Sneaky Google Gemini Scans PDF Files Hosted By Google Drive

Artificial Intelligence has evolved remarkably over the last few years. Still, the intelligence program might make some blunders sometimes.

A piece of news is circulating like wildfire on the Internet: Sneaky Google Gemini scans PDF files hosted by Google Drive.

Therefore, let’s find out what caused the problem and what the victim says about the incident. Let’s begin without any further ado.

What Exactly Happened?

Google Gemini’s AI is reading private documents from Google Drive without permission from the user.

Kevin Bankster, a Senior Advisor on AI Governance, shared a report on the social media platform where he discussed the incident. According to some sources, Gemini AI and Google support do not seem to be aware of what exactly happened.

Sneaky Google Gemini Scans PDF Files. Image Credit: X.

However, Bankster shared his theories. This is happening under the giant umbrella of Google Drive rather than simply Google Docs, though it looks like Docs may also be impacted.

Sneaky Google Gemini Scans PDF Files

As per Gemini AI, the privacy settings of the platform used to inform Gemini should have been made openly available. However, they are not.

Thus, the AI must be either hallucinating or Google servers’ internal systems are malfunctioning. In any case, it’s not a good look, even though the Gemini AI isn’t meant to be trained using this sensitive data.

Sneaky Google Gemini Scans PDF Files. Image Credit: Social Media.

Moreover, Bankston further mentioned that he found the settings toggle in question. He discovered the issue was localized to his Google Drive after the Gemini button was pressed on one document.

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What’s More?

According to Bankston, the PDF file triggered Google Gemini. This opens all future files with the same document type inside Google Drive.

Kevin thinks this happened because Google Workspace Labs was enabled in 2023. It is possible that it overrode the Gemini AI settings.

The news of Sneaky Google Gemini scans PDF files may not go well regarding privacy concerns in the future, too, for a giant like Google.