Since OpenAI released ChatGPT and shook up the generative AI business, Google has been playing catch-up. Google’s first response, the release of Bard AI, which immediately misquoted easily verifiable JWST stats, was tepid at best, so the company has announced a new strategy: they’re packing every product they can with AI, just like they did with social features in Google+.
Most Google Workspace goods will get the new features. The company says users can “draft, reply, summarize, and prioritize” emails, “brainstorm, proofread, write, and rewrite” text documents, autogenerate images and video with Slides, have Sheets create formulas autonomously, automate transcription notes in Meet, and “enable workflows for getting things done” in Chat.
Google’s generative AI suite can rapidly generate text in Docs by typing the assignment’s topic. Rewrite can improve the user’s copy, even if it’s just bullet points. Your HR staff will love Gmail’s new “I’m feeling lucky” option.
After the Bard fiasco, Google redoubled its efforts to prevent its AIs from becoming like Microsoft’s. “AI is no replacement for the ingenuity, creativity, and smarts of real people,” Google Workspace VP of Product Johanna Voolich Wright wrote on Tuesday. “Sometimes the AI gets things wrong, sometimes it delights with something offbeat, and oftentimes it requires guidance.” The company’s AI Principles, which are as legally binding as its “Don’t be evil” credo, guide its product development. By the end of the month, English-speaking US users will get the new AI-enabled Workspace suite. Other languages and areas will follow.
