Gmail’s Smart Reply blurs the line between people and brands
“Thanks for letting me know.”
Have you noticed an uptick in this phrase appearing in emails, on social media, and IRL? Do you find yourself saying it even though maybe a year ago you would never use the phrase? Is there a new wave of semi-formality sweeping our communications and infecting our brains? What’s going on here?
The answer isn’t some insidious conspiracy by the Illuminati to make the world more polite. “Thanks for letting me know” just happens to be one of the more common answers offered by Google Smart Reply, and as a result, it has become embedded in our daily lives, like so many other products the company offers.
In November 2015, Google unveiled Smart Reply, a plug-in that reads and suggests responses to emails. The plug-in does its best to take in the content of t...