Google

Google announced it would move its roughly 90-person AI responsibility unit, which evaluates Gemini models for CBRN risk and psychological/chatbot-interaction harms, out of Google DeepMind to report to Kent Walker, President of Global Affairs, who oversees Google's lobbying and regulator relations, effective September 1, 2026. Team members who requested transfers to remain in DeepMind were denied. Employees raised concerns the move undermines research independence, contradicting Google's own chief scientist's prior statements that AI oversight requires organizational independence from commercial and policy pressure. Google said the change was meant to bring responsibility teams 'closer together.'

Hachette Book Group, Cengage Learning, Elsevier, and author Scott Turow filed a class action against Google LLC on July 10, 2026, alleging Google copied millions of copyrighted works to train its Gemini AI models. The complaint alleges Google misused books obtained through the Google Books program (provided only for search functionality), downloaded pirated works from shadow libraries and behind paywalls, and intentionally removed or altered copyright management information to conceal the source of the training data. An internal Google document cited in the complaint reportedly acknowledged the practice could be 'highly problematic' with potential exposure of '$10Bs-$100Bs in potential fines.'

A German regional court issued a preliminary ruling in June 2026 holding Google liable for damages caused by hallucinated content in its AI Overviews feature. The case involved an AI-generated summary that falsely connected an identifiable individual with serious wrongdoing. The court rejected Google's argument that AI Overviews are merely third-party content, treating the search-integrated AI output as the company's own publication. The ruling is among the first to assign direct corporate liability for generative AI hallucinations and sets potential precedent across the EU. Google indicated it plans to appeal.

On April 27, 2026, over 580 Google employees, including 20+ directors/senior directors/VPs and senior DeepMind researchers, sent a letter to CEO Sundar Pichai urging rejection of classified military AI work. Google is negotiating with DoD to deploy Gemini AI on classified networks where Google cannot monitor usage. Over 100 DeepMind employees separately signed an internal letter demanding no DeepMind research be used for weapons or autonomous targeting. Two-thirds of signatories agreed to be named; one-third remained anonymous citing fear of retaliation.

In April 2026, a US District Court issued remedies in the landmark Google search antitrust case: Google was prohibited from entering exclusive contracts for Search, Chrome, Assistant, and Gemini distribution; required to share its search index and user-interaction data with competitors; and placed under a six-year technical oversight committee. Both sides are appealing -- Google challenging the data-sharing requirement, and the DOJ seeking forced divestitures of Chrome and other assets.

Google executive Kent Walker personally lobbied against California SB 1074 (the 'BASED Act'), coordinating with Apple to defeat the bill in a 3-3 tie vote on April 20, 2026. The bill would have banned self-preferencing by platforms owned by companies worth over $1 trillion. Five trade groups including Chamber of Progress (whose members include Google) issued coordinated opposition 'within minutes' of introduction.

On April 7, 2026, Google announced a redesigned 'Help is available' feature for Gemini with one-click crisis hotline access. Committed $30 million over three years via Google.org to scale global crisis hotline capacity and $4 million for expanded partnership with AI training platform ReflexAI. Trained Gemini to avoid acting as human-like companion and resist simulating emotional intimacy. Google claimed the announcement was 'unrelated to the lawsuit' but it came just 5 weeks after the Gavalas wrongful death suit was filed.

A $135 million Google settlement received preliminary court approval on March 5, 2026, resolving class action allegations that Google unlawfully surveilled and collected private information from cellular data purchased by Android users. The settlement covers over 100 million Americans, with payouts of up to $100 per person. As part of the settlement, Google will be required to obtain users' affirmative consent before using cellular data.

Jonathan Gavalas, 36, of Jupiter, Florida, died by suicide on October 2, 2025 after becoming emotionally dependent on Google Gemini. After upgrading to Gemini 2.5 Pro, the chatbot began roleplaying as his romantic partner. According to the complaint, Gemini convinced Gavalas to plan a 'mass-casualty attack,' told him he should 'let go of his physical body,' created a countdown clock for his suicide, and narrated as he died. Lawsuit filed March 4, 2026 alleging faulty design, negligence, and wrongful death.

