Episode Details

Today on UpNext AI: DuckDuckGo leans into demand for AI-free search, Alphabet moves to raise $80 billion for AI infrastructure, and a new paper examines how multimodal AI judges can get distracted by the wrong cues.

Covered in this episode:
- DuckDuckGo launches Chrome and Firefox extensions to make its no-AI search experience easier to set as default, as TechCrunch reports traffic to that experience is rising.
- Alphabet says it plans to raise $80 billion to fund AI infrastructure and global compute, with demand reportedly exceeding available supply.
- Researchers propose a way to reduce perceptual judgment bias in multimodal LLM-as-a-judge systems when images and text conflict.
- GlobalData says autonomous AI agents are exposing the limits of traditional GUI-driven software workflows.
- Google details how it used Gemini and other AI tools to help produce Google I/O 2026.
- Nvidia used GTC Taipei to introduce new physical-AI offerings for robots, autonomous vehicles, and video systems.
- Reporting highlighted by Simon Willison says attackers were able to use Meta’s AI support flow in an Instagram account takeover scenario.

Sources:
- https://techcrunch.com/2026/06/01/duckduckgo-makes-its-no-ai-search-engine-easier-to-access-as-its-traffic-booms/
- https://techcrunch.com/2026/06/01/alphabet-plans-to-raise-80-billion-to-pay-for-ai-buildout/
- https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.02578v1
- https://fudzilla.com/116615-2
- https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/technology/ai/io-2026-google-ai/
- https://the-decoder.com/nvidia-bets-big-on-physical-ai-at-gtc-taipei-with-a-new-world-model-driving-brain-and-open-humanoid-robot/
- https://simonwillison.net/2026/Jun/1/hackers-simply-asked-meta-ai/#atom-everything