Watch out, Hallmark, Google’s Gemini AI writes personal birthday letters with user data

Google’s AI assistant Gemini has demonstrated an unprecedented ability to write personalized content by leveraging the company’s vast data ecosystem, as evidenced by its creation of a remarkably authentic birthday letter that drew from years of personal information stored across Google’s services. This development signals Google’s emerging advantage in the race to build hyper-personalized AI assistants, positioning the company to potentially leapfrog competitors like OpenAI by utilizing decades of user data already within its ecosystem.

What happened: A writer discovered that Gemini could craft an unnervingly personal birthday letter using only a nine-word prompt containing her friend’s name and age.

• The AI referenced real moments from their friendship, including conversations from college graduation and challenging periods they had navigated together.
• Gemini even included the friend’s correct birth date, despite not being explicitly provided this information.
• The letter felt authentic rather than machine-generated, avoiding the typical soulless tone of AI writing.

How Google’s data advantage works: Gemini’s personalization capabilities stem from Google’s massive data collection across its services, giving it unprecedented access to user information.

• The writer’s Gmail contained over 200,000 emails totaling 30 gigabytes, some dating back to elementary school.
• Her Google Drive held another 45 gigabytes including study guides, travel itineraries, poems, love letters, budgeting spreadsheets, and medical records.
• Chrome browser data, Maps usage, YouTube activity, and Android ecosystem information further expand Google’s knowledge base.

The extent of personalization: When prompted to create a “CIA dossier,” Gemini demonstrated alarming familiarity with the writer’s personal details.

• The AI accurately described her financial goals, vaccination history, and parents’ physical appearances.
• It detailed both long-term romantic relationships and brief high-school flings.
• Gemini analyzed her communication style, emotional intelligence, and diagnosed her as an “overthinker.”

Why this matters: Google’s personalization advantage could fundamentally reshape the AI assistant landscape and challenge competitors.

• Josh Woodward, Google’s Gemini team lead, stated the company’s goal is to make the chatbot the most “personal” and “proactive” AI assistant available.
• The company envisions AI that proactively sends personalized quizzes based on stored lecture notes when detecting upcoming exams on calendars.
• This represents a significant threat to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which lacks access to users’ historical data and requires manual information feeding.

Competitive landscape: Other tech giants are pursuing similar personalization strategies but face significant disadvantages.

• Sam Altman, OpenAI’s CEO, described the “platonic ideal state” for ChatGPT as having access to “your whole life,” but building this data will take time.
• Meta’s AI app encourages linking to Facebook and Instagram accounts, but social media data is “less meaty than email exchanges and PDF documents.”
• Apple and Microsoft have data access but lag behind Google’s consumer AI efforts.

What experts are saying: The development represents a pivotal moment in AI evolution, with profound implications for privacy and personalization.

• “Already, it can be difficult to figure out whether text that you encounter online is generated by AI. Soon, while looking back on old emails, you might even feel that way about your own writing,” the writer observed.
• Google’s approach transforms years of “digital exhaust” from clicks, likes, photos, and searches into AI training material.

The limitations: Despite impressive capabilities, Gemini still struggles with accuracy and occasionally reverts to generic AI language.

• The AI sometimes confused fictional details from the writer’s short stories with real-life events.
• When asked about her birthday, Gemini initially claimed she was born in 2010 before correcting itself.
• The birthday letter occasionally slipped into generic chatbot phrasing, describing the future as “everything shimmering in the distance.”

Strategic implications: Google’s personalization push comes as the company faces its biggest threat yet from generative AI disrupting its search business.

• Google’s search market share recently dropped to its lowest level in a decade.
• The company has rolled out new AI search modes to compete with ChatGPT for search queries.
• Usage of Google’s AI tools has skyrocketed over the past year, suggesting growing user adoption.