Google & AI & You

Reports are circulating that Google has updated its policies to allow it to scrape your emails and attachments and other Google spaces to train its AI. 

Here's one report:  Gmail might be harvesting your emails to train AI—here's how to opt out, along with instructions for turning "Smart Features" off. If you turn it off, you will also lose some features like spell check. 

Apparently, Google says it does not look through your emails for its AI. 

However, this is just one front in the war against our AI overlords. The Electronic Frontier Foundation is suing the Trump regime of its use of AI to surveille social media. "The lawsuit alleges that the Trump administration’s program violates the First Amendment and the Administrative Procedure Act by using artificial intelligence to monitor and penalize lawful speech on social media platforms. The plaintiffs in the case include the United Automobile Workers (UAW), the Communications Workers of America (CWA), and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), labor organizations representing millions of American workers, many of whom are visa holders or lawful permanent residents. These unions report a significant chilling effect on their members' participation in speech and organizing activities due to fear of immigration consequences tied to their online posts."

And, there are concerns that DOGE-harvested data is being used to train Elon Musk's AI. "Most critically, government databases track entire populations over time, not just digitally active users. They include people who never use social media, don’t shop online, or actively avoid digital services. For an AI company, this would mean training systems on the actual diversity of human experience rather than just the digital reflections people cast online."

There are certainly other concerns about AI including its use among health insurance corporations to deny claims (soon coming, per the Kaiser Family Foundation, to Medicare) and the rise of data centers which are driving up electricity costs and using millions of gallons of water, and the misunderstanding of what "Artificial Intelligence" actually does. 

On the other hand, Cory Doctorow, author of the new book Enshittification, says AI is a Bubble. We'll see.

Anyway, turn off the AI training if you want.