Monday unveiled an AI extension called ‘Copilot Mode’ that can automate browsing and add context to internet content.

Experimental AI browsers are previewing new ways of browsing the internet and Microsoft this week joined the fray. Story by @agamsh.bsky.social

Is Google search dying? How genAI is reshaping the internet Generative AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity are shaking up the world of search - and putting pressure on Google's dominance. In this episode of Today in Tech, host Keith Shaw speaks with Thais Castello Branco, Head of Marketing and Strategy at Exa, about how AI is transforming how we search, how businesses are adapting, and what the future of discovery looks like.

AI is changing how we search—and how brands get found. In the latest Today in Tech, I talk with Thais Castello Branco from Exa about the risks of relying on Google, and how marketers can adapt.

Watch on Computerworld:
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Apple in India transforms the US smartphone industry India now accounts for 44% of US smartphone imports.

"[India] is biting big chunks out of a smartphone market once served by Chinese manufacturing. This trend isn’t particularly surprising to any Apple watcher, but what might be of interest is the absolute speed with which the market is changing." Story by @jonnyevanssays.bsky.social

Google makes an AI play with ChromeOS PCs The company apparently wants to position its Gemini-infused Chromebooks as a viable alternative to Windows 11 AI PCs.

"Google is making a strategic play in the AI PC space in a bid to slow Microsoft’s generative AI (genAI) technologies in Windows 11 from gobbling up every desktop." Story by @agamsh.bsky.social

Zhipu launches GLM-4.5 model as China ramps up open-source AI race It’s built with an “agent-native” design that integrates reasoning, perception, and action into its core architecture, the company said.

Chinese AI firm Z.ai, formerly known as Zhipu, has launched GLM-4.5, an open-source language model designed for intelligent agent applications, as competition heats up among China’s fast-growing generative AI startups.

Driverless cars are becoming jerks — and they’re safer because of it AI-powered autonomous vehicles (AVs) are increasingly mimicking human driving behavior — both good and bad — by learning from real-world data.

"AI-powered AVs are increasingly honking, taking sharper turns, rolling through stop signs, or edging into crosswalks — mimicking human behavior that ironically could make them safer vehicles." Story by Lucas Mearian.

IT leaders scramble as Windows 10 deadline nears Migrate to Windows 11, pay for extended Windows 10 support, or forgo security updates? With less than three months to go, IT leaders are taking a multi-pronged approach.

Support for Windows 10 ends October 14. Still, “many organizations are balancing multiple initiatives and waiting for the right moment in their device lifecycle or broader IT strategy,” says Stefan Kinnestrand, VP Product Marketing at Microsoft, who oversees Windows commercial marketing.

Protected by its moat, Apple has time to get AI right Best of all, the hardware it sells today will run whatever Apple comes up with.

"Apple doesn’t need to do what Meta, Google or Amazon are doing in terms of chatbots and search. That path is expensive, the market well-served, and the reward less clear," writes @jonnyevanssays.bsky.social

Leena AI unveils conversational AI 'colleagues' for the enterprise Blending voice AI with mobile, desktop, and app integrations, Leena’s ‘extremely personified’ agents aim to bridge the gap between humans and fragmented workplace software.

Startup Leena AI on Thursday launched agentic AI “virtual colleagues” that can actively listen and speak in natural language. Workers get AI assistance simply by talking, anytime and anywhere, via mobile and desktop apps and through Slack and Teams integrations. Is this the future of work?

AI slop is eating the world From search results to videos to music to reviews, fake content is flooding the internet. Every service with search needs a switch that turns that stuff off — or we’ll drown in digital dreck.

Computerworld columnist @mikeelgan.bsky.social says DuckDuckGo's new feature that lets users hide AI-generated images in search results is the most welcome new search feature of the year. What say you?

Intel to lay off 22% of workforce as CEO Tan signals ‘no more blank checks’ The chipmaker plans to reduce headcount from 96,400 to 75,000 employees amid restructuring and steeper Q3 losses.

Intel will reduce its workforce by 22% to 75,000 employees by the end of 2025 as new CEO Lip-Bu Tan implements sweeping changes designed to transform the struggling chipmaker.

IT buyers are investing in AI PCs — with no clue how to use them Companies looking to buy Windows 11 PCs designed for AI tools are doing so without really understanding what they can — and can't yet — do, analysts say.

