Google I/O, World Models, I/O Spaghetti (Stratechery Update

Google I/O put AI everywhere, for better and for worse. Meanwhile, is DeepMind aligned with Google's business objectives? View in browser LrqY6CNprwNX2_4u6yG6tEp8ZNHIgXfQHNtkgAh2hhzEmg4AU4nlYCglv84NXZmvrb89eRwEuY-H9KW5JZB5D7YDr0FdfmY9na6g5Ph34wAprHRfYN3d-Vgi4YbD64XFrH25HdBplYODq7uvkFm1Ql-nXMlZm8fPeeXmy9P5Olvl-55n1xNrekxDXXV625pjvE9lImDsBgW_rAGIIw6E9rD0Yw1h_15iahK22xyNz0REVf5qlGrqUOGyYbFMyUIowV4WU18Q3Oplacj5eY8biRB3Vo3Igz1lbz4as7wbwTtykBHP5g8F1vGPwDrUw3Vbr2k-AMP1siR9-VA__fF8Nw> | Listen in your podcast player online%2Ffeed%2Fpodcast%2F4wXG68hJAKW44aGqcgGJo2> [image: STRATECHERY] com> Google I/O, World Models, I/O Spaghetti LrqY6CNprwNX2_4u6yG6tEp8ZNHIgXfQHNtkgAh2hhzEmg4AU4nlYCglv84NXZmvrb89eRwEuY-H9KW5JZB5D7YDr0FdfmY9na6g5Ph34wAprHRfYN3d-Vgi4YbD64XFrH25HdBplYODq7uvkFm1Ql-nXMlZm8fPeeXmy9P5Olvl-55n1xNrekxDXXV625pjvE9lImDsBgW_rAGIIw6E9rD0Yw1h_15iahK22xyNz0REVf5qlGrqUOGyYbFMyUIowV4WU18Q3Oplacj5eY8biRB3Vo3Igz1lbz4as7wbwTtykBHP5g8F1vGPwDrUw3Vbr2k-AMP1siR9-VA__fF8Nw> Wednesday, May 20, 2026 ------------------------------ Good morning, This coming Monday is Memorial Day; there will be no Update. On to the Update: Google I/O From Bloomberg com/news/articles/2026-05-19/google-revamps-youtube-docs-with-artificial-intelligence-tools>: Alphabet ’s Google is redesigning its iconic search box and adding new artificial intelligence coding tools, the latest steps in the company’s multibillion-dollar campaign to expand influence in the age of AI.

Google overhauled the search box to better handle the longer, more complicated queries people bring to chatbots. The firm is also planning to update the search engine with agents that can help people track topics of interest, make reservations and monitor their health, among other things. Some features will initially be limited to paying subscribers. From the Wall Street Journal com/tech/ai/google-unveils-new-gemini-ai-agent-for-personal-tasks-b8093197>: Google is supercharging its Gemini artificial-intelligence model to become more competitive in the era of agentic AI. The company has started rolling out what it calls Gemini Spark, a personal agent it says is capable of navigating a user’s digital life and acting on his or her behalf.

The agent will work across many of Google’s products and run on the company’s cloud infrastructure…Google also announced the rollout of Gemini Omni, a tool to create videos from various inputs including text, audio and images…Google on Tuesday introduced Gemini 3.5 Flash, a model it says is well suited for coding and agentic work and runs four times faster than other frontier models. Gemini 3.5 Pro, a stronger but slower model, will roll out in the coming weeks. This year’s Google I/O was so sprawling that I decided to use both of my usual sources for these Updates, because they helpfully made my point by choosing entirely different things to focus on!