Google faced simultaneous reputational and product news this week, as CEO Sundar Pichai was met with protests at Stanford University’s commencement while the company shipped its most AI-forward Android release to date.
Around 200 Stanford graduates walked out and booed Pichai during his commencement address, citing Google’s involvement in Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion cloud and AI contract shared with Amazon to serve the Israeli military, and the company’s ties to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. The demonstration was organised by groups including Stanford Students for Justice in Palestine and No Tech for Apartheid. Venture capitalist Vinod Khoslapublicly criticised the protest, arguing the students were ignoring the broader global benefits of AI. Google has faced internal dissent over Nimbus since firing 28 employees for protesting the contract in 2024.
Separately, Google released the final version of Android 17 alongside Wear OS 7, both arriving first on Pixel devices. The update centres heavily on AI, introducing support for music-generation model Lyria 3, multimodal model Gemini Omni for in-conversation video editing, and AudioLM-powered speech-to-translation on the Pixel 10a. Gemini’s role is also expanding across Wear OS, with personalised widget creation and deeper integration with Google apps expected later this summer.
