Google has placed a sizable bet on AI that doesn’t wait for instructions. At its I/O 2026 conference, the company unveiled Gemini Spark, a persistent agent built to handle multi-step work across email, documents, calendars and the wider web. Unlike chatbots that respond once and stop, Spark runs in the background on Google Cloud virtual machines. Close your laptop. Lock your phone. The agent keeps going. TechCrunch reported the announcement in detail. Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai told reporters it serves as “your personal AI agent that helps you navigate your digital life, taking action on your behalf and under your direction.” The system powers itself with Gemini 3.5 Flash and a framework from Google’s Antigravity project. Josh Woodward, vice president of the Gemini app and AI Studio, offered a vivid picture. “Even when you close your laptop or turn off your phone, Spark can keep working in the background as you go through your day,” he said.…