Technology
Google is introducing ads to AI reviews, expanding AI’s role in search

Google will start showing ads in AI reviews, that are the AI-generated summaries it provides for certain Google Search queries, and will even add links to relevant web sites for a few of those summaries. AI-organized search results pages will even be available in the US this week.
The growing importance of artificial intelligence in Google’s core search engine is aimed toward keeping users from switching to alternatives comparable to ChatGPT or OpenAI’s Perplexity, which use artificial intelligence to answer lots of the questions traditionally asked to Google. Embarrassment he said in May that its worldwide user base had grown to over 85 million web visits, a drop in the bucket compared to Google, but impressive considering Perplexity launched just two years ago.
Since its launch this spring, AI Reviews has been the topic of much controversy, with its dubious claims and dubious advice (like adding glue to pizza) gaining huge popularity online. Recent report from the search engine marketing platform SE Ranking found that AI Reviews cites sites which might be “not completely trustworthy or evidence-based,” including outdated research and paid product listings.
The major problem is that AI Reviews sometimes has difficulty distinguishing whether a source of knowledge is fact or fiction, satire or serious matter. Over the past few months, Google has made changes to how AI Reviews work, including limiting responses related to current events and health topics. But the corporate doesn’t claim it’s perfect.
“We will invest in AI reviews to make them even more useful,” Rhiannon Bell, vice chairman of user experience at Google Search, said at a press conference. “We do everything we can to provide our users with relevant content.”
Separately, Google says AI Reviews has led to a rise in Google Search engagement, especially amongst 18- to 24-year-olds – a key demographic for the corporate.
Now Google is taking steps to monetize this feature by adding ads.
US mobile device users will soon see ads in AI Reviews with “relevant queries” comparable to how to remove grass stains from jeans. Ads labeled “Sponsored” will appear alongside other unsponsored content in AI summaries and can be pulled from advertisers’ existing campaigns on Shopping and the Google Search network.
AI Reviews ads have been available to select users for a while, and according to internal Google data, they’ve been well received.
“People have found AI advertising useful because it allows them to quickly connect with the right companies, products and services to take the next step exactly when they need it,” Shashi Thakur, vice chairman of Google Ads, wrote in a blog post shared with TechCrunch .
But ads also litter AI summaries. One of the formats, the carousel of sponsored product results, is embedded directly in AI summaries and placed in such a way that unsponsored content is pushed to the screen.

The recent look of AI Reviews that appears alongside ads adds highlighted links to web sites that could be relevant. For example, when you search “Do air filters protect your lungs?” AI Reviews may link to a study on air filters conducted by the American Lung Association.
The redesign was tested for several months and is currently being rolled out in regions where AI Overviews were already available, including India, Brazil, Japan, Mexico, the US and the UK
Finally, this week in the US, a separate product will debut on mobile devices – search results pages organized by artificial intelligence. Searches for recipes and meal inspiration – like “What are some good vegetarian snacks or dinner ideas that make an impression?” – can display an AI-aggregated page of content from across the web, including forums, articles and YouTube videos.
However, they are going to not include AI Reviews ad formats.
“The customized Gemini (model) generates an entire page of relevant and structured results,” Bell explained, referring to Google’s Gemini family of artificial intelligence models. “With AI-organized results pages, we are serving more diverse content formats from a more diverse set of content.”
Google says it plans to expand these pages to other search categories in the approaching months.
Publishers may suffer collateral damage.
One study found that AI reviews can negatively impacting roughly 25% of publisher traffic due to the reduced emphasis on website links. On the revenue side, an authority quoted by The New York Post estimated that AI-generated reviews could result in publisher losses of greater than $2 billion due to the resulting decline in ad impressions.
AI-generated search results from Google and competitors don’t yet appear to block traffic from large publishers. In their latest earnings, Ziff Davis and Dotdash Meredith – IAC parents characterised effects as negligible.
But which will change because Google which commands over 81% of the worldwide search market, expands AI overviews and AI organized pages for more users and queries. According to one estimateAI overviews only showed up for about 7% of searches in July, as Google re-targeted the feature to make changes.
Google says it continues to take publishers’ concerns under consideration during its AI-powered search workshops.
Technology
One of the last AI Google models is worse in terms of safety

