Another day, another AI privacy issue. At Google’s annual I/O developers conference, the company introduced a number of Gemini AI updates. A lot of these are coming to Search and, notably, to your online shopping experience. The new AI shopping features lets you virtually “try on” different articles of clothing by using a photo of your body and imagining what it may look like on you. 

I fully understand the appeal of this feature: I shop online for nearly everything I need, and it can be hard to imagine how clothing I see on models would look on me. But I’m also an AI reporter, and I have serious questions and reservations about the privacy implications of using this tool.

Tech companies spend a lot of time and money at events like I/O trying to convince us that their AI models are safe and secure. And sometimes they make steps toward building that trust, by doing things like making their model training policies clear and giving users the ability to opt out of certain features. But more often than not, the price we pay for using AI models is our privacy and data. This is especially true when we use AI tools for free.

Google’s main Gemini privacy policy says the company can use information you share, like in chats or uploaded files, which is why the company advises you not to share confidential information. CNET reached out to Google to clarify the privacy policy for this feature but didn’t immediately receive a response. 

From what we know now, Google hasn’t said whether it will delete the photos you upload after a certain amount of time. That means the company could hold onto it indefinitely. And one thing we know about tech companies right now is that they are seriously data-hungry, since they need mass quantities of data to refine and improve their AI models. Images like the ones you’d need to upload to use the AI shopping feature would be very useful for Google to train its next generation of image generators, which the company announced and devoted a lot of time to at today’s I/O event.

There’s also a question of how well the tool will work. Everyone’s body is different, and there’s no guarantee that the AI version of yourself Google generates will actually reflect how the clothing looks on you in real life. If you upload a blurry or weirdly angled photo, that’s even more likely to fail you. So is it even worth it?

Obviously there’s a difference between uploading your confidential health or financial information to an AI and letting Google use a photo of yourself, but there are still good reasons for you consider not to. As much as I want a real life version of Cher’s closet from Clueless, I’m not about to give up my privacy to get it.

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