Google Gemini can now access your digital life for smarter answers
If you use Google apps like Gmail or Photos, Google already knows certain aspects of your life. The company proposes to make this knowledge more accessible through what it calls Personal Intelligence, which will synthesize this knowledge into Gemini.
Personal Intelligence will take information from Photos, YouTube, and Gmail and make it available to Gemini, provided you have a Google AI Pro or Google AI Ultra subscription in the United States. You’ll be able to access it through the web or Google’s mobile apps, and eventually more subscription tiers will be able to access it, even free subscribers.
In a certain sense, this is a kind of capitulation: Google can already exploit your Gmail, for example, to extract the most relevant mail and highlight it; or bury other communications in your spam folder. In a blog post, Google highlighted what else it could do: access a photo of your license plate that you took or recommend new tires for your car based on a notification from the DMV. This is of course voluntary participation, but the argument remains as follows: Why not, it’s so practical!
Naturally, Google warns that it might make mistakes or not understand the nuances.
“For example, seeing hundreds of photos of yourself on a golf course might suggest that you like golf,” notes Google. “But the nuance is missing: You don’t like golf, but you love your son, and that’s why you’re there. If Gemini is wrong, you can just tell him (“I don’t like golf”).”
Google also says it has safeguards to prevent it from asking about personal topics, like your health, but it may not include relationship changes, like a divorce.
To enable it, go to the Gemini app, tap Settingsand then Personal intelligencethen activate the applications of your choice.
Should we use Google’s personal intelligence? It’s one of those decisions that seems… personal.
