Alphabet's Google is scrapping its goal to hire more employees from underrepresented groups and is reviewing some of its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, joining a slew of U.S. businesses scaling back diversity initiatives.

Google is scrapping some of its diversity hiring targets, joining a lengthening list of U.S. companies that have been abandoning or scaling back their diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

The flood of AI news from Google comes in the wake of the launch of DeepSeek, the breakthrough Chinese AI tool that's been making headlines.

The Google Gemini app now includes a reasoning model that shows its "thought process." On Wednesday, the tech giant announced the availability of Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking Experimental on Gemini's desktop and mobile versions.

The latest Gemini 2.0 Flash model can interact with other Google apps and comes with reasoning chops, while the Gemini 2.0 Pro model excels at math and coding.

Google has quietly deleted its pledge not to use AI for weapons or surveillance, a promise that had been in place since 2018.

Human Rights Watch has criticised the decision, telling the BBC that AI can "complicate accountability" for battlefield decisions that "may have life or death consequences." In a blog post Google defended the change,

The Chinese government’s move to open an antitrust probe into Google is the latest development in a long and entangled relationship that goes back to the early 2000s

China countered President Donald Trump’s across-the-board tariffs on Chinese products with tariffs on select U.S. imports, as well as announcing an antitrust investigation into Google.