FUTO Swipe – A new swipe typing model (swipe.futo.tech)

Article summary

FUTO Swipe is a new swipe typing model that aims to provide fast and accurate typing on mobile devices. The model is open-source and has been released under a permissive license, allowing the community to use and contribute to it. The model consists of three components: an encoder, a context language model, and a decoder, which work together to provide accurate predictions. The model has been trained on a dataset of 1 million swipes and has achieved a top-4 fail rate of around 4% on the test set.

Main themes

• Swipe typing
• Open-source models
• Mobile keyboards
• Licensing and copyright
• Language models
• Typing accuracy

What commenters say

• The FUTO License is seen as restrictive and not truly open-source, despite allowing access to the source code, due to its commercial terms and limitations on redistribution.
• Some commenters argue that the FUTO License is reasonable and necessary to prevent exploitation by large companies, while others see it as a threat to the open-source spirit.
• The performance of FUTO Swipe is compared to other keyboards, such as SwiftKey, with some users finding it to be a viable alternative, while others prefer the suggestions and accuracy of the commercial option.
• There is a debate about the importance of open-source licenses and the role of commercial companies in the development of open-source software, with some arguing that any contribution is valuable, regardless of the license, and others seeing it as a dilution of the open-source principles.
• Some users appreciate the ability to inspect and modify the source code, even if the license is not fully open-source, and see it as a step in the right direction.
• The issue of commercial exploitation of open-source software is raised, with some commenters arguing that it is a significant problem that needs to be addressed, while others see it as a natural consequence of the open-source model.
• The comparison between FUTO Swipe and SwiftKey raises questions about the trade-offs between open-source and commercial software, with some users prioritizing features and accuracy, and others valuing the freedom and transparency of open-source licenses.