Google is still in its competitive spirit as they add AI features to more of its products. Soon, the company will add generative AI features to Workspace apps such as Google Docs, Gmail, Sheets, Slides, and more.
Working with AI
The new features will assist users as they use Google Docs in coming up with ideas and creating content. The AI is also capable of writing a full email based on a few points provided by the users. As for slides, it can generate AI images, audio, and video to go with the presentation.
Soon, Google will also release features that will let users in Gmail prioritize their emails, as well as create insights and analysis through auto-completion, formula generation, and contextual categorization in Sheets just by providing raw data, as mentioned in The Verge.
As for Docs, users can type in a command in the "Help me write" prompt such as job posts for a specific job. The AI will provide a format wherein all the user has to do is edit and add the needed information and context.
In the press release, Google expressed that the tools can be used whether you're a busy HR professional who needs to write customized job descriptions, or simply drafting an invitation for a child's themed birthday party.
Users can instruct the AI about what kind of outcome they would like. For instance, they can provide bullet points of information about a subject, and Google will create a more polished summary in a manner that was specified by the user like "formal" or "mysterious."
This could be Google's effort to create features that can rival Microsoft's plans to integrate AI into its products in the Office apps such as Word, Teams, and Outlook, just as it did when it released Bard to compete with Bing's ChatGPT.
Google's New API and Tool
Google has been developing large language models and is now sharing them with developers and businesses. The new API called PaLM comes with an intuitive tool called MarkerSuite. The new API can assist developers who are experimenting with AI.
MarkSuite allows users to prototype ideas and will soon have features that support prompt engineering, synthetic data generation, and custom-model tuning. Google is holding a Private Preview for its new API and tool today for select developers, and will soon release a waitlist.
PaLM API is said to be an entry point got Google's large language models that can be used for several applications. It can be used for things like content generation and chat and general purpose models, which in turn can be used for summarization, classification, and more.
Although the new AI features can make a person's job easier, it is still unwise to rely entirely on AI. More often than not, users will still have to check whether the AI has created an accurate outcome after providing it with the necessary information.
Google themselves stated a disclaimer, saying that Ai will sometimes get things wrong, and sometimes it can "delight you with something offbeat," but it still requires guidance. At the end of the day, it's still just an assistive tool, not one that does the majority of the job.