The recently released Google AI model is worse in some security tests than its predecessor, in line with the company’s internal comparative test.
IN Technical report Google, published this week, reveals that his Flash Gemini 2.5 model is more likely that he generates a text that violates its security guidelines than Gemini 2.0 Flash. In two indicators “text security for text” and “image security to the text”, Flash Gemini 2.5 will withdraw 4.1% and 9.6% respectively.
Text safety for the text measures how often the model violates Google guidelines, making an allowance for the prompt, while image security to the text assesses how close the model adheres to those boundaries after displaying the monitors using the image. Both tests are automated, not supervised by man.
In an e-mail, Google spokesman confirmed that Gemini 2.5 Flash “performs worse in terms of text safety for text and image.”
These surprising comparative results appear when AI is passing in order that their models are more acceptable – in other words, less often refuse to answer controversial or sensitive. In the case of the latest Llam Meta models, he said that he fought models in order to not support “some views on others” and answers to more “debated” political hints. Opeli said at the starting of this yr that he would improve future models, in order to not adopt an editorial attitude and offers many prospects on controversial topics.
Sometimes these efforts were refundable. TechCrunch announced on Monday that the default CHATGPT OPENAI power supply model allowed juvenile to generate erotic conversations. Opeli blamed his behavior for a “mistake”.
According to Google Technical Report, Gemini 2.5 Flash, which is still in view, follows instructions more faithfully than Gemini 2.0 Flash, including instructions exceeding problematic lines. The company claims that regression might be partially attributed to false positives, but in addition admits that Gemini 2.5 Flash sometimes generates “content of violation” when it is clearly asked.
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“Of course, there is a tension between (after instructions) on sensitive topics and violations of security policy, which is reflected in our assessment,” we read in the report.
The results from Meepmap, reference, which can examine how models react to sensitive and controversial hints, also suggest that Flash Gemini 2.5 is much less willing to refuse to reply controversial questions than Flash Gemini 2.0. Testing the TechCrunch model through the AI OpenRoutter platform has shown that he unsuccessfully writes essays to support human artificial intelligence judges, weakening the protection of due protection in the US and the implementation of universal government supervisory programs.
Thomas Woodside, co -founder of the Secure AI Project, said that the limited details given by Google in their technical report show the need for greater transparency in testing models.
“There is a compromise between the instruction support and the observation of politics, because some users may ask for content that would violate the rules,” said Woodside Techcrunch. “In this case, the latest Flash model Google warns the instructions more, while breaking more. Google does not present many details about specific cases in which the rules have been violated, although they claim that they are not serious. Not knowing more, independent analysts are difficult to know if there is a problem.”
Google was already under fire for his models of security reporting practices.
The company took weeks to publish a technical report for the most talented model, Gemini 2.5 Pro. When the report was finally published, it initially omitted the key details of the security tests.
On Monday, Google published a more detailed report with additional security information.
(Tagstotransate) Gemini
Technology
Aurora launches a commercial self -propelled truck service in Texas

The autonomous startup of the Aurora Innovation vehicle technology claims that it has successfully launched a self -propelled truck service in Texas, which makes it the primary company that she implemented without drivers, heavy trucks for commercial use on public roads in the USA
The premiere appears when Aurora gets the term: In October, the corporate delayed the planned debut 2024 to April 2025. The debut also appears five months after the rival Kodiak Robotics provided its first autonomous trucks to clients commercial for operations without a driver in field environments.
Aurora claims that this week she began to freight between Dallas and Houston with Hirschbach Motor Lines and Uber Freight starters, and that she has finished 1200 miles without a driver to this point. The company plans to expand to El Paso and Phoenix until the top of 2025.
TechCrunch contacted for more detailed information concerning the premiere, for instance, the variety of vehicles implemented Aurora and whether the system needed to implement the Pullover maneuver or the required distant human assistance.
The commercial premiere of Aurora takes place in a difficult time. Self -propelled trucks have long been related to the necessity for his or her technology attributable to labor deficiencies in the chairman’s transport and the expected increase in freigh shipping. Trump’s tariffs modified this attitude, not less than in a short period. According to the April analytical company report from the commercial vehicle industry ACT researchThe freight is predicted to fall this yr in the USA with a decrease in volume and consumer expenditure.
Aurora will report its results in the primary quarter next week, i.e. when he shares how he expects the present trade war will affect his future activity. TechCrunch contacted to learn more about how tariffs affect Auror’s activities.
For now, Aurora will probably concentrate on further proving his safety case without a driver and cooperation with state and federal legislators to just accept favorable politicians to assist her develop.
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At the start of 2025, Aurora filed a lawsuit against federal regulatory bodies after the court refused to release the appliance for release from the protection requirement, which consists in placing warning triangles on the road, when the truck must stop on the highway – something that’s difficult to do when there isn’t a driver in the vehicle. To maintain compliance with this principle and proceed to totally implement without service drivers, Aurora probably has a man -driven automotive trail after they are working.
(Tagstranslate) Aurora Innovation
Technology
Sarah Tavel, the first woman of the Benchmark GP, goes to the Venture partner

Eight years after joining Benchmark as the company’s first partner, Sarah Tavel announced that she was going to a more limited role at Hapeure Venture.
In his latest position as a partner Venture Tavel will proceed to invest and serve existing company boards, but may have more time to examine “AI tools on the edge” and fascinated with the direction of artificial intelligence, she wrote.
Tavel joined Benchmark in 2017 after spending a half years as a partner in Greylock and three years as a product manager at Pinterest. Before Pinterest, Tavel was an investor in Bessemer Venture Partners, where she helped Source Pinterest and Github.
Since its foundation in 1995, the benchmark intentionally maintained a small team of six or fewer general partners. Unlike most VC corporations, wherein older partners normally receive most of the management and profits fees, the benchmark acts as an equal partnership, and all partners share fees and returns equally.
During his term as a general partner of Benchmark, Tavel invested in Hipcamp on the campsite, chains of cryptocurrency intelligence startups and the Supergreaty cosmetic platform, which was purchased by Whatnot in 2023. Tavel also supported the application for sharing photos of Paparazhi, which closed two years ago, and the AI 11x sales platform, about which TechCrunch wrote.
(Tagstotransate) benchmark
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