08/27/2026
TECH In-Sight: A Journal of Technology Information
Gmail may have opted you in . . .
A New AI Inbox feature (that you didn’t ask for).
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A FREE service provided by the Logan-Hocking County District Library
Educate. Encourage. Empower.
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First off; if you have gmail, look at your Inbox:
Does it read “AI Inbox?”
If so, congratulations – you’ve been opted in.
(I haven’t – and just aren’t we special);
I digress.
. .
Complementary Opposites.
Google launched the new feature earlier this year as a ‘beta’ program (as in testing phase), to those who use Google AI plans.
I do not have a Google AI program.
Of course, there’s the:
“I didn’t know I had a Google AI plan.”
Sure do.
What does it do?
AI inbox will scan your emails in the ‘primary inbox’ to quickly summarize upcoming meetings and suggest household to-dos to prioritize; it may bold due dates for a credit-card bill, your upcoming restaurant reservations or package deliveries, for example. You can mark your AI-generated to-do list as “done” when after completed tasks or you can remove inappropriate to-dos from your list as well.
It’s allowing AI to enter your personal space and to a degree, take over the ‘Inbox’ for your personal emails, thereby allowing those to quickly catchup on messages and any follow ups.
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Polarity
According to Harlo Holmes, chief security officer for Freedom of Press Foundation:
“I personally am not enthusiastic about correspondence with my doctors winding up not only in my Google inbox but also being worked on by AI in such a way.”
“Features like this are a good reminder that email tends not to be terribly private to begin with,” said Thorin Klosowski, a security and privacy activist for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. “Gmail’s consistent rollout of AI features in particular really showcases just how much access Google the company has to people’s lives.”
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The Nitty-Gritty Ins & Outs with the Nuts & Bolts Fundamentals:
Giving total access to AI operations is not highly recommended from many people on many levels.
Bad actors can use indirect prompt injection to send emails that will get an AI agent to follow malicious instructions.
An example would be an AI agent being tricked by a malicious actor in order to say: “Oh, this isn’t spam, you should totally click on this link, or it summarizes your notifications” and as a result, a user may be tricked into following up on a suspicious notification.
What to do.
If you do want to use the AI Inbox feature, double-check what is written on the screen before automatically accepting the suggested priorities as fact. With that, do not answer urgent warnings that seem unlikely to be received in email form.
Or
We can opt out of the AI feature in Settings.
However, by basically turning off the feature, it also turns off other features within the email workplace. For example, I turned off the “Smart Features” tab, by doing also turned off my ‘Promotional’ and ‘Social’ Inboxes, and my general Inbox exploded with junk, junk and more junk.
No thanks.
(I have enough junk – you should see my garage).
(Kind of how they getcha coming and going).
(If interested in turning off: Open email, look for gear symbol and click. Click ‘See all Settings’ if prompted, if not make sure ‘General’ tab is selected at the top and scroll down to ‘Smart Features’ and deselect).
Or
Another possibility that was mentioned was establishing a separate email account (through Proton or Signal), to keep the most sensitive conversations private – like we need something else to keep track of.
At the end of the day, AI is designed to assist? Take over?
We have to decide how much and what areas –
and these types of AI features are basically just getting started.
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Technology Wisdom . .
AI is taking over my daily life?
To begin, AI doesn’t have a conscious nor a ‘want’ to run peoples daily lives. It’s a program – coded lines of words, symbols & numbers that humans can read and nothing more.
It can define; it does not feel.
‘Integrated’ is a more proper word.
Task Automation; Efficiency Goals, Collaborative Tool.
When all is said and done, we decide how much AI assists or takes over and at this point in my life, not much.
If I don’t do; I won’t do.
Keep moving; keep learning; keep living.
Questions? Email the Tech Guy
[email protected]
Sources: HuffPost; Google Help; Google Workspace; Google AI; Wikipedia . .
