Google Duplex and AI phone calls

Google Duplex and AI phone calls

Artificial intelligence and machine learning are getting smarter every day. Over the past few years the Google Assistant has been able to take a user’s information and, if you opt-in, organize your day. So for example, it knows where you live and where you work, so it can automatically schedule alarms to wake you up. But what is clever is that it finds real-time information and adjusts timings, so if it knows there is a big delay, you’ll be woken up earlier.

The real use has been in voice search. You can almost have conversations with Google Assistant, and ask it to find answers to questions, give you recommendations and help you with connected devices and apps.

And while this is very smart, at the annual Google I/O developer conference, the assistant became a lot more useful.

Called Google Duplex, the new version of the Google Assistant can now make appointments and reservations for you. This is a big advance on just being able to tell you that you have an event coming up.

What is more impressive is that the Google Assistant will, for example, call a restaurant knowing when you are available and aim to make a booking. So you could say: “Hi Google, please book me at table for four at Romano’s on Thursday at 7” and the Assistant will then call the restaurant, make the booking and slot the event into your calendar.

This was demonstrated on stage with the assistant booking both a haircut and a restaurant.

We’re sure you’ll agree that this is a real leap for the technology and could be incredibly useful. Some have commented that people should be told when they are speaking to an AI, as the new Google Duplex voice is very lifelike. But as this was a demo, there are certain to be updates in the months and years ahead. However, this new technology is another example of how AI is working to make our lives more convenient.

What do you think about the new Google Duplex? Are you excited, or do you have concerns about the technology? Let us know in the comments below, and if there’s anything you’d like to ask, please JustAskGemalto!