Google is testing a new search app for Windows. A blog post on Tuesday said the app, currently available on personal accounts via Google’s Search Labs, will allow you to use an Alt + Space shortcut to search for information from the files on your computer, in your Drive, and on the web.

The app, which has a Chrome-like install process and requires you to sign in, also comes with Google’s visual search feature, Lens, built in. That means you can select and search for images on your screen, as well as translate text. In one example shared by Google, you can highlight a math problem on your homework and then ask Google’s AI Mode to help you find the answer.

Just like Google’s search engine on the web, you can switch between all results, AI Mode, Images, Shopping, and Videos, and more, as well as choose between dark and light mode. It’s similar to the Spotlight on Mac, which can help you search through your files, apps, and the web. Windows has long had a built-in feature that lets you search through your files and the web, but it recently upgraded this capability with the launch of Copilot Plus PCs.

Upon downloading the app, Google will plant a search bar directly on your desktop that you can drag anywhere on your screen and resize. You can minimize the search bar by hitting Alt + Space. The app also gives you the option to enable or disable AI Mode, as well as change the shortcut used to open the app by selecting your profile picture and hitting Configurations.

You can try out Google’s new app for Windows now by enabling the experiment in Labs. It’s currently only available in English and for users in the US. You’ll need a PC with Windows 10 or up to download it.

Update, September 16th: Added more information about the app.

Tesla is under investigation for faulty electronic door handles that can trap people inside their vehicles.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) launched the probe, saying it was responding to numerous complaints filed by Tesla owners, with a particular focus on children who have been locked inside the vehicle without any way to get out. The news comes a few days after Bloomberg published a bombshell report about Tesla owners who have been seriously injured after becoming trapped in their vehicles after crashes.

Tesla’s door handles, which operate electronically and sit flush against the vehicle for improved aerodynamics, have been the source of some consternation for some time. China’s government is considering banning electronic door handles for safety reasons. And now NHTSA says it is investigating instances in which Tesla’s handles become inoperable as a result of low-voltage battery problems.

The investigation specifically focuses on an estimated 174,290 Model Y SUVs, though the regulator said the investigation could widen:

This investigation will also assess the approach used by Tesla to supply power to the door locks and the reliability of the applicable power supplies. At this time, NHTSA’s investigation is focused on the operability of the electronic door locks from outside of the vehicle as that circumstance is the only one in which
there is no manual way to open the door. The agency will continue to monitor any reports of entrapment involving opening doors from inside of the vehicle, and [Office of Defects Investigation] will take further action as needed.

NHTSA says its investigation was prompted by nine instances of children becoming trapped inside a Tesla vehicle as a result of low-voltage battery problems. Typically, parents were unable to reopen their Tesla’s doors to retrieve their children from the backseat. Tesla’s vehicles contain manual door releases, but the agency notes that certain people, especially children, may not be able to operate them.

“Entrapment in a vehicle is particularly concerning in emergency situations, such as when children are entrapped in a hot vehicle,” the agency states.

This is the latest investigation to target Tesla. The company is also being examined for failing to report crashes involving its partially autonomous driving technology in a timely manner, and for its remote parking feature after several crash incidents were reported.

Earlier this month, we noted how Wired and Business Insider were among a half-dozen or so major news organizations that were busted publishing fake journalism by fake journalists using AI to make up completely bogus people, narratives, and stories. The Press Gazette found that at least six outlets were conned by a fraudster going by the name of “Margaux Blanchard.”

A week later and the scandal is much bigger than originally stated.

Business Insider has had to pull upward of 40 stories offline for being fabricated. Washington Post and Daily Beast have found that “Margaux Blanchard” appears to be part of a much larger operation using “AI” to defraud news outlets and mislead the public. Most of the pieces were fake personal essay type writing for experiences that were completely made up, by a rotating crop of different fake authors.

And most of this stuff should have been caught by any competent editor before publication:

“The Beast’s review found several red flags within the since-deleted essays that suggest the writing did not reflect the authors’ lived experiences. This included contradictory information in separate essays by the same author, such as changing the gender and ages of their supposed children, and author-contributed photos that reverse-image searches confirm were pulled from elsewhere online.”

Recall that back in May, Business Insider executives celebrated the fact they had laid off another 21 percent of their workforce as part of a rushed pivot toward automation. But not only does that automation have problems with doing basic things (not plagiarizing, writing basic headlines, and citations), it’s opened up new problems in relation to propaganda and fraud.

Again, early LLM automation has some potential. But the kind of folks who own (or fail upward into positions of management at) major corporate media outlets primarily see AI as a way to lazily cut corners and undermine already underpaid and mistreated labor. As you see at places like Business Insider and Politico, these folks don’t appear to genuinely really care whether AI works or makes their product better. In large part because they’re exceptionally terrible at their jobs.

There’s automation and what it can actually do. And then there’s a deep layer of fatty fraud and representation by hucksters cashing in on the front end of the AI hype cycle. That latter part is expected to have a very ugly collision with reality over the next year or so (it’s something research firms like Gartner call the “trough of disillusionment.”) Others might call it a bubble preparing to pop.

Most extraction class media owners have completely bought into the hype, in part because they really desperately want to believe in a future where they can eliminate huge swaths of their payroll with computers. But they’re not apparently bright enough to actually see the limitations of the tech through the haze of hype, despite no limit of examples of the hazards of rushed adoption of undercooked tech.