Google has been struggling to catch up with OpenAI for months, ever since the latter abandoned its chatbot, ChatGPT, and took the generative AI industry by storm. Google’s first attempted response with the release of its Bard AI (which immediately misquoted easily verifiable statistics about the JWST) was lukewarm at best, so the company has announced a new tact: They’re packaging all products that can with AI, just like they do. it did in the age of Google+ with social features.
The new features are coming to virtually all of Google’s Workspace products. According to the company, users will be able to “compose, reply, summarize and prioritize” emails, “brainstorm, proofread, write and rewrite” text documents, automatically generate images and even videos with Slides, have Sheets create formulas autonomously, automate the transcription of notes in Meet and “enable workflows to get things done” in Chat.
For example, in Docs, users will simply have to type the subject of their task on the page and Google’s generative AI suite will quickly generate additional text. The system can also rework (hopefully improving) what the user has already redacted, even if it’s just bullet points, using the Rewrite feature. There’s also a new “I’m feeling lucky” option in Gmail that your company’s HR department will love.
After the Bard debacle, Google doubled down on its commitment to ensure its AIs don’t turn out like Microsoft’s. “AI is not a replacement for the ingenuity, creativity and intelligence of real people,” Johanna Voolich Wright, Google Workspace’s vice president of products, wrote Tuesday. “Sometimes the AI messes up, sometimes it regales you with something unconventional, and often it requires guidance.” To that end, the company is building its products within the confines of its AI Principles, which are as legally binding as the company’s longstanding motto “Don’t be evil.” The new AI-enabled Workspace suite is expected to roll out to English-language users in the US later this month, with additional languages and regions coming in the near future.
