Google is preparing to update vehicles that have Google built-in with its Gemini AI assistant.  This will be an upgrade from the current Google Assistant according to Google’s announcement, and promises to provide an improved experience for natural conversations, fetching vehicle-specific information, settings adjustments, and more.

“When cars with Google built-in first hit the road in 2020, we made a commitment that your car will get better over time,” Google senior product manager Alankar Agnihotri said in the announcement. “That means that Gemini is coming not only to new cars, but also to existing ones through a software update.”

The announcement isn’t a total surprise, given General Motors already announced yesterday that Gemini was coming to 4 million model year 2022 and newer cars, including Cadillac, Chevrolet, Buick, and GMC vehicles. But Google didn’t specify any particular model support, which suggests the Gemini update won’t be exclusive to GM vehicles. The software update rollout will start with English in the US and continue over the coming months.

The improvements should allow drivers to engage in more natural conversations with the chatbot, such as asking for nearby restaurant recommendations and playlist suggestions, instead of memorizing a rigid set of commands. Gemini can also summarize and respond to text messages, provide real-time updates about your journey, and answer specific questions about your car — including EV insights like current battery levels.

The option to upgrade to Gemini will appear to eligible users who are signed into their Google Account in their car. Google says its planning to expand the upgrade to additional regions and languages, and “give drivers the ability to safely access their info in apps like Gmail, Calendar and Google Home” sometime in the near future.

Meta is planning to pump billions more into AI investments this year, despite noting that millions of users have seemingly started to abandon its platforms. In an earning call on Wednesday, Meta reported that figures for “Family daily active people” — the term Meta has coined for all collective users of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, or Messenger — declined by 20 million this quarter compared to the previous three months.

Meta attributes this fall to “internet disruptions in Iran, as well as a restriction on access to WhatsApp in Russia.” It’s up to you whether you take Meta on its word, given that by bundling the user stats together across all its platforms, we can’t tell which ones are most impacted. If I wanted to obscure that a leading social platform was potentially hemorrhaging daily users, that’s certainly what I would do.

This drop comes as Meta says it’s increasing its projected capital expenditures for 2026 to a range of $125-145 billion, $10 billion more than previous estimates. This increased spending is driven by expectations for higher component pricing and, “to a lesser extent,” additional costs for future data center capacity. This is a course correction, according to Meta’s chief financial officer Susan Li, who said in the investor call that Meta had “underestimated our compute demand in the past.”

Meta’s revenue also experienced its fastest growth since 2021, increasing by 33 percent, from $42.3 billion this time last year to $56.3 billion this quarter. Some divisions aren’t doing so hot though — the Reality Labs unit that builds wearables and virtual reality devices reported an operating loss of $4.03 billion over the three-month quarter, and follows Meta’s Reality Labs employees being hit by two waves of layoffs since January.

Meta’s stock price has fallen by more than 7 percent at the time of writing, compared to before the company’s earnings release.

Sony has finally stepped in to clear up the growing confusion around a new DRM (Digital Rights Management) system on PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 consoles. Users reported that the system’s latest updates seemingly introduced a requirement to go online once every 30 days to validate game licenses, but Sony now says this is false.

In a statement to GameSpot, a Sony Interactive Entertainment spokesperson said that “a one-time online check is required to confirm the game’s license, after which no further check-ins are required.” The DRM rumors had sparked concerns that gamers who don’t sign in every month would lose access to their games by allowing the licenses to lapse, but Sony says that “players can continue to access and play their purchased games as usual.”

It’s a welcome rebuttal that should give PlayStation gamers some peace of mind, however it comes several days after content creator Modded Hardware first reported the DRM concerns on April 24th. Subsequent screenshots shared online appeared to show a 30-day timer on PlayStation Store purchases made after March 2026. 

With no official response from Sony to explain the changes at the time, users speculated that the new DRM update required monthly online connectivity, perhaps to combat refund scams that use  jailbroken PS4 consoles to extract digital game licenses. The introduction of a one-time verification could still be aimed at tackling such a vulnerability, though Sony hasn’t confirmed its reasoning behind the changes. 

Sony’s slow response has reheated concerns about ownership rights for digital games, however. The messy situation mirrors similar discord from 2013 around Microsoft requiring Xbox One owners to be subjected to online checks every 24 hours. That was swiftly scrapped following feedback from outraged gamers, but not before Sony released an ad poking fun at its competitor’s decisions.

General Motors is planning to bring Google’s Gemini AI assistant to around four million vehicles across the US. Model year 2022 and newer Cadillac, Chevrolet, Buick, and GMC vehicles with Google built-in will be eligible for the AI upgrade, which will be rolled out via over-the-air software updates for GM’s infotainment system “over several months,” according to GM’s announcement.

GM says this update represents “one of the largest deployments of Gemini in the industry,” and that “customers will notice an upgrade from the current Google Assistant to a smarter, more intuitive AI assistant that continues to improve over time.” 

The assistant can perform various tasks, including sending messages, navigation, offering music suggestions, and more. The upgrade to Gemini should also provide a more conversational experience, allowing users to ask questions or make requests more naturally than memorizing specific commands. Gemini will initially be available in US English, with GM saying it plans to expand to “additional GM markets and support more languages over time.”

GM has now also crossed a significant milestone, announcing that customers in nearly 750,000 Super Cruise-enabled vehicles have driven one billion hands-free miles. The Super Cruise advanced driver-assist system isn’t fully autonomous — instead allowing drivers to take their hands off the steering wheel on compatible roads across the US and Canada — but that milestone shows that it might give competitors like Tesla a run for their money.