Google Gemini Is About to Get to Know You Much Better.

Ever since Google Gemini was called Bard, it could interact with the company’s other productivity apps to extract context from them and answer your questions—but you still had to manually connect those apps to the AI ​​using extensions . And even after combining apps, you typically had to tell Gemini where to find your data to fully utilize its capabilities. For example, if you wanted it to extract information from your emails, you might start your query with “Find in my mail.”

Google is now making it easier to connect Gemini to its various services and adding a “context analysis” feature when extracting information from your entire Google workspace. This feature is called “Personal Intelligence.”

Personal Intelligence, which launches in beta today for paid subscribers in the US (and will soon be available in other countries and for free users), is an optional feature. It currently works with Gmail, Photos, YouTube, and Search, and all of these services can be enabled with a single tap during setup.

This alone makes it more convenient than a collection of extensions, but rumor has it there are also several improvements to overall usability. The most significant of these is that Gemini will apparently be able to “study” you from multiple sources simultaneously, without requiring you to specify where to search, and use this information to answer your questions.

As an example, Google prompts the user to ask, “I need to change the tires on my car. Which ones would you recommend?” The bot then performs several stages of analysis, using all available data to determine what kind of car the operator drives and which tires are best suited for the conditions they typically drive in. Specifically, in the example, it uses Google Photos data about the operator’s past vacations, as well as Gmail data, to help the operator find a specific configuration for their car. This can take some time, so there’s a “Reply Now” button next to the analysis progress bar to prevent the bot from getting stuck. In the example, the AI ​​took about 10 seconds to generate a response.

Google promises the same privacy guarantees as Workspace with Personal Intelligence, stating, “Because this data is already securely stored by Google, you don’t need to send sensitive data anywhere else to start personalizing your experience.” In other words, this won’t change the amount of data about you that Google can access, but it will at least prevent the need to connect your Workspace to third parties. The company also promises that the data Personal Intelligence receives from sources like Gmail won’t be used to train Gemini, but “specific suggestions and responses” may be used, at least after filtering out personal data.

Google also states, “Gemini will attempt to reference or explain information used from your connected sources so you can verify it,” though we don’t have any practical examples of this yet. However, if you’re bothered by hallucinations , it’s worth being careful. The company suggests asking Gemini for more information about the sources of responses if you’re dissatisfied, and correcting a response “if it feels wrong,” for example by saying something like, “Remember, I prefer window seats.” Gemini will theoretically remember this for future reference, using its existing chat history feature . If you’re consistently dissatisfied, you can thumbs down responses to leave feedback.

How to enable Personal Intelligence in Google Gemini

Google says that eligible users should see an invitation to try the Personal Intelligence feature on Gemini’s home screen immediately after launch, but if you don’t see it, you can enable it manually by following these steps:

1. Open Gemini and click or tap Settings .

2. Click or tap Personal Information .

3. In the Connected Apps section, select the apps from which you want the personal intelligence system to receive information.

That’s it! Keep in mind that the “Personal Intelligence” feature is disabled by default and is currently only available to paid subscribers, so it may take some time before you can use it. Google also emphasizes that Gemini may not personalize every answer, as this will save time on simpler queries. The company also announced that the “Personal Intelligence” feature for Google Search’s AI mode is currently planned for rollout, but a specific release date has not yet been determined.

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