Google Confirms Serious AI Risks For iPhone And Android Users
by Zak Hoffman
Feb 12, 2024,12:30pm EST
Android and iPhone updates this year will be dominated by AI—much of it from Google. But this comes with a serious new warning for every user, and it should change how we use our phones.
The rollercoaster AI smartphone ride is now well underway. It was always going to be the case, that integrating generative AI into the smartphone apps we use most would eclipse last year’s ChatGPT take-up. And here we now are.
But not so fast—all this comes with a huge risk to your security and privacy.
It seems we all have a blind spot when it comes to generative AI chatbots. We might take care as to the apps we install, the permissions we grant, the browsers we use, and the data we share with Facebook, Google, and others. But put us in front of an AI chatbot and we forget all this—suddenly we find ourselves in what feels like a private chat with a helpful new friend. And we want to share.
But this is clearly no friend, this is a front to a multi-billion-dollar computing ecosystem, ultimately funded by advertising and data broking.
I’ve warned about this before, with the introduction of AI chat into our private messaging apps. Now, just as Bard becomes Gemini and a raft of new apps start to make their way onto our phones, Google has itself warned all Android and iPhone users to be very careful with these new technologies.
“Please don’t enter confidential information in your conversations or any data you wouldn’t want a reviewer to see or Google to use to improve our products, services, and machine-learning technologies,” Google warns. “Google collects your Gemini Apps conversations, related product usage information, info about your location, and your feedback.” It says the information is used to “improve, and develop Google products and services and machine learning technologies.”
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