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Google Duplex: An AI System for Accomplishing Real World Tasks Over the Phone

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Re: Google Duplex: An AI System for Accomplishing Real World Tasks Over the Phone

#331

Post by dual_basis »

How is it that the current implementation of Google Assistant can't even add stuff to my calendar in a natural way? I just tried the following: "OK Google, add an event to my work calendar for a meeting at Starbucks tomorrow morning at 11:30".

What was expected: Title: "Meeting" Calendar: "Work" Location: "Starbucks" Date: Tomorrow Time: 11:30am

(Bonus points for associating an actual location, but possible ambiguity gives this a pass.)

What happened: Title: "My work calendar for a meeting" Calendar: Default Location: None Date: Tomorrow Time: 11:30am

Re: Google Duplex: An AI System for Accomplishing Real World Tasks Over the Phone

#332

Post by elicash »

Mizza wrote: post #228

Besides creeping dystopia of it, I find this aesthetically disgusting most of all. If you listen to the sample call, the computer voice sounds incredibly _rude_, at least to my ears, especially at the end of the call. I would never speak to a service employee that way. I try to always say a clear and proper please and thank you, and would never ever want a robot to subject somebody to an"uhhhhh, thanks " on my behalf…

I've worked in customer service. This is what I would consider an average call.

Re: Google Duplex: An AI System for Accomplishing Real World Tasks Over the Phone

#333

Post by csomar »

punnerud wrote: post #148
cromwellian wrote: post #128

The people losing their marbles over this being some kind of Turing Test passing distopian stuff are missing the point at how limited this domain is. People who answer phones to take bookings perform an extremely limited set of questions and responses, that’s why they can even be replaced by dumb voice response systems in many cases. In these cases, the human being answering the phone is themselves acting like a bot…

To save CPU/GPU/TPU there should be a high-frequency sound, as in people can’t hear, so the computers talking to each other and switch to a faster way to communicate. If this is included you also have way to detect if you are talking to a bot/duplex.

maybe just cut the chase and do an API for reservation?

Re: Google Duplex: An AI System for Accomplishing Real World Tasks Over the Phone

#335

Post by redavni »

freyir wrote: post #310
cromwellian wrote: post #128

The people losing their marbles over this being some kind of Turing Test passing distopian stuff are missing the point at how limited this domain is. People who answer phones to take bookings perform an extremely limited set of questions and responses, that’s why they can even be replaced by dumb voice response systems in many cases. In these cases, the human being answering the phone is themselves acting like a bot…

> The end game would be for the business to run something like duplex on the other side, and you’d have duplex talking to duplex. And looking even further into the future, we can imagine a day when the computers forgo natural speech and use a better-suited form of communication. Some kind of sequence of ones and zeros transmitted directly across the wire.

The person who invents a way to change the little green phone icon with a little human icon for when they want to talk to a human will be a zillionaire.

But that is the far future. Realistically, I just don't see this as feasible any time soon.

Re: Google Duplex: An AI System for Accomplishing Real World Tasks Over the Phone

#336

Post by sixdimensional »

Does anybody know if the tech powering this has anything to do with Google's quantum computing efforts (D-Wave, Bristlecone, etc.)? I feel like it does, especially the natural speech generation.

Reason I'm asking is, I am interested in understanding what the intersection of/link between AI/machine learning and quantum computing is, if there is one.

Re: Google Duplex: An AI System for Accomplishing Real World Tasks Over the Phone

#337

Post by saagarjha »

Mizza wrote: post #228

Besides creeping dystopia of it, I find this aesthetically disgusting most of all. If you listen to the sample call, the computer voice sounds incredibly _rude_, at least to my ears, especially at the end of the call. I would never speak to a service employee that way. I try to always say a clear and proper please and thank you, and would never ever want a robot to subject somebody to an"uhhhhh, thanks " on my behalf…

That's how most people I know would make a reservation…

Re: Google Duplex: An AI System for Accomplishing Real World Tasks Over the Phone

#338

Post by ecwilson »

tomaskafka wrote: post #306
StavrosK wrote: post #288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was a (bad) book written about this, basically how Gmail's AI took over the world by sending email on behalf of people.

Yes, this one https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13184491-avogadro-corp

Oh god that sounds awful. One of the reviews has all the spoilers. It's truly stupid.

Re: Google Duplex: An AI System for Accomplishing Real World Tasks Over the Phone

#340

Post by csomar »

sgslo wrote: post #110

This is one end-game of AI - changing the economics of scams. Imagine how a 'long con' works today: a scammer befriends a person online through a video game or social platform, and develops a rapport with them over the span of days, weeks, months. After some trust has been gained, the scammer then requests money from the victim. Does this happen a lot today? I don't know, but certainly one reason it doesn't is the ec…

Duplex problem is not specific tasks but limited domain. If you are engaging with a person, you are going to err on multiple domains randomly. Especially if you are building a rapport over a long period of time.

If an AI can do that, then singularity is definitively reached.

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