Google recently launched a new software function called Call Screen, which allows your assistant to transcribe phone calls for you, so you can decide whether you want to take or drop the call. Google’s Call Screen is part of a larger program at Google called Google Duplex; An AI system that can accomplish real-world tasks over the phone. The system is still in development but can call companies for you and schedule appointments at for example a hairdresser or a restaurant. Some of the examples of the phone conversations have been recorded and posted on Google’s blog about Duplex: https://bit.ly/2rznYXJ.
If you listen to the conversations, you can hear how natural the voices sound and how smooth the conversation is going. You can even hear some uhm’s and eh’s from Google’s Duplex side to make the conversation seem more natural. The employees of the hair salon and restaurant don’t even notice that they are not talking to a real person, but to a personal assistant instead.
However, such a system also raises some ethical questions. Some experts suggest that Google should use less realistic voices or indicate at the start of the conversation that it is the system that is calling and not the owner of the phone in order to avoid confusion. I personally don’t think that this is necessary, but I can definitely see where the authors are coming from. I could personally not hear the difference between a real person and Google Duplex in the recorded conversation. This might be a serious problem in the future, because you never know if you are talking to a real person or not.
I am therefore wondering what you think about Google Duplex. Try it yourself by listening to the recorded conversations in the link, can you hear the difference? And do you think that Google should disclose that it is Google Duplex calling instead of the user?
References:
https://ai.googleblog.com/2018/05/duplex-ai-system-for-natural-conversation.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USXoINPEhoA
https://techcrunch.com/2018/05/10/duplex-shows-google-failing-at-ethical-and-creative-ai-design/
