According to the reports coming from our sources, Google Assistant is going to let the receiver know of its identity by the time it begins to make calls in place of actual users later in the year. The reason is because Assistant will be making use of a Duplex AI tech that sounds just like an actual human. Our sources also reported that the Assistant will also inform the person on the other end of the call that the dialogue is being recorded “in certain jurisdictions.” The company had a meeting on Thursday and decided that this was the step to take as many states would require permission from both Assistant and the individual at the other end of the phone for recording of calls to be allowed.
The pandemonium which came after the I/O presentation of Duplex by Google brought about mixed feelings of some sort ranging from surprise that the company could mimic a human voice to worry that it tends to violate certain ethics. In this wise, Google has tried to some extent calm the uneasiness that was spurred because of Duplex. By this summer, Duplex will be released and clients can make it call businesses for any reason they wish.
While on the stage, Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai stated that Duplex will be able to record calls so users can go through the conversation at a later time to determine its performance. However, what he didn’t say was if the person on the other end of the call would be informed of the conversation being recorded. Some days afer the I/O, Google laid emphasis on transparency saying, “transparency in the technology is important,” it also said, “we’ll make sure the system is appropriately identified.” As of this time, we have no idea what Assistant would sound like, best guess is that it will be friendly.
Over the past week, there have been suspicions regarding the Duplex presentation. Some do not seem to accept the originality of the matter especially of the fact that the calls being made – both on stage at the I/O and at Google’s blog – were genuine conversations with genuine businesses. Twitter appears to have succeeded in locating a restaurant that was called by Google and when our sources reached out to the restaurant, an employee affirmed a call was received. Although, our sources claim some of the demo recordings were doctored to eliminate information that will enable the receivers to be identified.