🗣️ You can now Ask Google Maps Anything

Google is giving Maps a big AI upgrade, making it easier to search in a more natural, conversational way. With new features like Ask Maps, users can ask detailed, real-world questions and get instant answers. Let’s dive in!

In today’s insights:

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

Evolving AI: Google is bringing Gemini to Maps with a conversational search feature and a fully redesigned navigation experience.

Google announced two AI-powered features for Maps. Ask Maps is a conversational tool where users can ask specific questions like where to find a lit tennis court tonight or a phone charger without a coffee line. Gemini pulls from hundreds of millions of places and community reviews to deliver personalized answers on a visual map. Immersive Navigation replaces the standard driving view with a 3D environment built from Street View and aerial imagery. It highlights lanes and traffic signals and offers more natural voice guidance. Ask Maps is rolling out now in the US and India on Android and iOS. Immersive Navigation is launching across the US with broader device support coming soon.

Google Maps already has over 2 billion monthly users, and this is clearly about keeping them locked in as competition heats up. Apple just added natural language search to Maps in iOS 26 and is building out its own AI-powered navigation features. Meanwhile Google is pushing Gemini into everything it owns, from Gmail to Chrome to now Maps, trying to make the whole ecosystem feel smarter at once. One thing worth watching though: when asked whether ads could eventually show up inside Ask Maps recommendations, Google didn't say no. They said they're "focused on the user experience" for now. If personalized AI suggestions start quietly favoring paying businesses down the line, that changes the trust equation pretty fast.

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Evolving AI: LeCun's new startup AMI Labs closed a massive funding round to develop AI that learns from reality rather than language.

AMI Labs is led by a high-profile team including LeCun as chairman and serial entrepreneur Alexandre LeBrun as CEO. The company originally sought around €500 million but ended up raising roughly €890 million due to strong investor demand. The startup is focused on world models: AI systems designed to understand the physical world rather than just process text. AMI Labs CEO Alexandre LeBrun has been clear that this is a long-term research bet. Unlike typical applied AI startups that ship products within months, AMI Labs could take years before reaching commercial deployment. The company plans to build teams across Paris, New York, Montreal and Singapore to attract top talent and stay close to future clients in Asia.

World models are quickly turning into the hottest category in AI. In just the past few months, Fei-Fei Li's World Labs raised $1 billion, Runway released its first world model, DeepMind launched a real-time interactive world model with Genie 3, and newcomer Rhoda AI emerged from stealth with a $450 million Series A. That is billions of dollars flowing into AI that understands physics and space rather than just predicting the next word. AMI Labs stands out in two ways here. First, its bet on healthcare as the entry point is unusual when most competitors are chasing gaming and entertainment. Second, its commitment to open-source research goes against the trend of well-funded labs locking everything down. Whether that openness ends up being a strength or a liability could shape how the entire field develops.

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Evolving AI: Amazon is expanding its AI-powered health assistant beyond One Medical to the main Amazon website and app.

Amazon is rolling out Health AI to customers on Amazon.com and the Amazon app after an initial launch exclusively for One Medical members. Once users grant consent the assistant can pull in their medical history and provide personalized answers about symptoms, lab results, and medications. It can also connect users with One Medical providers via message, video, or in-person visits and handle prescription renewals through Amazon Pharmacy. Eligible U.S. Prime members receive up to five free consultations covering more than 30 common conditions. The system uses a multi-agent architecture with specialized sub-agents for workflows and auditor agents monitoring interactions in real time. Amazon states all interactions occur in a HIPAA-compliant environment and that health data is not used for general merchandise marketing.

OpenAI launched ChatGPT Health back in January, Anthropic followed days later with Claude for Healthcare, and just yesterday Microsoft opened its waitlist for Copilot Health. In barely three months every major tech player has entered the race to become your first stop for medical questions. But Amazon has something the others don't: a pharmacy, a primary care network, and the ability to actually book you an appointment or refill your prescription right from the same app you use to order paper towels. That end-to-end loop from "I feel sick" to treatment is hard to replicate. The big question is whether consumers are ready to hand their health records to a company that also sells them socks, and whether regulators will keep pace with a space moving this fast.

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