The company has just launched a new tool called AutoDraw, which you can think of as Microsoft Paint but with a hulking synthetic brain beneath its plain-looking interface. The software is in fact based on the technology that underlies Google's previous doodling experiment, Quick, Draw!. With more data in hand, Google's AI now appears able to work as a recommendation tool rather than a game. And Google certainly isn't alone in trying to crack the problem: at MIT Technology Review's EmTech Digital conference last month, AI firm Gamalon described how it was developing new ways to identify similar scribbling using less training data than traditional AI approaches.

You no longer need to worry if your drawing is awful, because Google's neural networks have your back--some of the time, at least. The company has just launched a new tool called AutoDraw, which you can think of as Microsoft Paint but with a hulking synthetic brain beneath its plain-looking interface. Draw some squiggles using a rudimentary pen tool via your mouse or touchpad, and the app will provide a list of possible images that it thinks you were trying to render on-screen. Choose one, and your scribbling is replaced with an image that was created by people that can really draw. The software is in fact based on the technology that underlies Google's previous doodling experiment, Quick, Draw!.