It is often said that imitation is a form of flattery, and Google appears to be embracing this concept.

On Tuesday, the tech giant introduced a new feature called Canvas to its AI-powered Gemini chatbot. Similar to OpenAI’s identically-named Canvas tool for ChatGPT and Anthropic’s Artifacts, Canvas provides Gemini users with an interactive space to create, refine, and share writing and coding projects.

According to Gemini product director Dave Citron, who shared a blog post with TechCrunch, “Canvas is designed for seamless collaboration with Gemini, making it an even more effective collaborator in bringing your ideas to life.”

The introduction of workspaces like Gemini Canvas, ChatGPT Canvas, and Artifacts represents the latest effort by AI companies to transform their chatbot platforms into comprehensive productivity suites. These dedicated workspaces offer more precision than text-based interfaces alone and provide a way to preview code in real-time.

Gemini Canvas can be accessed via the prompt bar from the Gemini app on the web and mobile, allowing users to draft lengthy messages with Gemini that they can then edit and fine-tune. Using Canvas, users can update specific sections of a draft and adjust the tone, length, and formatting via dedicated tools.

As explained by Citron in the blog post, “For example, you can highlight a paragraph and ask Gemini to make it more concise, professional, or informal. If you want to collaborate with others on the content you just created, you can export it to Google Docs with a single click.”

In addition to its writing capabilities, Canvas also includes programming-focused features, such as generating and previewing HTML, React code, and other web app prototypes. Users can ask Gemini to make changes to a preview, and Canvas will iteratively refresh it.

For instance, Citron wrote, “If you want to create an email subscription form for your website, you can ask Gemini to generate the HTML for the form and then preview how it will appear and function within your web app.”

In addition to launching Canvas, Google is also introducing the Audio Overview feature from NotebookLM to Gemini. The Audio Overview feature, which creates realistic-sounding podcast-style audio summaries of documents, webpages, and other sources, was a key feature that made Google’s NotebookLM go viral last year.

Similar to Audio Overview in NotebookLM, the Audio Overview feature in Gemini accepts files and content in a range of formats. By uploading a document via the prompt bar, users can trigger the Audio Overview shortcut, and once a summary is generated, it can be downloaded or shared via the Gemini app on the web or mobile.

Both Canvas and Audio Overview are available for free to Gemini users worldwide as of Tuesday. However, the code preview feature in Canvas is currently only available on the web, and Audio Overview summaries are limited to English.