Yves here. Stories you can use! And tips to help students limit their exposure to two long-standing abuses. One is the relentless efforts of the surveillance state to extend its reach. Two is how AI companies steal real work without permission or compensation to include training sets.
Written by Thomas Neuburger. It was first published in the book God’s Spies
As most have realized, AI is entering our lives in a very big way.
Doctor’s offices are using AI instead of human scribes, which means the entire visit must be recorded and stored. For how long? This can vary or be changed. And AI will soon decide if you’re too disabled to drive your car (for that, see here).
The rush towards AI – the rush to fund stock and cut staff – is creating an AI fence between you and all the companies that control your life. For example, AI now guards the door between you and your next job or loan.
AI has also entered your interactions with the state. Will you be audited this year? The AI will decide. How will your Social Security issues be handled? AI will replace humans who deal with your needs. And of course, AI police already exist.
AI is not only “changing what it means to be human,” but for us little people, us ordinary people, it is completely replacing the human in corporate and government interactions – because money, despite its propensity for serious mistakes.
And that doesn’t even begin to discuss the battlefield killings of AI, the use of which no one but those in control wants to grow.
Gmail and AI
Which leads us to discuss the intrusion of AI into our digital lives. On most computers and websites, AI is everywhere. Today, let’s take a look at Gmail and AI.
Recent versions of Gmail, the web-based email client, have AI mail scanning and analysis enabled. If you want to watch the AI, no problem. Leave it open.
If you want to delete your Gmail account – as much as you can, at least – these are the steps. I found this thanks to this Twitter account. The thread starts like this (minor editing):
If you have a Gmail account, you need to read this.
Google’s AI now scans your emails and attachments, bank statements, tax files, medical records, everything. It is automatically activated, and there is a case for the action of the how-to section. […]
Google has automatically enabled AI features in Gmail, Chat, and Meet for most users by the end of 2025. These features can read your emails, messages, and attachments to create summaries and suggestions.
Google says your emails don’t train Gemini, but some users say they never explicitly agreed to have these AI features enabled. Unless you turn them off, AI can still analyze your inbox to provide you with these features.
The thread describes the steps. As I worked through them, I found a difference between his steps and mine, so here are my modified steps.
Change your Gmail settings
Change the main Gmail and Google Workspace settings as follows:
- Go to ⚙ Settings → See all settings.
- In your browser’s search bar (Ctrl-F), search for the word “smart” (no quotes).
- Find everything that says “smart” in settings and turn it off. In my version of Gmail, which includes Grammar, Spelling, Autocorrect, Smart Compose, Smart Compose personalization, and Smart Reply. Your list may vary.
- Make sure Smart Featuresthe main settings checkbox, is unchecked (see below).
- Go to Smart features of Google Workspace and then click the Manage smart Workspace features button (above).
- On the next screen, close everything and click Save.
- Go to the bottom of the main settings page again click Save Changes (important).
Check Your Phone Settings. Delete your Gemini history.
The author advises doing the following:
Your Phone. Settings are not always compatible between devices, so check the Gmail app separately.
Gmail app → Menu (☰) → Settings → Select your account → Turn off “Smart features and personalization” → Confirm.
And if you already use Gemini:
Delete Gemini history. If you have used Gemini before, your conversations may be saved, and some may be reviewed by people.
Go to → Close Gemini Apps Task → Delete Task → All Time.
This clears your past Gemini chat history and stops future chats from being saved.
I didn’t have a Gemini history, but that won’t be true for everyone.
Is All This Stopping Google From Watching You?
You can tell that Google is always watching you. This is their profit model: viewing and selling ads, viewing and selling your profile. That is why they are so rich.
But it seems that, at least for now, turning off intelligent features in your Gmail and Google Workspace account means that AI is no longer being used to power those features, and is actually turned off. Furthermore, as of this writing, Google says that Gmail’s intelligent features are not a back-end method for training its AI. At least until now.
Is any of this always true? No, but it seems to be true for now. If you care, I can take these steps.
