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

You may have seen the now-viral warnings that Google is snooping into your Gmail account and using your emails to train its AI models.

“IMPORTANT message for everyone who uses Gmail,” reads the most viral post on X from user Dave Jones. “You have been automatically OPTED to allow Gmail to access all your private messages and attachments in order to train AI models.”

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It may be loading or has been deleted.

Many points of sale to have NOW reported on these complaintsgenerally follow up through a step-by-step process to disable Gmail’s smart features, which are supposed to prevent Google from using your emails.

But that’s not true, according to Google. The company doesn’t use your Gmail account to train its AI, even if users leave smart features enabled.

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

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

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

Additionally, Google has been explicit about its commitment to user privacy regarding AI models, such as Gemini.

“Your data stays in Workspace” bed Google Gemini policy page. “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.”

Some users seem to have interpreted giving Gemini access to Gmail by enabling smart features as equivalent to granting Google that permission. However, Google has previously discussed this on its AI page on Google Workspace, stating that this is not the case. The permissions a user grants with these smart features are specifically for allowing 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 are aware that many companies have already trained their AI models on the data and content for which they doesn’t have permission to use. And any user who wants to disable AI features for security reasons has every right to do so.

But this specific claim that Google trains its AI using emails from Gmail accounts, unless users turn off certain features, seems completely false.