Google’s biggest AI advantage is what it already knows about you

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Google is once again peeking over the fence of the future, and according to Robby Stein, VP of Product for Google Search, the company’s biggest AI opportunity might be getting to know you. 

Really well. Maybe uncomfortably well.

On the Limitless podcast, Stein explained that people increasingly ask Google’s AI for advice, what to buy, how to plan things, and which choice makes the least chaos in life. 

These questions aren’t about cold facts; they’re about judgment. And judgment, Stein argues, gets better when the AI knows who it’s talking to. 

“Huge opportunity,” he calls it. Privacy advocates might call it something else.

Google’s strategy? Connect more dots across your digital life. The company has been sprinkling Gemini, the artist formerly known as Bard, into everything from Gmail to Calendar to Drive. 

Now, with features like Gemini Deep Research, Google’s AI can riff on your emails, documents, photos, location history, and even your browsing habits. 

The pitch: ultra-personalized answers that understand what you actually like instead of dumping generic bestseller lists on you.

Of course, that’s also how every dystopian show begins. Apple TV’s “Pluribus” gets a shout-out here. Its omniscient AI “Others” can cook your favorite dinner before you’re hungry, impersonate people you trust, and generally behave like the world’s most overbearing roommate. 

The protagonist calls it invasive; Google calls it the future of Search. (Tomato, tomahto.)

To its credit, Google insists users stay in control. You can pick which apps “teach” Gemini about you. 

And the privacy policy politely warns that human reviewers might see some of your data, so maybe don’t feed Gemini your darkest secrets or legally questionable side quests.

Still, the more Google centralizes personal data for “helpfulness,” the blurrier the line gets between assistant and surveillance sponge. 

Stein says Google plans to label personalized responses clearly, and even imagines smart nudges, like pinging you when that product you’ve been stalking finally goes on sale.

In Google’s view, this always-there, always-you-aware AI is the real future of search. 

Whether it feels magical or mildly creepy will depend on how delicately Google balances usefulness with boundaries.