Hacker News with Generative AI: Google

Evaluating Agent-Based Program Repair at Google (arxiv.org)
Agent-based program repair offers to automatically resolve complex bugs end-to-end by combining the planning, tool use, and code generation abilities of modern LLMs.

Software Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, Bug Repair, Google

14 points by azhenley 1 day ago | 1 comments

DeepMind is holding back release of AI research to give Google an edge (arstechnica.com)
Google’s artificial intelligence arm DeepMind has been holding back the release of its world-renowned research, as it seeks to retain a competitive edge in the race to dominate the burgeoning AI industry.

Artificial Intelligence, Google, Competition

11 points by jonbaer 1 day ago | 5 comments

Android development is going private but Google still wants help from other devs (androidauthority.com)
Google has confirmed to Android Authority that the Android team will still review code contributions from external developers.

Android Development, Google, Open Source

10 points by voxadam 1 day ago | 2 comments

Google Gemini is shaking up its AI leadership ranks (semafor.com)
Google is replacing the leader of its consumer AI apps as the focus of the AI race shifts from the underlying models to the products built around them, according to memos reviewed by Semafor.

Google, Artificial Intelligence, Leadership, Technology, Business

4 points by rococode 1 day ago | 0 comments

Apple enables RCS messaging for Google Fi subscribers at last (arstechnica.com)
Apple only supported RCS on the big three carriers in the first iOS18 releases.

Apple, Google, Messaging, Mobile Carriers, Technology

4 points by bentobean 1 day ago | 0 comments

How Google built its Gemini robotics models (google)
Powered by Gemini Robotics models, robots can learn complex actions like preparing salads, playing games like Tic-Tac-Toe and even folding an origami fox.

Robotics, Google, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning

199 points by simonpure 1 day ago | 82 comments

Mozilla Thunderbird Takes on Gmail with New Email Service (forbes.com)
Finally, Mozilla Thunderbird Takes On Gmail With New Email Service

Email, Mozilla, Google, Competition, Email Services

14 points by roywashere 2 days ago | 1 comments

Google will gradually reduce Pixel 9a battery capacity on purpose as it ages (androidpolice.com)

Google, Pixel 9a, Battery Life, Software Updates, Planned Obsolescence

7 points by josephcsible 2 days ago | 0 comments

New in Gmail: Making E2E encrypted emails easy to use for all organizations (workspace.google.com)
At Google, we believe that secure, confidential communication should be available for organizations of all sizes. However, end-to-end encrypted (E2EE) email was historically a privilege reserved for organizations with significant IT resources, due to the complexity of S/MIME and proprietary solutions.

Email, Security, Privacy, Google, Business

76 points by skim 2 days ago | 20 comments

The Mediocrity of Modern Google (om.co)
These days, whenever I think about Google, I recall a line from Madame Bovary. “She wanted to die, but she also wanted to live in Paris,” Flaubert writes, capturing Emma Bovary’s provincial reality and her romanticized dreams of escape. That is Google in a nutshell, isn’t it?

Google, Technology, Opinion, Criticism

49 points by mji 4 days ago | 26 comments

Today Google bricked my Chromebook by force-installing a hidden extension (cloudisland.nz)

Chromebooks, Google, Software Updates, Privacy, User Experience

237 points by robin_reala 6 days ago | 66 comments

Google tells Fitbit owners to move to Google or else (ycombinator.com)
You are receiving this email because there is an important upcoming change to your Fitbit account and action is required.

Google, Fitbit, Tech Industry, Privacy, Account Management

10 points by ChuckMcM 6 days ago | 4 comments

Google discontinues Nest Protect smoke alarm and Nest x Yale lock (arstechnica.com)
Google continues backing away from smart home hardware.

Google, Smart Home, Hardware, Discontinued Products

11 points by pseudolus 6 days ago | 4 comments

We hacked Gemini's Python sandbox and leaked its source code (at least some) (landh.tech)
In 2024 we released the blog post We Hacked Google A.I. for $50,000, where we traveled in 2023 to Las Vegas with Joseph "rez0" Thacker, Justin "Rhynorater" Gardner, and myself, Roni "Lupin" Carta, on a hacking journey that spanned from Las Vegas, Tokyo to France, all in pursuit of Gemini vulnerabilities during Google's LLM bugSWAT event. Well, we did it again …

Security, Generative AI, Hacking, Google

664 points by topsycatt 6 days ago | 142 comments

Google is publishing the home addresses of developers without their consent (ycombinator.com)
I am currently being denied the right to delete my Google Play developer account and remove personal data attached to it.

Privacy, Google, Developer Accounts, Personal Data

127 points by ebenezerdon 7 days ago | 78 comments

New Function Calling Guide for Gemini (google.dev)
Function calling lets you connect models to external tools and APIs. Instead of generating text responses, the model understands when to call specific functions and provides the necessary parameters to execute real-world actions. This allows the model to act as a bridge between natural language and real-world actions and data. Function calling has 3 primary use cases:

Generative AI, Google, Programming

6 points by philschmidxxx 8 days ago | 2 comments

Google makes Android development private, will continue open source releases (arstechnica.com)
Google is planning a major change to the way it develops new versions of the Android operating system.

