Google is including more AI tools into its suite of consumer-facing products, including platforms people use daily, like Gmail. Complex AI models are behind this work, but the result is simple. Gmail helps you tweak important emails you writefrom your Android phone, computer, or other device.
You may have seen part of this if you signed up for AI suggestions in Gmail. It tries to complete common sentences. That saves time with work emails, but the Help Me Write feature goes deeper.
What is Gmail’s Help Me Write?
Help Me Write is an AI service you can access when composing an email in Gmail. The tool taps into a larger project Google is working on withlarge language model (LLM)AI. This AI replicates the human language. Chatbots like ChatGPT use a similar approach.
Google is implementing its large language model projects,notably PaLM 2, across many sectors. For example, it provides a platform for businesses to tap into AI powers and use Google’s resources to customize their AIs. Google envisions revolutionizing fields like translation, medicine, math, coding, and more. Google is also interested in how LLMs can help everyday users. That’s led to tools like Help Me Write, which composes and revises emails on demand.
How do I use Help Me Write in Gmail?
Help Me Write is available with the right sign-up, and you’re able to use it in several ways. Let’s go through what you can do.
Workspace Labs is available in US English and a limited number of countries. Signing up is free, but there are privacy issues. We discuss those issues in a later section.
You can change your writing tone in several ways:
No matter what option you choose or how often you refine your email, always edit it before sending it to anyone. Mistakes and repetition creep in, so do more than fill in the right names. Review every word, and only use what sounds right.
Are there any security risks to using Help Me Write?
Not in the traditional sense that someone could use it to steal data. We aren’t sure of Google’s data management practices, but Help Me Write appears to be as safe as the rest of Gmail for business security.
There are still some personal privacy implications. Google retains the right to save and use data on the prompts you enter, what text the AI creates, your feedback, and refined results you create, including previous non-AI emails in the email thread.
Help Me Write has the same issues as ChatGPT and other large language model AIs. Students can head into Gmail and whip up an essay or fake letter. Business contacts may not be sure if a Gmail user wrote their own words or used phrases and tones picked by AI. These problems are new, and we can’t predict the final results.
Email AI is here: Help Me Write can make it useful
We all have times when we want to revise an email to sound more professional, more sincere, or different from our last attempt.We could hop on ChatGPTand give it instructions. Google’s Help Me Write is faster and easily accessible, ideal for short emails.
You don’t have to rely on Help Me Write, but it’s an interesting feature. Try it when brainstorming or looking for a specific tone. Just don’t let it freestyle too much before you send your emails.
