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/

I recently got a Google Home Mini from my friends who visited the U.S.A during their summer break. I have been using it a lot control multimedia in my room and I have really started to use it from pretty much everything. The only thing I am slightly worried about after a few comments is the privacy side of the device. So, let’s focus on the privacy of a Google Home Mini.

First off, it is true that the microphone of the device is always on, but it’s functioning offline until you say the magic words “OK Google” or “Hey Google”. So technically it is always listening to every conversation, but Google won’t record anything until you have activated the device. After it has detected that you want to communicate with the device, it will register everything that you say in an online cloud storage. Google will learn a lot about the music you like, the series you watch and your appointments if you sync the devices with Spotify, Netflix and your calendar for example. Google then disassociates your data from your identity but uses all the combined data for data analysis to sell ads to companies, which is actually their main form of income. If you are interested in checking what google recorded of you, you can actually check your last registered activities by following this link: https://myactivity.google.com/myactivity. You can even listen to your voice recordings, which might be a bit scary …

In general, I think we should be concerned about our privacy and data, but we also need to accept that we are using devices that constantly collect data from us and companies use that data to improve their products or target you with specific ads. There are functions to turn off personalized advertisements and other privacy settings to at least control your data to some extent, but we will always be subject to data collection and we should make use of the current possibilities to make our own lives just a little bit easier every time.

What do you think? Are you interested in getting a Google home device or Alexa or are you too concerned about your privacy?

Links used:

https://www.tomsguide.com/us/alexa-google-home-privacy,news-27038.html

https://tweakers.net/reviews/5275/9/google-home-versus-amazon-echo-strijd-tussen-slimme-speakers-privacy.html

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/11/20/what-does-google-know-about-me.html

https://privacy.google.com/take-control.html?categories_activeEl=sign-in

https://www.androidcentral.com/does-google-sell-your-data