Google Home and Nest users report declining reliability, with devices frequently misunderstanding commands or failing to respond.

This week, I take a look at the surprisingly strong state of Google, Meta gets a new chief AI researcher, and more. If you haven’t already, be sure to check out this week’s Decoder episode about deepfakes and where they are headed.

Google DeepMind CEO said it's because Meta is behind in the AI race. The AI talent war is raising concerns about increasing costs and competition among top tech firms. Google DeepMind's CEO says there is a simple reason Meta is spending millions of dollars to attract AI talent.

Alphabet reported second-quarter results on Wednesday that beat on revenue and earnings, but the company said it would raise its capital investments by $10 billion in 2025. Shares of the company were up as much as 3% in after-hours trading. The company’s overall revenue grew 14% year over year, higher than the 10.9% Wall Street expected.

Mahjong is having a moment, with the popularity of the tile game surging this year. Generally, people play at each other’s homes or in libraries, but this summer, there has been a growing demand for floating mahjong tables. The Mahjong Line sells one for $245 that currently has a waiting list.

Italian energy storage firm Energy Dome said on Friday it had entered a commercial partnership with Google to supply carbon-free energy to the grids that power the operations of the U.S. tech giant.

Google leaked the entire Pixel 10 series through Play Store.

A few months ago at its I/O 2025 event, Google unveiled an AI-powered tool that could prevent those fashion disasters, letting you upload a full-body picture of yourself to virtually try on clothing found online. Now, that tool is finally available to users in the U.S.