Ever since the big language model (LLM) boom began, companies have been trying to solve the problem of inbox flooding by using artificial intelligence to categorize emails and draft replies that sound like you. Email client Superhuman is launching a new version of its auto-composition feature that identifies important emails and creates draft responses that sound less robotic.
Superhuman has attempted this in the past with features like instant replies and subsequent automatic drafts. However, many of these emails sounded like an overzealous AI salesman, and I didn’t use them much. The new version of the auto-draw feature has a different feel. Over the past few days, after gaining access to the beta version, I’ve emailed with little to no editing on some drafts that were created.
The app understands which emails might need replies and composes a reply based on your tone from previous conversations. It also creates two other variants that you might want to send.
In my experience using the feature, I’ve seen drafts agreeing to an embargo on a stadium to get more details or confirming the schedule for a meeting that I could send with minimal changes. The feature also generated responses to emails requesting an author post on TechCrunch, saying I don’t handle that task. (TechCrunch does not accept author posts.)
However, the feature is far from perfect. By default, he often generated a positive response to a pitch or agreed to a meeting after midnight. Fortunately, I could choose another answer from the other variations quickly and send it away.
The feature learns from your usage and improves responses. For example, after the midnight meeting disaster, when someone suggested a similar time, the feature created a draft saying that the timing doesn’t work for me.
I get thousands of emails every month, thanks in part to AI making first drafts easier for others like comms and PR professionals. I don’t have the confidence to hand over the reins to AI to fully handle my inbox, but this feature could help me reply to more people when I don’t have to type long messages.
Users can personalize emails by going to Settings > Personalization and adding details about themselves and their role, along with adding files or links to more content.
Superhuman co-founder Rahul Vohra said during the testing phase that 40% of the auto-generated drafts were sent within a day and 60% of them were sent without any manual editing.
Vohra said that previous features like Instant replies were created by older models like GPT-3.5, which were less smart or had a smaller context window. With this new app, the company is using a number of models.
“Today, we’re using a mix of models to make this work. The actual writing is done by boundary models from both Anthropic and OpenAI. So we’re applying as much intelligence and context to what we possibly can to make the feature work,” Vohra said.
Last year, Grammarly acquired Superhuman and then rebranded as Superhuman. Now, the company is building an assistant called Superhuman Go that spans platforms while transferring context from one app to another.
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