'These reports are misleading': Google denies claims that Gmail is scraping your emails to train its AI

It's becoming harder and harder to know what the rules are when it comes to generative AI. With Meta, X, and even the UK government behind opt-out models, it feels like AI is in a "steal first, ask permission later" state. All of that could go some way to explaining why hundreds of thousands of people believed Google was scraping users' emails to train Google Gemini based on Google's own wording.

Just last week, a viral X post managed to amass almost 150,000 likes (at the time of writing), claiming, "You have been automatically OPTED IN to allow Gmail to access all your private messages & attachments to train AI models."

Talking to The Verge, Google spokesperson Jenny Thomson claims, “These reports are misleading—we have not changed anyone’s settings, Gmail Smart Features have existed for many years, and we do not use your Gmail content for training our Gemini AI model.”

So, I hear you ask, what happened? Effectively, under the smart features options, Google clarifies that Gmail, Google Chat, and Google Meet "use your content and activity in these products to provide smart features and personalize your experience."

The relative vagueness of this description, plus the use of 'smart' in the context of reading activity, threw up red flags for many, who then took this as confirmation that Google was scraping data.

If you use Google services, there's a good chance you have once ticked the smart features opt-in at some point.

As clarified by Google, smart features can do things such as automatically adding flights from your Gmail inbox to your calendar, or tracking upcoming orders to let you know when your next package is arriving.

Part of where this confusion might stem from is that Google's AI, Gemini, can use your smart features and Gmail information, should you choose to let it. You can ask it to build itineraries around flights with your information or check the pricing of competing products (though if you're shopping Black Friday, humans will naturally beat an AI).

If you don't want to allow smart features, go into all settings from any Google app, go to the general tab and scroll down to "Smart features". Simply untick the box, and you will no longer get smart features.

Though it doesn't appear to be linked to Google's scraping of content, it's probably not a bad idea to get a regular reminder that you can opt out of smart features if they no longer feel that smart to you.

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