In the world of cybersecurity and privacy, hearing the words AI and Gmail uttered in the same breath is usually going to be a cause for concern. After all, we are constantly warned about the dangers of dangerous AI-powered attacks locking people out of their Gmail accounts and the difficulty users have in getting genuine Google human support to help regain access. But AI really isn’t all bad, and, yes, that includes when Gmail AI is involved. Take the new Gmail AI search functionality that Google has announced, which comes with a security benefit that you probably didn’t even realize was there. Here’s what you need to know.
Google Confirms Gmail AI Search Feature
When it comes to Gmail AI and the security side of the fence, Google already protects all users with a large language model defensive program, which it described as “one of the most dramatic security improvements in Gmail’s 20-year history.” This trains itself on malicious email messages and spots the patterns in your spam to stop it from even getting into your inbox. Nothing is perfect, of course, but without such protection, just imagine how much malicious spam would make it into your eye-line.
OK, but where does Gmail AI search come into the security protections discussion? That’s the thing: it doesn’t, or at least I’ve not spotted anyone bringing it up yet. However, that isn’t the same as saying it does not exist. Google announced the introduction of Gmail AI search in a very brief March 20 blog posting. “Gmail is rolling out a smarter search feature powered by AI to show you the most relevant results faster,” the posting stated. But it’s the how that I’m most interested in. The new feature won’t just display emails in a keyword-based chronological order as is currently the case but rather use a number of elements factored in to improve those results. These, according to Google, include “recency, most-clicked emails and frequent contacts.” In other words, what you are actually looking for will be at the top of your results. Hurrah.
The security side effect of all this is, however, that phishing emails are less likely to appear near the top of these searches, if at all if the AI is doing its job. After all, they won’t be among your most-clicked emails, and if they are you are already in plenty of trouble, nor your frequent contacts. Now, I’m not saying that this means the phishing threat is dead, far from it. What I am saying is that a surprising effect of the new Gmail AI search feature will likely mean fewer dodgy emails showing up in your searches. And that, dear reader, has to be a good thing.
