Google is continuing to push Gemini out to the world and is now adding it as a side panel to Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Gmail, the company announced Monday.This means Gemini 1.5 Pro will soon be present as a pop-out sidebar via a button on your Google Drive, able to sift through all your documents or scan your data for specific information when you search or ask it a question. In Gmail, Gemini will be able to write emails or read and summarize received emails. In Google’s PowerPoint and Keynote rival Slides, the Gemini sidebar will be able to make agendas based on existing presentations, summarize presentations, make new slides, or make custom images, for example. In its Excel-like Sheets, the Gemini sidebar will be able to generate table templates, formulas, or help users sort their data in a sheet. Gemini is also rolling out to the Gmail app for iOS and Android devices. Some Gemini features, like email highlights similar to Google’s controversial “AI Overviews,” will be available immediately. Other features, like “Contextual Smart Reply” and “Gmail Q&A,” are expected to be added to the Gmail mobile apps at a later date. Google has had some AI features in Gmail for a while already, and first started adding AI to Gmail last year.The Gemini sidebar and Gemini Gmail integration won’t be automatically activated for free users, however. Google is only offering these new additions to those who pay for Gemini via Google Workspace, Gemini Education, or Google One AI subscriptions. This is a bit of good news for free users who don’t want to see generative AI tools, which can hallucinate, jammed into every aspect of their digital lives.
A look at the upcoming Gemini sidebar in Gmail. (Credit: Google)
While some of these features could help users create documents, sheets, and presentations faster, this Gemini integration could pose some privacy concerns. Some might not want Google’s AI to have access to all of their content, files, and data.Google’s Gemini policy notes: “Google collects your Gemini Apps conversations, related product usage information, info about your location, and your feedback. Google uses this data, consistent with our Privacy Policy, to provide, improve, and develop Google products and services and machine-learning technologies, including Google’s enterprise products such as Google Cloud.”This means that any time you use Gemini or it accesses your data, this information could be sent to Google for training its future AI tools. PCMag has reached out to Google for comment and clarification on to what extent users’ Drive, Docs, and Gmail data are being used by Gemini to further train the model—and whether Gemini has access to users’ Drive and Gmail data who don’t pay for access.
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Google also claims: “We use publicly available information to help train Google’s AI models and build products and features like Google Translate, Gemini Apps, and Cloud AI capabilities.”Google expects to fully roll out the new Gemini sidebars within 15 days for most paying users. Some may see the new sidebars within three days, however.As an AI model, Gemini isn’t perfect. Google disabled Gemini from being able to make images of people back in February after it made historically inaccurate renderings. Despite Gemini’s continued rollout, Google still hasn’t fixed the feature four months later. Google has continued to update other elements of Gemini, however, adding the ability for users to upload their documents into Gemini directly in May and pushing Gemini out with an “Education” edition to over 150 countries.
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