What Connecting Drive Means
Connecting Drive lets the AI open files in that one account, and only on request. It does not copy your Drive anywhere, it does not show your files to other users, and it cannot reach anything you could not already open yourself.
Connect the account the document actually lives in
Turn the training switch off if you would rather not share chats
Attach one file at a time when the document is sensitive
Ask your administrator first if the account belongs to work
Two details are worth knowing before you approve it. The AI reads the text of a document and not the pictures inside it, so a scanned page can come back empty. And on a personal plan your chats can be used to train the model unless you turn that off; in ChatGPT the switch sits under Settings, then Data controls, then Improve the model for everyone.
In Claude, material pulled in through a connector stays out of model training either way. Text you paste into the chat yourself does not get that treatment, which is an argument for connecting the file rather than copying it.
Your partner says connecting Drive means handing the whole company's files to an AI company. What is the accurate correction?
It reads one file in one account when asked, inside the permissions you already have
Nothing leaves your computer at any point
Files are fully private on every plan, so there is nothing to check
A connector is a request you make each time, inside the permissions you already have. The honest caveat is the training switch on personal plans, which is why it is worth checking rather than denying.