Google adds an ‘AI inbox’ to Gmail that summarizes emails

Google puts more Generative artificial intelligence Tools in gmail As part of its goal to personalize users’ inboxes and simplify searches. The company on Thursday announced a new tab called “AI Inbox,” currently in beta testing, that reads every message in a user’s Gmail and suggests a list of key tasks and topics, based on… What sums up.

In Google’s example of what an AI inbox could look like in Gmail, the new tab takes context from a user’s messages and suggests they reschedule a dentist appointment, respond to a request from their child’s athletic coach, and pay an upcoming fee before a deadline. Also under the AI ​​Inbox tab is a list of important topics worth browsing, located below the action items at the top. Each task and topic suggests links back to the original text Email For more context and verification.

Courtesy of Google

Despite the continued proliferation of generative AI features,… Basic reliability Of these tools is still not identified. In 2023, when Google’s chatbot was still called “Bard,” I tested the company Emerging Gmail extension Which I tried to summarize my messages and search my inbox for ideas. At the time, this extension was a complete failure, with a host of incorrect responses.

Since then, Google has been improving its core AI model, which is called… twinand integrate these improvements into the existing suite of software services, including Gmail as well Searching. Despite the company Advances in artificial intelligenceexisting Gmail users still appear with a disclaimer stating that Gemini “can make errors” when trying to search their inbox and answer questions.

For users who are concerned about privacyThe information Google collects through inbox browsing will not be used to improve the company’s underlying AI models. “We didn’t just integrate AI into Gmail,” says Blake Barnes, who leads the project at Google. “We built a secure privacy architecture, specifically for this moment.” He emphasizes that users can turn off Gmail’s new AI tools if they don’t want them.

At the same time that Google announced AI Inbox, the company made free for all Gmail users many Gemini features that were previously only available to paying subscribers. This includes Help me with the writing toolwhich generates emails from a user prompt, as well as an AI overview of email threads, which essentially posts a TL;DR summary at the top of long threads.

Subscribers to Google Ultra and Pro planswhich starts at $20 per month, gets you two additional new features in your Gmail inbox. First, an AI-powered proofreading tool that suggests more polished grammar rules and sentence structures. And second, an AI Overviews tool that can search your entire inbox and create relevant summaries around a topic, rather than just summarizing a single email thread.

Courtesy of Google