• Google has upgraded its AI Mode with the advanced Gemini 2.5 Pro
• AI Mode has also added Deep Search, which can now run hundreds of background searches
• A new calling tool built into Search lets Google call businesses on your behalf

Google is continuing to try to get you to use its AI Mode when searching online with new and enhanced AI tools. The conversational search tool has made Google’s Gemini 2.5 Pro AI model available in AI Mode, along with the long-form report writing tool Deep Search.

Google AI Pro and AI Ultra subscribers in the U.S. who are also part of the AI Mode experiment in Search Labs will now see an option to choose Gemini 2.5 Pro when asking tough questions as well.

HUNTSVILLE, Ala (WHNT) — Our world is constantly evolving, and lately, a lot of that evolution has been in the form of artificial intelligence.

“This is the future,” Kala Grice-Dobbins said. “It’s not going away, and we want our teachers to be informed, but also our students to be informed.”

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Grice-Dobbins is a cybersecurity teacher with the Madison County School System.

Thursday, more than 150 teachers from across North Alabama gathered to talk about AI and the use of it in the classroom.

“It’s clearly a novel technology– new for kids, new for teachers, and they’re trying to figure out how to use it,” Randy Sparkman said. “So we’re just trying to bring resources and bring these, Madison County districts, particularly, together to talk about strategies for using AI in the new school year.”

Sparkman is a part of Mayor Tommy Battle’s AI task force. They put on the AI in education event.

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Grace-Dobbins said she uses AI for help with things like lesson plans and recommendation letters.

“All of us use templates every day,” she said. “Why can’t it be our template to start with, and then we edit it because nothing’s perfect when it comes out.”

She said it’s easier than you think to spot students plagiarizing by using the tool.

“It’s not going to be your top of the line type paper,” she said. “It’s not going to be written in their kind of language. It’s not going to have their kind of thoughts involved, and so the more you know your students, you’re going to know this is not you.”

Angela Evans is also a teacher. She said she’s already been using AI in her classroom for years.

She has a message for those who may be skeptical. What she’d tell people.

“Don’t be scared because change is nature,” she said. “We are going to progress our humanity. Our intelligence is going to continue to progress.

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Gov. Glenn Youngkin issued an executive order to deploy AI agents to review and streamline Virginia’s regulations. The tool will scan all regulations and guidance to identify areas where there are conflicts with the statute, as well as redundancies and complex and unclear language.

“We have made tremendous strides towards streamlining regulations and the regulatory process in the Commonwealth,” Youngkin said in a press release. “Using emergent artificial intelligence tools, we will push this effort further in order to continue our mission of unleashing Virginia’s economy in a way that benefits all of its citizens.”

The new executive order adds to two other 2022 orders, which had mandated Virginia agencies to streamline regulations by at least 25%.

To date, state agencies have already streamlined regulations by 26.8% on average and cut 48% of words in guidance documents.

The new executive order is expected to help agencies struggling to hit the 25% regulatory reduction goal and give a further boost to those that have already met or exceeded requirements. The goal is to ensure the streamlining is done “to the greatest extent possible,” according to the governor’s office.

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All States Now Have AI Bills or Laws

The launch comes as Congress removed a 10-year ban on state AI regulations that was part of President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill.”

At present, states are accelerating AI regulation. All 50 states plus D.C., Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands introduced AI legislation in 2025, with more than half enacting measures covering areas such as algorithmic fairness, transparency and consumer protections, according to a blog post by the law firm Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck.

In California, major bills include SB 420, which will establish an AI bill of rights, and SB 243, which aims to protect minors from chatbot manipulations. There’s also AB 1018, which seeks to ensure AI systems exhibit fairness in housing and hiring decisions, according to Brownstein.

In New York, SB 6453 has passed both chambers to be the first state law to restrict “frontier” or advanced AI models, according to Brownstein. In Connecticut, SB 2 is a comprehensive AI bill that awaits final votes.

Texas, Colorado, Utah and Montana have already enacted AI laws, and uncertainty about their enforceability has been lifted, the law firm said.

Meanwhile, California’s Judicial Council is considering requiring all 65 courts to adopt policies governing generative AI use unless they ban it outright, according to Reuters. If adopted, it would be the largest court system in the country with an AI policy.

Other states where court systems already have an AI policy include Illinois, Delaware and Arizona. States considering adopting an AI policy for their courts include New York, Georgia and Connecticut.

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