Users will be able to set recurring tasks for Google Gemini Spark, from “automatically parsing monthly credit card statements to flagging new or hidden subscription fees”. Google Gemini Spark can also be directed to check inboxes for ongoing updates from certain senders, extract urgent deadlines, and send a daily digest of email content, as well as parse raw meeting notes across users’ emails and chats, creating polished summaries in Google Docs or drafting emails.

Google is also expanding Gemini AI’s connections with external apps, tools, and data bases — starting with OpenTable, Instacart, and Canva from today. More partners are currently being integrated and will be announced over the summer, the company said.

“Spark operates under your direction,” Google said in a statement. “You choose whether to turn it on and what apps it connects to, and it’s designed to ask you first before performing high-stakes actions like spending money or sending emails.”

This is the most significant shift toward agentic AI — broadly defined as models that can autonomously perform end-to-end tasks on behalf of humans — to date. (Read our guide to what it is here.)

The news: Cate Blanchett launches non-profit to protect artists from AI misuse.

Why it matters: Actress and producer Cate Blanchett has launched a non-profit organization, RSL Media, to develop what it calls a “human consent standard” for artists to formally declare permissions of use for their identity and creative works in a format that AI models can read.

Co-founded with tech executive Nikki Hexum, RSL Media has formulated its new creative permissions registry to be open access as of June, so that any member of the public can declare AI use permissions to protect their voice, likeness, and creative work.

Actors Javier Bardem, George Clooney, Tom Hanks, Dame Helen Mirren, Meryl Streep, and Emma Thompson are among the stars supporting the initiative, as well as the Creative Artists Agency and the Music Artists Coalition.