[Update 1# 16/7/2024] Google has officially responded, stating that Gemini only generates a summary within an open doc in real-time with zero data stored. The following statement was also given.
“Our generative AI features are designed to give users choice and keep them in control of their data. Using Gemini in Google Workspace requires a user to proactively enable it, and when they do their content is used in a privacy-preserving manner to generate useful responses to their prompts, but is not otherwise stored without permission.”
Cloud storage is nothing new. We all use them for work or personal use because pulling files on-demand on any device is very convenient. And you’ll probably use Google Drive at least once if you’re an Android user to upload stuff and send it to your friend because you don’t have Discord Nitro for those big files.
Yet when you throw Google Gemini into the mix, there are some concerning stuff that we have to talk about.
Because, according to Kevin Bankston who is also the Senior Adviser on AI Governance whose specialty is to take note of the trends, behaviors, and applications of AIs as well as the way corporates use them, he encountered a creepy situation where Gemini just summarized his private documents as they pulled them up.
He then goes on a long thread discussing why the setting has either “glitched out” or Google is pulling yet another mega corp move of automatically enabling stuff before asking for user permission.
As expected, neither official support nor the Gemini AI model knows what happened or caused it. To top it off, when Gemini debuted, it almost felt like the AI should one, Only persist within Docs (Or any Google apps in general) when the session is active; two, only perform the tasks when users call for Gemini and gave it permission to do so.
The suspicious situation also raised eyebrows when Gemini gave a wrong answer to solve this problem of “how to disable Gemini from reading private documents”. But after some fiddling and detective work, he found the toggles. But they were at ‘OFF’.
So are users being hoodwinked into thinking that it’s “OFF” but realistically it is at “ON”? We don’t know just yet.
Bankston did identify another worrying thing is that if the Gemini button is pressed on at least one document, the same file extension will also be “enabled by default” for any future documents, essentially making the situation as pressing the ‘Always’ button instead of ‘Just Once’ when opening a non-default file in Windows.
So no matter if this is a small oversight or not, this is ultimately an L for Google because, for a company of this size, they should have looked into this sort of thing more delicately.
As for users, the current situation seems to revolve around Google Workspace users but just to be safe, be more aware of how often or “intuitive” Gemini pops out and does things for you.
Source: Tom’s Hardware
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