Google says it isn’t using your Gmail to train AI

You may have seen the warnings going viral now that Google is spying on your Gmail account and using your emails to train its AI models.

The most viral post, from user Dave Jones on X, said, “Important message for everyone who uses Gmail.” “You have automatically chosen to allow Gmail to access all of your private messages and attachments to train the AI ​​model.”

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Very shops to pass Now informed But in Claimusually followed Turn off Gmail’s smart features with a step-by-step process that supposedly prevents Google from using your email.

But according to Google this is not true. The company isn’t using your Gmail account to train its AI, even if users keep smart features turned on.

“These reports are misleading — we haven’t changed anyone’s settings, Gmail smart features have been in place for years, and we don’t use your Gmail content to train our Gemini AI models,” a Google spokesperson said in a response to Mashable.

Google added, “Finally, we are always transparent and clear if we make changes to our terms of service and policies.”

Mashable was initially skeptical of claims that Google was using users’ emails to train AI until users opted out of a feature. Smart Features, which essentially integrate Google’s AI model Gemini into a user’s Google Workspace account, have been available for some time. This is not a new feature.

Additionally, Google has been clear about its commitment to user privacy with regard to AI models like Gemini.

“Your data remains in the workspace,” reads Google’s policy page on Gemini. “We do not use your Workspace data to train or improve the underlying generative AI and large language models that power Gemini, Search, and other systems outside of Workspace without permission.”

It appears that some users have considered giving Gemini access to Gmail by turning on smart features as equivalent to giving Google permission. However, Google has addressed first On Google Workspace page on its AI it is said that this is not the case. The permissions the user grants with these smart features are specifically to allow Gemini to access data for that user’s use cases, not for AI training.

Users are certainly right to question the AI ​​policies of all tech companies. We know that many companies have already trained Their AI models on the data and content for which they are didn’t do Allowed to use. And any user who wants to turn off AI features to stay safe is within their rights to do so.

But, this specific claim about Google training its AI using emails from Gmail accounts, unless users specifically turned off certain features, appears to be completely false.