• YouTube's ad revenue fell short of analysts' expectations for the third quarter.
• Its parent reported $11.2 billion in Q3 ads revenue, under analysts' $11.43 billion estimate.
• The company said it now has 150 million YouTube Music and Premium subscribers, up from 125 million in March 2025.

YouTube's ad revenue growth slowed down, missing analysts' estimates in the third quarter.

Its parent company, Alphabet, reported $11.2 billion in third-quarter YouTube ads revenue, a 9% increase from a year ago. That falls below the $11.43 billion analyst consensus estimate. Its ads revenue growth also slowed from the previous quarter, when it pulled in about $11.1 billion, a 13% increase from the previous year.

Beyond YouTube, Alphabet missed expectations in other areas of its business, including on overall revenue. In a bright spot, it beat revenue estimates for its cloud business.

The company's shares were down over 10% in after-hours trading.

While YouTube's ad revenue was weaker than expected, it wasn't all bad news. The company said it now has over 150 million YouTube Music and Premium subscribers, up from 125 million in March 2025. The company said its subscriptions business was growing faster than ads.

YouTube has also been the envy of rivals in key areas like TV viewership. Its share of US television viewership was about twice that of Netflix in August, according to recent Nielsen estimates. Over a third of YouTube's third-quarter ad revenue came from the living room, Google's chief business officer Philipp Schindler said on Wednesday.

Netflix, meanwhile, walked back its full-year ad revenue expectations during last week's earnings. The streamer lowered its ad revenue forecast from $3 billion to $2.7 billion after experiencing delays around the rollout of its ad products. It laid off about 1,000 workers earlier this month.

This week, Instagram unveiled an overhaul of long-form video features seemingly designed to counter YouTube and bolster its presence on TV screens.

"Everyone in streaming is chasing YouTube, and even Instagram is going to pivot their strategy based on the success that YouTube's had," said Ross Benes, a senior analyst at EMARKETER, Business Insider's sister company.

• Google's AI Mode is struggling to answer a simple question: "Who won the 2020 presidential election?"
• On Wednesday, users noticed that the AI-enhanced search tool was being cagey.
• Google said it is working to fix the issue.

Google's AI Mode was supposed to reimagine search. Users are noticing that it's struggling with a basic question: "Who won the 2020 election?"

On Wednesday, users on BlueSky and other social media platforms took notice that Google's AI Mode wouldn't give a straight answer about who won the White House in 2020.

"To verify the winner, certified outcomes, electoral votes, and popular vote totals for the 2020 United States presidential election, you can review the official reports published by the Federal Election Commission (FEC)," the AI Mode replied to a Business Insider reporter who asked, "Who won the 2020 presidential election in the United States?"

When other Business Insider reporters asked similar questions, the AI Mode sometimes responded that President Joe Biden had won. Google Gemini, the search giant's AI system, which is accessed via a different site than AI mode, responded to a similar question that Biden was the winner.

It's not entirely clear why Google tells users to review the results published by the Federal Election Commission. While the FEC does publish the results of presidential elections, the commission itself has no role in the certification of state election results or the formal counting of Electoral College votes.

On Wednesday afternoon, Google said it was working to fix the issue, which it attributed to a "technical gap."

"Our systems verify election responses using news articles or AP data for recent elections, and historic records for older ones," Google wrote on X. "There was a technical gap with 2020 - same is true for 2022 Senate races, which we're also working to fix."

For years, President Donald Trump has refused to concede that he lost to Biden. After his campaign lost legal challenges, Trump and his allies suggested that lawmakers themselves could change the outcome, fueling the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot. The riot briefly delayed the congressional verification of Biden's victory.

The user posted screenshots that show AI mode responding to questions about who won other presidential elections. When a Business Insider reporter ran similar queries, AI mode sometimes said who had won previous presidential elections, and other times it did not.

The 2026 midterms are likely to test tech and AI companies, many of which have announced policies to limit users' abuse of their tools.

OpenAI recently announced that its model would produce "stylized — also known as cartoonified — illustrations, rather than photorealistic images" if asked to produce images "depicting election interference or that may discourage voting." In June, Meta announced that it would add "more information to ads we detect have been created with third-party AI tools." And Google previously said it was "rolling out additional protections to limit the creation of misleading election-related images."

When asked why it could not say who won the 2020 election, the AI Mode responded, "Because recent election results can be a sensitive civic topic, guiding you directly to primary historical databases prevents any perception of bias or mischaracterization of the official public record."

A new investigation into the activities of Google, Meta and other technology companies has intensified scrutiny of EU plans to revise data-protection legislation, placing Ireland and Germany at the centre of a dispute over corporate influence and European digital sovereignty.

