The Gmail Update is Reading Our Minds – And Twitter is Freaking Out
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AnnaMarie Houlis
Updated: 10/3/2018
Many of us once wished that emails could just write themselves — then we wouldn't find ourselves burried in our inboxes every Monday morning. Right? But, suddenly, we've witnessed a foray into the future, and we're living in an email universe that's evermore defined by artificial intelligence. And it's not necessarily so appealing anymore.
Google recently rolled out a number of new features. It first rolled out Smart Reply, which enables users to swifly respond to emails with a two- or three-word automated phrase like "You got it, thanks!" or "That won't work." It's helpful, sure. But, most recently, Gmail has been autocompleting sentences with its latest Smart Compose feature. This service finishes sentences for users, sometimes before the users themselves even know what they want to say.
For many, it's a saving grace. But for some — especially those who've taken to Twitter to share their frustration — it's an invasion of privacy and cause for concern. Here are 10 tweets that sum up the not-so-pleasant reactions to Gmail's new feature.
1. The People Are Worried Computers Could Soon Replace Us
2. The Sentences Are Pretty (Terrifyingly) Accurate, After All
3. But It's an Annoying Interruption Women Know All Too Well
4. Seriously, All Too Well
5. It Makes Some of Us Feel Not So Great About Ourselves, Too
6. Like We're Getting Really Lazy
7. And No One Cares to Express Themselves Anymore
8. Some of Us Are Threatening to Boycott Gmail
9. Because We're Genuinely Afraid of It
10. We're Losing Hope over Here
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AnnaMarie Houlis is a feminist, a freelance journalist and an adventure aficionado with an affinity for impulsive solo travel-the-world">travel. She spends her days writing about women’s empowerment from around the world. You can follow her work on her blog">blog, HerReport.org, and follow her journeys on Instagram @her_report, Twitter @herreport and Facebook.