Android, Open Source, Software Development, Google

236 points by coloneltcb 8 days ago | 101 comments

Google will develop Android OS behind closed doors starting next week (9to5google.com)
For years now, Android has been developed in a way that allowed the public to look in on Google’s work, but that’s now changing as Google has just confirmed that it will start to develop the operating system entirely in its internal branch.

Android, Software Development, Google, Open Source, Privacy

319 points by josephcsible 8 days ago | 230 comments

Colossus: How we deliver SSD performance at HDD prices (cloud.google.com)
From YouTube and Gmail to BigQuery and Cloud Storage, almost all of Google’s products depend on Colossus, our foundational distributed storage system.

Cloud Computing, Storage, Google, Hardware, Distributed Systems

7 points by caution 8 days ago | 0 comments

Apple's $22B Loss Risk as Google Might Cease to Be Default Search Engine (gizmodo.com)
We’ve all overslept an alarm or missed a deadline, but has it ever cost you $20 billion? According to Ars Technica, it may have just happened to Apple, which apparently suffered from some decision paralysis that pissed off a federal judge and might cost the company its lucrative agreement with Google to make the company’s search engine the default on Apple devices.

Apple, Google, Search Engines, Lawsuits, Business

8 points by bentobean 8 days ago | 4 comments

Google will develop the Android OS in private (androidauthority.com)
Google has confirmed to Android Authority that development of the Android operating system will soon fully happen in private.

Google, Android, Operating Systems, Privacy

47 points by walterbell 8 days ago | 2 comments

I Quit Google Search for AI–and I'm Not Going Back (wsj.com)
Ads and search-optimized junk made a mess of the go-to engine. Now ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude—and even Google’s own AI—do it better.

Search Engines, Artificial Intelligence, ChatGPT, Google

41 points by Bostonian 9 days ago | 77 comments

Apple in code search profanity outrage (2006) (theregister.com)
Our chums down at SecurityFocus recently warned that Google's new Code Search facility could allow developers' open source repositories to be "easily mined, allowing attackers to target programs that are likely to be flawed".

Security, Code Search, Google, Open Source, Hacking

8 points by jansan 9 days ago | 4 comments

Apple barred from Google antitrust trial, putting $20B search deal on the line (arstechnica.com)
Apple has suffered a blow in its efforts to salvage its lucrative search placement deal with Google. A new ruling from the DC Circuit Court of Appeals affirms that Apple cannot participate in Google's upcoming antitrust hearing, which could leave a multibillion-dollar hole in Apple's balance sheet. The judges in the case say Apple simply waited too long to get involved.

Antitrust, Google, Apple, Lawsuits, Business

7 points by brycewray 9 days ago | 0 comments

Gemini 2.5 (google)
Gemini 2.5 is a thinking model, designed to tackle increasingly complex problems. Our first 2.5 model, Gemini 2.5 Pro Experimental, leads common benchmarks by meaningful margins and showcases strong reasoning and code capabilities.

Generative AI, Google

973 points by meetpateltech 9 days ago | 484 comments

After borking my Pixel 4a battery, Google borks me, too (arstechnica.com)
It is an immutable law of nature that when you receive a corporate email with a subject line like "Changes coming to your Pixel 4a," the changes won't be the sort you like. Indeed, a more honest subject line would usually be: "You're about to get hosed."

Consumer Electronics, Google, Customer Service, User Experience

23 points by MBCook 10 days ago | 7 comments

Why I've now quit my Google contract job (kith.org)
I’ve left Google again, this time by choice.

Google, Contract Work, Career Decisions

26 points by bundie 10 days ago | 15 comments

Google admits it deleted some customer data after 'technical issue' (theregister.com)
Google has admitted it lost some customer data, possibly forever.

Google, Data Privacy, Security, Technical Issues

7 points by LinuxBender 10 days ago | 0 comments

Google confirms it deleted Maps Timeline data for some (theverge.com)
Google Maps users have recently been complaining on places like Reddit that their Timeline data — the app’s historical record of where they’ve been — had disappeared. Now, Google has confirmed that it accidentally deleted the data and that anyone who wasn’t using Google’s cloud backups is out of luck.

Google, Maps, Data Privacy, Technology, User Experience

9 points by nini1294 11 days ago | 3 comments

Italy demands Google poison DNS under strict Piracy Shield law (arstechnica.com)
Italy is using its Piracy Shield law to go after Google, with a court ordering the Internet giant to immediately begin poisoning its public DNS servers.

Law, Google, Italy, Piracy, DNS

176 points by DanAtC 12 days ago | 171 comments