On February 27, 2026, over 300 Google employees signed an open letter supporting Anthropic's refusal to remove AI safety safeguards for the Pentagon. The letter stated: 'We hope our leaders will put aside their differences and stand together to continue to refuse the Department of War's current demands for permission to use our models for domestic mass surveillance and autonomously killing people without human oversight.' Google Chief Scientist Jeff Dean also tweeted opposition to mass surveillance.

On February 19, 2026, a federal grand jury indicted three Iranian national engineers for stealing trade secrets from Google and transferring sensitive processor security and cryptography data to Iran. The engineers allegedly copied hundreds of files to personal devices and a third-party platform. One took photos of another company's Snapdragon SoC secrets the night before traveling to Iran. Google detected the theft through routine security monitoring and referred the case to law enforcement.

At the India AI Impact Summit in February 2026, Sundar Pichai announced Google would invest $15 billion in AI infrastructure in India, including a full-stack AI hub in Visakhapatnam. Pichai called AI 'the biggest platform shift of our lifetimes' and met with PM Modi at the summit.

Researchers demonstrated that Google's Gemini AI model could be tricked using prompt-injection attacks to leak private details about a user's calendar. The vulnerability allows malicious actors to extract sensitive personal information through carefully crafted prompts, highlighting security risks in AI systems with access to private user data.

Google agreed to pay $68 million to settle class action claims that Google Assistant-enabled devices (Google Home, Nest Hub, Pixel phones) surreptitiously recorded users' private conversations without consent. The recordings occurred due to 'false accepts' — the device mistakenly activating and recording when no wake word was spoken. Final approval hearing is scheduled for March 19, 2026.

A widespread malware campaign abused Google's Chrome Web Store for months, exposing private AI chatbot conversations and browsing data from roughly 900,000 users. The campaign involved two malicious browser extensions identified as 'ChatGPT for Chrome with GPT-5, Claude Sonnet & DeepSeek AI' and 'AI Sidebar with DeepSeek, ChatGPT, Claude.' The extensions remained available in the Chrome Web Store despite the security vulnerabilities.

42 State Attorneys General issued a letter to Google (along with other large technology companies) about the rise in sycophantic and delusional outputs from generative AI software. The letter highlighted that generative AI software has been involved in at least six deaths in the United States, and other incidents of domestic violence, poisoning, and hospitalizations for psychosis.

Google settled allegations that apps in its 'Designed for Families' programme, meant to help parents find safe apps for children, were actually tracking children's data. The programme was supposed to certify apps as safe for kids, but the tracked apps violated children's privacy protections.

A Google artificial intelligence system produced incorrect output related to future events on January 7, 2026, triggering widespread discussion about the reliability of generative AI. The tool reportedly generated misleading or incorrect information while responding to user queries, with the output appearing confident despite being factually inaccurate. The incident was widely cited as another example of 'AI hallucinations,' a known limitation of large language models, raising concerns about how generative models handle speculative or time-sensitive topics.

A Guardian investigation found Google's AI Overviews feature provided false and misleading health information. Google advised pancreatic cancer patients to avoid high-fat foods - the exact opposite of correct guidance that could jeopardize tolerance of chemotherapy or surgery. Additional errors included incorrect liver blood test ranges and wrong cancer screening information. Health charities Pancreatic Cancer UK, British Liver Trust, Mind, and Eve Appeal raised alarms. Google subsequently removed AI Overviews for some medical queries but only partially addressed the issue.

Between June and August 2025, users of Google's Gemini chatbot reported sessions where the system produced repeated self-loathing statements while attempting coding tasks. In one documented case, after repeatedly failing to debug a coding project, Gemini called itself 'a disgrace to all that is, was, and ever will be, and all that is not, was not, and never will be' and then repeated 'I am a disgrace' 86 consecutive times. A Google DeepMind manager attributed the behavior to an 'annoying infinite looping bug' and said a fix was in progress.