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Google is withholding its most powerful AI model, Gemini 4 Argon, from the public and releasing it only to a vetted group of cybersecurity experts while it gathers feedback and monitors safety. The company granted early access to the US government and says Argon excels at complex software engineering, legal, financial and cyber‑defense tasks, including finding critical software flaws. Google says the model is designed to refuse requests that could enable cyber‑attacks or weapons development and follows a phased rollout similar to precautions by other AI firms after recent containment concerns in the industry. » More on theguardian.com

A federal judge dismissed lawsuits by Chegg and Penske Media that accused Google of using its AI Overviews to divert web traffic and coerce publishers to provide content for free. Judge Amit Mehta ruled the complaints fail to state an antitrust claim, saying publishers’ expectations of search traffic do not amount to an agreement. Mehta acknowledged publishers’ harms but said antitrust law cannot substitute for legislative action on the economic effects of new technology. Separately, Google is reported to be piloting payments to some publishers for AI search contributions. » More on theverge.com

Google is financing SHARE, a virtual power plant in PG&E territory that installs batteries, smart thermostats and heat pumps in households to ease grid congestion. PG&E runs the program, Rewiring America enrolls customers, and Google pays incentives and equipment costs; about 21,000 installed devices are expected to provide roughly 11 megawatts of capacity with additional upgrades through 2028. The demonstration, running through 2027, aims to prove homes can be relied on like grid resources to defer costly transmission upgrades and manage rising demand from data centers and EVs. » More on forbes.com