Eyeing the upcoming end of support for Windows 10 in October, many IT buyers are snapping up Windows 11 AI PCs despite having no clear understanding of how to use them in their infrastructures. Story by @agamsh.bsky.social

Bias alert: LLMs suggest women seek lower salaries than men in job interviews Asking a chatbot for advice when negotiating a salary could turn around and bite you, researchers found.

Researchers led by Ivan P. Yamshchikov, a professor at the Technical University of Applied Sciences Würzburg-Schweinfurt, compared responses given to various personas to queries about salary. Their findings: in many cases, the answers varied depending on who the AI tool thought it was advising.

In a newly published case study, big consultancy firm McKinsey takes a deep look at Apple’s efforts to build a circular manufacturing ecosystem. Story by @jonnyevanssays.bsky.social

www.computerworld.com/article/4028...

16 slick tricks for smarter Android voice typing Time to embrace the full power of Android's voice-to-text intelligence.

"Google’s speech-to-text system on Android is actually far more capable than many of us mere mortals realize. And it’s gained quite a few useful new tricks over the years, too, which shockingly few Homo sapiens seem to have noticed," writes Computerworld contributor @jrr.bsky.social

I vibe-coded a dog birthday app. We still need developers. Can a non-developer use vibe coding to build and deploy a full-stack app? And can that app actually do anything useful?

With all the vibe coding talk, Computerworld contributor @mariakorolov.bsky.social decided to take a couple of platforms for a test drive to see if she could build a usable app. Here are the results.

Trump gets aggressive with new US AI action plan Goal is to come out on top in global race, but groups such as Center for Democracy & Technology have major concerns.

The Trump administration on Wednesday outlined how it intends to win the global artificial intelligence race, with the launch of a new strategy that involves exporting US-developed AI, enabling innovation and adoption, and promoting a speedy buildout of data centers.

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AI chatbots ditch medical disclaimers, putting users at risk, study warns A Stanford-led study found that most AI chatbots have stopped including medical disclaimers in health responses, raising concerns that users might trust potentially unsafe or unverified advice.

Most AI chatbots have stopped including medical disclaimers in their responses to health-related queries, a Stanford-led study found, raising concerns that users might trust potentially unsafe advice.

Why ChatGPT is crushing Microsoft Copilot When generative AI was just getting going, Microsoft had a healthy head start. So what happened?

"Microsoft’s Copilot AI assistant has a fraction of the downloads OpenAI’s ChatGPT does on mobile devices, a pretty clear indication it’s losing to ChatGPT on Windows, too," writes Computerworld contributor Chris Hoffman.

iOS 26 Public Beta with new security tools is about to ship Among other things you can kill robocalls and spam messages with Apple's iOS 26.

The first public beta of iOS 26 is about to ship (probably on Wednesday, July 23). When it does, it will introduce two powerful new call-related features that should make a difference to business and personal communications: smart call and iMessage screening.

‘Significant’ outage at Alaska Airlines not a security incident, but a hardware breakdown The airline confirmed that the failure of a third-party piece of hardware grounded flights, underscoring the fact that even systems that are multiply-redundant can go down.

An outage that grounded flights at Alaska Airlines for three hours on Sunday wasn’t the result of a cyberattack, but a hardware failure in one of the company’s data centers.

As AI agents go mainstream, companies lean into confidential computing for data security If agentic AI is to be successful, companies will have to figure out how to protect data. With that in mind, several big tech players now offer their own flavor of confidential computing.

For enterprises concerned about AI security, putting confidential computing into action can alleviate some of those fears, says Craig Matsumoto, a contributing research analyst at Futuriom.

MSRT vs. MSERT: Using Microsoft native malware handlers The Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool (MSRT) and the Microsoft Safety Scanner (MSERT.exe) both scan for and remove Windows malware. We explain the differences and when it makes sense to use each...

Microsoft provides Windows users with two tools that offer malware scanning and repair services: MSRT and MSERT. There are times when either tool will do the job, but there are other times when one will be preferable to the other.

From chatbots to robots: The rise of 'physical AI' The relatively new field of physical AI combines artificial intelligence with real-world systems like robots and IoT devices to enable real-time, adaptive decision-making.

“In the past one to two years, we’ve entered the era of agentic AI. Physical AI is the next chapter — embedding intelligence into devices that sense, decide, and act in the real world,” says Albert Meige, an associate director with global consultancy Arthur D. Little.