Google brings AI Speech Recogniser to the Gboard keyboard in Pixel devices

To improve its Gboard keyboard platform, Google is adding an Artificial Intelligence (AI) offline dictation feature on its Gboard keyboard. This feature will currently be availed only by Google Pixel smartphone users. The new AI offline dictation would speak out the emails and texts to users even without an internet connection.

Johan Schalkwyk from Speech Team of Google, wrote in a blog post on Tuesday “We’re happy to announce the rollout of an end-to-end, all-neural, on-device speech recogniser to power speech input in Gboard which is always available, even when you are offline.”

Google also said that it has designed the feature to work on smartphones at the character level. The company also mentioned that it has developed a model that has been trained with RNN Transducer (RNN-T) technology which is compact enough to reside in a phone.

“This means no more network latency or spottiness — the new recogniser is always available, even when you are offline. The model works at the character level, so that as you speak, it outputs words character-by-character, just as if someone was typing out what you say in real-time, and exactly as you’d expect from a keyboard dictation system,” Schalkwyk added.

Currently, the on-device Gboard speech recogniser comes only in American English and it is limited to Google Pixel devices only. To increase the use-parameters of the speech recognition feature, the company said that it has hosted a new model in the device which would avoid the latency and inherent unreliability of communication networks.

“Our new all-neural, on-device Gboard speech recogniser is initially being launched to all Pixel phones in American English only. Given the trends in the industry, with the convergence of specialised hardware and algorithmic improvements, we are hopeful that the techniques presented here can soon be adopted in more languages and across broader domains of application. We are hopeful that the techniques presented here can soon be adopted in more languages and across broader domains of application,” Schalkwyk said.

It should be noted that Google has been launching new products and services more frequently now while discarding its old ones like its Allo app. Also, Google unveiled its Google Bolo app in India aimed at the rural children so that they could learn to read and speak. The company is also set to unveil a gaming console named Project Yeti and Project Stream along with a wide variety of games at the upcoming GDC 2019.