It feels like every time you turn around, another new AI-powered feature pops up for Google’s various apps, like Docs, Sheets, and even Gmail, which is the latest Google Workspace to get even more of a Gemini treatment. It now offers AI-driven summaries of every email in your inbox. While there’s a whole conversation to be had about the privacy implications of letting Gemini in your inbox, the arrival of this feature only highlights one of the biggest problems with Google injecting Gemini into all of its apps: it doesn’t offer users any way to control when and where the AI works.
Currently, Google offers several Gemini-based features in its various applications. You can use AI to create tables and format information in Google Sheets, or let it write for you and rephrase content in Google Docs. Now, with the deployment of AI Summaries, you can let it read your emails and tell you what information it considers to be the most important for you to need.
To me, being able to easily create tables in Google Sheets using Gemini makes more sense than letting it read all my emails, but the way Google has set up how users handle these features is far too simplistic. Instead of allowing users to turn the features they want on and off, you either have to subscribe to the full suite of AI features or miss out entirely.
An all-or-nothing design just doesn’t work
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Google’s various Gemini upgrades to Docs, Sheets, and its other Workspace apps can be helpful in some cases. The company recently released an AI-based organizing feature for Google Drive that I love, for example. However, not everyone will always find the same level of usefulness in all of the AI features Google offers.
That said, the company’s idea of how to manage its “smart” AI features seems completely disconnected from reality. Indeed, if you do not want Gemini to read your emails, you must disable all smart features of Workspace. There is no way to just turn off Gemini in Gmail and keep everything else. You have to accept that Gemini is turned off for everything.
Now, I’m sure there’s an argument to be made here about the power of Gemini Intelligence and why it needs access to all your data, but I can’t help but feel like Gemini is trying to take over everything on my devices. However, for those like me, who have no interest in providing Google with more information and data than necessary, but still want to use some of Gemini’s features, you are only left with the option of agreeing to have your data transferred into the Google machine if you want to use these handy features.
The solution may not be simple
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While I’d like to see Google offer a more in-depth solution for controlling where Gemini is used in Workspace, the fact that it’s still an all-in or all-in toggle also makes sense. Many people will just want to turn it off completely for one reason or another, whether it’s privacy concerns or even lack of interest in AI features. And with so many different features to keep track of, locking everything under a single toggle is the simplest solution, especially considering how big Google is likely trying to achieve with these features.
However, even giving users a little more control would be a better solution than what they currently enjoy. Generative AI can be useful in many ways. Automating tasks, for example, in Docs and Sheets is much easier. But having to give AI unlimited access to all your private information in Gmail shouldn’t be the price users have to pay.
