SwiftKey announced that it has released a new version of the famous #keyboard for # Android. It would be the first keyboard in the world based on neural networks. The company, we recall, was acquired by Microsoft in early February, and has developed a predictive model that uses artificial intelligence to suggest the exact words as you type.
The new keyboard, called SwiftKey Neural Alpha, is still in development, and the company has decided to make it available to a limited number of users for testing purposes. The idea behind the project is to use artificial intelligence techniques to better predict the words the user intends to write.
A neural network that learns to write
The technology is called “neural network”, and it should be more precise than the current one. In short, the current one is based on a database of terms frequently used together to better understand what the user is trying to write.
The new algorithm, on the other hand, should be able to provide connections in a much more intuitive and human-brain-like way.
How will Swiftkey's new neural keyboard work?
For years, SwiftKey has been using the “n-gram” model, according to which the keyboard tried to guess the most appropriate word, analyzing the two previous ones. Now, however, the new model based on neural networks allows you to read the entire sentence and suggest the correct word. The user will see the three most likely suggestions: a nice time saver. Unfortunately, currently only English is supported.
Furthermore, the latest keyboard update also brought improvements for the Italian language and added support for the new Android 7.0 Nougat emoji.
The new version of SwiftKey will be available in the coming weeks as a free update to all current users. New users, on the other hand (and this seems completely obvious to me) will have to pay 4,99 euros to download the application from scratch.
