Google Documents, Gmail, Sheets, and Slides are getting generative AI features.
The features include new ways to generate, summarize, and brainstorm text with AI in Google Docs (similar to how many people use OpenAI’s ChatGPT), the ability to generate full emails in Gmail based on users’ brief bullet points, and the ability to produce AI imagery, audio, and video to illustrate presentations in Slides (similar to Microsoft Designer, powered by DALL-E, and Canva, powered by Stable Diffusion).
Google wants to catch up in the new AI race. Since ChatGPT launched last year and Microsoft launched its chatbot-enabled Bing this February, the search giant has been hurrying to develop comparable AI capabilities. In December, top management declared a “code red” and ordered workers to apply AI technologies to all its billion-user goods within months.
Yet, Google is rushing ahead. The business gave a handful of “trusted testers” access to Docs and Gmail’s AI writing capabilities on March 30th and promised updates on their use. (It’s doing the same with Bard, its ChatGPT competitor, which is currently available to select wait-for listers.) However, the business has only stated that the remainder of its products would be accessible to testers and the public later this year.
The entire list of AI-powered capabilities Google plans to add to Workspace applications is below:
- Draft, reply, summarize, and prioritize your Gmail
- Brainstorm, proofread, write, and rewrite in Docs
- Bring your creative vision to life with auto-generated images, audio, and video in Slides
- Go from raw data to insights and analysis via auto-completion, formula generation, and contextual categorization in Sheets.
- Generate new backgrounds and capture notes in Meet
- Enable workflows for getting things done in Chat
Documents and Gmail AI writing and brainstorming tools are the most promising new capabilities. For example, a user submits “Job post for a regional sales rep” after seeing the prompt “Help me write” (GIF above). Then, after editing and refining the work spec, the AI system completes it in seconds.
Google’s press release elaborates: Workspace saves you time and effort whether you’re a busy HR professional creating bespoke job descriptions or a parent preparing a pirate-themed birthday party invitation. Type a topic and get a draft instantly. You may tweak and alter with your Al partner, gaining more recommendations as needed.”
AI technologies will allow text rewriting and expansion. For example, Google suggests writing bullet points about a work meeting. Google Docs may then create a “more polished summary,” allowing users to choose a tone (such as “more whimsical” or “formal”). Google showcases AI writing customized marketing messages for clients, translating bullet points into entire emails, and summarizing a long email chain in Gmail. (Again, typical characteristics. For instance, Slack will utilize ChatGPT to summarize talks.
Microsoft Word, Teams, and Outlook are said to include comparable functionality. Bing’s introduction this year shook Google. CEO Satya Nadella said AI-assisted search might dethrone Google. The two corporations may potentially compete in productivity software. Microsoft will discuss “the future of work with AI” on March 16th.
Launching AI products quickly is risky. Fake text generators are known for “hallucinating” erroneous material and confidently presenting it. They also repeat training data biases.
These errors might pose problems when Google implements this technology into its enterprise products. What if GoogGoogle’smeeting summaries misquote or misinterpret ideas? Do your AI-generated marketing emails create new clients or products? “Som” times the AI gets things wrong, sometimes it thrills you with something unusual, and often, it wants guidance,” Go,” Nagle said in its press statement. MicrMicrosoft’sg chatbot going awry may be hilarious, but an “off” eat” AI” that loses them money may not be.
