Since Google revealed a robo-caller that sounds eerily human earlier this month, the company has faced plenty of questions about how it works. Employees got some answers this week.
On Thursday, the Alphabet Inc. unit shared more details on how the Duplex robot-calling feature will operate when it’s released publicly, according to people familiar with the discussion. Duplex is an extension of the company’s voice-based digital assistant that automatically phones local businesses and speaks with workers there to book appointments.
At Google’s weekly TGIF staff meeting on Thursday, executives gave employees their first full Duplex demo and told them the bot would identify itself as the Google assistant. It will also inform people on the phone that the line is being recorded in certain jurisdictions, the people said. They asked not to be identified discussing private matters. A Google spokesman declined to comment.
This is a good step, and while the technology is awesome, I’m still quite reluctant about whether or not we really need this. Aside from the very legitimate use cases for people with disabilities, to whom this technology could be life-changing, I’m wondering just what regular users get out of it.
> I’m wondering just what regular users get out of it.
I’m gonna have my Duplex engage in long conversations with scam callers.
Great idea.
And if you and Google can get that use-case to really take off and work well, it will largely render the EU GDPR rendundant too… 😉
Edited 2018-05-19 10:11 UTC
Would be nice if I need to call my ISP (or some other big company) for tech support, I could have this thing sit on hold for me for 45 minutes, then ring my phone when a human picks up.
WorknMan,
So…it would seem that automated telephone agents are the solution to automated telephone agents?
I’m converting to Luddite. Anyone with me?
Bah, who am I kidding, it’s futile, sign me up for the automated telephone bots. My barber is a robot anyways
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMREA_XLQ1A
I am going to get Duplex to work my phone. I don’t care about booking hair appointments (not much hair left) but I hate navigating apps to deliver content when I should just be able to ask.
Modern technology has made telephones worse.
Many businesses replace employees with self service options on phone systems that duplicate the functionality of a web site while making the experience even worse. Bah! I wouldn’t be calling if I didn’t specifically need to speak to a human employee!
I know that google is touting this as a perk “You don’t have to speak to a human today, yay!”. But it’s inevitably going to up the bar for nuisance calls and answering systems that just get in the way.