Google unveils Jitro and free AI updates

Google is pushing its artificial intelligence tools in two directions at once: deeper into software development with its coding agent Jules, and wider into consumer and student products with more no-cost features and offers. (blog.google ) (blog.google ) On May 20, 2025, Google put Jules into public beta as an asynchronous coding agent that connects to existing repositories, runs in a Google Cloud virtual machine, and can write tests, fix bugs, build features, and update dependencies. On August 6, 2025, Google said Jules was out of beta and had produced more than 140,000 publicly shared code improvements during testing. (blog.google ) (blog.google ) Google has since added more autonomy to Jules. In December 2025, it introduced Suggested Tasks, which scans codebases for work to do, and Scheduled Tasks, which automates recurring maintenance jobs such as dependency checks. (blog.google ) A coding agent is software that does more than suggest the next line. Google describes Jules as a system that reads a full codebase, makes a plan, executes multi-file changes in the background, and then returns a diff and its reasoning for review. (blog.google ) That helps explain why reports about a more self-directed follow-on project, referred to in outside coverage as “Jitro,” drew attention this month. Google has not published an official product post for Jitro on its blog, but its recent Jules updates already show a move from prompt-by-prompt assistance toward agents that can surface, schedule, and complete work with less direct instruction. (devops.com ) (blog.google ) At the same time, Google has kept adding lower-friction artificial intelligence features to products aimed at students and everyday users. On April 8, 2026, Google added Learn Mode to Colab, turning Gemini into a step-by-step coding tutor, and added notebook-level Custom Instructions so shared notebooks can carry tailored AI behavior. (blog.google ) That same day, Google introduced Notebooks in Gemini, a project workspace that syncs with NotebookLM so users can organize chats, attach files such as PDFs, and move between the two products. Google said web access was rolling out that week to Google AI Ultra, Pro, and Plus subscribers. (blog.google ) Google had already widened access on the pricing side. On April 17, 2025, it said United States college students could get Gemini Advanced, NotebookLM Plus, Gemini in Docs, Sheets and Slides, Whisk, and 2 terabytes of storage free through spring 2026 if they signed up by June 30, 2025. (blog.google ) Google also tied those free student offers to a broader April 2025 product push that included Agent2Agent, an open protocol for artificial intelligence agents to work across frameworks and vendors. That placed consumer access, developer tooling, and agent interoperability in the same release cycle. (blog.google ) Google’s public line on Jules has stressed guardrails alongside autonomy. The company says Jules is private by default, does not train on private code, and keeps data isolated inside its execution environment, while also requiring developers to review plans and code changes. (blog.google ) The through line is that Google is no longer shipping artificial intelligence as one product category. It is building one set of tools that can act more independently for developers, and another set that lowers the cost and effort of using AI in school, research, and everyday work. (blog.google ) (blog.google )