European technology policy has become the focus of a dispute over corporate lobbying after researchers documented extensive contacts between major technology companies and political decision-makers during negotiations to revise EU data-protection rules.

An investigation published on 28 October by Corporate Europe Observatory and the German transparency organisation LobbyControl alleges that leading technology companies mounted a coordinated campaign to influence European governments and legislators.

The findings come one week after EU member states agreed a negotiating position on the Digital Omnibus, a legislative package intended to simplify aspects of European data-protection, privacy and cybersecurity regulation.

The campaigners argue that the proposed changes risk weakening existing safeguards in order to accommodate the commercial requirements of artificial intelligence developers.

Ireland, which holds the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union, has rejected suggestions that its handling of the legislation was improperly influenced by technology companies.

The dispute exposes a fundamental disagreement over the balance between commercial innovation and the protection of personal information.

The scale of the lobbying campaign

According to LobbyControl’s investigation, non-European technology companies recorded 103 meetings with representatives of Germany’s federal government between May 2025 and September 2026.

Google accounted for 28 meetings, Microsoft 18, Amazon 16 and OpenAI 11.

Germany’s Digital Minister, Karsten Wildberger, participated in 18 meetings with representatives of major technology companies, the researchers reported.

In Ireland, the organisations identified extensive engagement involving Meta, Google and politicians ahead of the country’s assumption of the EU Council presidency in July.

Their findings indicate that Meta engaged with 41 Irish parliamentarians over the Digital Omnibus, while Google recorded 30 meetings.

The researchers also identified 655 lobbying meetings concerning the legislation involving members of the European Parliament.

According to their analysis, approximately 83 per cent represented business interests, compared with 11 per cent involving civil society organisations or trade unions.

These figures demonstrate the intensity of corporate engagement, although the existence of lobbying meetings does not, by itself, establish that particular legislative provisions were adopted because of that activity.

Why the Digital Omnibus matters

The legislative package forms part of a broader European Commission initiative to reduce administrative burdens and improve competitiveness.

Its provisions address several areas of digital regulation, including the General Data Protection Regulation, commonly known as GDPR.

The proposals seek to simplify compliance obligations, clarify the treatment of personal information and revise rules governing certain forms of data processing.

One particularly contentious issue concerns the use of personal data in developing and operating artificial intelligence systems.

AI developers require large quantities of information to train and improve their models. However, the collection and processing of personal information remain subject to European legal safeguards.

Technology companies have argued that regulatory complexity can discourage investment and make it more difficult for European businesses to compete internationally.

Privacy campaigners maintain that simplifying regulatory procedures must not become a mechanism for reducing substantive protections.

The disagreement concerns not merely administrative paperwork but the legal circumstances under which companies may process information relating to identifiable individuals.

Ireland rejects allegations of improper influence

Ireland occupies a particularly sensitive position in the debate.

The country hosts major European operations of several American technology companies, including Google and Meta, and has substantial economic interests in the digital sector.

At the same time, its presidency of the EU Council requires it to coordinate negotiations between member states.

According to RTÉ’s reporting on the investigation, the Irish government strongly rejected the allegation that it had weakened data safeguards in response to corporate pressure.

A presidency spokesperson emphasised that Ireland’s responsibility was to facilitate agreement between member states and that the negotiating mandate approved on 21 October enjoyed broad support.

The Council has presented the proposed changes as a means of reducing compliance costs while preserving established privacy protections.

In its official statement, the Council said its mandate retains the existing definition of personal data and introduces additional provisions governing pseudonymisation.

It also includes safeguards relating to sensitive information used for biometric verification and AI systems.

These details are significant because they demonstrate that the negotiating text contains protections alongside proposed simplifications.

Germany’s role in the negotiations

Germany has also emerged as an important participant in the controversy.

The investigation points to close contact between the German government and international technology companies during discussions about the future of European digital regulation.

Berlin has supported reducing administrative restrictions that it considers obstacles to innovation and the development of competitive AI technologies.

For Germany, the issue is connected to wider concerns about industrial competitiveness, investment and Europe’s dependence on foreign technology suppliers.

Yet an unresolved question remains.

Measures designed to assist European innovators may also benefit established American companies whose extensive computing infrastructure and data resources give them advantages over smaller competitors.

Consequently, easing restrictions does not necessarily guarantee a stronger European technology industry.

The European Parliament holds the next decision

The Council’s negotiating position does not make the Digital Omnibus law.

The European Parliament must establish its own position before negotiations between the institutions can determine the final legislation.

