<Booking haircut audio>
The person making the haircut appointment for her boss? She’s not a person.
There’s a trend rapidly developing in AI—have it do the things we don’t want to do. Self-driving cars get a lot of attention in this arena. But Google recently demonstrated AI for more mundane tasks. Their system is called Google Duplex—it’s a voice assistant designed to mimic the ways humans speak to one another.
<More haircut-appointment audio>
Amazon, Apple and other tech companies also make voice assistants, of course. What’s new with Duplex is that it can carry on a conversation seemingly as a human being—that is, somewhat awkwardly. And that’s the point of course—Google doesn’t want Duplex to sound like a machine. In the hair salon example, the woman who answers the phone throws Duplex a curveball:
<More haircut appointment audio>
There is a point in the exchange where Duplex shows its true colors, though. Listen carefully and you’ll hear a distinct difference between the AI’s pronunciation of “10 A.M.” and “12 P.M.”
<Clip is played>
For just an instant, Duplex’s mismatched tones remind you of being on hold with your bank. <“Your wait time is…10 minutes”>
A second Duplex clip is a bit more impressive, because the person answering the phone doesn’t seem to be fully paying attention. Duplex tells the woman three times that he wants to come by on Wednesday.
<Restaurant-reservation audio>
Duplex has a ways to go before it’ll be ready to handle open-ended conversations on random topics. But one day you may be freed from all kinds of unpleasant vocal interactions. Leaving more time for unpleasant social media interactions.
—Larry Greenemeier
