Welcome back to Daily Zaps, your regularly-scheduled dose of AI news ⚡️ 

Here’s what we got for ya today:

• 👩🏻‍💻 Google makes Gemini Code Assist free

• 🗣️ Amazon Alexa+ incudes AI

• 🧐 ChatGPT Plus users get Deep Research access

• 🤝 Salesforce and Google form major partnership

Let’s get right into it!

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BIG TECH

Google makes Gemini Code Assist free

Google has launched a free version of Gemini Code Assist, an AI-powered coding assistant, expanding access to developers worldwide. This release follows the October 2024 debut of its enterprise version and comes amid rising competition in AI coding tools, including GitHub Copilot, Amazon Q Developer, and Anthropic’s Claude Code. Powered by the Gemini 2.0 model, it supports all public programming languages and offers up to 180,000 code completions per month—far exceeding competing free tools.

It integrates with IDEs like Visual Studio Code, JetBrains, and GitHub, where it provides code reviews, bug detection, and pull request summaries. Unlike the enterprise version, it lacks advanced Google Cloud integrations but remains a compelling free-tier option, requiring only a Gmail account for sign-up. By offering a high-usage, no-cost coding assistant, Google aims to establish Gemini Code Assist as an essential tool for developers, especially students, hobbyists, and startups.

BIG TECH

Amazon Alexa+ incudes AI

Amazon has announced a major upgrade to its Alexa digital assistant, introducing "Alexa+," a generative AI-powered service that will be available for a $19.99 monthly subscription, though it will be free for Amazon Prime members. The revamped assistant, designed to act as a proactive agent rather than just a voice assistant, can handle tasks such as booking reservations, purchasing tickets, organizing handwritten documents, and scheduling home repairs. Alexa+ will be compatible with most Alexa devices, though Amazon demonstrated its best functionality on Echo Show touchscreens.

The move comes as Amazon faces growing competition from AI-driven assistants like ChatGPT, pushing the company to modernize Alexa’s capabilities and shift toward a subscription model to offset AI development costs. The introduction of Alexa+ marks Amazon’s attempt to enhance its AI offering and monetize the assistant, though the company must carefully balance pricing and value to avoid alienating Prime subscribers.

STARTUPS

ChatGPT Plus users get Deep Research access

OpenAI has begun rolling out its Deep Research tool to Plus, Team, Edu, and Enterprise users, fulfilling its promise to expand access beyond the $200 per month Pro plan. Plus users will receive 10 Deep Research queries per month, while Pro subscribers will see their limit increased from 100 to 120.

The tool, which generates in-depth reports on various topics, has been improved with embedded images in citations for richer insights and enhanced file type recognition for better document analysis. Users can access it by selecting the Deep Research icon before submitting a prompt, though responses may take between five and 30 minutes due to its high computational demands. OpenAI has not yet announced when Free users will gain access.

BIG TECH

Salesforce and Google form major partnership

Salesforce has signed a $2.5 billion, seven-year deal with Google Cloud to host its customer management software, Agentforce AI assistants, and Data Cloud products on Google’s AI-optimized infrastructure. This move signals a strategic shift away from Amazon Web Services and positions Salesforce to better compete with Microsoft’s AI and cloud offerings. Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian emphasized the deep customer overlap between the two companies, noting that Salesforce sees value in Google’s advanced technology and growing enterprise base.

As part of the partnership, Google Cloud customers will gain access to Salesforce products through the Google Cloud Marketplace, while Salesforce’s Agentforce customers will benefit from Google’s Gemini AI models. Salesforce’s AI-driven strategy, which focuses on autonomous AI agents, requires greater compute capacity, prompting diversification of its cloud partnerships. While Salesforce maintains ties with AWS and has expanded its offerings on the AWS Marketplace, it is also reportedly in discussions with Microsoft and Oracle for additional cloud infrastructure.