Google adds ‘AI inbox’ to Gmail that summarizes emails

Google puts even more Generative AI tools in Gmail as part of its goal to further personalize users’ inboxes and streamline searches. On Thursday, the company announced a new “AI Inbox” tab, 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 it sums up.

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

Courtesy of Google

Despite the continued diffusion of generative AI capabilities, the underlying reliability of these tools remains uncertain. In 2023, when Google’s chatbot was still called “Bard”, I tested the nascent Gmail extension who tried to summarize my messages and search for information in the inbox. At the time, this extension was a total failure, with a multitude of incorrect answers.

Since then, Google has worked to improve its core AI model, called Geminiand integrate these improvements into its suite of existing software services, including Gmail as well as Research. Despite society advances in AICurrent Gmail users still see a warning that Gemini “may make errors” when trying to search an inbox and answer questions.

For users concerned about their confidentialitythe information Google gleans from scanning inboxes won’t be used to improve the company’s core AI models. “We didn’t just put AI into Gmail,” says Blake Barnes, who leads the project for Google. “We have built a secure privacy architecture, specifically for this moment.” He points out that users can turn off Gmail’s new AI tools if they don’t want to.

At the same time that Google announced its AI Inbox, the company made several Gemini features that were previously only available to paid subscribers available to all Gmail users for free. This includes the Help me write toolwhich generates emails from a user prompt, as well as AI previews for email threads, which essentially post a TL;DR summary at the top of long message threads.

Subscribers to Google’s Ultra and Pro planswho start at $20 per month, get two additional new features in their Gmail inbox. First, an AI proofreading tool that suggests more refined grammar and sentence structures. And second, an AI Overviews tool that can search your entire inbox and create relevant summaries on a topic, rather than just summarizing a single thread.

Courtesy of Google