If you use Gmail, you may have noticed a recent change. Google’s new AI system, Gemini, was turned on by default starting yesterday. This means Google is now scanning all your emails to train its AI models. Unsurprisingly, a lot of users are worried about their privacy and the lack of clear consent for this data processing. For now, though, the feature can be manually disabled and "should" be disabled by default if you like in the EU or UK. But it's best to check anyway.

Takeaways:

  1. Stop Google from scanning and reading your emails to train AI
  2. Can you remove Google Gemini AI from Gmail?

What is Google Gemini AI in Gmail?

Google Gemini AI is the company’s latest artificial intelligence technology designed to improve services like Gmail, Google Chat, and Google Meet. To make these tools smarter, Gemini scans your emails and conversations for patterns and data. This scanning is used to train AI systems, potentially improving suggestions, spell checking, and even automated responses.

While this might sound useful, a lot of people with basic common sense are uncomfortable with their private emails being scanned in this way. This is especially true since the feature is turned on by default without an explicit opt-in in some regions.

What Happens When You Disable Smart Features?

Loss of Email Categories: The Primary, Social, Forums, and Updates tabs disappear when smart features are disabled. This is because those categories rely on Google’s AI to automatically sort emails. If you want to keep your inbox organised, you will need to recreate these tabs manually. This can be done by using the Multiple Inbox feature in Settings, configuring filters to separate social, updates, and forums from your primary inbox.

Spelling and Grammar Check Disabled: Google has bundled the spell checker and grammar suggestions into the smart features. By turning off AI scanning, you lose these helpful tools. Since the spell checker has been a core Gmail feature for over 20 years, most people are super annoyed with this change. It's a change intended to pressure people into keeping AI scanning enabled by removing an important and very basic feature everyone uses.

Other Features Disabled: Package tracking and some smart replies or suggestions may no longer work when smart features are turned off.

Important Warnings and Notes

You may lose your inbox categories and need to recreate them manually. Many users only realise this after disabling smart features, so be prepared to set up your inbox filters again if you want the same email organisation.

Smart features are supposed to be disabled by default in some regions like the UK and the EU, due to stricter privacy laws. However, it’s worth checking your settings to be sure, especially if you are concerned about data privacy.

Google makes it difficult to disable AI scanning completely. Bundling essential features like spell check into the same setting forces users to choose between privacy and usability.

How to Turn Off Gemini AI Reading Your Gmail and Opt Out of AI

If you aren't worried about losing any of those features, you can STOP Gemini AI from reading your emails by doing the following.

  • Sign in to your Gmail account.
  • Click the gear icon in the upper-right corner to open Settings.
  • Click See all settings to open the full settings menu.
  • Stay on the General tab.
  • Scroll down until you find the Smart Features and Personalization section.
  • Uncheck the box that says Turn on smart features in Gmail, Chat, and Meet.
  • Scroll down and click Save Changes.

Stop Google Gemini AI from Scanning All Your Gmail Emails to Train AI

IMPORTANT: Be aware that disabling this may affect email categorisation and remove helpful features like spell checking. If you want to keep your inbox organised, recreate the categories manually using the Multiple Inbox feature.