Sundar Pichai tells you how to get full refund for a cancelled flight

Google CEO Sundar Pichai speaks at Google I/O 2023.

Google on Wednesday came up with a host of announcements as it rolled out more artificial intelligence for its core search product, hoping to create some of the same consumer excitement generated by Microsoft’s update to rival search engine Bing in recent months.

At its annual I/O conference in Mountain View, California, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said the software giant is integrating generative AI into search as well as products such as Gmail, which can create draft messages, and Google Photos, which can make changes to images like centering figures and colouring in empty space.

The Indian-origin executive introduced Gmail’s new “Help Me Write” feature that suggests phrases and sentences to help the user compose an email in a faster and easier way. Citing an example of a hypothetical situation of a cancelled flight, Pichai demonstrated the new AI-powered feature.

“Let’s say you got an email that your flight was cancelled. The airline has sent a voucher, but what you really want is a full refund. You could reply, and use ‘Help me write’,” Pichai said.

He took the audience through a step-by-step guide to the “Help me write” feature on Gmail.

“Just type in the prompt of what you want — an email that asks for a full refund — hit create, and a full draft appears,” he said.

In a second, the flight details are pulled in from the previous email.

“It looks pretty close to what you want to send, but maybe you want to refine it further. In this case, a more elaborate email might increase the chances of getting the refund.”

The “Help me write” will start rolling out as part of Google’s Workspace updates, he said.

Google’s foray into what is known as generative AI comes after the startup OpenAI introduced chatpot ChatGPT. Generative AI can, using past data, create brand new content like fully formed text, images and software code.