Google Docs will start using AI to fix your spelling mistakes

Google says it is using language translation techniques to turn your spelling mistakes into proper English 
Google Docs is getting a machine learning algorithm to help improve your spelling
Google
Amelia Heathman25 July 2018

Spell check on the internet is pretty shabby compared to the likes of Microsoft’s Office Suite and don’t even get us started on Apple’s autocorrect.

Google has announced it is trying to fix your spelling errors in Google Docs with a new machine learning algorithm.

The AI can recognise errors and suggest corrections as you are typing, similar to autocorrect on the iPhone and other Apple products. It’s been designed to work like a translation tool, according to Google’s VP for G Suite product management David Thacker.

“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 translate it into proper English,” he said.

If Google is drawing on its language translation skills for it spell check feature, then you know it’s going to be good. In a recent earnings call, Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai said Google Translate’s app has been translating 143 billion words a day, going into overdrive during the recent World Cup.

With this knowledge behind it, Google Docs’ autocorrect should work seamlessly.

At the moment, the technology is still very much in beta mode. If you’re interested, you can join Google’s pre-launch test programme where you’ll get to try out the spell check tech as well as help improve it.

Until full roll-out, however, you will have to rely on correcting yourself or using a tool like Grammarly. If you’ve never used Grammarly before, it’s a cloud-based platform which you can install as an add-on to your Google Chrome browser which helps correct your grammar.

While it sounds like Google is looking to encroach on Grammarly’s space, where this app does reign supreme is that it works across all websites, not just one platform like Google’s proposition does.

Now we just need the iPhone to stop with the constant ducking autocorrect.

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