Google’s Gemini now has Personal Intelligence and can reason across your data, assuming you give it access.
For AI as an assistant to be any good, it probably needs to know almost everything about you. In order to know everything, well, AI is going to need access to a big chunk of your digital life, so that it knows what your car is, sports interests, your grocery orders, photos of your world, where you have traveled to, etc. Google is introducing this connection to AI today with a new feature in Gemini called “Personal Intelligence.”
Here’s the thing to know before we go any further: Personal Intelligence in Gemini is turned off by default and needs you to activate it before it will work.
Gemini Personal Intelligence feature
OK, so what exactly is Personal Intelligence (in beta) in Gemini and how does it work? Well, previously, Google would allow you to connect services to Gemini like Gmail, Google Photos, Search, and YouTube to access some info from them. The difference from then to now is that it couldn’t reason across all of that data before. Now, it can connect the dots between data, find nuance, and better understand context without the need for you to be as specific, thanks to Gemini 3.
Should you turn on Personal Intelligence, Google hopes you’ll utilize it to help you find new books, shows, clothes, or travel ideas. You’ll get these ideas by asking things like, “Suggest a few books I might enjoy based on my interests.” Gemini will then use the connections you’ve made of your data between all of those apps to find options that should be as tailored to your interests as possible. Google also suggests an idea where you ask for 5 YouTube channels that match your cooking style, which it knows based off of all of the grocery receipts in your Gmail account, search history for old recipes, and previously watched food videos on YouTube.
The bigger example from Google is a situation where you realize you need a fresh set of tires for your car. You ask Gemini to recommend tires for your vehicle, which it knows about and you don’t have to try and name. It’ll then bring up your vehicle and return options that might work depending on season or your location with ratings, the exact size you need, prices, etc.
While we often cringe at the thought of Gemini planning travel for us, with Personal Intelligence turned on, you could ask for weekend travel plans and because it knows your history, where you’ve been, what you took pictures of, and the things you searched for, it might actually find a place you might want to visit.
You get the idea.
How to turn on Gemini Personal Intelligence
To start, Personal Intelligence (in beta) will begin rolling out today, January 14 in the US to Google AI Pro and AI Ultra subscribers. It should finish rollout within the week. Once available, it should work across Android, iOS, and the web with all Gemini models.
To turn it on, you’ll do the following from the web:
- Open Gemini: gemini.google.com/app
- Tap Settings and then Personal Intelligence
- Select Connected Apps (Gmail, Photos, etc.)
Also note that Gemini won’t always personalize every response and you can force it to not do so by hitting the try again button. You can also connect some apps and not others.
A little bit too "Personal" for me.
The ONLY way I would do this is if it was all done on device and encrypted. And even then I would have to think on whether it was a large enough benefit to me or if I was just being lazy.
Yeah, if we were back in the days when buying the product was the entirety of the transaction, it'd be more intriguing to me. In these times of a data-harvesting economy, it no longer comes down to just cost vs product but now also comes with what data access (to the company, obviously this product would need it) and the collecting of it that gets bundled with the cost.