As if the employees of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) weren’t under enough scrutiny from Elon Musk and his team of edgelord posters, it turns out another set of unwelcome eyes seem to be on the department. According to a report from IT Brew, USAID staffers were warned by leadership that Google’s AI assistant Gemini was likely recording conversations happening over Google Workspace applications.
USAID, like lots of businesses and government agencies, uses Google Workspace, a suite of cloud-based apps that includes Gmail, Google Docs, Google Sheets, and other tools. Back in January, Google announced that it was rolling out an update to Workspace that would expand access to Gemini, the company’s flagship AI tool that can help do things like draft emails, help with coding projects, and answer questions you might otherwise Google. It also notably will do things like take notes of a meeting for you if it takes place over Google Meet—which means it’s listening in to the call. And, crucially, Gemini is turned on by default. You have to actively choose to opt out of it.
So, back to the USAID offices. They use Google Workspace, and all of a sudden have this AI assistant involved in their workflow. According to IT Brew, staffers were given verbal warnings that Gemini was active in their Workspace and could be recording conversations, including everything from staff meetings to human resource reports. The report said that staff meetings got pretty buttoned-up after the agency became aware of the AI, with employees acting “stilted and scripted” during calls and few willing to speak candidly.
The USAID staff—rightfully feeling a bit paranoid about who might be listening in—reportedly worried that the addition of Gemini coincided with the Trump administration taking office and choosing to scrutinize the agency. A Google representative refuted that to IT Brew, noting that USAID had a contract with Google before Trump took office and wasn’t directed to be installed by Trump to spy on workers.
That probably is not a huge comfort to staffers, though, who have plenty to deal with already. They’ve got Musk and his acolytes in their offices labeling every dollar spent on something they don’t like as fraud or corruption, a slew of misinformation about their work being pushed on Twitter, and the President threatening to cut the agency’s staff from 10,000 to 300. Now they’ve got to watch what they say lest it get sucked up by Google’s latest data vacuum. But hey, at least the recordings probably aren’t being used against them by their own government, so that’s something.
