DeepL Write: Writing assistance program launches

DeepL has so far been known as a translation service. Now the start-up from Cologne is expanding its offering: DeepL is launching a digital writing assistant based on AI. This should make it possible to improve self-written texts. The program is available in German and English.

Improve expression with DeepL Write?

DeepL Write differs from AI-based text generators in that the program is not intended to automatically create texts, but rather to improve existing texts. For this purpose, contextual nuances are to be recognized, the expression is to be checked for precision and the readability of the text is to be improved. Exactly how this is to be done is not explained by DeepL in the information available so far. All that is known is that the goals are very ambitious: The AI is to contribute with suggestions for improvement to finding those formulations that are most common in the target language and thus sound ‘natural’. The program’s target group is thus primarily people who have to write texts in a language other than their first language. As examples, DeepL gives communication in an internal company or by expats with authorities.

It is interesting to note that people who have formulation problems in their first language are explicitly targeted. This suggests that the program can work with a wide variety of language levels. How exactly this works and whether the results are satisfactory, however, cannot be foreseen at all at this point. The objective of merely improving existing text material, which differs from that of AI text generators, is also expressed by the fact that DeepL, according to its own information, aims to improve writing style: By following the suggestions, the use of the program should also help to avoid having to rely on the help of an AI in the future.

Dr. Jaroslaw Kutylowski, the company’s founder, had this to say about the intention behind DeepL Write: “Our brain is pretty good at passively understanding when speech feels good and right. Unfortunately, our active understanding of language is not always as strong and we have a hard time finding the right words in a foreign language or even in our own native language. This is where DeepL Write helps out with artificial intelligence and shows how to not only write correctly, but write really well. Ultimately, Write serves as a pool of ideas and inspiration for fine-tuning your own text. It helps to access our deeper understanding of language.”

Experience with translation program as starting point

According to the company, the starting point for the development of the new program was the use of the translation service from DeepL. The company observed that many users not only had text translated, but also worked on fine-tuning it to reflect the intention of their statement as precisely as possible. This is precisely what the independent program DeepL Write is now supposed to be able to do.

The company’s expansion can also be financed by a recently concluded financing round. With this, the company is in a position to continue on its chosen path towards a leading role in the field of automated communication services. DeepL Write will be available free of charge, just like the already established translation program. It can be accessed immediately via the website deepl.com. In the beta phase, the service is available for the target languages German and English. A first test phase of the program was launched at the end of last year. However, this only ran for a short time and without much public attention.