The AI news for April 18th, 2026
Here are the details of the day's selected top stories:
More than 'Deep Fake': Draft for the 'Digital Violence' Act submitted.
Source: https://www.heise.de/news/Mehr-als-Deep-Fake-Entwurf-fuer-Digitale-Gewalt-Gesetz-vorgelegt-11262842.html?wt_mc=rss.red.ho.themen.k%C3%BCnstliche+intelligenz.beitrag.beitrag
Google makes it even easier for users to no longer access websites directly.
Source: https://the-decoder.de/google-macht-es-nutzern-noch-leichter-webseiten-nicht-mehr-direkt-aufzurufen/
Dairy Queen is putting an AI chatbot in its drive-thrus
Source: https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/913928/dairy-queen-ai-drive-thru-presto
Snapchat Messenger: Snap is cutting 16 percent of jobs worldwide.
Source: https://www.heise.de/news/Snapchat-Messenger-Snap-baut-weltweit-16-Prozent-der-Jobs-ab-11261949.html?wt_mc=rss.red.ho.themen.k%C3%BCnstliche+intelligenz.beitrag.beitrag
Hey, and welcome to the AI Briefing Daily, your podcast for the most important AI news from the past 24 hours.
Today is April 18th, 2026, and here are the latest AI updates.
Germany proposes digital violence law.
Google embeds pages in AI mode.
Dairy Queen adds AI drive-thrues.
Snap cuts 16%.
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Federal Justice Minister Stephanie Hubig presented a draft law to expand criminal and civil remedies against unauthorized intimate images, pornographic deepfakes, cyberstocking, and covert tracking.
It proposes three new criminal rules, banning production or distribution of intimate images, criminalizing computer-generated depictions that harm reputation, punishable by up to two years imprisonment, and targeting repeated secret Bluetooth or GPS tracking when serious harm is likely.
Civil changes let victims compel platforms for IP data and seek temporary social account suspension, but both measures require court approval.
Critics cite high costs, procedural gaps, and under-resourced prosecutors.
The draft would replace NetsDG's delivery rule by requiring a German service agent for non-EU platforms.
Google is embedding web pages directly into Chrome's AI mode, so links open beside the AI answer instead of taking users away from the search chat.
The page appears as a context pane while follow-up questions are handled in the same chat, and Google says the visit still counts as a page view, previously a new tab opened.
A new plus menu lets users feed open tabs, images, and PDFs into the AI mode, so the assistant synthesizes them and suggests further pages.
For publishers, this makes users less likely to scroll, click through, or see ads.
The features launch first in the United States.
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Dairy Queen is rolling out an AI chatbot to dozens of its drive-throughs across the United States and Canada to speed service and nudge customers to add items, the Wall Street Journal reports.
The system is built by Presto, which already supplies several other chains.
Presto's bot gets orders right about 90% of the time, though Bloomberg reported that some interactions are supported by human workers overseas, for example in the Philippines.
Dairy Queen tested the bot during a free cone day and found it handled long lines without getting crabby, according to an executive.
Rollout begins in select franchise locations.
Snap will cut around 1000 jobs worldwide and at least 300 open roles, trimming about 16% of staff.
Leadership sites advances in artificial intelligence that can automate repetitive work and speed development.
The company expects roughly 500 million US dollars in annual savings, offset by one-time charges of 95 to 130 million US dollars for severance.
Snap previously cut about 500 staff in 2024 and had a larger wave in 2022 that affected 20%.
Its stock is down about 30% amid weak advertising and regulatory threats to teen use.
The move echoes large cuts across tech.
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