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Google's search business is facing a pointed question this week: is it eating the very web it was built to organize? At the company's I/O two thousand twenty six conference, Search VP Liz Reid celebrated AI Mode queries more than doubling every quarter. Critics argue that when Google answers questions directly through AI, the publishers who created that information stop getting traffic — and eventually stop creating it.
Shifting to a concern that's a little closer to home, researchers are warning that the Wi-Fi router sitting in your living room may be doing more than connecting your devices. Scientists have found that the feedback signals ordinary routers use to manage connections can be analyzed to identify individuals based on how they walk — effectively turning ambient wireless infrastructure into a passive surveillance system.
And in a perhaps unexpected intersection of faith and technology, Pope Leo has issued a sweeping forty-two-thousand-word encyclical calling on the world to ensure artificial intelligence serves humanity rather than concentrating power in the hands of a few. The document touches on education, child safety, and autonomous weapons — a rare moment when one of the world's oldest institutions weighs in on one of its newest anxieties.
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