Google's New AI Takes Meeting Notes Without Sending Data to the Cloud

Google has launched a new experimental app called AI Edge Foresight that takes notes during your meetings—completely offline. Unlike popular AI note-takers like Granola or Wispr Flow, which send your audio to the cloud, Foresight runs entirely on your Mac. That means your private conversations never leave your computer. The app is free and uses Google's on-device AI model to transcribe speech and summarize what was said.

Here's how it works: while you're in a meeting, you can jot down quick bullet points. Afterward, Foresight turns those rough notes into polished, professional summaries based on the full transcript. It also has a built-in assistant that can answer questions about the meeting, like "What did we decide about the budget?" You can even connect local files for it to reference. Google says your files, audio, and notes stay on your device—no cloud involved.

The big advantage is privacy. Many AI tools upload your data to remote servers, which can be a security risk for sensitive business meetings. Foresight avoids that entirely. However, there's a catch: it only works on Macs with Apple Silicon chips (M1 or newer), so older Macs and Windows PCs are out of luck for now. Also, being experimental, it might have bugs or missing features.

For anyone who takes lots of meetings, this could save hours of note-taking and make follow-ups easier. It's part of a growing trend of AI that runs locally, giving you smart features without sacrificing privacy. If you have a compatible Mac, it's worth trying—just don't rely on it for critical tasks until it's more polished.