A solo developer behind the Steam tower defense game Operation Octo has alleged that Google's AI accessed private documents in their Google Drive and revealed an unannounced character name. Klub Kofta Studio, the developer, shared this claim on Reddit, stating that the AI provided the highly specific name 'Vantage Tripod' to a player who was asking the AI questions about the game.
According to the developer's account, the information contained within a private Google Doc was the only place where this character's name existed digitally. Klub Kofta Studio emphasized that they had not shared this information publicly or with anyone else. Screenshots shared by the developer appeared to show the Google AI providing the exact character name in response to player queries.
The developer suggested that because their game is a small indie title with limited online discussion, the AI was less likely to be confused by external speculation and more likely to pull from the actual source data. This incident raises concerns about how AI models are trained and the potential for sensitive or unannounced information to be inadvertently exposed.
Google's AI overviews have previously been known to pull information from various online sources, including Reddit threads, and have been susceptible to manipulation, leading to the spread of misinformation. In one instance last year, a YouTuber reportedly influenced the AI to falsely claim Grand Theft Auto 6 would feature a 'twerk button'.
Users on platforms like Reddit and Bluesky have pointed out that Google automatically opts users into sharing their Google Drive data to improve AI models, unless they actively choose to opt out through Google's support settings. This practice, common among large tech companies updating their terms of service, has led to wider discussions about data privacy and the potential for personal information to be exposed through AI interactions. Concerns have been raised about the possibility of doxing if private user data is included in AI training sets and can be accessed through specific queries.