Welcome back to our weekly roundup of happenings from XR and AI realms. Let’s dive in…
The Lede
Google I/O 2026 made clear that the old web is ending faster than publishers expected. AI Mode replaces the familiar list of blue links with conversational summaries, synthesized answers, and agentic actions that increasingly keep users inside Google’s ecosystem. Traffic to publishers has already been weakened by social platforms deprioritizing news. Search was the last reliable source of audience acquisition. Vox’s sale to Rupert Murdoch’s media empire landed in the same week, giving the moment an almost symbolic quality. Google did not arrive here casually. OpenAI forced the timeline. Once users demonstrated they preferred direct answers over navigating links, Google faced a binary choice: cannibalize traditional search or risk losing it. AI Mode is Google choosing survival over the open web model that built modern digital publishing.
Feeling Spatial
Google and Samsung clarified the near-term direction of Android XR. The immediate category is not immersive headsets. It is AI smartglasses connected to smartphones, equipped with outward-facing cameras, microphones, Gemini assistance, and a lightweight industrial design suitable for daily wear. Some versions may eventually include displays, but the first wave is more about contextual awareness than visual immersion. Meta and Ray Ban proved consumers will tolerate face-worn AI sensors if the hardware looks normal and performs useful tasks. Google now wants the operating system layer beneath that ecosystem, extending Android from phones into always-on wearable intelligence. The larger spatial computing vision remains alive, but the shipping product category is ambient AI wearables.
The AI Desk
A few hours ago, Trump announced that the vaunted AI Executive Order is off. After summoning the Lords of AI to DC, the president went back to his previous go-to: fear falling behind the Chinese. The proposed “framework” had no teeth in it, anyway. It would have encouraged frontier AI companies to voluntarily share advanced models with the government before release, evaluate cybersecurity and national security risks.
Eric Schmidt was booed at the University of Arizona commencement when he began talking about AI as a transformative force. That graduating class was not alone, as similar outbursts occurred at graduation ceremonies across the country. It’s not just Gen Z. AI backlash is everywhere. According to a recent YouGov poll, every age group distrusts AI by at least 65% (79% for older generations). Is this a backlash against AI, or the oligarchs who control it?
Meanwhile, OpenAI v. Musk’s resolution landed with less drama than many expected. Musk failed to clear the legal threshold necessary to move past the statute of limitations because the jury did not find persuasive evidence of fraud. The outcome matters less than the picture of the technosphere revealed during the proceedings. The case exposed a small circle of billionaire founders, executives, and investors who simultaneously collaborate, compete, sue one another, fund one another, and shape the infrastructure of AI. Their rivalries are personal, ideological, and financial at the same time. OpenAI, xAI, Anthropic, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta are not merely building products. They are competing to control the foundational interface layer between humans and machine intelligence. Musk says he will appeal.
Cinematic Corner
Watch the latest episode of Linda’s Last Podcast below. Produced by the author of this column, you can see the series archive and subscribe on YouTube.
Spatial Audio
This column has a companion, the AI/XR Podcast, hosted by its author, Charlie Fink; Ted Schilowitz, former studio executive and futurist for Paramount and Fox; and Rony Abovitz, founder of Magic Leap and Synthbee AI.
Our latest guest was Joshua Pantony, founder and CEO of Booted AI (see episode below). Our next episode will feature a roundtable discussion about this week’s news with the show’s co-hosts.
Episodes drop on Tuesdays, and you can find them on podcasting platforms Spotify, iTunes, and YouTube.
Charlie Fink is the producer and co-host of the AIXR Podcast and teaches at Chapman University and ASU. Fink is the producer of the vertical gen AI social media series, “Linda’s Last Podcast” (2026) and serves as CEO of Cinemation.AI, an AI animation studio he co-founded with film director Rob Minkoff, whose vertical anime series, Speed Queen, is in pre-production. He is the author of the critically acclaimed AR-enabled books Charlie Fink’s Metaverse (2017), Convergence, Or How the World Will Be Painted With Data (2019), and the upcoming AI, The End of Hollywood, and What Comes Next.
Header image credit: Tingey Injury Law Firm on Unsplash