Google I/O 2018 is currently going on. It’s an even by Google where they take a few days to reveal the latest technologies they have been working on. The one this year has had a lot to show us. One technology which was in fact jaw-dropping is Google Duplex. It’s a new capability of google assistant which takes the assistant to a whole new level. This capability allows the assistant to make phone calls on your behalf. It can call a restaurant to reserve a table, or schedule a haircut, things like that. The voice synthesis in these calls is jaw-dropping. Google CEO Sundar Pichai presented and demonstrated the technology and was especially proud how the assistant can understand nuances in conversations. Duplex sounds like a human, complete with mmms and uhs and cheery colloquialisms. listen to a few examples of the conversations here.
It is very impressive how the assistant can respond to real unexpected turns in the conversation. The 14 artificial intelligence (AI) start-ups google has acquired since 2010 is paying off. Google plans to conduct early testing of Duplex inside Assistant this summer.
While some people appreciate the level to which Google has developed AI with such an outstanding technology, others are genuinely bothered how morally wrong it is for google assistant to act like a human and “deceive” other humans on the other line of the phone call and using upspeek and other quirks of language.
I am genuinely bothered and disturbed at how morally wrong it is for the Google Assistant voice to act like a human and deceive other humans on the other line of a phone call, using upspeek and other quirks of language. “Hi um, do you have anything available on uh May 3?” #io18
— Bridget Carey (@BridgetCarey) May 8, 2018
