Google’s AI Chatbot Utilizes Gmail for Personalized Conversations

In an effort to convince users that generative AI is valuable and not merely a passing trend, Google announced on Tuesday that it has incorporated Gmail, YouTube, and various other tools into its Bard chatbot.

The search engine juggernaut has been quietly developing AI powers for years, but was caught off guard when OpenAI released ChatGPT late last year and partnered with Microsoft to make its features available to users around the world.

Google then released its own Bard chatbot earlier this year, making it available in more than 40 languages and overcoming privacy concerns from European regulators.

The company said its enhanced chatbot will allow users to perform new tasks, such as summarizing a confusing series of emails or utilizing Google Maps to find the best way to a vacation destination.

These so-called Bard Extensions would also be available to retrieve key passages from Google Docs and Google Drive content, including PDFs, the company said.

The new powers would also help reveal incorrect answers with a new button that would compare Bard’s result to the results of a related Google search query and flag the differences.

This should hopefully provide some comfort to those who would be discouraged by the so-called “hallucinations” or bad reactions that are a constant danger when using Bard, ChatGPT or Microsoft’s Bing.

Bard’s new features closely match Microsoft’s offering, which adds AI powers to its Office 365 apps, though they cost customers extra and aren’t available through the Bing chatbot.

To protect privacy, a pop-up on Bard’s website said the new powers can only access personal data “with your permission.”

Any personal content scraped from Google workplace tools like Docs, Drive, or Gmail is not used to target ads, train Bard, or see reviewers.

“Your privacy settings are always up to you when you decide how you want to use these extensions, and you can disable them at any time,” the company said in a blog post.

The new product comes as the persistence of generative AI chatbots has yet to be confirmed, and ChatGPT usage has declined in recent months, according to industry data.

In addition, the integration of the Bing chatbot into Microsoft’s search engine earlier this year did not affect Google’s superior search position.

However, governments and tech companies argue that generative AI is the next big chapter in technology and have increased spending on new products, research and infrastructure.