Tech News Digest: Thursday, 23 April 2026

Today in tech, Google is making a massive push to turn our everyday office tools into autonomous assistants that can actually do the work for us. We’re also seeing how AI is being used to both secure our browsers and power some rather unusual new side hustles.

Google turns Chrome into an AI co-worker for the workplace

Google has introduced Gemini-powered 'auto browse' for enterprise users, allowing the browser to handle tedious tasks like data entry and research on its own. This is a significant shift for productivity, effectively turning your web browser from a simple viewing window into a proactive team member that handles the heavy lifting while you focus on higher-level tasks.

Google updates Workspace to make AI your new office intern

In a parallel move to the Chrome update, Google’s new 'Workspace Intelligence' system adds a layer of automation across Docs, Sheets, and Slides to act like a digital intern. It is designed to manage those time-consuming admin chores that usually eat up your morning, such as summarising long threads and organising files, making the 'smart office' feel a lot more tangible for UK workers.

Shade lands $14M to make video libraries searchable in plain English

Finding a specific clip in a massive video library has always been a bit of a nightmare for editors, but Shade is using AI to let creative teams search their files using natural language. For the UK’s thriving creative and production sectors, this kind of 'plain English' search capability could save hours of manual tagging and mindless scrolling through folders.

The rise of the AI-generated influencer side hustle

In a fascinating look at the future of digital income, a medical student has reportedly made thousands by creating an AI-generated political persona. This story highlights how accessible high-quality AI tools have become, enabling anyone to spin up a lucrative—if ethically complex—side hustle from their bedroom with very little overhead.

Anthropic’s AI finds hundreds of security bugs in Firefox

Mozilla recently used Anthropic’s 'Mythos' AI to scan Firefox 150, uncovering 271 security vulnerabilities that had previously gone unnoticed by human developers. It is a brilliant example of AI being used as a force for good in the software world, ensuring that the open-source tools we rely on stay one step ahead of potential hackers.

That is your lot for today—we will be back tomorrow with more updates from the frontline of tech.