Google Duplex: AI assistant makes a restaurant reservation

VentureBeat tested Duplex in Google Assistant to make a restaurant reservation at Cafe Prague in San Francisco. Update on November 26: Google says the majority of Duplex calls via Google Assistant are automated, meaning a bot is speaking. The call we recorded, however, was part of the manual baseline, meaning a human was speaking the whole time.
venturebeat.com/2018/11/21/go...

[@almed23]

This is creepily awesome

[@DFMurray]

Assistant are automated, meaning a bot is speaking. The call we recorded, however, was part of the manual baseline, meaning a human was speaking the whole time.

[@fredfrancium]

If you do not go to resturant Google will go and eat it

[@ykingbrawlstars]

@@fredfrancium lol

[@achandab]

Lol I love how Google said they would let people know it's a robot so the critics would shut up yet they made it so subtle at the beginning. Take that haters. And amazing how the robot thanked her at the end, amazingly realistic

[@jeremymcadam7400]

read the description, this was a person lol

[@AaronHerbst]

Did Google pick that voice because of her accent?

[@Omar3722]

it's a random voice, it could be a guy or girl

[@Adrianlovesmusic]

no its the guy who set it up. Venture has the article.

[@mateuszparus]

@@hoffer_moment so its not speech synthesizer?

[@henriquefern67]

@@Adrianlovesmusic its the guy who set it up? I am note sure what u r talking about

[@nclsDesign]

@@henriquefern67 The call was not made by Google Duplex. It was an actual person. That's also why he said "I'm calling from Google" in the beginning while Google Duplex says "I'm Google's automated booking service."

[@jeromeneareo4730]

"The call we recorded, however, was part of the manual baseline, meaning a human was speaking the whole time." So it means that humans can make restaurant reservations, right? That's amazing!

[@patricknelson]

I love the abstraction, lol. Tell a robot to tell another human to talk to another human on your behalf! Automation is awesome...

[@BecauseBinge]

Google said that at the beginning they will have people stepping in and doing the reservation if AI fails, could it be it here? Seems too impressive 🙈

[@JulioLagara]

Absolutely incredible. The disclaimer St the start is really smooth as well. An absolute game changer!!

[@TosinCKE]

This is a game changer!!!!! Much needed on telephone sales

[@josenunez1991]

"The call we recorded, however, was part of the manual baseline, meaning a human was speaking the whole time." Reading is simple - take a second to read the description...

[@MikeKleinsteuber]

When are Google going to give us 'Her' earpieces ?

[@MaxLohMusic]

I don't know if you've been following this technology but it's actually a whole buttload of painstakingly human-engineered stuff, so not a good bellweather of the future of AI. Verge just did an article about the most up-to-date prediction by experts; 50% chance of real AGI in like 100 years so probably 100 years, unless you're a kurzweil fanboy like me in which case it might be 2029 XD

[@CarpenterBrother]

OpenAI did what Google was too soy to do

[@varun009]

In a year its gonna be twice as good and twice as good as that in another!! I can't wait.

[@alphacore4332]

"Google Duplex: AI assistant makes a restaurant reservation" + "The call we recorded, however, was part of the manual baseline, meaning a human was speaking the whole time." ...

[@achandab]

Thanks for uploading this mate. You seem more technical then the other guy who uploaded a video of the conversation with Google Assistant. Can you upload a video with the actual convo with GA and how you made the request. Can you just request it in one sentence?

[@OpenTangent]

The voice on the other end is a human being, not an AI. This fact is buried in the video description and should be made more apparent as people are incorrectly assuming that the woman is talking to a robot.

[@martiddy]

Nope, it is a computer generated voice, which mean that the voice wasn't recorded with answers per default. Check Google Duplex demo to see how it works..

[@OpenTangent]

@@martiddy Nope it's a human. The goal is to eventually have all assistant calls made by an AI. This one however was flesh and bone, grown from a foetus, human being with life experience, language education and all those traditional means of learning how to communicate.

[@mg4568]

@@OpenTangent What

[@gothix114]

Read the video description mate like he said, it's a human not a robot.

[@manuelsanchez365]

shhh.... xD

[@TosinCKE]

I’m all for the evolution

[@protectaa]

its gonna be bots talking against each other LOL

[@ifeelverydead9180]

It's that humanoid

[@FlipperWolf]

Ok this is quite mind blowing, like, how is it a robot voice? Holy shit that's seemles.. and scary

[@persianguy1524]

Holy shit imagine if they attatched this sort of A.i and speech to robots

[@Pluvillion]

I'm honestly getting Detroit: Become Human vibes with this.

