What made me unhappy today ?

word is booster 18 blew up during gas pressure testing... some say the liquid oxygen tank ruptured
 
This news from a writers group friend made me very unhappy, but not the least bit surprised. Thieves and looters are everywhere.

If you or anyone on your publishing team uses Gmail, you need to hear this.

Yesterday, Google quietly flipped the switch on Gmail's "smart features"—automatically opting millions of users into allowing their private emails and attachments (including Word docs) to feed Gemini AI training models.

Yes, even unpublished manuscripts.

Even drafts you never sent.


This could affect you even if you don't personally use Gmail. If your agent, editor, beta readers, or anyone else on your team uses Gmail, Gemini has likely ingested your work.


I checked all nine of my gmail accounts and smart features theftware was switched on in all but one account, which I'll check again tomorrow. I turned them all off and will check the status regularly. I'll also mention this to others with whom I correspond regularly.

To get rid of it (at least for today)

Go to Settings in Gmail.

Click "see all settings."

Go to Google Workspace smart features.

Uncheck box to turn off smart features.

Thank you, Catriona. I tried getting rid of it, but it also meant that the way it was organising my emails (i.e. into General, Purchases, Social Networks, and Other) was also missing.

Is it a good idea to leave that checkbox for Smart Features ticked, but simply to turn off all the "Smart Features"? :) Then I can still have my emails organised without the AI headache. (See below).

1763863841499.png

What do you think? 🤞
 
Go with whatever works for you. The smart features for organizing emails didn't disappear when I clicked the pertinent buttons on the Google Workplace Smart Features page. To make the email organizing and other smart features go away, I had to uncheck six or eight other boxes on the main settings page.
 
Huh ... that's weird. As soon as I turned off the "Smart Features", the email organizing bit went away. *shrug*

I did some more checking of this to figure out these "Smart Features". According to this article from Malwarebytes, a company that develops anti-malware software, these are actually not used to scrape your content and train the Google AI. (The info is also confirmed by Google documentation).

To quote the article (important bits bolded and underlined by me):

Gmail does scan email content to power its own “smart features,” such as spam filtering, categorisation, and writing suggestions. But this is part of how Gmail normally works and isn’t the same as training Google’s generative AI models. Google also maintains that these feature settings are opt-in rather than opt-out, although users’ experiences seem to vary depending on when and how the new wording appeared.

It’s easy to see where the confusion came from. Google’s updated language around “smart features” is vague, and the term “smart” often implies AI—especially at a time when Gemini is being integrated into other parts of Google’s products. When the new wording started appearing for some users without much explanation, many assumed it signalled a broader shift.

...

Google has updated some Gmail settings around how its “smart features” work, which control how Gmail analyses your messages to power built-in functions.

According to reports we’ve seen, Google has started automatically opting users in to allow Gmail to access all private messages and attachments for its smart features. This means your emails are analyzed to improve your experience with Chat, Meet, Drive, Email and Calendar products. However, some users are now reporting that these settings are switched on by default instead of asking for explicit opt-in—although Google’s help page states that users are opted-out for default.

It's possible that Google's help page is lying, of course, but I can't see why they should tell such an easy-to-prove lie.
 
Thanks for the extra research and the article. Seems there has indeed been some confusion.

That being said:

Google also maintains that these feature settings are opt-in rather than opt-out

I never opted into those feature settings. Google opted me in without consent on nine different accounts, so it wasn't a fluke. I had to opt out of those feature settings on all nine accounts. Ergo: Google lied. You're right. It was an easy to prove lie. What else are they lying about?

Why would Google automatically opt in users for features that allow Google access to email and attachment content if there was not some advantage to Google in doing so?
 
Thanks for the extra research and the article. Seems there has indeed been some confusion.

That being said:



I never opted into those feature settings. Google opted me in without consent on nine different accounts, so it wasn't a fluke. I had to opt out of those feature settings on all nine accounts. Ergo: Google lied. You're right. It was an easy to prove lie. What else are they lying about?

Why would Google automatically opt in users for features that allow Google access to email and attachment content if there was not some advantage to Google in doing so?
Time to break out the tinfoil hats.
 
pretty soon its going to be unavoidable, if you put your books on amazon, they'll be used to train Jarvis, if you write in microsoft applications Co pilot will have access and so on...
 
pretty soon its going to be unavoidable, if you put your books on amazon, they'll be used to train Jarvis, if you write in microsoft applications Co pilot will have access and so on...
Thank the godsI bought a working typewriter. Lol.
 
