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Google's Human-Sounding Phone Bot Is Coming To the Pixel Next Month (wired.com)
Google's human-sounding AI software that makes calls for you is coming to Pixel smartphones next month in select markets, like New York, Atlanta, Phoenix, and the San Francisco Bay Area. Google Duplex, as it is called, will be a feature of Google Assistant and, for now, will only be able to call restaurants without online booking systems, which are already supported by the assistant. Wired reports: A Google spokesperson told WIRED that the company now has a policy to always have the bot disclose its true nature when making calls. Duplex still retains the human-like voice and "ums," "ahs," and "umm-hmms" that struck some as spooky, though. Nick Fox, the executive who leads product and design for Google search and the company's assistant, says those interjections are necessary to make Duplex calls shorter and smoother. "The person on the other end shouldn't be thinking about how do I adjust my behavior, I should be able to do what I normally do and the system adapts to that," he says.
Fox, the Google exec leading the project, pitches Duplex as a win-win. Google users will be freed from having to make phone calls to plan their outings; restaurants without online booking systems will gain new customers. "Those businesses lose out because people say 'Unless I can book this online I'm not going to book,'" he says. Some people closer to the restaurant business worry that Duplex might make calling restaurants too easy for Google users. Gwyneth Borden, executive director of the Golden Gate Restaurant Association, a trade group for Bay Area restaurants, says people may use the technology to book multiple reservations and then flake out, or call restaurants over and over. Restaurants can opt out of receiving Duplex calls by speaking up during a call from Duplex, or through the website where businesses can manage listing information shown in Google's search and maps services. When calls go awry -- Fox says the "overwhelming majority" work out fine -- the software will alert an operator in a Google call center who takes over.
Fox, the Google exec leading the project, pitches Duplex as a win-win. Google users will be freed from having to make phone calls to plan their outings; restaurants without online booking systems will gain new customers. "Those businesses lose out because people say 'Unless I can book this online I'm not going to book,'" he says. Some people closer to the restaurant business worry that Duplex might make calling restaurants too easy for Google users. Gwyneth Borden, executive director of the Golden Gate Restaurant Association, a trade group for Bay Area restaurants, says people may use the technology to book multiple reservations and then flake out, or call restaurants over and over. Restaurants can opt out of receiving Duplex calls by speaking up during a call from Duplex, or through the website where businesses can manage listing information shown in Google's search and maps services. When calls go awry -- Fox says the "overwhelming majority" work out fine -- the software will alert an operator in a Google call center who takes over.
Gonna call into a radio station and say okay google, book dinner tonight
Now Google not only have all your text messages and your call history, they also know which restaurants you may be interested in and which ones you actually booked and for how many people. Correlating that with position data and your contact list, they will know who you had dinner with and how often.
And to enable this feature, obviously you have to grant permission to let Google listen in to the phone conversation. Once you gave that permission, now Google will get a recording of all your phone conversations (if they aren't doing that already without permission).
Eventually, Google will have the dark secrets of many people and can blackmail anyone who pose a threat to their empire.
"I wasn't going to get a brain transplant, but then I changed my mind."
And the question is : Why is this funny???
"Those businesses lose out because people say 'Unless I can book this online I'm not going to book,'"
And if I were a business owner I would say fine! We don't need your pretentious ass darkening our doorway. The punter likely would be more bother than they are worth.
-- I have a private email server in my basement.
What's a 'radio station'?
It's where the baseball sounds come from.
-- I have a private email server in my basement.
Hi I'd like to make a reservation for 5pm on Monday.
I only open at 6pm will that work?
Hmm, ahh. Okay. Can't you do any better?
Sorry I'm just not open until 6.
Hmm, ahh. You know I'm gonna take your job don't you.
Pleasure doing business with you.
I guess it doesn't qualify even as first world problem. What should we call that? People with poor communications skills problem? Complete idiot problem? IDK.
They need to include one more category that this feature is allowed to use the phone for, and that is to talk to phone spammers (and not have to disclose it is a bot). We still have a landline... yes, I know, but there are reasons. Anyway, we never use it for calls and we get 10-15 spam calls a day on it. I would love to turn this bot loose and just let it talk to all the spammers.
Are people so anti-social in 2018, that they can't make a 30-second business phone call on their own? Also why can't restaurants have a VoIP or cell number for texting reservations?
If I had this and used it (I won't) I would have it start all calls with: "Hello fellow human. Greetings, it is I, another human being just like yourself."
I don't want the bot to make calls for me, I want it to answer them for me, and maybe if possible waste the time of scammers who call me, like the jolly roger phone company (which doesn't exist where I live).