Gmail AI hallucinates, distorts email contents

10 months ago

Google's Gmail service has been automatically altering the content of emails, leading to nonsensical and incorrect translations.
The issue affects not only media and businesses but also private messages of Gmail's 1.8 billion users, particularly those not using English as their default language.
Google's AI misinterprets surrounding information (like HTML code in emails) as part of the text, causing incorrect language detection and translations.
Examples include translating 'Ass' (as in a card up the sleeve) to 'Arsch' (butt) and changing 'ukrainischen Stellungen' (Ukrainian positions) to 'amerikanische Stellungen' (American positions).
Google initially downplayed the issue, calling it a 'very small number' of affected users, but later worked on fixes after media reports.
The problem has led to a loss of trust among users and media outlets like t-online, whose credibility was questioned due to the errors.
German email providers like GMX and Web.de do not use AI for translations, citing lack of user demand and adherence to EU data protection laws.
Google plans to roll out updates to improve translation accuracy and make automatic translations more transparent to users.
Experts suggest the errors may stem from statistical anomalies in training data rather than intentional manipulation.
The issue highlights the complexities and risks of relying on AI for language processing in critical communication tools.

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