Lately our family dining table has also become a work desk, a video conference room and … a kid’s playground. As I learn how to become a full time kids-entertainer, I welcome anything that can help me stay productive. And while I usually turn to Search when learning about new things, sometimes what I’m looking for is hard to describe in words.

This is where Google Lens can help. When my family’s daily activity involves a walk in the neighborhood, Lens lets me search what I see, like a flower in our neighbor’s front yard.

But it can also be a helpful tool for getting things done while working and learning from home. Today, we’re adding a few new features to make you more productive.

Copy text from paper to your laptop

You can already use Lens to quickly copy and paste text from paper notes and documents to your phone to save time. Now, when you select text with Lens, you can tap "copy to computer" to quickly paste it on another signed-in device with Chrome. This is great for quickly copying handwritten notes (if you write neatly!) and pasting it on your laptop without having to retype them all.

Copying text to your computer requires the latest version of Chrome, and for both devices to be signed into the same Google account.

Learn new words and how to pronounce them

Searches for learn a new language have doubled over the last few months. If you're using the extra time at home to pick up a new language, you can already use Lens to translate words in Spanish, Chinese and more than 100 other languages, by pointing your camera at the text.

Now, you can also use Lens to practice words or phrases that are difficult to say.  Select the text with Lens and tap the new Listen button to hear it read out loud—and finally figure out how to say “hipopótamo!”

Quickly look up new concepts

If you come across a word or phrase you don’t understand in a book or newspaper, like “gravitational waves,” Google Lens can help. Now, with in-line Google Search results, you can select complex phrases or words to quickly learn more.

These features are rolling out today, except for Listen which is available on Android and coming soon to iOS. Lens is available in the Google app on iOS and the Google Lens app on Android.

We look forward to hearing about the ways you use Lens to learn new things and get stuff done while at home.

Like many others, news organizations are navigating new ways of working remotely. This month, we’re looking at how technology can support and elevate the efforts of journalists who are delivering essential information to their readers.

Supporting fact checking efforts around the world 

Our fact check information panel on YouTube is now available in the United States. The information panel, which launched last year in India and Brazil, highlights fact check results from third-parties in search results for relevant queries, so viewers can make their own informed decision about claims made in the news. In addition, YouTube committed $1 million through the Google News Initiative to the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) to bolster fact-checking and verification efforts across the world. 

Additionally, we worked with the designers at Polygraph to help create a visual database of COVID-19 fact-checking efforts led by the IFCN. This global collaborative project brought fact-checkers together to jointly combat misinformation about the pandemic, collecting a dataset of more than 4000 fact checks (and counting).

Supporting a more diverse global media industry

The Racial Equity in Journalism fund, created in partnership with Borealis Philanthropy, has awarded $2.3 million in grants to 16 news organizations serving communities of color across the U.S. The Fund’s inaugural grantee cohort all serve audiences who have been historically underserved by mainstream media. 

In partnership with the GNI, Chicas Poderosas launched the Ambassador Leadership Training, a global program to strengthen and promote a more diverse media industry. The training will focus on tools and leadership skills to build, support, and sustainably run organizations and foster women's leadership in the media. The program will involve women from 17 countries throughout Latin America, Spain, Portugal, and the U.S.

Using StoryShare to collaborate on local COVID-19 reporting

AP StoryShare, a project supported by the Google News Initiative, allows newsrooms to share content and coverage plans. Editorsin Colorado and Oregon are using StoryShare to collaborate on coronavirus reporting, assuring greater breadth of coverage and less duplication of effort at a time of dwindling resources. About 75 news organizations are participating in initial pilots throughout Colorado, Oregon, and New York.

Online trainings to help journalists find, verify and tell news stories

As journalists around the world adjust to new ways of working, we’re making more training resources available online. We held 27 livestream training sessions in nine languages to help journalists find, verify and tell news stories during the pandemic, with additional tools added to the Google News Initiative Training Center.

In partnership with journalism network Outriders, we’re also offering free tools, training, and support for journalists across Central and Eastern Europe. Live online workshops are offered on a range of topics, from Verification to Geo Tools and Environmental Reporting. An overview of upcoming sessions can be found here, and new sessions will be added on a regular basis.

Insights from Asia Pacific case studies

News organizations in Asia Pacific are using GNI data tools like Realtime Content Insights and News Consumer Insights to grow their audience and build loyalty. In the Philippines, Rappler empowered its news organization with better user data to help achieve digital sustainability. In India, Dainik Jagran improved engagement during India’s General Election by taking advantage of a cultural moment.

The power of words

In Japan, we launched “The Power of Words,” a collaborative reporting project with 24 national and local news organizations. Through the words of athletes, the website delivers uplifting messages, creating an immersive storytelling experience. The website is also accessible, optimized for visual readability, and text voiceover thanks to a screen reader. 

That’s all for April. Stay in touch with @GoogleNewsInit on social, and sign up for the GNI newsletter for more updates.

Artificial Intelligence systems can recognize our voices, forecast the weather and help decide who gets a loan. Given the increasing ubiquity of AI, it’s important that everyone is able to understand more about it.

Like any system or technology, AI doesn’t always get it right. And understanding why AI systems break is often not easy for people who aren't experts in the field; research results are shared in dense papers filled with formulas.

Of course, people who haven't studied AI still need to be able to ask critical questions about these systems. To help support these kinds of discussions, we've created AI Explorables, a series of interactive explanations of key AI concepts. They’re specifically geared toward non-experts (even though we think and hope that experts will also find them interesting and thought-provoking). 

The first two Explorables walk you through an assessment determining whether an AI system is fair and unbiased. Measuring Fairness weighs the trade-offs involved in building a machine that diagnoses a disease—and lets you try tuning it to be fairer.

In another Explorable, called Hidden Bias, we examine a system that predicts student's grades. Biased by the data it has learned from, the system predicts lower grades for women. Trying to fix this by hiding gender from the system doesn't always work (and, in some cases, can actually increase the bias in the system). 

In the coming months we plan on sharing more Explorables on other fairness issues (how do feedback loops affect the biases of an AI system?), interpretability (why did the AI system decide to do that?) and privacy (what does it mean in the context of an AI system?).

People and AI Research (PAIR) is committed to making machine learning more participatory, and we believe that Explorables will help expand the conversation around machine learning and make it more inclusive. You can find more updates about Explorables and our other work at the (new) PAIR Medium channel.