The fact that Google can also play foul is really hard to digest. However, some folks are brave enough to raise questions on the latest demonstration of AI-powered voice assistant by the search giant at Google I/O 2018. The demonstration was cool and left everyone in the state of awe, to be honest, I was scared a bit after seeing the capabilities of Artificial Intelligence. This latest AI-powered voice assistant is called Google Duplex, and its capable of calling at places on your behalf and book appointments or reserve tables for your dinner. You can see the demonstration of Google Duplex in the below video. However, Axios has raised some valid questions and opined that Google staged the demonstration of Google Duplex. Which means the demonstration was well planned and fake.
Google Duplex Video Demonstration
Axios hasn’t made an empty claim, they have a couple of very interesting questions, which they raised, to back their claim.
- When the hair salon picks up, a woman says: “Hello, how can I help you?”
- When the restaurant picks up, a woman says: “Hi, may I help you?”
According to them, they have called dozens of hair salons and restaurants and none of them initiated the conversation with “Hello, how can I help you?” or “Hi, may I help you?”. Every one immediately gave their business name. Also, the background noises were missing from the calls. It’s quite not possible to have little to no sound in the background when you call a hair salon or restaurant. The folks at Axios, claims that they have heard sounds such as hair dryers and plates clattering in most of the businesses we called, but not in all.
Finally, neither the hair salon nor the restaurant asks for the customer’s phone number or any other contact information.
According to Axios, they have tried to reach Google officials in this regards but they haven’t replied to them yet. It’s quite possible that Google has actually made an AI-powered Assistant which is capable of making appointments on your behalf. But still, the above questions need to be answered.
