Automattic Inc., which runs WordPress.com and contributes to the open-source WordPress blogging software, released a new generative artificial intelligence-powered feature Tuesday to help bloggers improve their writing.

The new tool, called Write Brief with AI, works with already written text and operates within the WordPress editor as part of Jetpack. The team at Jetpack AI released it as a tool that complements the company’s existing broader-scale AI content creator that can generate and edit entire blog posts using AI released last year.

Jetpack is a set of tools and plugins for WordPress sites designed to improve security, performance and productivity developed and maintained by Automattic. Its features are available from the company for WordPress.com-hosted websites and as a plugin for self-hosted WordPress installations, which provide access to the Jetpack AI features and now Write Brief with AI.

It joins several other generative AI grammar and writing assistants such as the one produced by Grammarly Inc. The tool can can detect and recommend changes for complex words, wordy sentences and a lack of confidence. It does does this by highlighting the areas in the text that need improvement to help writers avoid these common pitfalls and then offers suggestions on how they can be corrected.

Each of the readability criteria is assigned a different underscore highlight color, making it easy for the user to determine the type of suggestion that will be offered by the AI when they click. The user can then accept or reject the suggestions and the AI takes over from there by rewriting the highlighted sentence or phrase.

Automattic Senior Product Designer Noam Almosnino said in a blog post that the new feature arose internally from a tool called Breve, Latin for “brief,” that started as a hack week project. “We saw just how useful and beloved it quickly became and decided to release it into the world,” he added.

As writers use the tool to correct their content with the tool, the AI also includes a “Readability” measurement score in the sidebar. The score displays a readability grade level that updates as writers type, allowing them to adjust on the fly.

Currently, Write Brief with AI is available only on WordPress.com-hosted sites for free during its initial beta phase. The AI assistant starts disabled by default but can be toggled on by expanding AI settings in the sidebar of the WordPress Post tab and turning on “Show suggestions.”

Image: Automattic