Google’s new AI app is a glimpse of the future

Key points (condenses speech into a bulleted list)

Formal (shifts the text into a professional tone)

Short (summarizes the message)

Long (expands on the initial text)

(For most writing, I don’t recommend these kinds of stylistic shortcuts; I recommend communicating in your own style.) 

After you dictate something, you can press a stop button or a pause button. This is a great pair of choices because if you’re working on a longer piece, the pause button lets you gather your thoughts, do a bit of research, then resume, ending up with the whole screed in the clipboard. 

The most surprising feature is that it can learn custom words. For example, it learns from your edits, from the manual addition of words or — wait for it — from your Gmail conversation history (a button asks your permission, and you need to choose to explicitly log in to Gmail). The Gmail option brings in not only jargon, but also names, brand names you’ve talked about, abbreviations, foreign words, place names, and others. 

About Author

AndyC

Andy Curtis is an award-winning security consultant, researcher and public speaker. He has been working in the computer security industry since the early 1990s, having been employed by state and federal government, leading healthcare and banking providers across three continents. He has given talks about computer security for some of the world’s largest companies, worked with law enforcement agencies on investigations into hacking groups, and is a regular voice on TV and radio explaining IT security threats.

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