Google introduced a new feature for Gmailthat automatically completes suggestions for a user as they type. The new feature involves the phrase completion system from Smart Compose, an artificial intelligence tool.
Try typing “I love” into Gmail and it will suggest “you” or “it.” Unfortunately, there’s no response from Google for users whose love interest is “him” or “her.” The company decided not to suggest pronouns based on gender because there’s a relatively high risk of not predicting the correct gender and potentially offending someone.
At times, autocorrect systems have made users feel awkward around others during their text messaging interactions. For its part, Google refuses to take the risk of autocorrection, especially when gender issues are considered sensitive in politics and society these days.
According to company statements, Google seems to understand the benefits of AI (artificial intelligence) to a much greater extent than its competitors. Specifically, Gmail has 1.5 billion users worldwide and its AI tool, called Smart Compose, appears to help 11% of messages sent from Gmail.com.
What is Smart Compose?
Smart Compose is an example of artificial intelligence and is what AI developers call a natural language creation. Through Smart Compose, computers learn to write sentences between words by studying specific patterns and relationships in emails and web pages.
However, according to research by the Smart Compose team, the tool doesn't provide results that are completely free of bias. For this reason, they decided that the best solution was to limit the coverage. In other words, Google decided that the best technique is to be more conservative.
The company's new policy bans pronouns that are associated with racial discrimination. Using the AI tool, Google's team will prevent prejudice. The Smart Compose tool is already being tested in languages other than English.
It should be noted that Google is the only company trying to address this specific problem, while the ultimate goal is none other than creating a system that will recognize exactly what to fill in.
