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Google CEO Sundar Pichai speaks at the Google I/O developer conference. 

Andrej Sokolow | Picture Alliance | Getty Images

Google on Tuesday hosted its annual I/O developer conference, and rolled out a range of artificial intelligence products, from new search and chat features to AI hardware for cloud customers. The announcements underscore the company’s focus on AI as it fends off competitors, such as OpenAI.

Many of the features or tools Google unveiled are only in a testing phase or limited to developers, but they give an idea of how the tech giant is thinking about AI and where it’s investing. Google makes money from AI by charging developers who use its models and from customers who pay for Gemini Advanced, its competitor to ChatGPT, which costs $19.99 per month and can help users summarize PDFs, Google Docs and more.

Tuesday’s announcements follow similar events held by its AI competitors. Earlier this month, Amazon-backed Anthropic announced its first-ever enterprise offering and a free iPhone app. Meanwhile, OpenAI on Monday launched a new AI model and desktop version of ChatGPT, along with a new user interface.

Here’s what Google announced.

Gemini AI updates

Google introduced updates to Gemini 1.5 Pro, its AI model that will soon be able to handle even more data — for example, the tool can summarize 1,500 pages of text uploaded by a user.

There’s also a new Gemini 1.5 Flash AI model, which the company said is more cost-effective and designed for smaller tasks like quickly summarizing conversations, captioning images and videos and pulling data from large documents.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai highlighted improvements to Gemini’s translations, adding that it will be available to all developers worldwide in 35 languages. Within Gmail, Gemini 1.5 Pro will analyze attached PDFs and videos, giving summaries and more, Pichai said. That means that if you missed a long email thread on vacation, Gemini will be able to summarize it along with any attachments.

The new Gemini updates are also helpful for searching Gmail. One example the company gave: If you’ve been comparing prices from different contractors to fix your roof and are looking for a summary to help you decide who to pick, Gemini could return three quotes along with the anticipated start dates offered in the different email threads.

Google said Gemini will eventually replace Google Assistant on Android phones, suggesting it’s going to be a more powerful competitor to Apple’s Siri on iPhone.

Google Veo, Imagen 3 and Audio Overviews

Google announced “Veo,” its latest model for generating high-definition video, and Imagen 3, its highest quality text-to-image model, which promises lifelike images and “fewer distracting visual artifacts than our prior models.”

The tools will be available for select creators on Monday and will come to Vertex AI, Google’s machine learning platform that lets developers train and deploy AI applications.

The company also showcased “Audio Overviews,” the ability to generate audio discussions based on text input. For instance, if a user uploads a lesson plan, the chatbot can speak a summary of it. Or, if you ask for an example of a science problem in real life, it can do so through interactive audio.

Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai: We can do Google search a lot better with generative AI

Separately, the company also showcased “AI Sandbox,” a range of generative AI tools for creating music and sounds from scratch, based on user prompts.

Generative AI tools such as chatbots and image creators continue to have issues with accuracy, however.

Google search boss Prabhakar Raghavan told employees last month that competitors “may have a new gizmo out there that people like to play with, but they still come to Google to verify what they see there because it is the trusted source, and it becomes more critical in this era of generative AI.”

Earlier this year, Google introduced the Gemini-powered image generator. Users discovered historical inaccuracies that went viral online, and the company pulled the feature, saying it would relaunch it in the coming weeks. The feature has still not been re-released.

New search features

The tech giant is launching “AI Overviews” in Google Search on Monday in the U.S. AI Overviews show a quick summary of answers to the most complex search questions, according to Liz Reid, head of Google Search. For example, if a user searches for the best way to clean leather boots, the results page may display an “AI Overview” at the top with a multi-step cleaning process, gleaned from information it synthesized from around the web.

The company said it plans to introduce assistant-like planning capabilities directly within search. It explained that users will be able to search for something like, “‘Create a 3-day meal plan for a group that’s easy to prepare,'” and you’ll get a starting point with a wide range of recipes from across the web.

As far as its progress to offer “multimodality,” or integrating more images and video within generative AI tools, Google said it will begin testing the ability for users to ask questions through video, such as filming a problem with a product they own, uploading it and asking the search engine to figure out the problem. In one example, Google showed someone filming a broken record player while asking why it wasn’t working. Google Search found the model of the record player and suggested that it could be malfunctioning because it wasn’t properly balanced.

Another new feature being tested is called “AI Teammate,” which will integrate into a user’s Google Workspace. It can build a searchable collection of work from messages and email threads with more PDFs and documents. For instance, a founder-to-be could ask the AI Teammate, “Are we ready for launch?” and the assistant will provide an analysis and summary based on the information it can access in Gmail, Google Docs and other Workspace apps.

