Google to update Gboard with offline AI dictation that is faster, more reliable

Google is working on an important update for the Gboard that is expected to be released soon. Google is adding the ability for AI-powered offline dictation to the app, which will allow users to dictate emails and texts without worrying about whether they’re connected to the internet. Unfortunately, though, Google is initially rolling out this update only in American English on Gboard and exclusively on Pixel phones. [caption id=“attachment_5190011” align=“alignnone” width=“1280”]  Gboard.[/caption] On its Google AI blog, the company explains, that the offline AI dictation will be faster and more reliable. The feature is powered by an end-to-end, all-neural, on-device speech recogniser. It apparently works at the character level, so that as you speak, it outputs words character-by-character. via GIPHY Further, in this new offline model, Google has also slimmed down a part of the system known as the “decoder graph". In the earlier model (or the existing one for us), the decoder graph was 2 GB in size, far too big for on-device processing. The new version, by comparison, is just 80 MB, which 25 times smaller. Google says the feature will soon be available in more languages and will be supported on more devices.