Android Creator Is Building an AI Phone That Texts People for You, Report Says (bloomberg.com)

Andy Rubin, the creator of Android operating system, is not giving up on his Essential company. The consumer electronics startup is putting most projects aside to focus on development of a new kind of phone that will try to mimic the user and automatically respond to messages on their behalf, Bloomberg reported Wednesday, citing people familiar with the plans. From the report: The company paused development of a planned home speaker, months after canceling a different smartphone that had been in the works, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the details are private. Sales of an earlier phone were disappointing, and the company is abandoning the effort partly because the product is too similar to others on the market. Essential had considered selling itself this year after a series of setbacks.

The design of the new mobile device isn't like a standard smartphone. It would have a small screen and require users to interact mainly using voice commands, in concert with Essential's artificial-intelligence software. The idea is for the product to book appointments or respond to emails and text messages on its own, according to the people familiar with the plans. Users would also be able to make phone calls from the planned device.

Comments

Yeah, no

[cascadingstylesheet]

Um, yeah, no.

Call from whoever: "do you authorize us to finalize your loan with such and such terms?"

AI phone, at my phone number, mimicking my voice perfectly: "Sure, go ahead!"

Or worse:

"Honey, did that dress I was wearing yesterday make me look fat?"

AI phone, at my phone number, mimicking my voice perfectly: "I don't have enough information to decide that."

Re:Make me a robot

[stealth_finger]

That lives my entire for me, why don't you.

Looks like you've already had your entire.

Re:Why would I think this is a good thing?

[Desler]

This isn't for you. This is likely to be for datamining people for advertisers.