New Gemini

Google launched Gemini 3.6 Flash and started pretraining Gemini 4. China weighed tightening AI export controls, Bessent said the US would probe Chinese model distillation, Apple prepped a Klarna-backed leasing program, and OpenAI passed 10M Codex and Work users.

• Google launches Gemini 3.6 Flash, 3.5 Flash-Lite, and 3.5 Flash Cyber (9to5google.com/2026/07/21/gemini-3-6-flash-lau…) (9to5Google)

• Google launches Gemini 3.6 Flash, 3.5 Flash-Lite, and 3.5 Flash Cyber, and says it has started its "most ambitious pre-training run yet" for Gemini 4 (cnbc.com/2026/07/21/google-gemini-flash-ai-myt…) (CNBC)

• Sources: China is weighing tightening AI and chip export controls and is consulting leading domestic AI companies, in a bid to slow advanced tech acquisitions (ft.com/content/6049a031-9e9b-464c-97bb-414da04…) (FT)

• US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says the Trump administration will investigate whether Chinese AI models were illegally distilled from American models, and raises the possibility of sanctions (cnbc.com/2026/07/21/bessent-china-ai-sanctions…) (CNBC)

• Sources: Apple plans to launch Apple Upgrade, a leasing program for iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch, in partnership with Klarna in the US next week (bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-07-21/apple-t…) (Bloomberg)

• OpenAI says it now has 10M people using Codex and ChatGPT Work, nearly doubling usage from earlier this month when the company announced ChatGPT Work (bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-07-21/openai-…) (Bloomberg)

• OpenAI says it now has 10M people using Codex and ChatGPT Work, nearly doubling usage from earlier this month when the company announced ChatGPT Work (implicator.ai/openais-work-agents-reach-10-mil…) (Implicator AI)

• Garmin launches the Cirqa Smart Band, a $200 screenless fitness tracker that monitors 80+ activities with an up to 10 day battery life, to compete with Whoop (bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-07-21/garmin-…) (Bloomberg)

• Garmin launches the Cirqa Smart Band, a $200 screenless fitness tracker that monitors 80+ activities with an up to 10 day battery life, to compete with Whoop (theverge.com/tech/968551/garmin-cirqa-smart-ba…) (The Verge)

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