ROBO-CALL
Google’s bot Assistant can now make eerily human-like phone calls on your behalf
The new tech is said to be so realistic that it will be able to make a telephone booking on your behalf without anyone realising it’s a robot
GOOGLE is overhauling its AI voice assistant with more natural conversational abilities so users won't be able to tell it apart from a human.
Unveiled at the firm’s annual I/O developer conference on Tuesday, Google’s updated bot is said to be so realistic that it will be able to make a telephone booking on your behalf without anyone realising it’s a robot.
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The tech giant proved how flawlessly the updated AI bot can work by making it book a reservation during a live on-stage demonstration, speaking to an unsuspecting person on the other end of a call.
The assistant was able to book the reservation without the person suspecting it wasn’t a human, by throwing in linguistic fillers, such as "ums" and "ahhs" that people naturally use when they're in the middle of a thought.
“This summer, we’ll start testing a new capability within the Google Assistant to help you make restaurant reservations, schedule hair salon appointments, and get holiday hours,” .
“Just provide the date and time, and your Assistant will call the business to coordinate for you.”
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The new AI capability is powered by a fresh technology Google is calling Duplex, which means the assistant can understand complex sentences, fast speech, and long remarks to respond naturally in a phone conversation.
“Even though the calls will sound very natural, the Assistant will be clear about the intent of the call so users can understand the context,” Google explained.
“Once your reservation or appointment is booked, the Assistant will add a calendar reminder for your appointment and allow you to cancel if needed.”
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“Up until now, creating a new voice took hundreds of hours in a recording studio," Google added.
"But with advancements in AI and WaveNet technology from DeepMind, we can now create new voices in just a few weeks and are able to capture subtleties like pitch, pace, and all the pauses that convey meaning, so that voices are natural-sounding and unique.”
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