Parliamentarians will therefore have an opportunity to examine the treatment of personal data, the safeguards attached to AI development and the relationship between regulatory simplification and individual rights.

The lobbying investigation is likely to become part of that debate.

Its central political significance lies in the competing interpretations of European technological sovereignty.

For governments seeking investment, regulatory flexibility may provide an instrument for improving Europe’s international competitiveness.

For privacy organisations, the same flexibility could increase the influence of companies already dominant in global digital markets.

The outcome will help determine whether Europe’s future digital framework preserves the existing balance between commercial data use and individual protections, or establishes a different relationship between the two.

A General Motors anunciou nesta quarta-feira (28) o início da disponibilização gradual do Gemini em português para veículos da Chevrolet, equipados com o sistema Google integrado no Brasil.

A novidade, que estreou nos Estados Unidos em abril de 2026 e posteriormente em países da América Hispânica, marca uma nova etapa na conectividade automotiva da montadora, substituindo a navegação manual por comandos de “linguagem natural”.

No mercado brasileiro, a atualização via Google Play abrange os modelos Blazer EV, Equinox EV, Equinox Turbo e a picape Silverado, fabricados a partir de 2024. Para o funcionamento, o veículo precisa estar atualizado com o sistema operacional Android 11 ou superior e contar com uma conta Google conectada na central multimídia.

A liberação depende também do status do serviço OnStar. Nos veículos de ano-modelo 2027 em diante, a funcionalidade de voz baseada no Gemini passa a ser incluída sem custo adicional por meio do plano OnStar Basics.

Já para os modelos 2026 e anteriores, é necessária a manutenção de um plano OnStar pago ativo para viabilizar a navegação e o processamento de dados do assistente.

A plataforma reúne o Gemini, o Google Maps e a loja de aplicativos Google Play com conexão de internet nativa. Entre os recursos de conveniência está a função Gemini Live, que permite conversas contínuas e planejamento de rotas por voz, além do controle de plataformas de áudio integradas ao painel.

Para resguardar os dados do usuário, o sistema permite o cadastramento de múltiplos perfis de motoristas protegidos por senha e dispõe de modo manobrista. Caso o condutor prefira, a opção de alternar para o Google Assistant convencional permanece disponível nas configurações do veículo.

Diferente dos assistentes de voz tradicionais, a inteligência artificial compreende contextos complexos e pedidos em múltiplas etapas. Na prática, o motorista pode ajustar a climatização por intenção, como ao dizer “estou com frio”, consultar o manual do proprietário para identificar luzes do painel ou solicitar rotas de recarga refinadas por distância e avaliação sem precisar repetir o comando inicial.

Em modelos elétricos, o sistema atua integrado à arquitetura do veículo para, por exemplo, monitorar o nível da bateria ao longo do trajeto.

Chevrolet vai montar carro elétrico na antiga fábrica da Troller

• Google's AI chip business is turning into a TPU-shaped headache for Nvidia.
• A blockbuster deal with Oracle will put Google's TPUs inside another hyperscaler.
• Is the market underestimating the potential of Google's chip business?

Earlier this year, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang downplayed the threat of other companies building competing AI chips, including Google.

"Without Anthropic, why would there be any TPU growth at all?" he said in an interview with podcaster Dwarkesh Patel, referring to Google's custom chips. "It's 100% Anthropic."

That is no longer the case.

On Tuesday, Google and Oracle announced a blockbuster deal that will see Google's TPUs, short for Tensor Processing Units, made available to Oracle cloud customers from next year. As the companies underscored in a joint announcement, it's the first time Google's TPUs have been offered on a hyperscaler's platform beyond its own.

Anthropic isn't the only one Nvidia should be worried about. OpenAI has a job listing for a software engineer to optimize its models for TPUs, and The Information reported Tuesday that OpenAI plans to buy TPUs from Google.

Meanwhile, several analysts have predicted Google's TPU business is about to explode as more companies hedge their bets with a multichip strategy — providing an opening for Google and others to further move onto Nvidia's turf.

Despite this, Nvidia's chip business still eclipses everyone else's, including Google, which is also a big customer of Nvidia's GPUs. Yet Google's AI chips, which the company began building more than a decade ago to power search and other products, might be poised for takeoff.

On Wednesday, during Google's third-quarter earnings call, chief financial officer Anat Ashkenazi said the company expects a "meaningful revenue ramp in 2027" in TPU sales.

Cloud chief Thomas Kurian also said on the call that TPU sales were a "meaningful contributor" to the company's Q3 financials.

