While “um” and “ah” sounds coming from an aural AI might freak you out, Huffman said those programmed verbal tics are meant to move conversations along smoothly. Apparently, things improved a lot as the AI was made to sound more like a person. “People didn’t deal well with how unnatural it sounded,” he said. Lots of people would hang up the phone, and reservations weren’t completed, he said. Scott Huffman, vice president of engineering for Google Assistant, played our assembled group a recording of an early version of Duplex-a stilted, British-accented male voice that was unmistakably computerized-and said that this kind of non-human-sounding voice didn’t work with businesses. I was impressed by the humanness of its voice it did sound like a person (though during one sample call I heard it sounded distinctly computerized when speaking a phone number). When I said I couldn’t take a reservation for five people on Sunday until 8 p.m., rather than the requested time of 6, it was still willing to make the reservation. It didn’t get fazed when I asked it to hold, and it didn’t get tripped up when I stumbled over my own words. Overall, Duplex did what it was supposed to. Would it loop in a human operator? (Google says this still happens in one out of five Duplex test calls, though it wouldn't say much else about these helpers.) Would it simply hang up if I confused it too much? (This didn’t happen to me, but it did to another reporter, who told the AI that the kitchen at the fictitious restaurant would be closed after a certain time and only the bar menu would be available.) “I wouldn’t say we necessarily changed anything based on the feedback,” he said. He said the company gave the original demo without that notification because at the time it was trying to display the technology rather than a complete product.ĭuring my call, I tried to give the voice on the other end a hard time-pretending I couldn’t hear details like the date on which the AI wanted a table-just to see what would happen. * Check the Google I/O keynote from 18m00s for the demo and Pichai's commentary.Nick Fox, vice president of product and design for Google Assistant, said Google knew back in May that it needed to disclose that the calls were coming from AI, and that this need was “validated” after the unveiling at the developer conference. It hopes to share more developments on Duplex For The Web, as the project is now called, later this year, Pichai says. Google says the 'early preview' of the technology this week will be followed by feedback sessions from users and businesses about how the experience works. 'This required no action on behalf of the business to implement.' 'This was not a custom integration,' he adds. Speaking at the search giant's annual I/O event in the U.S., Google CEO Sundar Pichai says: 'It's amazing to see the Assistant complete a task online, on your behalf, in a personalized way. Initially, Google is focusing on rental car bookings and tickets for movies. The development is part of an expansion of the existing Duplex project launched last year, where bookings for a restaurant reservation could be made over the phone, using a human-sounding voice, on behalf of the user. When a particular, previously unknown element comes up during the booking flow, the user is asked to make their selection.Īt the end of the process, a user confirms the details and gets a booking reference email. It will work through the booking process on the car rental supplier's website, populating the fields with the user's personal information and preferences (likes a small hatchback, rather than a large saloon, etc). The technology then takes over, knowing that the user is traveling on a certain date and location (because of Google Calendar) and at what time (because of an air ticket confirmation email). I accept the Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.

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