AI week in quotes: worries over Gmail overviews, the DEFIANCE Act

The introduction of artificial intelligence (AI) overviews in Gmail may lack adequate safeguards, while the law against sexually-explicit deepfakes, which has just passed the Senate, may not prevent the images from being made.

Cybernews' weekly roundup summarizes the major developments in AI through the quotes of the industry leaders, independent experts, and decision-makers.

Oversight lags behind adoption

Google’s decision to introduce AI Overviews in Gmail, an email service with 1.8 billion users globally, continued to be discussed this week, as experts called for appropriate safeguards.

Clara Hawking, an AI governance specialist, has urged organizations working with students or handling sensitive information to review their Gmail and Gemini configurations.

Email feels familiar, which is precisely why this transition carries risk. When advanced AI capabilities are embedded into trusted everyday tools, oversight often lags behind adoption. That delay has real consequences.

Clara Hawking

Apple has entered a new partnership with Google, allowing its Gemini models to power Apple Intelligence features, including a more personalized virtual assistant, Siri. The announcement didn’t sit well with Elon Musk, who raised concerns about unfair competition.

This seems like an unreasonable concentration of power for Google, given that they also have Android and Chrome.

Elon Musk

AI as a new way to harass women

Musk’s chatbot Grok remained in the center of controversy for producing nonconsensual sexually explicit deepfakes of women and children. Amid mounting pressure, X announced that Grok will no longer be allowed to edit images of real people in revealing clothing.

However, experts like Clare McGlynn, a law professor and expert in violence against women and girls from Durham University, told The Guardian that they fear that things will only get worse.

Women and girls are far more reluctant to use AI. This should be no surprise to any of us. Women don’t see this as exciting new technology, but as simply new ways to harass and abuse us and try and push us offline.

Clare McGlynn

Google’s push to revolutionize e-commerce by introducing the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), enabling consumers to receive personalized offers and check out directly from AI Mode or Gemini, has sparked concerns.

Lindsay Owens, an executive director of the Groundwork Collaborative, has written on X that the UCP could pave the way for surveillance pricing.

E-commerce is already a privacy wild west, but this protocol turns it into a laboratory for personalized pricing. By bundling Google ad targeting and conversational data with retailer history and third-party broker profiles, the Agent creates a perfect surveillance feedback loop.

Lindsay Owens

The DEFIANCE Act, which would grant survivors the right to take civil action against individuals who knowingly produce and distribute non-consensual sexually-explicit images, has passed the Senate.

The law is celebrated by many. However, Ben Colman, a CEO at Reality Defender, has urged to support legal frameworks by technical infrastructure that stops these images at the point of generation or upload.

A lawsuit is, by definition, reactive. It happens after the trauma has occurred, after the images have circulated, and after the damage is done. Furthermore, civil litigation requires a known defendant. In the age of decentralized platforms and anonymous trolls, you cannot sue who you cannot identify.

Ben Colman

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