How to use Google’s new AI agents to go beyond your standard searches

2:50 AM IST · May 20, 2026

At theGoogle I/O 2026keynote, the tech giantrevealed new agentic capabilities in Search, where users can create, customize, and manage multiple AI agents to stay updated on topics of interest. The announcement is part of Google’s larger push toward agentic AI systems that can take initiative and assist with ongoing tasks instead of answering one question at a time. Unlike traditional search tools that respond only when prompted, Google’s information agents are designed to operate continuously in the background, 24/7, helping users stay informed about their interests without needing to repeatedly search for the same information every day. Instead of delivering a list of links, the agents can synthesize information from multiple sources, explain why something matters, compare perspectives, and provide actionable insights. In many ways, the agents represent the next evolution of Google Alerts, the notification service Google launched in 2003. However, these agents are designed to go beyond simple notifications. For instance, someone following the stock market could create an information agent focused on specific companies, share price, or economic trends. The agent could monitor market activity throughout the day, track breaking news, summarize earnings reports, alert users when major changes happen, and provide summaries and links to learn more. It could also help with everyday tasks, such as tracking flight prices for upcoming trips, monitoring sports teams and live events, following breaking news, keeping tabs on housing or job market trends, and tracking weather or traffic. To use the feature, users can open AI Mode in Search and enter a prompt. For example: “Keep me updated on nearby movie tickets for ‘The Mandalorian and Grogu.’” When something relevant appears, the Google app sends a push notification. You’ll also see your active tracked topics in your AI Mode history, where you can jump back in to manage, refine, or turn off an alert. Information agents will be available this summer. The company is first rolling them out to Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers in the U.S., then to additional markets later on. In addition to these information agents, Google also introduced amajor redesign of Search, including what it describes as a reimagined “intelligent search box,” the company’s biggest change to Search in more than 25 years. The new interface is designed to support longer, more conversational queries. There’s also a new AI-powered query suggestion system that goes beyond traditional autocomplete, helping users craft nuanced and context-aware searches. Google Search as you know it is over Google updates Gemini app to take on ChatGPT and Claude Google introduces Gemini Spark, a 24/7 agent assistant with Gmail integration How to use Google’s new information agents

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Anthropic scales Claude Mythos to critical infrastructure in 15+ countries

Anthropic is expandingProject Glasswing, its joint industry initiative to find and fix critical software vulnerabilities using AI, to about 150 new organizations across more than 15 countries, the companysaidTuesday. The news comes a day after Anthropic said it hadfiled confidentiallyfor an initial public offering, following a$65 billion fundinground at a nearly $1 trillion valuation. Anthropic’s Claude Mythos is at the heart of Project Glasswing. The AI firm dubbed the model its most powerful yet, able to identify thousands of zero-day vulnerabilities over several weeks. In early April,Anthropic gave 50 initial partners, including the U.S. government, access to Claude Mythos Preview to scan their codebases for vulnerabilities and security flaws. The expanded list of organizations with access to Mythos as of today covers power, water, healthcare, communications, and hardware — industries that weren’t “well-represented” in Anthropic’s initial cohort, the company said. Many who will now have access are companies or nonprofits that maintain codebases which other organizations and governments rely upon, Anthropic noted in the blog post. “What each partner has in common is that a successful attack on their codebase could be catastrophic,” the company said. “For most partners, we estimate that a major attack could affect more than 100 million people, with important ramifications for both global and national security.” The expanded group includes organizations in countries friendly to the U.S., including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Spain, Belgium, Sweden, India, Japan, New Zealand, and South Korea, according toFinancial Times, citing a person familiar with the matter. The FT also reported several organizations that have been given access to Mythos, including: U.S.-based identity and security management tool Okta; South Korean companies Samsung, SK Hynix, and SK Telecom; NATO, the U.S.-led military alliance headquartered in Brussels; and the EU’s cybersecurity agency ENISA. TechCrunch has reached out to Anthropic to confirm. Anthropic has said it expects other AI companies to soon develop models as capable as Mythos Preview, which is why the firm is racing to establish safeguards within Project Glasswing. Since releasing Mythos, rival OpenAI released its own cybersecurity-focused model GPT-5.5-Cyber, which it has rolled out to a large group of partners for testing.

