Personal Intelligence: Google's Gemini is becoming more personal

The dream of all AI providers: to bring a personal and intelligent assistant to market. However, this requires the assistant to have access to as much information as possible. Only then, the providers say, can the AI understand the context and be truly helpful. Google is now talking about personal intelligence that will be integrated into the AI assistant Gemini. While Gemini could already access information from other services before, it was not possible to derive anything from it.

And what better example of the benefit of such an AI assistant could there be than planning a trip. In a blog post, Google writes that Gemini can plan a tailored trip instead of creating a generic top 10 list for a city or region. For example, someone who wants to go to Chicago and has saved many nature photos in their Photos app will be suggested a visit to the Alfred Caldwell Lily Pool, a park designed by Alfred Caldwell. Of course, Gemini can also make bookings directly. Provided you trust the AI assistant.

Another example from the blog post: If you want to buy winter tires, you can have Gemini look in Gmail for insurance documents or similar to identify the vehicle and model, as well as suitable tires.

Gemini reads along via opt-in

Google writes that thanks to Gemini 3, the latest AI model in the Gemini family, the assistant can now draw conclusions and “proactively deliver insights.” This means Gemini also suggests things without being asked.

Initially, subscribers to Google AI Pro and AI Ultra in the US will get access to personal intelligence in Gemini. The free version of Gemini and other countries will follow soon, Google writes. Gemini will also soon be able to access information from other Google services for its AI mode. However, overall, it is a beta feature, Google writes, and as is known, AI can (and will) make mistakes.

The function is fundamentally opt-in, meaning you have to actively enable it. It is also possible to exclude individual apps from use – for example, emails. Gemini can also generate responses for which no background knowledge is explicitly used.

In addition to Google, all major AI companies are working on introducing services or entirely new hardware that collect and evaluate as much user information as possible. Smart glasses are being developed for this purpose, as are wearable devices. Meta, for example, has bought the startup Limitless, which offers such a pendant. OpenAI is talking about an “always on” device that is intended to become the best personal assistant ever.

(emw)