Google's AI Mode: A Smarter Search, But at What Cost?

Google is rolling out a new feature called "Personal Intelligence" for its AI Mode. This tool taps into your Gmail and Google Photos to provide more tailored responses. Think of it as a personal assistant who knows your life details. But, is this a helpful upgrade or a step too far into your personal data? This feature is currently available only to Google AI Pro and AI Ultra subscribers. It's not activated by default, so users have to opt in. This gives people a choice about whether they want Google sifting through their emails and photos. Free users might get this feature later, but for now, it's exclusive to paying customers. So, how does Personal Intelligence work? It analyzes your Gmail and Google Photos to understand your preferences and background. For example, if you're planning a trip, you can ask AI Mode for clothing suggestions. Instead of typing out all the details, AI Mode can pull that information from your emails. It's like having a memory bank that the AI can tap into.But, AI isn't perfect. Personal Intelligence can make mistakes. It might draw the wrong conclusions from your data. If this happens, Google suggests using a follow-up prompt to correct it. It's like refining a regular Google search when the results aren't what you expected. Google claims that AI Mode and Google AI will improve over time. They also say that the model isn't being trained directly on your email or photos. Instead, they use your prompts and the resulting output to train their AI models. You can revoke access to Gmail and Photos at any time. However, it seems like there's no easy way to turn off Personal Intelligence for a single query, which is possible in Gemini.