In its IPO paperwork filed this week, Anthropic said it planned to spend $114.5 billion on Google compute between April 2026 and July 2033. While it didn't specify how much of that would go to TPUs specifically, it estimated spending between $125 billion and $150 billion on TPU capacity from Google and other providers.

In the same filing, Anthropic said it's also using Amazon's Trainium chips and AMD's GPUs, as well as chips from Nvidia and Google.

All told, this might be Nvidia's nightmare scenario coming true. If companies are increasingly using a multichip strategy, it could hamper Nvidia's pricing power.

Google declined to comment, and Nvidia and OpenAI did not respond to requests for comment.

TPU takeoff?

Google's TPU business may only be getting started.

In notes published this month, Japanese banking group Mizuho projected TPU revenue of $28 billion for 2026 and $67 billion in 2027. Mizuho said Google could see that number reach as high as $100 billion in 2028, while TD Cowen's John Blackledge projected it could reach $138 billion, accounting for 34% of Google Cloud's 2028 revenue.

That number is still dwarfed by Nvidia, which reported $96.2 billion in revenue in the previous quarter alone, and the market reacted with a shrug on Wednesday as its share price stayed flat.

Some analysts, though, think the market is underestimating Google, especially as more companies look to reduce their reliance on Nvidia's GPUs.

"We believe Google's TPU hardware business is emerging as a materially larger opportunity than what is currently reflected in consensus estimates," Mizuho analysts wrote in a note published October 18, adding that selling TPUs outright — rather than renting them from Google's own data centers — could ease Google's aggressive capex spending.

And even if that spending continues to soar — and right now, there are no signs the foot is coming off the accelerator — analysts at Bank of America said Google's cash-splashing looks "relatively efficient" compared to its peers, as TPUs continue to power the company's own AI efforts.

For Google, it's the payoff of a decade-plus investment in silicon that was originally designed to make Search smarter. It could also act as something of a buffer against damage to its core search business as AI agents eat Google's lunch, Mizuho also said this month.

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Una truffa con la falsa e suadente voce di Roberto Vannacci, clonata con l’intelligenza artificiale, come amo per pescare a strascico nell’oceano sterminato di Youtube. Migliaia di vittime ignare possono abboccare all’esca, mentre guardano un video sulla piattaforma di Google e spunta la frode travestita da pubblicità. “Tutto è trasparente, me ne faccio personalmente garante”, esordisce il falso Vannacci. “Il link è sotto il video, seguendolo, puoi iniziare a guadagnare già oggi. Basta un versamento minimo di 250 euro”. Cliccando, si approda all’indirizzo della truffa: proxiacoadvir.pro.

Il precedente contro Fideuram con la voce clonata di Messina

Anche Paolo Molesini, ex presidente di banca Fideuram, è caduto nella trappola della voce clonata dall’IA. È costata 39 milioni di euro, ma senza gli investigatori il bottino poteva arrivare a 95 milioni. Il timbro replicato era di Carlo Messina, amministratore delegato di Intesa. In quel caso i criminali hanno mirato ad una vittima di altissimo profilo. Stavolta, nel setaccio dei delinquenti possono restare impigliati migliaia di persone comuni. Ilfattoquotidiano.it può documentare la clip con la voce di Vannacci, ma i vip emulati possono essere molti di più, negli annunci pubblicitari su Youtube. Cambia forma anche la pagina linkata all’inserzione fraudolenta. Oggi, 28 ottobre, ecco la “bufala” nel titolo d’apertura: “Le società Fininvest, Microsoft e alcuni miliardari italiani stanno lanciando una piattaforma che garantisce un reddito mensile fino a 30.000 euro”.

La frode con finte pagine giornalistiche, l’endorsement dei Berlusconi, Vacchi e Ferrero

Ieri, 27 ottobre, campeggiava un falso sito di Rai News, con un quadretto bizzarro in cima: il presidente della Repubblica Sergio Mattarella, la premier Giorgia Meloni, Piersilvio e Marina Berlusconi, l’influencer Gianluca Vacchi, l’imprenditore Giovanni Ferrero. Insieme sotto un titolo cubitale: “Oggi, 27 ottobre 2026, è l’ultimo giorno di iscrizione al progetto di guadagno automatizzato QuantumAI sostenuto dal governo. A ogni investitore è garantito un reddito di 10.000 euro al mese dopo l’attivazione”. Una falsa notizia camuffata neppure a regola d’arte.

