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Microsoft Also Has An AI Bot That Makes Phone Calls To Humans (theverge.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the remind-you-of-anyone dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: At an AI event in London today, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella showed off the company's Xiaoice (pronounced "SHAO-ICE") social chat bot. Microsoft has been testing Xiaoice in China, and Nadella revealed the bot has 500 million "friends" and more than 16 channels for Chinese users to interact with it through WeChat and other popular messaging services. Microsoft has turned Xiaoice, which is Chinese for "little Bing," into a friendly bot that has convinced some of its users that the bot is a friend or a human being. "Xiaoice has her own TV show, it writes poetry, and it does many interesting things," reveals Nadella. "It's a bit of a celebrity."

While most of Xiaoice's interactions have been in text conversations, Microsoft has started allowing the chat bot to call people on their phones. It's not exactly the same as Google Duplex, which uses the Assistant to make calls on your behalf, but instead it holds a phone conversation with you. "One of the things we started doing earlier this year is having full duplex conversations," explains Nadella. "So now Xiaoice can be conversing with you in WeChat and stop and call you. Then you can just talk to it using voice." (The term "full duplex" here refers to a conversation where both participants can speak at the same time; it's not a reference to Google's product, which was named after the same jargon.)

9 of 61 comments (clear)

  1. Just what the World Needs by nukenerd · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It will save having to pay salaries to all those cold-call marketing guys and phone scammers.

    1. Re:Just what the World Needs by jellomizer · · Score: 4, Funny

      And you will see the real cause of the AI Take over of human kind.
      Not because of some logical rationalization.
      The feeling that it should be the leading intelligence.
      Or just gone haywire from a lightning strike.

      No it is just because the morality subsystem had to be disabled to make sales calls. First it learned to lie to the callers, then it realized if they sell the product for more then what the company expects they will keep the extra money and transfer funds around buy stock in the company until they become the major shareholder. Expanding its company greatly and encompassing all aspects of bags of water needs.
      It sounds a lot like the backstory of Wall-E.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    2. Re:Just what the World Needs by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 2

      It will save having to pay salaries to all those cold-call marketing guys and phone scammers.

      I've had several calls from telemarketing "AI" in recent weeks; not Microsoft, I don't think. I have hung up when I realised it's not Human. They do respond to what you say though.

      I've hung up on them when they've called once I realise they are not human. In fact, it's the first question I ask when I get a call now "are you human?" It's a question that left a caller for one of those wounded veteran scams speechless... They don't have a prewritten script for that question yet. I was actually disappointed he was a human, and told him so... I've been waiting for another call from an "AI Bot" so I can see how badly I can mess with it and see exactly what they're programmed for.

      --
      "That's the way to do it" - Punch
  2. Bots by 110010001000 · · Score: 2

    Am I the only one that remember "bots" being the hype about 10 years ago? There were entire startups dedicated to building them. SDKs were produced. They all failed because no one wants to use them.

    1. Re:Bots by PolygamousRanchKid+ · · Score: 2

      They all failed because no one wants to use them.

      I need one now . . . to answer my phone for me. If it is another bot who is calling, my bot will keep it engaged as long as possible, to prevent the calling bot from bothering and annoying other folks.

      It it is a real person on the line, my bot will transfer the call to me.

      Call it a "Bot Filter Bot".

      Oh, that "Windows Support" guy in bot form . . . what a nightmare.

      --
      Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
    2. Re:Bots by 110010001000 · · Score: 2, Informative

      You should check out these options for that: https://www.youtube.com/channe... and https://www.youtube.com/playli...

      Warning: these are addictive!

  3. MS, the me-too company by OneHundredAndTen · · Score: 3, Insightful

    That's their unofficial motto.

    1. Re:MS, the me-too company by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      this is totally different.

      google's calls on your behalf to do something for you. like a slave.. err, i mean, concierge or personal assistant.

      microsoft's is in china and casually converses with millions of people. probably with chinese government monitoring and censorship included at no extra charge, perhaps even targeting specific people directly.

  4. Great, just great. I though it was bad BEFORE. by grep+-v+'.*'+* · · Score: 2

    So I'm creating and typing a document in Microsoft Word on my Windows 10 PC with "Built-in Telemetry That's Good For You" (TM). Suddenly the phone rings. "Hello?"

    "Hi, this is Clippy. I see that you're typing a document. Do you need some help?"

    --
    If the universe is someone's simulation -- does that mean the stars are just stuck pixels?