Check AI Permissions Before Letting Agents Automate Your Personal Emails
A test of AI tools for automating birthday greetings showed that granting agents access to calendars and inboxes carries significant privacy and usability risks.
Key points
- ChatGPT with Dots could access Google Calendar and Gmail to automate sending birthday emails.
- Claude and Gemini could draft messages but lacked the ability to automate sending them directly.
- The author found that reviewing AI-generated outputs took more time than writing emails manually.
An experiment using artificial intelligence to automate personal relationship maintenance revealed that current agentic tools often overstep boundaries and create more work than they save, according to a report by CNET. The author tested several popular AI platforms to see if they could reliably manage the rote task of sending birthday greetings and maintaining contact with friends and family members without human intervention.
In plain English
The core issue is not just about forgetting dates, but about the complexity of delegating personal communication to software. The author needed a system that could identify important dates, draft appropriate messages, and send them automatically. While the technology promises to handle repetitive tasks, the reality involves granting these systems deep access to private data. This creates a situation where the user must trust the AI to interpret social cues and manage sensitive information correctly.
The background
The author tested three major AI platforms: ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini. ChatGPT, combined with its agentic feature called Dots, was the only tool among the three that could fully automate the process. The author authorized ChatGPT to read their Google Calendar and Gmail accounts. This permission allowed the AI to match dates to the birthdays of important contacts and compose emails on their behalf. The setup required navigating through settings to enable plugins and grant specific read and send permissions.
What changes now
The experiment highlighted significant limitations in the current capabilities of these AI agents. While ChatGPT could automate the entire workflow, the other tools fell short. Claude could access and draft emails and create birthday cards, but it could not automate the actual sending of those messages. Gemini appeared limited to chatting with the user to draft emails and generate custom cards. It could not operate inside the inbox to send messages automatically. Only a limited number of users currently have access to Google’s specific AI agent, Gemini Spark.
Key terms explained
Agentic AI refers to software that can perform multi-step tasks independently rather than just answering questions. When using these tools, teams usually need to define clear boundaries for what data the system can access. Check whether the agent requires broad permissions to function, as this often exposes sensitive personal or professional information. Users should verify that the tool can actually complete the final action, such as sending an email, rather than just drafting it. Trust in automation depends on transparent control over these processes.
What to do and how to stay safe: ChatGPT
- Review the permissions granted to any AI tool that accesses your email or calendar, and revoke access if the tool is not actively needed.
- Verify whether the AI agent can actually send messages automatically or if it only drafts them, as this affects your workflow and security posture.
- Monitor the output of automated messages closely to ensure they are appropriate and accurate, especially when dealing with personal relationships.
- Consider the time required to review AI-generated content; if approval takes longer than manual writing, the automation may not be beneficial.
Step-by-step guide: Stop AI Chatbots Leaking Sensitive Business Data
General security guidance from the Vector Update newsroom. It is not confirmed advice from the organisations named in this story.
Frequently asked questions
Which AI tool could fully automate sending birthday emails in the test?
ChatGPT, when combined with its agentic offering Dots, was the only tool tested that could automate the entire process of identifying dates and sending emails.
Could Claude or Gemini automatically send the emails?
No, Claude could draft emails and create cards but not automate sending, while Gemini could only help draft messages and generate cards within the chat interface.
What permissions did the author grant to ChatGPT?
The author authorized ChatGPT to read, compose, and send emails on their behalf, as well as access their Google Calendar and Gmail to find birthday dates.
