This week, Google rolled out a range of features from its AI tool, Gemini, to Workspaces for Business and Enterprise customers, including associated Gmail accounts. You will now see a button that says “Summary this email.” Clicking this button will display a bulleted list of the email’s (alleged) content, and an email thread will display people’s sentiments in replies to the email. At the top right there is also a Gemini prompt bar and a button that displays some of the methods Gemini has to offer. The two options I’m currently considering are “Show today’s unread emails” and “Show this week’s unread emails.”
Many people will love this. Others will want to get away from it as soon as possible. Many people, including us, are already furious that we were automatically opted in. Now that you know why you were trying to disable 404 Media, you know it’s not easy to disable.
“Today, we’re announcing that we’re bringing the best features of Google AI to Workspace Business and Enterprise plans without the need to purchase add-ons,” Google said in a blog post Wednesday.
The “summarize this email” button surprised me. I opened the Gmail iOS app and it was there. I asked a Google spokesperson if Google had given their clients any warning that this would happen, and she provided me with several links (including the one above). Both were released on Wednesday. No, that’s not true.
I tried the email summarization feature on a non-sensitive email forwarded to me by Emmanuel. It was clearly a fraudulent email, with someone pretending to be Bashar al-Assad’s family and saying they could make a lot of money. Emmanuel forwarded the email to me and joked, “Sounds great.”
Gemini’s summary reads: “Mohamed Karzoun, a former member of Syrian President Al Assad’s cabinet, has contacted Emmanuel Myburgh to discuss a potential investment portfolio.” . The second bullet point read: “Emmanuel Myburgh has expressed interest in this proposal.” Gemini, not surprisingly, did not realize that Emmanuel was being bitterly sarcastic, which is a beautiful and human act.
I then tried to opt out of this kind of Gemini functionality. Log in to Google Workspace, click the (Generative AI) dropdown menu on the left, then click (Gemini app). The service status has been changed to “All OFF”.
No, that’s not true. A Google spokesperson said the button refers to the Gemini app, gemini.google.com, rather than integrating with Workspace. I also tried another section called “Gemini for Workspace” which also seemed promising, but to no avail.
I actually had to go to the account, account settings, and “Smart Features and Personalization” where administrators can set default values for users. A spokesperson said each end user can turn off the feature in their Gmail settings. They pointed to these instructions for users to disable “smart features.”
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But it feels like it’s all or nothing. You can’t just turn off Gemini’s new features. You’ll also want to disable features like the way Gmail notifies you about emails you received a few days ago and the automatic filtering when Gmail places emails in the Primary, Social, and Promotions tabs. has been around for years and many users are probably familiar with it.
On iOS, go to Settings, Data Privacy, and turn off “Smart Features & Personalization.” You will then receive a warning that you are about to turn off all the other features mentioned above as well. On Android, go to Settings > General > Google Workspace Smart Features.
Turning these off doesn’t actually remove the Gemini button at the top right of your inbox. This means that if you click on it (probably by accident, since it’s right next to the button to switch to a different inbox), you’ll be prompted to turn smart features back on. However, the “Summary this email” button will be removed.
My first thought when I saw the “Summary this email” button was, oh my gosh, people are going to send all kinds of business sensitive information to Gemini. did. This has already been seen with ChatGPT, and organizations should create policies to prevent employees from doing such things. And now you can do that process with one click, right in your inbox? Google says on its Privacy Hub page, “Your content will not be used for the benefit of other customers. will not be reviewed by humans or used to train generated AI models outside of your domain without your permission.” I don’t know if you gave permission, but that’s part of the problem.
“These end user settings will become even clearer and easier for people to use in the coming days as we are (currently) rolling out updates with language specific to the Gemini in Workspace feature,” the spokesperson said. the person in charge told me.
i hope so.