[@jinniu]

No one read the description.

[@raulesteves5264]

Why wasnt this at my top feed. I had to look for this manually

[@fredfrancium]

If you will not go to restaurant Google will go and eat it

[@malcolmh5736]

It's not creepy to me at all.. I love it

[@srt4b]

There is still a pause after she replies. Also there were no issues with the call, for example: no I need your last name, would you like a booth/table/window/ etc, do you have any dietary requirements?, etc. Feels like this type of action would better done via open table. How about some real calls we don't want to make like canceling Cable or calling the bank?

[@davidkee2363]

That's the ideia for future. They are starting with basics first to improve the system

[@giorgimancini7642]

that accent is awesome

[@jsidjsoidjodjwiojio1490]

I'm still going to die for a robot.

[@wifinesesi]

Freakily fucking amazing

[@QuarkTwain]

The noisy environment shows how good the voice recognition will need to be. Speaking of which, I wonder if youtube Content ID picked up Otis Redding in the background. It would be hilarious if google copyright detection took down this google tech demo.

[@Ethan-lx5fe]

I don't think this is the Duplex Ai. Notice in the intro he says "I'm calling from Google and so the call may be recorded". This doesn't match the information that Google has previously provided/shown about Duplex. A recent Google commercial shows Duplex beginning the call like this "Hi! I'm the Google assistant calling to make a reservation for a client. This automated call will be recorded". Google have previously mentioned that Google employees will occasionally step in to make some reservations during the testing phase and I think this may be one of those occasions.

[@SubjectMRF37]

read description. Your suspicions are correct.

[@BestMan4]

That was absolutely stunning. This must go viral.

[@maherhamdan5316]

Is this a joke? The description says it's a human on the phone? What's the point then

[@takeru51]

He forgot to add the mmhm...

[@LuMnOsITi]

Wow a human speaking to a human, technology these days, what will they think of next. I'm going to coin the term "phone call", yes that's what we'll call this, catchy

[@legolas66106]

@Gackt Sama Pro tip: read the description. The reason this sounded so super human like was because it was an actual human calling. The demonstration you linked is indeed a nice cherry picked example from Google, but I really want to hear a normal situation instead of a best case situation.

[@spunj]

Anyone know why the accent on the Duplex sounds Irish (Dublin or Kildare maybe)

[@JJs_playground]

Is this the really Google duplex or was that a person on the other end?

[@gayfrog68]

No, this is Google Duplex.

[@dylanlong6269]

venturebeat.com/2018/11/21/googles-duplex-is-rolling-out-to-pixel-owners-heres-how-it-works/ I can confirm it's a thing because somehow I'm in that list of Pixel owners that have it. Unfortunately I don't live in one of the select cities where it works but it's still cool!

[@Harderanger]

So apparently this was probably more likely to be a human: apple.news/A4gFusKhDSvmHJRJep5fe1A

[@themandel2017]

That's pretty cool.

[@AliceNLi]

The lady sounds like Marzia.

[@abzalomkyeuwkyeuw]

Ow my god 😮

[@accessdenied3350]

😳😳

[@davidt.4032]

Is there anywhere a video with the real AI talking?

[@ahmidahmid9303]

easly can spot its a bot directly into point after short greeting with a very long descreption like talk not human like to avoid any chalenges by the call recever i dont think its ie that thing is using sound database its human prerecorded and a stt engines the easiest thing to detect these bots is to use sarcasm it can't detect it

[@AntzOutside]

That was quite obviously an actual persons voice on the other end

[@prakhar9473]

Welcome to the future mate

[@AntzOutside]

@@prakhar9473 I'm pretty sure I can record my own voice and add it to an automated que of programmed responses which are activated by recognized speech phrases and patterns. That's not exactly futuristic... But I'm still pretty sure that was a person, LoL Additionally: responding "Ehm the first name is Ana" is not even an accurate AI response, nor is a hesitation filler (umm, ehm, uhh, errr...) preceding the statement customary for AI behavior.

[@prakhar9473]

@@AntzOutside, google added those (umm, ehm, uhh, errr...) specially to sound like an actual human, go watch the video of google io google duplex was launched

[@prakhar9473]

but yes it can be faked easily in a video like this

[@flashxm1]

Looks like someone got fooled already 😏

[@selw0nk]

The phone looks like an iPhone.

[@LuMnOsITi]

That's just because the screen is cracked

[@seanppage]

It is an iPhone

[@landonbarnett4865]

Why does it have a Northern Irish accent? Ahah

[@user-zk2iz9by7u]

Ewww that's gross