Google Docs' new AI-based tool fixes grammar errors

BY LEAH WILLIAMS
Posted on AUG 12, 2019

Google advances user support tools by releasing a new 'grammar suggestions' feature in its word processor, Docs.

Google has confirmed the launching of a new "grammar suggestions" feature in Docs that will catch and suggest corrections for numerous language mishaps, including article errors ("a" versus "an") and more complicated concepts, such dangling subordinate clauses.

Google reports that the AI-based tool will use real-time machine translation to discover mistakes and confirms how the service will achieve advancements over time as its system learns from users.
The service is similar to the product of startup Grammarly, which has raised $110 million, or Microsoft Word's "Editor pane." Microsoft's Word program has had some form of grammar checking built-in since the early 1990s.

When the feature first launches, it will only be available to GSuite business users, but will eventually roll out to anyone who uses Docs, according to a CNBC news report.

TechCrunch noted that David Thacker, Google's VP for G Suite product management, explained that the tool uses a machine translation-based approach to sort your writing, "In language translation, you take a language like French and translate it into English. Our approach to grammar is similar. We take improper English and use our technology to correct or translated it into proper English."

Along with the announcement of grammar suggestions, Google says that the company will be bringing the "Smart Reply" feature, which automatically suggests simple artificial intelligence-powered responses, to its Hangouts chat app for business customers. Its more robust artificial-intelligence powered system, Smart Compose, which launched in Gmail in May and can write or finish full sentences, will also now be available to business users.

The service will roll out to GSuite business customers first and be available for regular Docs users within the near future