Too many emails? No problem. Google's Smart Reply will answer for you.
On Tuesday, Google unveiled its latest foray into machine learning, which may just come as a welcome respite to those with cluttered inboxes.
Dubbed Smart Reply, Google鈥檚 Inbox app feature offers users three replies based on email content, ultimately customizing its generated text as it learns the user鈥檚 voice and style. Users can select and send the generated response immediately, or edit the text if the reply requires something a bit more emotional, a concept Smart Reply doesn鈥檛 yet understand.
Optimized for mobile, the system was developed using that effectively 鈥� of what is being said without getting hung up on diction.鈥� 聽
While the feature offers a real solution to a problem most working adults face, it also begs a revisit to the privacy question. As life becomes increasingly digital, the line between privacy and convenience continues to blur.
Google already scans your emails and search history to target ads, so really what鈥檚 the difference? Google maintains that in developing Smart Reply they 鈥渁dhered to the same we鈥檝e always held 鈥� in other words, no humans reading your email.鈥�
But of course, just because humans aren鈥檛 reading it doesn鈥檛 mean they can鈥檛, as it鈥檚 no secret Google has access to all your data.
Google is explicit in its terms and conditions that by using Google services, 鈥測ou give Google (and those we work with) a worldwide license to use, host, store, reproduce, modify, create derivative works, communicate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute such content.鈥� Though we may not have read it, we all checked the 鈥淚 agree鈥� box.
So why is this seeming invasion of privacy no longer as concerning as it once was?
In his book 鈥淭he Googlization of Everything,鈥� author Siva Vaidhyanathan attributes the shift in thought to perceived trust.
鈥淸W]e now allow Google to determine what is important, relevant, and true on the Web and in the world. We trust and believe that Google .鈥� At the same time, Vaidhyanathan suggests we have also 鈥渟urrendered control over the values, methods, and processes that make sense of our information ecosystem.鈥�
