Google’s AI Upgrade for Messages Raises Privacy Concerns Amid Potential Capabilities

Researchers have just unveiled a pre-release, game-changing AI upgrade for Google Messages. But it’s one with a serious privacy risk—it seems that Bard may ask to read and analyze your private message history. So how might this work, how do you maintain your privacy, and when might this begin.

The Promise of Bard: An AI Messaging Assistant

There is understandable excitement that Google is bringing Bard to Messages. A readymade ChatGPT-like UI for a readymade user base of hundreds of millions. “It’s an AI assistant,” explains Bard’s chat when asked, “that can improve your messaging experience… from facilitating communication to enhancing creativity and providing information… it will be your personal AI assistant within your messaging app.”

Understanding Privacy Risks with Bard’s Deep Analysis

But Bard’s chat also acknowledges that it may ask to analyze your messages “to understand the context of your conversations, your tone, and your interests.” It may analyze the sentiment of messages, “to tailor its responses to your mood and vibe.” And it may “analyze your message history with different contacts to understand your relationship dynamics… to personalize responses based on who you’re talking to.”

And so here comes the next privacy battlefield for smartphone owners. Google’s challenge will be convincing users that this doesn’t open the door to the same kind of privacy nightmares we’ve seen before, where user content and AI platforms meet.

Google’s Approach to Privacy and Data Handling

There will be another, less contentious privacy issue with your Messages requests to Bard. These will be sent to the cloud for processing, used for training and maybe seen by humans—albeit anonymized. This data will be stored for 18-months, and will persist for a few days even if you disable the AI, albeit manual deletion is available.

Such requests fall outside Google Messages newly default end-to-end encryption—you’re literally messaging Google itself. While this is non-contentious, it’s worth bearing in mind that anything you ask is non-private and could come back to haunt you.

Android vs iPhone: The Privacy Battleground

This is where the Android Vs iPhone battle may well come into play. Historically, Apple has been much stronger when it comes to on-device analysis than Google, which has defaulted to the cloud to analyze user content.

“Apple is quietly increasing its capabilities,” The FT reported this week, “to bring AI to its next generation of iPhones… Apple’s goal appears to be operating generative AI through mobile devices, to allow AI chatbots and apps to run on the phone’s own hardware and software rather than be powered by cloud services in data centres.”

Apple’s Mixed Signals on Generative AI

The latest update on Apple’s own efforts to introduce generative AI into iOS suggests its intent to keep everything on the device might not be as firm as expected.

Code just discovered by 9to5Mac in the new iOS 17.4 beta paints a picture as to the progress being made. “Apple is continuing to work on a new version of Siri powered by large language model technology, with a little help from other sources.”

Google vs Apple: The Race for AI Messaging Dominance

What happens this year will define the landscape much more than anything we’ve seen thus far. Google and Apple both looking to their messaging apps as primary UIs for generative AI capabilities suggest this really will be the game-changer.

This integration of generative AI chat and messaging will transform texting platforms forever, it will quickly open up a new competitive angle between Google, Apple and Meta, whose smartphone ecosystems and apps run our lives.

“While an exact date is still unknown,” Bard’s chat said when asked, “all signs point towards Bard’s arrival in Google Messages sometime in 2024. It could be a matter of weeks or months, but it’s definitely coming.”

Bard to Gemini: The Change Ahead

Google Bard is in for a big shakeup in the next few days, as an early changelog reveals that the “Gemini” rebrand is coming next week with a new Android app and more. The changelog lists that “Bard is now Gemini,” and extends features to the Gemini Advanced tier, offering expanded capabilities.

Get ready for an exciting but cautious evolution in messaging, as AI intertwines deeper with our daily communication—privacy considerations will be paramount, as we look forward to innovations set to redefine our virtual interaction experiences.