More artificial intelligence is coming to Gmail as Google tries to turn the world’s most popular email service into a personal assistant that can improve writing, summarize disparate information hidden in inboxes and deliver daily to-do lists.
The new artificial intelligence features announced Thursday could be a turning point for Gmail, the service that changed email when it was introduced nearly 22 years ago. Since then, Gmail has amassed more than 3 billion users and has become almost as ubiquitous as Google’s search engine.
Gmail’s new AI features will initially only be available in English in the United States, but the company promises to expand the technology to other countries and languages over the course of the year.
The most widely available tool will be the “Help me write” option, designed to learn the user’s writing style so that it can personalize emails and suggest in real time how to improve the message.
Google will also offer subscribers who pay for its Pro and Ultra services access to technology that displays AI Summaries integrated into its search engine from 2023. The extension will allow subscribers to ask conversational questions in the Gmail search bar to get instant answers about the information they are trying to retrieve from their inboxes.
In what could be another revolutionary step, the “AI Inbox” is also being rolled out to a subset of “trusted testers” in the United States. When activated, this feature will scan mailboxes and suggest lists of tasks and topics that users may want to explore.
All of the new technology is tied to Google’s latest AI model, Gemini three, which was launched on the search engine late last year. The update, designed to turn Google Search into a “idea partner,” was so well received that it prompted Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, whose company makes the popular chatbot ChatGPT, to issue a “code red” upon its release.
However, implementing more AI in Gmail poses potential risks for Google, especially if the technology malfunctions and presents misleading information or writes emails that cause problems for users, even though people can view messages or disable features at any time.
Allowing Google’s AI to delve deeper into inboxes to learn more about your habits and interests could also raise privacy concerns, an issue Gmail has faced since its inception.
To subsidize the free service, Google has included targeted advertising in Gmail based on information contained in email conversations. The shift initially sparked a privacy backlash among lawmakers and consumer groups, but the uproar eventually died down and never stopped Gmail’s rapid growth as an email provider. Competitors eventually adopted similar features.
As it introduces more AI to Gmail, Google promises that none of the content the technology analyzes will be used to train the models that help improve Gemini.
The Mountain View, Calif.-based company says it also built a “privacy” barrier to collect all the information in mailboxes and protect it from prying eyes.
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This story was translated from English by an AP editor using a generative artificial intelligence tool.
