Google Docs Safety from AI Training Under Scrutiny

This morning, I stumbled upon a tweet from someone I follow that sent a chill down my spine. It claimed Google was using content from Google Docs to train artificial intelligence (AI). As someone who drafts everything from novels to technical writing and resumes in Google Docs, this news was alarming. I've poured decades of hard work into my writing, and the thought of it being used to train AI without my consent felt like outright plagiarism to me. It's clear I'm not the only one who feels this way; every writer I know is firmly against AI using their work to feed its algorithms.

Curious and concerned, I dug deeper into the issue. A Yahoo! News headline caught my eye: 'Google's updated privacy policy states it can use public data to train its AI models'. The article emphasized the word *public*, suggesting that Google might be using publicly available data for AI training. However, I needed to verify this claim, so I turned to Google's official documentation on Document AI Security. There, I found reassurance:

Does Google use customer data to improve the model(s)?

No. Google does not use any of your content (such as documents and predictions) for any purpose except to provide you with the Document AI service.

At Google Cloud, we never use, nor do we intend to use in the future, customer data to train our Document AI models.

Google's documentation also linked to a privacy commitment statement, which further clarified:

In addition to these commitments, for AI/ML development, we don't use data that you provide us to train our own models without your permission. And if you want to work together to develop a solution using any of our AI/ML products, by default our teams will work only with data that you have provided and that has identifying information removed. We work with your raw data only with your consent and where the model development process requires it.

Google seems to be saying all the right things about not using customer data without permission. But here's the catch: can we really trust them? I want to believe them, but then there's the nagging doubt. Have we unknowingly given them permission by agreeing to the ever-changing EULA for Google Docs/Drive? I, like most people, have never read a full EULA, and even if I tried, the legal jargon is practically indecipherable. This leaves me feeling skeptical. I'm not accusing Google of trickery, but I'm also not ruling it out.

The situation is truly a conundrum. I'm fiercely protective of my writing and the unique voice I've developed over the years. The last thing I want is for my work to be used to train AI. So, what's the solution for those of us in this bind?

Fortunately, my tech-savvy nature allows me to explore alternatives. I can set up a cloud service like Nextcloud on my local network to use in place of Google Drive. This setup keeps my content private and off-limits to the outside world. For collaborative work, I'd still need to use Google Drive, but my fiction writing, which I send directly to publishers, could safely remain off the cloud. I haven't moved my novels out of Google Drive just yet, but I'm seriously considering either using a locally installed Nextcloud instance or a shared folder on my network.

In the end, it's all about securing privacy now and in the future. There's no assurance that Google (or any other cloud service like iCloud, OneDrive, or Dropbox) won't change their policies to use our content freely. Given this uncertainty, it's always wiser to err on the side of caution.