Google’s AI tool Gemini can now access users’ emails and private documents in order to provide better answers, the tech giant has announced.
The Deep Research feature, which is available to all Gemini users, was first launched last year to autonomously perform “deep browses” of the web. The new capabilities mean the artificial intelligence app can now tap into far more personal and private information
Google said being able to draw on context from Gmail, Drive and Chat was one of the “most-requested features” for Gemini.
“This means you can create even more comprehensive reports by pulling in information directly from your Gmail, Drive (including Docs, Slides, Sheets and PDFs) and Google Chat, alongside a variety of sources from the web,” the company announced in a blog post on Wednesday.
“Now you can start a market analysis for a new product by having Deep Research analyze your team’s initial brainstorming docs, related email threads and project plans. Or you can build a competitor report about a rival product that cross-references public web data with your strategies, comparison spreadsheets and team chats.”
The new feature, which is not on by default, is available for all Gemini users on desktop and will roll out to mobile users in the coming days.
The latest update follows a series of new features that aim to draw on Google’s dominance across its suite of apps in order to out-compete rivals like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Anthropic’s Claude – both of which are solely AI companies.
Google holds a significant global market share in online search, navigation, personal email, web browsing and mobile operating systems through Google Search, Google Maps, Gmail, Chrome and Android.
In September, Google announced the “biggest upgrade to Chrome in its history” by integrating Gemini into the world’s most popular web browser.
Google has also unveiled a new Gemini tool in Maps, which is expected to be introduced in the coming weeks.