Project Astra

AI hardware

Google also announced Trillium, its sixth-generation TPU, or tensor processing unit — a piece of hardware integral to running complex AI operations — which is to be available to cloud customers in late 2024.

The TPUs aren’t meant to compete with other chips, like Nvidia’s graphics processing units. Pichai noted during I/O, for example, that Google Cloud will begin offering Nvidia’s Blackwell GPUs in early 2025.

Nvidia said in March that Google will be using the Blackwell platform for “various internal deployments and will be one of the first cloud providers to offer Blackwell-powered instances,” and that access to Nvidia’s systems will help Google offer large-scale tools for enterprise developers building large language models.

In his speech, Pichai highlighted Google’s “longstanding partnership with Nvidia.” The companies have been working together for more than a decade, and Pichai has said in the past that he expects them to still be doing so a decade from now.

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USDC stablecoin issuer Circle files for IPO as public markets open to crypto

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USDC stablecoin issuer Circle files for IPO as public markets open to crypto

Jeremy Allaire, Co-Founder and CEO, Circle 

David A. Grogan | CNBC

Circle, the company behind the USDC stablecoin, has filed for an initial public offering with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The S1 lays the groundwork for Circle’s long-anticipated entry into the public markets.

While the filing does not yet disclose the number of shares or a price range, sources told Fortune that Circle plans to move forward with a public filing in late April and is targeting a market debut as early as June.

JPMorgan Chase and Citi are reportedly serving as lead underwriters, and the company is seeking a valuation between $4 billion and $5 billion, according to Fortune.

This marks Circle’s second attempt at going public. A prior SPAC merger with Concord Acquisition Corp collapsed in late 2022 amid regulatory challenges. Since then, Circle has made strategic moves to position itself closer to the heart of global finance — including the announcement last year that it would relocate its headquarters from Boston to One World Trade Center in New York City.

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Circle is best known as the issuer of USDC, the world’s second-largest stablecoin by market capitalization.

Pegged one-to-one to the U.S. dollar and backed by cash and short-term Treasury securities, USDC has roughly $60 billion in circulation.

Circle is best known as the issuer of USDC, the world’s second-largest stablecoin by market capitalization.

Pegged one-to-one to the U.S. dollar and backed by cash and short-term Treasury securities, USDC has roughly $60 billion in circulation. It makes up about 26% of the total market cap for stablecoins, behind Tether‘s 67% dominance. Its market cap has grown 36% this year, however, compared with Tether’s 5% growth.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said on the company’s most recent earnings call that it has a “stretch goal to make USDC the number 1 stablecoin.” 

The company’s push into public markets reflects a broader moment for the crypto industry, which is navigating renewed political favor under a more crypto-friendly U.S. administration. The stablecoin sector is ramping up as the industry grows increasingly confident that the crypto market will get its first piece of U.S. legislation passed and implemented this year, focusing on stablecoins.

Stablecoins’ growth could have investment implications for crypto exchanges like Robinhood and Coinbase as they integrate more of them into crypto trading and cross-border transfers. Coinbase also has an agreement with Circle to share 50% of the revenue of its USDC stablecoin.

The stablecoin market has grown about 11% so far this year and about 47% in the past year, and has become a “systemically important” part of the crypto market, according to Bernstein. Historically, digital assets in this sector have been used for trading and as collateral in decentralized finance (DeFi), and crypto investors watch them closely for evidence of demand, liquidity and activity in the market.

More recently, however, rhetoric around stablecoins’ ability to help preserve U.S. dollar dominance – by exporting dollar utility internationally and ensuring demand for U.S. government debt, which backs nearly all dollar-denominated stablecoins – has grown louder.

A successful IPO would make Circle one of the most prominent crypto-native firms to list on a U.S. exchange — an important signal for both investors and regulators as digital assets become more entwined with the traditional financial system.

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Hims & Hers shares rise as company adds new weight-loss medications to platform

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Hims & Hers shares rise as company adds new weight-loss medications to platform

The Hims app arranged on a smartphone in New York on Feb. 12, 2025.

Gabby Jones | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Hims & Hers Health shares closed up 5% on Tuesday after the company announced patients can access Eli Lilly‘s weight loss medication Zepbound and diabetes drug Mounjaro, as well as the generic injection liraglutide, through its platform.

Zepbound, Mounjaro and liraglutide are part of the class of weight loss medications called GLP-1s, which have exploded in popularity in recent years. Hims & Hers launched a weight loss program in late 2023, but its GLP-1 offerings have evolved as the company has contended with a volatile supply and regulatory environment.

