this post was submitted on 20 Sep 2023
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286
Google’s Bard AI can now access Gmail, Drive, Docs, and more (www.pcworld.com)
submitted 2 years ago by Geert@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] Buffalox@lemmy.world 72 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (5 children)

I wouldn't be surprised if Alphabet has used data from all these sources all the time.

That's actually the reason I don't use gmail except for registering Android, or use google calender, or google search except occasionally. I have my youtube account separate from my Android, and I don't allow any cloud services, like photo or any other storage or sync services.

The power Google can gain from using these things in combination is huge, just like Facebook influenced the 2016 US presidential election, Google/Alphabet could use this for both political and financial gains to an enormous degree, that would have been completely unheard of prior to Internet becoming widely used.

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[–] LostDeer 46 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Can't wait for bard to join the google graveyard with stadia once the ai fad passes!

[–] dukk@programming.dev 16 points 2 years ago (11 children)

If it passes.

I hope it passes.

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[–] Z4rK@lemmy.world 40 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Man I can’t wait to get 100% out of gmail.

[–] ciferecaNinjo@fedia.io 8 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Just curious- what exactly do you mean by that? Do you mean abandoning/trashing your google account, or do you mean also refusing to send email to gmail recipients?

Personally I’ve gone all the way. Ditching the Google acct was just the 1st step (which implies also ditching Google Playstore). Then I quit sending email to gmail & outlook recipients. Then I went further and do an MX lookup on all email addresses to verify whether a vanity address like bob@lastname.com resolves to google. This has made #email mostly dead to me.

[–] Z4rK@lemmy.world 14 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I won’t stop sending to Google recipients. I have moved my email to Proton, but because of lacking search functionality there I have not yet migrated historic emails.

I’ve stopped using other Google services and deleted data except for Maps and YouTube. Maps I can probably get rid of. YouTube I’ll keep but may be able to use a more fake account.

[–] clark@midwest.social 5 points 2 years ago

I was stuck with a Google account because I still wanted to view Youtube, but then I found alternatives like Piped and Freetube that let you import your subscriptions. Maybe that’s an option, if you’re interested.

[–] blabber6285@sopuli.xyz 7 points 2 years ago

I'm wondering what was the email usage like in the first place if you can just choose to stop sending to most people.

But to be honest, I've only sent handful of emails from my personal account within the same number of years.

[–] juniorneptune@lemmy.world 36 points 2 years ago (2 children)

What makes anyone think google didn't have the access before anyway?

[–] Nioxic@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 2 years ago

They did. Its not about that

Now you can throw in a boring pdf, into your drive, and have bard read it and summarize each chapter. For example.

I asked it to read a report i have written for school and summarize it and give mr a few pointers where i could improve it. It was nice and speedy.

Granted the report isnt super long.

Wonder how well it does on a 700 page pdf..

[–] ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 2 years ago

They certaintly did, and already used AI to comb through it for their monitized stalking campaign. I think the only difference now is you can now make use of this somehow too, but I only read the headline lol.

[–] reagansrottencorpse@lemmy.world 31 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Me, who's had a Gmail account as my main email for twenty plus years. 😞

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[–] Norgur@kbin.social 29 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (4 children)

If you choose to use the Workspace extensions, your content from Gmail, Docs, and Drive is not seen by human reviewers, used by Bard to show you ads, or used to train the Bard model.

Yeah... really comforting, Google. Really comforting.

[–] ShittyRedditWasBetter@lemmy.world 5 points 2 years ago

🤷‍♂️ you weren't going to pay for it, gotta pay for compute somehow.

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[–] sirico@feddit.uk 20 points 2 years ago

Nothing could possili go wrong

[–] Doorbook@lemmy.world 14 points 2 years ago

These companies just push hard for people to leave them.

[–] kureta@lemmy.ml 10 points 2 years ago

openai's chat gpt, and microsoft's bing flavor of chat gpt both have android apps. google's bard does not. that is all...

[–] cy_narrator@discuss.tchncs.de 9 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Switched to outlook but soon found out that some of your emails arent even received. That occured when I was trying to sign up to this lemmy instance. Luckily the admin was a very friendly person who understood the situation and manually approved my signup.

[–] pineapplelover@lemm.ee 10 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Outlook is just choosing another big tech. Why not something like protonmail or tutanota?

[–] PastorHaggis@lemmy.world 7 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I'm starting to switch over to Proton. I haven't paid for it yet but my plan is to start paying and potentially grab usernames on other sites so I can have a consistent email across any site I decide to use.

[–] pineapplelover@lemm.ee 3 points 2 years ago

Proton unlimited was one of the best decisions I've ever made. Very nice vpn service that works even on arch Linux on school wifi (making sure to switch to tcp protocol), e2ee mail that I use to send confidential medical records to drs, included simplelogin premium (currently over 400+ aliases), excellent and knowledgeable customer support, and so much more. I just really love this company and their role in the FOSS, privacy, security space.

[–] Zaphod@discuss.tchncs.de 9 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I mean, if Bard can access those things, that means Google already had access in the first place. I also don't mind if that means I get to enjoy a better service overall.

The things I don't want Google to know about I have separate anyways

[–] ares35@kbin.social 17 points 2 years ago

narrator: 'google knows about those things, too.'

[–] Engywuck@lemm.ee 6 points 2 years ago (2 children)

I mean, at this point I find very difficult to believe that people willingly putting their entire life in free Google accounts don't know that they're basically ads meat anyway. The outrage makes no sense.

[–] Bluesheep@lemmy.world 6 points 2 years ago (3 children)

Without going to whole hog and hosting my own infrastructure, what are some good alternatives?

[–] Engywuck@lemm.ee 4 points 2 years ago

Mailbox, posteo, zoho, skiff...

[–] mishimaenjoyer@kbin.social 3 points 2 years ago

proton suite. i'm using it since 2016 and never looked back.

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[–] hornedfiend@sopuli.xyz 6 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Good luck using all my spam I get on my gmail inbox to serve me ads that get blocked instantly.

Edit: openboard autocorrect.

[–] AceFuzzLord@lemm.ee 3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

Only reason I ever use my gmail is because they are tied to my phone and some of the games on my phone, otherwise I wouldn't be using them.

[–] pineapplelover@lemm.ee 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I deleted google and only have game accounts email only from simplelogin aliases. Maybe you'll eventually realize google is a shit company and leave that environment as well.

[–] AceFuzzLord@lemm.ee 2 points 2 years ago (3 children)

As much as I don't like gøøgl€, on the phone front, it's the lesser of the two evils I can choose from currently. I probably won't be able to outright buy my next phone before getting service and slap on a custom ROM, so I'd rather deal with the devil I know over appl€.

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[–] BallShapedMan@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Queue the I'm in danger meme

[–] brisvag@feddit.nl 5 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Cue* ;)

[–] BallShapedMan@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago

Dang... you're right.

[–] ShittyRedditWasBetter@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Having generative AI hooked up to workspaces is a clear next step that's going to be very very popular. I'm not sure why this thread is shocked.

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