Only a small group of users can currently join the program
Google felt the heat as ChatGPT took the internet by storm late last year and, more recently, thanks to the new Microsoft Bing supercharged with AI. Google has quickly pivoted to step up its AI game, reallocating resources, and ultimately giving us its AI chatbot Bard. We’ve been eagerly looking forward to the next phase of these experiments, including some nifty generative AI tools for Gmail and Docs, and now some limited public testing has gotten underway.
A couple of weeks back, Google confirmed the arrival of AI-powered text generation across Workspace productivity apps, starting with Gmail and Docs. With help from these tools, you’ll be able to create your email drafts or lengthy documents in a jiffy. But so far, the company has been testing these features internally.
That’s not starting to change, and Google’s slowly opening public testing of its new AI tools, according to 9to5Google. Invites are currently going out to some personal and Workspace users in the United States. Once on board, users can opt in to use text generation options as part of their Gmail and Docs experience, before they go live for everyone globally. Google has invited only a small group of users to be part of its trusted testers, as they’ll be asked to continuously share their feedback based on their interaction with new AI options.
The company demoed its AI tools in Docs and Gmail in its mid-March announcement. Using the “Help me write” prompt in Docs, you can describe your request to help the app create the text based on your input. Similarly, Gmail’s new AI capabilities can be used for creating email drafts, replies, and even text summaries, like for meeting notes. We just hope these AI-generated texts aren’t as hysterically awkward as some of Bard’s responses have been.
