The AI updates roll out apace. This post will be out of date before it’s published! This was the state of play on September 7, 2026
Anthropic, OpenAI, Google and Meta All Update AI Models This Week https://agentlocker.ai/news/anthropic-openai-google-and-meta-all-update-ai-models-this-week
We looked at Google’s updates to the Chrome browser, Google Search and Gemini AI on desktops and Android phones. Google provided a summary article: The latest AI news we announced in August 2026 “Here’s a recap of some of our biggest AI updates from August, including the launch of Gemini 3.7 Flash, Gemini 3.5 Transcribe, and the all-new Pixel 11 series of devices.” https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/technology/google-ai-updates-august-2026/ We noted that some of these features are yet to rolled out in Spain, or may not be available because of GDPR. Others are limited to paid tiers of Google subscribers.We noted particularly:
Transcribe: https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/models-and-research/gemini-models/gemini-3-5-transcribe/ “our most precise speech-to-text model yet, designed for intelligent voice interactions. Unlike conventional speech recognition models that struggle with background noise, complex jargon, and disfluency cleanup, Gemini 3.5 Transcribe converts raw audio directly into accurate, polished, formatted text.” The article contains an impressive video.
Gemini Live: https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/products/gemini-app/productivity-features-gemini-live/ “Turn your voice into action with new productivity features in Gemini Live” Some advanced features, such as the personal assistant, did not seem to be available. We had fun playing around with the app on a smartphone. There’s a fast conversational chatbot (which can be very annoying – but it showed remarkable language skills) and a more thoughtful “search by voice” option, through which we saw live airport arrivals information.
Gemma 4: https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/technology/developers-tools/gemma-one-billion-downloads/ Inside the Gemmaverse: Celebrating one billion Gemma downloads. This is a small version of Google’s LLM (the thing behind its chatbot), which can run on small devices such as smartphones offline. The video ” “Why we built Gemma” explains the third-world projects Google has supported and created using this model.
Lyria AI music creator: https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/products/gemini-app/better-tracks-lyria-gemini/ All the Google blurb insisted that this is available for everyone, even in Spain … Chris couldn’t find it in the new Gemini app on her phone, but later figured out that you need to tap on the little plus sign beside the dialogue box, choose Music, describe your song, choose a genre (in this case Latin), and whether you want vocals (yes) and length (standard) The prompt was: “We are having a lovely holiday in Spain beside the sea”
…and here’s the result…: “Salt on our Skin” – created, produced and sung by….Gemini AI. Not quite Latin, but close enough. Not bad!
The Gemini App enables you to create images and code, do deep research and guided learning – but you can’t use it to create video unless you pay for it.
The full suite of media creation tools for media creators can be explored on: https://aistudio.google.com/welcome
What fun! – What a crazy world we live in…
Christine Betterton-Jones – Knowledge junkie