Google I/O 2026, Google’s annual developers’ conference, took place on May 19 and 20. Afterwards, Google published an overview of 100 important announcements. Below are some developments that may be of interest to OSINT researchers.
1. SynthID and C2PA: Better verify AI content
Google is expanding support for SynthID and C2PA Content Credentials to Google Search and Chrome, among others. SynthID is a technology that allows AI-generated content to be digitally watermarked. C2PA is an open standard that allows information about the origin and processing of digital files to be recorded. For OSINT researchers, this means it will become easier to verify whether an image contains known AI watermarks or provenance information. However, this naturally does not constitute conclusive proof that an image was generated by AI or not.
2. Google’s new intelligent search bar
Google introduced the biggest search bar update in over 25 years. The new search functionality can combine information from text, images, files, videos, and even open Chrome tabs. For OSINT researchers, this could be interesting when analyzing relationships between different types of sources and files.
3. Search Agents for monitoring and research
Google is investing heavily in agentic AI. New Search and Gemini agents can independently perform research tasks, gather information, and follow up on results based on user instructions. For OSINT researchers, this offers opportunities to partially automate certain monitoring and research tasks.
4. Gemini API agents for automated workflows
Via the Gemini API, developers can call agents that reason independently, use tools, query the web, and execute code within an isolated Linux environment. For OSINT researchers, this makes it possible to build automated workflows for collecting, processing, and analyzing data. Please note that requests are processed via Google’s infrastructure and are therefore subject to Google’s logging and privacy policies.
5. Ask YouTube for video research for automated workflows
With Ask YouTube, users can ask questions in natural language to find videos and relevant video clips. The feature can jump directly to specific moments in videos that are relevant to the question asked. For OSINT researchers, this can help find visual clues, events, or statements more quickly within large amounts of video material.
6. Literature Insights voor wetenschappelijke bronnen
Google introduceerde Literature Insights als onderdeel van Gemini for Science. De tool doorzoekt wetenschappelijke literatuur en structureert resultaten in overzichtelijke tabellen met doorzoekbare kenmerken voor vergelijking en analyse. Voor OSINT-onderzoekers die werken met wetenschappelijke, technische of specialistische bronnen kan dit een waardevol hulpmiddel zijn om sneller relevante publicaties te vinden en onderzoeksresultaten te vergelijken.
Meer informatie
Wil je alle 100 updates lezen die Google heeft aangekondigd? Lees dan dit artikel van Google.