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Safety & Security

DeepMind watermarks AI-designed proteins for biosecurity

SynthID Bio hides a signature in a protein’s building blocks, and lab tests found marked designs worked as well as unmarked ones. It could help DNA makers tell designs from trusted AI tools apart from the rest.

Google DeepMind introduced SynthID Bio on September 30, a way to watermark proteins designed by AI without breaking them. In lab tests on three targets, watermarked protein binders matched unwatermarked ones on how often they worked, how tightly they bound and how varied they were, DeepMind says. It is sharing the code, lab data and model weights with researchers.

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AI Models

Google’s Gemini 4 Argon goes to cyber defenders first

Google’s own tests put its new flagship first on 12 of 18 benchmarks. An independent index scores it level with GPT-6 Astra and behind Claude Opus 5.5, and there is no date for a wider release.

Google announced Gemini 4 Argon, its new flagship AI model, on September 30. For now it goes only to a group of trusted cyber defenders and to Google’s own teams, and Google gave no date for developers or consumers. Google says Argon leads its rivals on most of the tests it published. Artificial Analysis, which tests models independently, scores it level with OpenAI’s GPT-6 Astra.

Policy & Law

Google sues to block EU orders opening Android to AI rivals

The two July orders give rival AI assistants equal access to Android features and share Google’s search data with competitors. Google says users’ privacy would suffer.

Google has filed challenges at the EU General Court against two Digital Markets Act decisions that the European Commission adopted on July 16, Reuters and Bloomberg report. One requires Google to give rival AI assistants the same access to Android features as its own Gemini. The other makes it share search data with rival search engines, including AI chatbots.

Agents & Apps

Google’s Gemini can now talk to customers as a video avatar

Custom faces from a photo need Google’s approval.

Google made Gemini 3.8 Live with Live Avatar available to Gemini Enterprise customers on September 24. Businesses can build voice agents that appear as a person or a cartoon character, speak 97 languages, and look up data while they talk. Every video carries an invisible SynthID watermark.

Chips & Infrastructure

Google will send its AI chips into orbit next week

It is the first real test of its idea for data centres in space.

Google said on September 24 that its first Project Suncatcher satellite, built with Planet, will launch on a SpaceX rideshare mission next week. The satellite carries four of Google’s TPU chips and will test how they cope with radiation, heat, and launch forces. Reports put the launch on October 1.

AI Models

Google’s Gemini 4 has entered post-training

DeepMind’s new chief wants an early version out as soon as possible.

Koray Kavukcuoglu, the new head of Google DeepMind, said this week that Gemini 4 has entered post-training. He wants to release an early version as soon as possible, “much earlier” than the end of the year. He gave no date, and safety testing is still under way.

Policy & Law

UK regulator wants AI assistants on Google’s choice screens

The competition regulator’s plan is still a proposal.

On September 23, the UK’s competition regulator proposed a search choice screen for new Android phones and for Chrome. It can list up to 12 services, including AI assistants such as ChatGPT or Perplexity if they meet technical and security criteria. Comments are due by October 9.

AI Models

Google’s new Gemini voices can copy a person’s voice

That person must first read a consent line. No outside test has checked the safeguard.

Google released Gemini 3.8 Flash TTS and Flash-Lite TTS on September 23. The text-to-speech models speak more than 100 languages and cost about $0.54 to $0.81 per hour of audio until the end of the year. Both can clone a voice from a short sample after the voice’s owner records a consent statement.