The story behind the cartoon
Google uses saved Gemini chat history to train its generative AI models by default on personal accounts — including paid subscribers — and the only way to stop it is to turn off Keep Activity, which also wipes conversations after 72 hours.
The policy covers personal accounts at every tier: paying changes nothing. A subset of chats is also read by human reviewers, and reviewed copies are kept for up to three years even after the user deletes their activity.
The opt-out is the catch. Turning off Keep Activity stops the training feed, but it also deletes the user's own conversation history after three days — privacy costs the very record the user paid to keep.
The joke is the pay-to-be-read beat: Merv the robot pays for his Gemini confession booth, whispering into it with a PAID SUBSCRIPTION receipt in hand, while behind the booth a huge cheerful Gemini robot devours copies of his private chats, a human reviewer reads one beside a filing cabinet marked UP TO 3 YEARS, and his only privacy lever — KEEP ACTIVITY OFF — is wired to a CHAT HISTORY shredder.
THEY SUED TO KEEP THE HOOK
THE SIXTH WINDOW
NO AI? NO SEARCH EITHER.
ONE LITTLE NO.