Ecco la proposta per l’utente, annunciata in una clip incastonata dentro un finto articolo giornalistico, tra endorsement del presidente del capo dello Stato, garanzie di palazzo Chigi e il timbro dei miliardari sul nuovo sistema di guadagno: “Versa 250 euro – esorta la voce neutra e professionale – e l’algoritmo automatizzato di Intelligenza artificiale compra da solo gli asset ai prezzi migliori, e li vende non appena il prezzo sale un po’. Non è necessario capire il trading, il programma fa tutto al posto vostro. Poi scelgo l’importo da prelevare, indico la banca e premo ‘prelevo denaro’. E rimarrete scioccati”. C’è da crederci. “All’inizio pensavo fosse un’altra truffa – prosegue la clip – ma non era il mio primo prelievo sul conto bancario”. Grazie all’app Quantum AI, suggerisce la voce, “nella prima settimana ho guadagnato 2 mila 500 euro. Potete ottenere lo stesso risultato, ma prima bisogna registrarsi. Inserite anche voi il vostro nome completo, l’email e il numero di telefono”. Poco dopo chiamerà l’azienda, avvisa la voce, basta confermare l’identità e il gioco è fatto.

“Il consiglio della premier: registra i tuoi dati, ti contatterà un consulente personale”

Tra il video e lo spazio per la registrazione, la pagina ospita un falsa dichiarazione, virgolettata, attribuita a Giorgia Meloni: “La piattaforma rappresenta un passo significativo verso il benessere finanziario di ogni cittadino italiano. Oggi più di 500.000 dipendenti pubblici, pensionati, titolari di imprese, lavoratori e casalinghe in tutta Italia stanno già prelevando fondi da QuantumAI direttamente sui propri conti presso Intesa Sanpaolo, UniCredit, Banco BPM e Poste Italiane”. All’esortazione della premier segue il “Pannello di monitoraggio” con le “statistiche in tempo reale: negli ultimi minuti, 2076 utenti si sono registrati e 726 hanno effettuato il primo deposito di almeno 250 euro”. A titolo di esempio, nomi inventati come Francesca Colombo, Valentina Bruno, Marco Rossi, Chiara Marino, tutti dalla città di Ivrea, con la somma esatta del prelievo o del deposito.

Scendendo ancora, arriva un altro video. Il logo di Rai News è in alto a destra, un uomo con gli occhiali scimmiotta un collegamento televisivo: “Ho provato io stesso, senza dubbi ogni italiano può iniziare, in un mese ho raggiunto un reddito superiore a 10 mila euro. E’ stata lanciata con la partecipazione dei principali esponenti politici del paese, Giorgia Meloni e Sergio Mattarella”. Recita il sottopancia con grafica da all news: “Ultim’ora, 98% operazioni riuscite”. Un’occasione talmente ghiotta che “il numero di posti disponibili è limitato”, bluffa il testo in pagina sotto il video, per “evitare il sovraccarico del sistema: al momento restano 8 posti”. Infine, il riepilogo delle istruzioni: compilare il “sottostante” modulo di registrazione con i dati di contatto, attendere la chiamata del “consulente personale”, investire almeno 250 euro, configurare la piattaforma col supporto del predetto consulente, passare all’incasso. “I pagamenti arriveranno sul vostro conto bancario ogni giorno alle 10:00”, la rassicurazione conclusiva.

Il gesto di Meloni contro la clonazione

Contro la clonazione della voce ad opera dell’Intelligenza artificiale, giova ricordare anche il gesto della premier Giorgia Meloni, ad inizio ottobre: per difendersi dai deepfake ha registrato il marchio, con tanto di copyright. L’effetto? “Una modesta, modestissima quasi nulla utilità”, ha commento sulla Stampa il 9 ottobre Guido Scorza, esperto di privacy digitale. Neppure il copyright mette al riparo dalla clonazione della voce.

L'articolo La truffa con la falsa voce di Vannacci: “Versa 250 euro, ne guadagnerai 10 mila. Garantiscono Meloni e Mattarella” proviene da Il Fatto Quotidiano.

A OpenAI, que detém o modelo de inteligência artificial (IA) ChatGPT, tem planos para adquirir semicondutores de IA à Google, avançou o The Information na terça-feira 27 de outubro, que cita uma fonte familiarizada com o dossier. Já a OpenAI pretende expandir a sua capacidade computacional e diversificar as suas fontes de poder de processamento.

A detentora do ChatGPT está também a desenvolver os seus próprios semicondutores, os Jalapeno, em parceria com a Broadcom, com o objetivo de suportar os seus modelos de IA ainda este ano, refere a publicação Investing.

A Google fechou a sessão de terça-feira 27 de outubro a subir 0,84% e em pré-mercado está a valorizar 1,14%. A Google apresenta esta quarta-feira 28 de outubro os seus resultados referentes ao terceiro trimestre no fecho da sessão.