Researchers say Google AI Mode changes recommendations based on your emails and risks creating a giant confirmation bias machine.

The researchers found that flags linked to Gmail activity appeared much more frequently in Google’s AI mode results.
The effect was strongest in searches for purchases such as clothing, coffee machines and running shoes.
AI-powered search could reinforce existing habits instead of helping users discover new things

We all know that AI is often so eager to help that it can appear to simply reflect what you think in a way that feels sycophantic and artificial. We’ve written quite a few articles on how to prevent chatbots like Claude, ChatGPT, and Gemini from doing this, usually using some variation of the “be brutally honest” or “invest” message.

Now it turns out that AI’s tendency to keep you inside an echo chamber may extend beyond chatting with a bot. Researchers say that if you have Google Personal Intelligence turned on, AI Mode could start including more flags of your Gmail activity in your search results.

Gmail has the most influence in AI mode

iPullRank researchers tested nearly 2,000 Google AI Mode responses and found that brands connected to a user’s Personal Intelligence data appeared much more frequently in the results. In accounts linked to services like Gmail, certain brands appeared in AI responses almost three times more often and were much more likely to appear in top recommendations.

Deactivate personal intelligence

Personally, I can see the benefits of Google wanting to become an answer engine rather than just a search engine. Many times when I use search I’m just looking for a quick answer to a question, so this change can really save me time. But the danger of personalization replacing exploration is that we lose some of the magic of Google Search that leads us to unexpected websites, products or ideas that turn out to be genuinely useful.

Before you storm Google towers with pitchforks and torches, it’s worth remembering that Personal Intelligence is an optional feature designed to make AI more useful and personalized to you. If you are concerned that it will reduce the chance of matches occurring in your search results, you can turn it off.

Personal Intelligence is disabled by default, but if you have enabled it and now want to disable it, open Gemini. Settings (the gear icon at the bottom left), select personal intelligencethen click Connected Apps and toggle the services you want Gemini to access, such as Gmail.

It’s also important to note that these tests were conducted by third-party researchers, rather than Google publicly confirming exactly how AI mode rankings and recommendations are generated.

Still, the findings raise an interesting question about the future of AI-powered search. If search engines become increasingly personalized around our habits, purchases, conversations, and preferences, are they really helping us explore the web or are they simply building increasingly compelling digital mirrors that reflect our current tastes?

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