Google has introduced a 24/7 AI assistant for Workspace that can send emails and schedule meetings while you rest.

      Google's simultaneous announcement of five Workspace features could be seen as either a display of confidence or a sign of chaos, but the real game-changer is Gemini Spark, which acts on your behalf while you sleep, redefining the productivity suite experience.

      At the I/O 2026 event, Google unveiled a range of AI-driven enhancements for its Workspace applications. The standout feature is Gemini Spark, a 24/7 personal AI assistant that not only responds to inquiries but also takes actions for you.

      Gemini Spark is capable of sending emails, adding events to your calendar, and completing tasks across various Workspace applications. Importantly, it will seek your approval before performing any high-stakes actions, allowing you to enable or disable it as you wish. This feature will soon be available in preview for Workspace business customers via the Gemini app.

      Introducing Gemini Spark ✨— your always-on personal AI that helps you manage your digital life, acting under your direction and taking action on your behalf. 🧠 Powered by Gemini 3.5 and built on @Antigravity, it can effortlessly perform long-running tasks in the background… pic.twitter.com/NX9CCMBGPT— Google (@Google) May 19, 2026

      What else is new in Google Workspace?

      There is quite a bit. This summer, three of Google's most popular Workspace applications will introduce voice-based functionalities. Gmail Live enables you to search your inbox verbally, allowing queries like "What’s my flight’s gate number?" to yield instant answers by scanning your booking details.

      Docs Live advances this concept further, serving as an assistant that transforms your spoken thoughts into organized documents. With your permission, it can also retrieve relevant context from Gmail, Drive, and the internet. Meanwhile, Keep receives a significant update; simply speak, and it will convert the dialogue into organized notes and lists.

      We’re bringing conversational AI to more products 💬 With Docs Live, you can create and edit a new document entirely through voice commands. Just express your thoughts, and let Gemini handle the rest. These new conversational features in @Gmail, @GoogleDocs, and Keep are on the way… pic.twitter.com/x5owR0U78s— Google (@Google) May 19, 2026

      All three features will roll out to full Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers this summer, with a preview available for Workspace business customers.

      What about Google Pics and AI Inbox?

      Google Pics is a brand-new image creation and editing tool based on the Gemini Nano Banana model. Its main feature is object differentiation, allowing you to select an element in an image to move, resize, or transform it independently of the rest. It also facilitates in-image text editing and translation, collaborative canvases, alongside integration with Slides and Drive.

      Introducing Google Pics, our latest image generation and editing tool 🖼️ Developed on our new Nano Banana model 🍌 Pics simplifies complex image generation. It's launching today for Trusted Testers and will be available for business customers this summer. Learn more about Pics… pic.twitter.com/E4wPMz0y3G— Google Workspace (@GoogleWorkspace) May 19, 2026

      Google Pics is currently available for Trusted Testers, while Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers will have access this summer. AI Inbox, which was previously exclusive to Ultra subscribers, is now expanding to all Google AI Plus and Pro users in the United States, offering personalized draft responses, file access, and one-click task management.

      For over five years, Shikhar has continuously made consumer tech developments easier to understand.

      Google aims for Gemini to contribute to the next significant scientific breakthrough.

      Gemini for Science integrates agentic AI into real research processes.

      At Google I/O 2026, the company introduced Gemini for Science, an experimental suite focused on integrating agentic AI into scientific research. This initiative aims to tackle the manual aspects of scientific discovery, such as hypothesis generation, computational testing, and literature analysis.

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      Discord finally implements end-to-end encryption for calls, but your DMs are still not protected.

      Discord has completed a significant project that began in 2023. The results are impressive, though there is a notable limitation. As of early March 2026, all standard voice and video calls on Discord are end-to-end encrypted (E2EE), automatically enabled by default, without the need for users to activate any settings. This encryption utilizes DAVE, Discord’s proprietary open-source protocol.

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      OpenAI launches a new website to verify if an image is real or AI-generated.

      OpenAI and Google are collaborating to add verification to every AI image.

      As it becomes increasingly challenging to identify AI-generated images, OpenAI aims to address this issue, partnering with Google to tackle this extensive challenge. OpenAI has announced a substantial update to its content provenance practices, a term that refers to the ability to determine the origin of an image and ascertain whether it was created by AI.

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