What better way to unwind from a two-hour-long keynote presentation than to pour over the weirdest and wildest details, from a Gmail bot you can converse with to DeepMind's leader saying the singularity is near. The Vergecast went live right after the show, with Senior AI Reporter Hayden Field joining me to discuss the highlights. […]
We react to Google I/O 2026 by Jacob Kastrenakes May 19, 2026, 9:48 PM UTC Jacob Kastrenakes is The Verge’s executive editor. He has covered tech, policy, and online creators for over a decade.
What better way to unwind from a two-hour-long keynote presentation than to pour over the weirdest and wildest details, from a Gmail bot you can converse with to DeepMind’s leader saying the singularity is near .
The Vergecast went live right after the show, with Senior AI Reporter Hayden Field joining me to discuss the highlights.
First up, we talk about the buzzword of the show: agents, which seem to be Google’s new answer to making AI useful. Google has a new service called Spark that sounds a lot like a Gemini-flavored OpenClaw, upgrades to its Antigravity platform, and a bunch of agents that will shop for you and track search topics. We also go over Google’s model updates , as well as its shift to world models with Gemini Omni , a theoretically ambitious new family that is off to a very focused start.
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Then, we discuss how Google Search is evolving — or put more plainly, being stuffed with AI features that turn Google into your final destination when browsing the web. We also talk vibe coding Android apps in Google AI Studio , the new Google Pics app , and Google’s expansion of access to content authentication tools so that people can learn what is and isn’t real.
We wrap up discussing Demis Hassabis’ proclamation that AGI and the singularity is near, which got surprisingly little stage time (one sentence) for such a bold statement. And finally, Hayden takes us through her thoughts on the Musk v. Altman trial, which wrapped up earlier this week.
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