Medium’s new TK app brings AI assistance directly into the writing process

Online publishing platform Medium on Monday launched a new app, called TK, which aims to bring AI technology deeper into the writing process. The idea behind TK is to make it easier to turn ideas into written words by incorporating an AI assistant into the editor itself, allowing users to ask for help by typing “@TK” followed by their request or prompt.

In publishing and journalism, the term “TK” serves as a placeholder used to mark where missing information can be added later. The “TK” stands for “to come,” but uses a “K” instead of “C” as there are few English words where the “tk” letter combination exists, making it stand out more easily in written text where it could be caught by proofreaders.

In Medium’s app, TK takes on a new role as it tries to help users fill in the blanks.

The company suggests the AI assistant could help answer questions that you might normally have to switch to another tab to quickly look up, like how many days are in a particular month. The app could also pull in bits of writing you had previously saved to the app when you were still fleshing out your ideas.

In addition, Medium says TK will ship with particular skills for editorial feedback, headline feedback, and others that could match your draft to the style guide for Medium publications.