Artificial Intelligence1 min read

Tell HN: Gemini trains on chat history, even for subscribers (personal accounts)

By · Published by Everything Blog

In short

Google uses saved Gemini chat history from personal accounts to train its AI models, applying the practice to paying subscribers as well as free users. To opt out of this training, individuals must disable their "Keep activity" setting or rely on temporary sessions, which drops chat retention down to 72 hours. Additionally, selected transcripts are examined by human reviewers, prompting Google to warn users against submitting confidential details. Any conversations evaluated by human contractors remain stored for up to three years, persisting even after an account holder clears their activity log.

Key points

  • Paying subscribers on personal accounts cannot maintain a permanent chat history while op…: Paying subscribers on personal accounts cannot maintain a permanent chat history while opting out of model training.
  • Users must avoid entering confidential data because human reviewers evaluate selected con…: Users must avoid entering confidential data because human reviewers evaluate selected conversation logs.
  • Clearing personal activity does not instantly remove transcripts that have already been r…: Clearing personal activity does not instantly remove transcripts that have already been reviewed by human contractors.

Sources checked by our analysis pipeline: 1

If you have a personal Google AI subscription, all your saved chat history in Gemini can be used for training and there is no way to opt out unless you turn off chat history or use temporary chat sessions. These chat transcripts may even be read by human reviewers. Although Google claims to disconnect them from your account when human-reviewed, they explicitly warn

not to enter confidential information.

https://support.google.com/gemini/answer/16836988

“[Gemini app activity] is used to improve Google services for everyone, including by training generative AI models, if your Keep Activity setting is on.“

https://support.google.com/gemini/answer/13594961?hl=en#human_review

“A subset of chats are reviewed by human reviewers”

https://support.google.com/gemini/answer/13594961?hl=en#pn_retain_data

“Chats reviewed by human reviewers [...] are not deleted when you delete your activity. Instead, they are retained for up to three years.”

https://support.google.com/gemini/answer/13594961?hl=en#pn_data_usage

“Please don’t enter confidential information that you wouldn’t want a reviewer to see or Google to use to improve our services, including machine-learning technologies.”

To disable their training on your chat sessions, you need to turn off “Keep activity” in Gemini’s settings. Turning that off means you’ll lose any chat session after…

Artificial Intelligence

More in Artificial Intelligence