Google announced it is now using the same artificial intelligence developed for Google Search and Google Now to fight spam. This is on top of the machine learning the company already uses to train Gmail’s filters (every time you click the “Report spam” and “Not spam” buttons, you’re teaching Gmail what does and doesn’t matter).
Gmail’s spam filter now uses an artificial neural network to detect and block “the especially sneaky spam.” That means you should now be less likely to see messages in your inbox that are meant to pass for wanted email.
The spam filter is also now better at recognizing individual preferences. Not everyone likes the same repetitive emails, whether that’s daily jokes, weekly newsletters, monthly reminders, or just notifications from some random service, and Gmail needs to adjust accordingly.
Finally, Gmail’s spam filter can now root out email impersonation. New machine learning signals help the service figure out whether a message actually came from its sender, which at least in theory should reduce the effectiveness of phishing scams.