Lilly’s weekly injections Zepbound and Mounjaro will cost patients $1,899 a month, according to the Hims & Hers website. The generic liraglutide will cost $299 a month, but it requires a daily injection and can be less effective than other GLP-1 medications.

“As we look ahead, we plan to continue to expand our weight loss offering to deliver an even more holistic, personalized experience,” Dr. Craig Primack, senior vice president of weight loss at Hims & Hers, wrote in a blog post.

A Lilly spokesperson said in a statement that the company has “no affiliation” with Hims & Hers and noted that Zepbound is available at lower costs for people who are insured for the product or for those who buy directly from the company. 

In May, Hims & Hers started prescribing compounded semaglutide, the active ingredient in Novo Nordisk‘s GLP-1 weight loss medications Ozempic and Wegovy. The offering was immensely popular and helped generate more than $225 million in revenue for the company in 2024.

But compounded drugs can traditionally only be mass produced when the branded medications treatments are in shortage. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced in February that the shortage of semaglutide injections products had been resolved.

That meant Hims & Hers had to largely stop offering the compounded medications, though some consumers may still be able to access personalized doses if it’s clinically applicable. 

During the company’s quarterly call with investors in February, Hims & Hers said its weight loss offerings will primarily consist of its oral medications and liraglutide. The company said it expects its weight loss offerings to generate at least $725 million in annual revenue, excluding contributions from compounded semaglutide.

But the company is still lobbying for compounded medications. A pop up on Hims & Hers’ website, which was viewed by CNBC, encourages users to “use your voice” and urge Congress and the FDA to preserve access to compounded treatments.

With Tuesday’s rally, Hims and Hers shares are up about 27% in 2025 after soaring 172% last year.

WATCH: Hims & Hers shares tumble over concerns around weight-loss business

Hims & Hers shares tumble over concerns around weight-loss business

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Meta’s head of AI research announces departure

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Meta's head of AI research announces departure

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg holds a smartphone as he makes a keynote speech at the Meta Connect annual event at the company’s headquarters in Menlo Park, California, on Sept. 25, 2024.

Manuel Orbegozo | Reuters

Meta’s head of artificial intelligence research announced Tuesday that she will be leaving the company. 

Joelle Pineau, the company’s vice president of AI research, announced her departure in a LinkedIn post, saying her last day at the social media company will be May 30. 

Her departure comes at a challenging time for Meta. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has made AI a top priority, investing billions of dollars in an effort to become the market leader ahead of rivals like OpenAI and Google.

Zuckerberg has said that it is his goal for Meta to build an AI assistant with more than 1 billion users and artificial general intelligence, which is a term used to describe computers that can think and take actions comparable to humans.

“As the world undergoes significant change, as the race for AI accelerates, and as Meta prepares for its next chapter, it is time to create space for others to pursue the work,” Pineau wrote. “I will be cheering from the sidelines, knowing that you have all the ingredients needed to build the best AI systems in the world, and to responsibly bring them into the lives of billions of people.”

Vice President of AI Research and Head of FAIR at Meta Joelle Pineau attends a technology demonstration at the META research laboratory in Paris on February 7, 2025.

Stephane De Sakutin | AFP | Getty Images

Pineau was one of Meta’s top AI researchers and led the company’s fundamental AI research unit, or FAIR, since 2023. There, she oversaw the company’s cutting-edge computer science-related studies, some of which are eventually incorporated into the company’s core apps. 

She joined the company in 2017 to lead Meta’s Montreal AI research lab. Pineau is also a computer science professor at McGill University, where she is a co-director of its reasoning and learning lab.

Some of the projects Pineau helped oversee include Meta’s open-source Llama family of AI models and other technologies like the PyTorch software for AI developers.

Pineau’s departure announcement comes a few weeks ahead of Meta’s LlamaCon AI conference on April 29. There, the company is expected to detail its latest version of Llama. Meta Chief Product Officer Chris Cox, to whom Pineau reported to, said in March that Llama 4 will help power AI agents, the latest craze in generative AI. The company is also expected to announce a standalone app for its Meta AI chatbot, CNBC reported in February

“We thank Joelle for her leadership of FAIR,” a Meta spokesperson said in a statement. “She’s been an important voice for Open Source and helped push breakthroughs to advance our products and the science behind them.” 

Pineau did not reveal her next role but said she “will be taking some time to observe and to reflect, before jumping into a new adventure.”

WATCH: Meta awaits antitrust fine from EU

Meta awaits antitrust fine from EU

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