Google's Gemini Deep Research can now read Gmail rummage through Google Drive (www.theregister.com)

Google has extended Gemini Deep Research (currently running on Gemini 2.5 Pro as an “agent”) so it can access a user’s Gmail, Google Drive (Docs, Slides, Sheets, PDFs) and Google Chat—if the user grants permission—to gather extra context when executing its multi‑step research plans. The tool generates an iterative research workflow you can edit and approve, then crawls allowed web sources and your connected Workspace files to compile answers, summaries, and reports; Google says granting access can improve relevance and depth. The update is significant because it pushes AI assistants from web‑only research into direct use of private workspace data, a trend already seen with competitors like Anthropic. That promises more personalized, context‑aware outputs but raises familiar privacy and trust issues: Google asserts connected app data won’t be used to train its generative models, yet its Deep Research notice warns that human reviewers may see some data and tells users not to submit confidential information or rely on outputs for medical, legal, or financial decisions. Early reviews are mixed—praise for convenience but concerns about source labelling, lack of paywalled content, and the tendency to produce superficially plausible reports—underscoring that Deep Research can accelerate draft research but doesn’t replace rigorous, expert validation.