Smart Compose rolling out for Google Chat makes me wonder where Apple is with AI

Google keeps rolling out generative AI features, and I can’t help but wonder where the heck Apple is in all this, especially after seeing almost nothing about AI at the WWDC keynote.

In a blog post, Google announced that it is starting to roll out Smart Compose to Google Chat. You’ve likely come across the feature already — it helps users in Gmail and Google Docs by suggesting what it thinks you’ll want to write. For example, if you start writing “Please let me know,” it may suggest “what times work for you” if it understands you are trying to schedule a time to meet with someone.

Today, we’re excited to announce smart compose is now available in Google Chat on web. Coupled with smart reply, an existing assistive tool that suggests short replies to messages, this feature will help you communicate with colleagues quicker to move conversations or projects forward more efficiently. 

Seeing Google roll out a really helpful generative AI feature to another one of its products makes me turn my eyes slowly toward Apple Park, especially considering what week it is. Apple kicked off WWDC yesterday, and one thing that was definitely missing from the keynote was much mention of AI features from any of its upcoming software releases.

There was a little, of course. Apple has really leaned into machine learning, but not so much when it comes to the world of generative AI. While Microsoft and Google are seemingly launching themselves into the battle of seeing who gets to destroy humanity first, Apple is surprisingly quiet when it comes to things like AI chatbots, generative AI, and, honestly, AI in general.

While some may point directly at Siri as an explanation as to why Apple has given up on AI, I have a feeling we’re still going to see a lot from the company in this area. However, I think it’s going to show up in different ways than we expect, especially since Apple will surely be trying to figure out how to create helpful experiences without sacrificing privacy.

Until then, we can all gripe about it as an avatar on a FaceTime call with our $3,499 Vision Pro headset.