After every routine update, I have to delete Copilot and that thing that automatically backs everything up into some kind of cloud. Irritates me every time, and I wonder what other marvelous programs are being provided without fanfare because the providers hope we won't notice.

Time to break out the tinfoil hats.

I'm afraid that boat sailed and sank some time ago. Too many people have already been indoctrinated with the idea that if one doesn't have anything to hide, one should not worry about having one's privacy invaded by industry or government.
 
Thank the godsI bought a working typewriter. Lol.
I have a typewriter but it isn't anywhere near as convenient as a word processor.

My process seems to be pretty tailored at erase sentence > type a new variant > repeat until it feels and looks right. I can't do that with a typewriter. At least, not as fast. I'm curious if you find it as nice as a computer?

However, free and open source tools that don't steal your data do exist. I have Gentoo + Libreoffice. Nobody is going to steal my stories to train their AI's there.

But once they are uploaded to the open net, then yeah, that's a different story. There is just no way to stop nefarious intent.
 
What does Google want with our emails? Like what possible service does a work email, or a personal email about someone’s drama gonna do?

Work: Ma’am, I’ve submitted the report to Mr. Jacobins for review tomorrow

Or

Personal: Hey, Bob, so you know, we’re gonna have lunch at 11am tomorrow at the McLill’s, figured you’d want to know. Oh, and [insert long-winded story about personal stuff]

Google: “I MUST CONSUME ALL OF THIS!!!”

I swear, I feel like they’re trying to create an actual AI robot that’s indistinguishable from a human.
 
I swear, I feel like they’re trying to create an actual AI robot that’s indistinguishable from a human.

That is undoubtedly their end goal. They know they can't achieve it, but they will try to get as close to it as possible. Their current aim is AGI and ASI.

But nobody actually has any solid basis for how we might create these technologies. No, LLMs aren't it. Their constant hallucinations won't bring us to those technologies either.

The current AI situation is honestly insane. And even Google's CEO has admitted that it has elements of irrationality to it.
 
That is undoubtedly their end goal. They know they can't achieve it, but they will try to get as close to it as possible. Their current aim is AGI and ASI.

But nobody actually has any solid basis for how we might create these technologies. No, LLMs aren't it. Their constant hallucinations won't bring us to those technologies either.

The current AI situation is honestly insane. And even Google's CEO has admitted that it has elements of irrationality to it.
...Don't we have literally thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of sci-fi stories about sentient AI bots ranging from them becoming murderbots to 'do robots deserve equal rights like humans?'

Do these CEOs just see those and go, 'Challenge accepted.'

Like I heard once that they tried making a machine that fed off of bio energy. THERE IS A VIDEOGAME FRANCHISE IN WHICH THIS WAS ITS ENTIRE BACKSTORY!!
 
My process seems to be pretty tailored at erase sentence > type a new variant > repeat until it feels and looks right. I can't do that with a typewriter. At least, not as fast. I'm curious if you find it as nice as a computer?

Agreed. Maybe it's just that English isn't my first language (like you, ps102), but I do the same thing. Sometimes I obsess about a word being wrong until I find an alternative that feels and sounds better.

However, free and open source tools that don't steal your data do exist. I have Gentoo + Libreoffice. Nobody is going to steal my stories to train their AI's there.

100% LibreOffice. Yay for LibreOffice! :) I haven't used Word for years, and boy, do I not miss it.

(I have to use it at work, but that's different).


I wouldn't be surprised if the last AI ever created becomes like AM, The primary antagonist in I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream.
 
So ... I had a thing that made me unhappy (not today, but two weeks ago). I just didn't realise how unhappy it'd make me 'til now. :(

Two weeks ago, my GP diagnosed me with gout, a form of inflammatory arthritis that affects the joints and causes sudden, severe pain, swelling, redness, and tenderness in joints (especially the big toe). :(

I had these symptoms in my big toe before, but about four weeks ago they flared up agonizingly. For about 4-5 days, I couldn't walk without pain. After biting the bullet for 3 days, I finally went to my GP who sent me for tests and told me the news. Ugh.

So, I've been following the doctor's instructions for a couple of weeks now, but having gout stinks. :( The agony is gone - until next time, at least - but I've been feeling it as a mild pain, kind of lurking beneath the surface, and also an immense exhaustion throughout the workday. It never goes away, no matter what I do.

So, I'm feeling very depressed. (But I'm not getting you down, am I?) ;)

 
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