Tech
I Used Google’s New Gemini-Powered ‘Help Me Create’ Tool in Docs. It’s Great at Corporate-Speak
Google rolled out multiple new AI features today for its core Workspace products: Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Drive. These apps now include additional tools powered by Gemini, Google’s AI assistant. The features range from generating entire rough drafts in your Docs to finding information tucked away in the recesses of your Drive.
This Google launch is part of a larger trend in 2026, in which major software developers are continuing to bake generative-AI-based features into core user experiences—despite the lingering distaste many in the US have for tools like these. The features are coming first to English-speaking subscribers of Google’s AI Pro and Ultra plans.
For Docs, Google added “Help me create,” which attempts to generate full first drafts of your document, from a prompt, by looking at your emails and files, and searching the internet for context. This feature takes the existing “Help me write” feature in the Chrome browser even further and points to a future where humans rely on AI to craft their thoughts and share ideas with others.
Sheets and Slides both can now create similar full first drafts by pulling from information on the web and your past data. Another new, notable feature in Docs enables users to mimic the structure of past files when starting a new project. Also, Drive now includes AI Overviews of your files and more natural language searching abilities.
My tests primarily focused on the new tools in Google Docs, where I have the most familiarity. To start, I asked Gemini to draft an itinerary for some St. Patrick’s Day shenanigans. In just a few seconds, Gemini combed through my Gmail and the web to put together a short plan. I was a little creeped out when the bot correctly looked up my flight reservations to see what city I’d be located in on March 17. It also tacked on a few well-known Irish pubs where I could grab a pint of Guinness. Overall, the results of this test were quick and solid.
Now let’s raise the stakes. How convincing a first draft could Gemini generate for my job as a software reporter? WIRED’s editorial standards block the use of generative AI, rightly so, except in situations where it’s disclosed and used as an example. Rest assured, everything you’re reading here was scribbled into my notebook before being typed up.
Other digital media outlets may not have rigorous standards around AI use, and tools like “Help me create” could be forced onto early-career journalists expected to pump out numerous stories each day. I attached the press materials Google provided about today’s launch and requested a 600-word hands-on story from Gemini, with first-person insights that could help readers better understand the launch.
In this episode of Uncanny Valley, we get into how the Elon Musk-Sam Altman trial goes way beyond their rivalry and could have major implications both for OpenAI and also the AI industry at large.
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The general cyber security threat to UK organisations remains “widespread and significant” with 43% of businesses, 28% of charities and 69% of large firms having suffered either a data breach or cyber attack in the past year, and 29% of respondents saying they were experiencing incidents at least once every week.
This is according to the UK government’s latest Cyber Security Breaches Survey for 2025-26, which comes at the tail-end of a 12 month period that saw a series of high-profile incidents targeting the likes of Marks & Spencer, Co-op Group, and Jaguar Land Rover, as well as amid elevated concern over the impact of offensive artificial intelligence (AI) – which was the subject of a warning from government ministers earlier in April.
“These figures are a stark reminder of the importance of having robust cyber security measures. All business leaders should be gripping this issue and taking action now, especially as AI is making the threat more acute. Quite simply, firms cannot afford not to take these steps,” said cyber security minister Liz Lloyd.
Lloyd has today written to the CEOs and chairs of over 180 of Britain’s largest businesses to urge as many as possible to sign on to the government’s Cyber Resilience Pledge, which was announced at the National Cyber Security Centre’s (NCSC’s) annual CyberUK conference in April and is set to launch later in the year.
Organisations signing up to the Cyber Resilience Pledge will have to take three firm actions to improve their security:
- Make cyber security a board-level responsibility;
- Sign on to the NCSC’s Early Warning service, which is free;
- Obtain the NCSC’s Cyber Essentials certifications across their supply chains.
Lloyd said that doing so would help businesses significantly strengthen their defences and keep themselves, their customers, and the wider economy, safe. “Businesses are not powerless,” she said.
An improving picture?
While the headline statistics give Westminster good reason to keep banging the drum for cyber security, digging deeper, the data show evidence of an improving picture in some regards. The percentage of businesses affected by cyber incidents was roughly in line with the 2024-25 survey period, and down from a high of 50% in 2023-24.
Ransomware attacks against businesses also seem to have dropped a little, with 1% of respondents saying they had been affected by ransomware, down from 3% a year ago, while the prevalence of phishing attacks – although not significantly down on 2024-25 – is way down on 2023-24, affecting 38% this year compared to 42% 24 months ago. And impersonation breaches or attacks affected 12% in 2025-26, down from 17% in 2023-24. Charities – which the government accounts for separately in the report – have also seen significant drops in impersonation attacks or breaches.
This said, phishing attack volumes remain high and are still the most prevalent form of cyber incident, experienced by 38% of businesses and 25% of charities, as well as the most disruptive. Those who took part in qualitative interviews for the report tended to agree that phishing attacks had gotten easier to commit, and were becoming more sophisticated, which was contributing to the increase.
The number of businesses reporting that cyber attacks or breaches led to loss of revenues – or impact to share values – has risen from 2% last year to 5% this year, while the number reporting they experienced reputational damage is also up, from 1% last year to 3% now.
The M&S effect
Picking apart its data, the government said that recent high-profile incidents – like the M&S attack – did not seem to be feeding through in terms of causing a wider shift in resilience. It said that while one might have expected such incidents to spur an increase in vigilance, prioritisation and action on cyber issues has not moved substantially, and long-standing issues such as the resilience gap between large firms and SMEs persists.
Indeed, SME cyber hygiene has been declining on a number of measures after improving in the previous report – the number undertaking risk assessments or putting cyber risk policies or business continuity plans in place seems to be dropping.
TrendAI cyber strategy director, Jonathan Lee, said: “This highlights how awareness of cyber risks still hasn’t fully converted into mitigating action, with no overall reduction in the level of successful cyber attacks year on year.
“While boards report taking more responsibility for cyber risk, it’s worrying to see a year-on-year rise in the proportion of organisations that report seeing government advice and initiatives about cyber security but go on to do nothing in response. This isn’t just on UK businesses and charities. Government needs to do a better job with streamlining schemes, brands and channels to make for a single, coherent national voice on cyber literacy that’s accessible – not just geared towards CIOs,” said Lee.
Lee warned that the UK’s fast-digitising society is being built on “fragile foundations”, particularly with so many business leaders seemingly in awe of AI to the exclusion of the risks it poses.
“While that’s good news for the government’s stated aim of making the UK the fastest country in the G7 to roll out AI, it’s a clear risk as long as complacency about cyber risks is commonplace,” he noted.
After suggesting a wood-burning stove, and a mini bellows, you should have seen this coming. What you need to complete the full-fire package is Cooking On Fire, a gorgeous book of recipes and techniques for cooking over an open flame. Cooking on Fire has a good mix of recipes, ranging from simple and delicious veggies to slow-cooked meats that require hours. There’s also plenty of background on different types of fires and cooking techniques, as well all the equipment you might want to cook various things (for example: spits, forked sticks, cast iron pans, and so on). It’s everything you—er, sorry, your outdoorsy friend—need to get started cooking on fire.
What I really want to try is the fire inside a log technique pictured on the cover, but I haven’t gotten around to that yet. So far I’ve only had a chance to make the grilled pork belly, with grilled carrots and “Krabbelurer” griddle cakes for desert. All of them were excellent, though of course, perhaps that universal rule applies more so here than with any other form of cooking: Your results may vary. In the end, though, this isn’t really a gift about cooking. It’s gift to remind us all to slow down and take your time, with food and everything else.
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