#1068: Swiftkey explain

[Cueball showing his phone to Megan.]

Cueball: Have you tried SwiftKey? It’s got the first decent language model I’ve seen. It learns from your SMS/Email archives what words you use together most often.

[Cueball and Megan in a frameless panel, with Megan now holding Cueball’s phone.]

Cueball: Spacebar inserts its best guess. So if I type “The Empi” and hit space three times, it types “The Empire Strikes Back”.

Megan: What if you mash space in a blank message?

[Zoomed in on Megan looking at Cueball’s phone, with Cueball now off-frame to the left.]

Cueball: I guess it fills in your most likely first word, then the word that usually follows it…

Megan: So it builds up your “typical” sentence. Cool! Let’s see yours!

Cueball: Uh—

[Eight small frames arranged in panel space, 2 frames wide by 4 frames high, showing each word added by Swiftkey as Megan hits space each time:]

SwiftKey: I

SwiftKey: Am

SwiftKey: So

SwiftKey: Sorry—

SwiftKey: That’s

SwiftKey: Never

SwiftKey: Happened

SwiftKey: Before.