Relay, an AI-powered workflow automation tool that was launched in 2021 with the goal of becoming the new Zapier, is shutting down, and some of its staff — including its top executive — are joining Google’s Chrome team.
Jacob Bank, Relay’s founder and CEO, shared a company announcement Monday that reveals the app will be shutting down access for paying customers on September 14. Free customers would have already lost access as of August 15. The app’s closure was initially announced in July.
Bank, who previously spent a little over six years at Google, revealed that he would now be rejoining the tech giant as VP of Product for Google Chrome, where he will lead the product and developer relations teams for Chrome, according to his LinkedIn.
“I’ve spent my whole career doing one thing: building tools that help people get more done with AI, without sacrificing their personal creativity or insights,” said Bank in a post on X. “And joining the Chrome team is an ideal opportunity to bring those experiences to many, many more people.”
“We have some really ambitious plans to help you work with AI in Chrome to get things done, and I’ll have more to share soon,” he added.
Bank originally joined Google in 2015 after his previous startup, a scheduling app called Timeful, was acquired by the search giant. At Google, he worked in a number of different areas, including as product lead for Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Chat, before eventually leaving to launch Relay.
Similar to Timeful, Relay offered users productivity upgrades via workflow automation, allowing businesses to streamline repetitive tasks like document drafting and copyediting, as well as various project management tasks. TechCrunch reached out to Google and to Relay for more information.
Just how Bank and others plan to further integrate AI into Chrome is a hanging question, though Bank calls Chrome “a perfect place to collaborate with agents.”
The move follows a steady path of AI integration into Google’s user experience. The integration of Gemini into search has fundamentally altered Google’s front end — not to mention the rest of the internet. Gemini has also been integrated into Chrome, where it serves as an optional in-browser assistant.
Overall, users seem to be responding well to these integrations, as Google recently reported that Gemini had crested 1 billion users.
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The ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, in Zamfara State is heading for a crisis ahead of its fresh primary election to select the party's candidate for the Kaura Namoda/Birnin Magaji Federal Constituency.
Recall that the Court of Appeal had ordered a fresh primary in the constituency.
In what appears to signal the beginning of a brewing crisis within the Zamfara APC, an aspirant, Hassan Dangaladima, has petitioned two organs of the party over the actions of its National Chairman, Prof. Nentawe Yilwatda.
In the petition sighted by DAILY POST on Tuesday, which has since gone viral, Dangaladima levelled several allegations against the APC National Chairman.
Chief among his allegations is that Yilwatda unilaterally constituted the committee to conduct the fresh primary without recourse to the National Working Committee (NWC), which he heads.
"Pursuant to the said court order, the National Chairman purported to nominate and approve a committee to conduct the rescheduled primary election.
"The said nomination was made unilaterally by the National Chairman; no meeting of the National Working Committee was convened for that purpose."
The petitioner also alleged that his main rival for the ticket, Honourable Aminu Sani Jaji, is not a card-carrying member of the party.
The petition urged the APC National Executive Committee, NEC, to halt the conduct of the fresh primary and appoint a new set of individuals to conduct the exercise.
However, in response to the petition, the APC National Chairman, through his media aide, Abimbola Tooki, dismissed the allegations as baseless.
According to the party chairman, the committee was properly constituted, contrary to the petitioner's claim.
DAILY POST reports that the Zamfara State Governor, Dauda Lawal recently defected to the APC. President Bola Tinubu's re-election campaign Director-General, Abdulaziz Yari, is also from Zamfara State.
The National Chairman of the Peoples Redemption Party, PRP, Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, says the party is in the 2027 election race to win and not to make numbers.
Baba-Ahmed made this statement at a strategic retreat organised for the party's leadership and candidates.
He charged the party's candidates to go out and convince Nigerians that PRP deserves their trust and their votes in 2027.
According to him, the party has the best presidential candidate in Donald Duke, adding that history and character have moulded him to lead Nigeria out of its current challenges to a deserved status of affluence, security and unity.
He also said that Duke's running mate, Malam Sule Mohammed, is a study in principled loyalty, excellence in personal and professional life and unparalleled humility, which is tragically rare in current leaders.
Baba-Ahmed said the party also has governorship candidates who will be models of competent leadership, integrity and courage, stressing that they are candidates who will embody service, sacrifice and humility.
"We are PRP. We're in the 2027 race to win not to make numbers. We are products of a great tradition which insists that Nigeria can be great enough for all those who work honestly, and a nation which has the same place for the weak and the vulnerable as it has for those who are trusted with power or possess wealth," Baba-Ahmed said.
According to him, the party is under no illusions that its tasks will be easy, stating that the party will be competing in very hostile environments where incumbents fear change, while PRP champions it.
He said the party will find resistance from politicians who bribe the people for their future, while PRP asks for trust and the courage to choose quality and integrity.
On his part, the party's presidential candidate, Donald Duke, took a swipe at the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, saying it is enjoying too much advantage when it comes to campaign visibility.
According to him, opposition parties are finding it hard to get venues and places to put their adverts as the 2027 elections draw near.
He said the problem is making it harder and harder for opposition candidates to reach voters in different parts of the country.