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OpenAI launches new Codex tools for white-collar work

OpenAI is getting serious about courting enterprise users. On Tuesday, the AI labreleased a new set of capabilities for Codex, meant to expand the agentic tool’s uses in the workplace. Together with the new tools, the company releasedan internal reporton how Codex is being used for knowledge work, finding its uses go far beyond software engineering. “Codex now has more than 5 million weekly active users, up more than 6x since the launch of the desktop app in February,” readsa blog post introducing the report. “While developers remain the largest user group, knowledge workers now represent about 20 percent of users and are growing more than three times as fast.” To further court those users, OpenAI released a set of six plug-ins aimed at specific jobs: data analytics, creative production, sales, product design, equity investing, and investment banking. Available fromwithin the Codex app, each of the new tools bundles integrations, instructions, and context to allow Codex to approximate a specific job. Like any AI tool, the plug-ins will grow more effective with user customization, but they’re meant to be effective tools out of the box. The new tools come after a similar push for agentic plugins from Anthropic, whichlaunched its Enterprise Agents programin February. (A more specific set of finance-oriented agentslaunched in May.) With its traditional consumer focus, OpenAI has been slower to court enterprise customers, only introducing plugin support for Codexin March. Together with the plug-ins, OpenAI introduced a new Sites feature, which allows Codex to output its work product as a hosted interactive website, instead of just a local file. As part of that system, OpenAI is partnering with Wix, Base44, Replit, Lovable, Figma, and Emergent — although the company plans to develop a larger partner ecosystem to support the service. A new Annotations feature will also allow users to designate a specific part of a document or file within Codex, allowing for more specific commands and context operations. The new enterprise features come just three weeks after OpenAI launched a new joint venture for enterprise clients, dubbedthe OpenAI Deployment Company. The venture includes more than $4 billion in funding from global investment firms, with the aim of integrating OpenAI tools more deeply into businesses around the world. “AI is becoming capable of doing increasingly meaningful work inside organizations,” OpenAI Chief Revenue Officer Denise Dresser said in a statement at launch. “The challenge now is helping companies integrate these systems into the infrastructure and workflows that power their businesses.”

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Trump signs narrower executive order on AI oversight after industry objections

President Donald Trump signedan executive orderon Tuesday designed to give the government a chance to review powerful AI models before they are released. The order asks certain AI companies to voluntarily submit their new models to the government for testing or evaluation 30 days before releasing the products to the public. A previous draft of the order had called for a voluntary review up to 90 days in advance, though AI industry insiders had pushed for something closer to a two-week window. Trump had been slated to sign the more demanding version of the order in late May, butdelayedafter industry pushback, including from venture capitalist and former White House AI czarDavid Sacks. The president said at the time that he didn’t want to do anything to get in AI firms’ way of leading against China. “Nothing in this section shall be construed to authorize the creation of a mandatory governmental licensing, preclearance, or permitting requirement for the development, publication, release, or distribution of new AI models, including frontier models,” reads the order, published Tuesday. Trump had planned to sign the EO with a bevy of Silicon Valley’s top CEOs in attendance, but ended up signing the current version privately. In addition to the voluntary governmental AI model review, the EO directs the Department of Justice to treat crimes like AI-assisted hacking and unauthorized access as a high-priority enforcement area. This isn’t the president’s first EO on AI. Last December,Trump signed an orderdirecting the development of “one rulebook,” or a national AI policy framework, intended to preempt state AI laws.

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Anthropic Expands Project Glasswing to 150 Organisations Across 15 Countries

The new group includes organisations from sectors such as power, water, healthcare, communications and hardware.

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How to use Google’s new AI agents to go beyond your standard searches

Latest AI News

Anthropic scales Claude Mythos to critical infrastructure in 15+ countries

OpenAI launches new Codex tools for white-collar work

Trump signs narrower executive order on AI oversight after industry objections

Anthropic Expands Project Glasswing to 150 Organisations Across 15 Countries

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