Clarification: Gmail's Smart Features Use Email Scanning, But Not for AI Training
By
taubek
The bagel they save for the regulars. Don't skim, savour.
Summary
This article clarifies a misunderstanding about Gmail's smart features. It explains that while Gmail does scan email content to power features like smart replies and calendar suggestions, recent wording changes led to confusion that this data might be used to train Google's AI models. The article corrects this misconception, noting that the settings themselves aren't new, but Google's recent rewording and placement of the smart features settings caused widespread confusion about potential AI training use.
Key quotes
· 4 pulledWe've updated this article after realising we contributed to a perfect storm of misunderstanding around a recent change in the wording and placement of Gmail's smart features.
The settings themselves aren't new, but the way Google recently rewrote and surfaced them led a lot of people (including us) to believe Gmail content might be used to train Google's AI models.
After taking a closer look at Google's documentation and reviewing other reporting, that doesn't appear to be the case.
Gmail does scan email content to power smart features.
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