Gmail’s AI-powered email summaries can dig through your inbox for you
- Thread starter JournalBot
- Start date
would be nice to know how likely it is to make up random portions of the email summary.
Upvote
191
(193
/
-2)
Upvote
134
(135
/
-1)
This can prove to be a very useful feature depending on the applicable data privacy policies. But since this is coming from Google, I seriously doubt this can be used without agreeing first to let Google using personal email data for training and advertising purposes.
Upvote
85
(89
/
-4)
"Summaries" has to be among the most useless, if not the most useless thing these glorified chatbots claim to do.
Upvote
59
(67
/
-8)
"My mistake! Your mother did not actually refer to you as a 'wanker' and your sister did not confess her love for your husband! Let me resummarize your emails! In fact, what really is intended was that your mother wants to remind you that Grandma's birthday is on Sunday and she wants a walker, and your sister's husband is the one in love with you. Sorry for any confusion. On your behalf I've scanned your Google Drive and sent images labelled 'Nudes, private' to your sister's husband. And your mother."
Upvote
150
(152
/
-2)
This is by far my biggest annoyance with how AI products are marketed and presented. Clearly the confabulation rate is greater than 0%, because an LLM that reliable would curb-stomp GPT-4o in most benchmarks and Google would be singing its praises. Surely Google has some sort of internal metric based on testing. So why not tell the class? Instead of specific numbers, we instead get condescending crap: "of course AI is not 100% reliable, every sophisticated user knows this. Apparently it will take some time for your feeble little pre-AI brain to use these tools properly."
Upvote
56
(56
/
0)
Why do all these AI applications assume that having a conversation with someone is somehow easier/better/faster than using basic search syntax?
Upvote
124
(127
/
-3)
Does even Google have the compute resource to summarise tens of billions of messages most of which will be total shit?
Upvote
44
(45
/
-1)
That seems less efficient than just typing, "I want to volunteer for the parent's group event" directly in an email but I'm not an AI expert.
Upvote
115
(115
/
0)
Upvote
43
(43
/
0)
But what if--and hear me out--the summaries might not only be useless, they might actually be wrong?
Would you be somewhat interested, very interested or very interested?
Upvote
83
(85
/
-2)
Nah, not really,... if the problem is finding yet another source of information to harvest (especially for training purposes).
Upvote
7
(9
/
-2)
All this AI forced on us is going to force me back to the Stone Age. It’s even coming to the Mac and iOS. I thought I was safe. At some point, it’s got to stop.
Upvote
13
(15
/
-2)
Don't trust anything this company does. We remember the restaurant demo right?
View: https://youtu.be/D5VN56jQMWM?t=55
View: https://youtu.be/D5VN56jQMWM?t=55
Upvote
20
(22
/
-2)
I would assume using Gmail in any fashion already auto agrees us to the T&C that lets Google read our inboxes. This is just an attempt to summarize the emails. We'll have to see if it's wrong or right.
Upvote
8
(9
/
-1)
In theory, a management-speak-to-English translation would be a nice thing to have in a work email account. In practice, or for personal emails, not a chance.
Upvote
11
(11
/
0)
The trust isn’t there yet. So AI does this thing and I end up spending more time validating its answer than if I had done it myself. And if I do find mistakes, it makes me even less inclined to use it and even less inclined to trust it. By the time it gets good (if it does), everyone will hate it so much that they won’t want to use it unless forced to. Which might be their endgame.
Upvote
39
(39
/
0)
Not something that I would find useful.
I use Gmail for my personal account, but I don't receive enough email there to justify needing a summary service.
On the other hand, Google should never touch my work email account.
So...
I use Gmail for my personal account, but I don't receive enough email there to justify needing a summary service.
On the other hand, Google should never touch my work email account.
So...
Upvote
9
(9
/
0)
My worry is that the AI will be gamed so that it summarizes a phishing email for you, removing all the red flags like poor spelling and formatting, making it easier for scammers to get you to click a cursed link.
Upvote
65
(65
/
0)
We use Google Workspace at work, and have used it since it was Google Apps for Business. An account rep recently tried to sell me on Gemini vai email, specifically mentioning the ability to generate "accurate summaries of emails." I asked how accurate it actually is, where's the studies, the numbers. etc. They replied that all they could say is that it's "highly accurate."
They then mentioned a Satisfaction Guarantee where we could cancel "at any time." I asked how that would work with the annual license, and they replied back that we'd only be able to cancel at the annual renewal date. I then asked how that jived with the "satisfaction guarantee" they mentioned, then half-jokingly asked if Gemini had drafted that part of the email. They replied that actually, yes, Gemini had written the completely false Satisfaction Guarantee text in their email, and sheepishly admitted that it's "not 100% accurate."
They stopped trying to sell me on the product after that. I wonder why.
Last edited:
Upvote
133
(133
/
0)
Upvote
7
(7
/
0)
Yeah. I hate smartphone. but I'm forced to use one. I hate subscription-based software, but I'm forced to use it. I hate smart cars, but in 20 years I'll be forced to drive one. Yeah, you'll be using AI, in some fashion or another, whether you want to or not, in the near future.
And, yes, it will get good, scary fucking good.
Upvote
-14
(10
/
-24)
After 30 years of email summaries, better UI / UX, etc. it is very simple conclusion.
No amount of summaries gonna help. There are just too many emails. There is too much stuff we want to do. We can't help it it is how our brain works. Counterintuitively, but best way to handle it is disengage.
This is why none of Microsoft and Google innovations does not stick or move a needle. Are they nice? Sometimes yes. Microsoft finally has solid separate task application, which syncs with Exchange. But it breaks any mold? No. Summary or not, stuff is just TOO MUCH.
No amount of summaries gonna help. There are just too many emails. There is too much stuff we want to do. We can't help it it is how our brain works. Counterintuitively, but best way to handle it is disengage.
This is why none of Microsoft and Google innovations does not stick or move a needle. Are they nice? Sometimes yes. Microsoft finally has solid separate task application, which syncs with Exchange. But it breaks any mold? No. Summary or not, stuff is just TOO MUCH.
Upvote
9
(13
/
-4)
Change your argument to Bitcoin/cryptocurrencies, NFTs, or VR, and you can see how flawed it can be to view any emerging technology as "inevitable." Just because major corporations are tripping over themselves to spend billions in this new field doesn't mean it's anything that's actually useful or will be adopted by the vast majority of people.
Upvote
45
(48
/
-3)
My thought was, "Oh, good! Another reason to continue to use an e-mail client and never sign in to Google to read my e-mails!"
They reinforce that decision with every move they've made with Gmail for the last 20 years and more.
And, IMHO, if you're SO busy you can't be bothered to read and sort your e-mails yourself, well, I'd say some life priorities need to be rethought.
When you are forced to lie and say "I skimmed it" is one of those "you fucked up!" moments in all circumstances. You're trusting a machine that has demonstrably made up its own shit in often spectacular ways with your communications life. That's not just a bad idea. It could result in some pretty nasty repercussions.
The more Google fucks with the soup, the less I want to taste it.
Upvote
17
(18
/
-1)
The hell? I don’t need or want google going through my email. I can search myself locally.
Upvote
12
(13
/
-1)