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

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471–480 of 786 posts

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

#472
post #448

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Re businesses doing this today: I believe WeChat handles this very well in China.

It reminds me of the maybe apocryphal story how NASA invested time, money, and effort to develop a pen so astronauts could write in zero gravity, and the Soviets used pencils.

A great story, but you are correct about it being apocryphal: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/the-write-stuff/

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

#473
post #310

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

[deleted]

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

#474
post #396

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't need reservations that badly. But the difference between having to specify Mechanical Turk work and just talking to a Google appliance is pretty huge... We're talking hours vs. minutes of work.

But I am saying that it is unlikely Google will let you spam reservations. This idea that some kid will now be able to make 1000 reservations via Google is not probable.

I think it's highly probable that either the technology will be rebuilt in a way that makes abuse possible (Google being relatively open with their technology has this side effect), or that Google won't put in enough safeguards to force people to use it responsibly, but we will see. Maybe you need too many AI experts and too much data to build this technology for yourself, and maybe that only exists at Google.

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

#475
post #411

This is really horrifying to me. My heart goes out to the working-class retail people who are going to have to spend their days chatting with the AI assistants of upper middle class people too busy to call themselves. If the shop owner gets a duplex system to field the calls, then the two robots can subtly signal to the other they aren't actually human, and then start shrieking like a 9600 baud modem to finish the di…

I spent two hours on the phone today with customer support, one of the least enjoyable and least productive ways to spend an afternoon.

I try to automate tasks that don't use my strengths or bring me joy and this would be a huge win in that area.

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

#477
post #411

This is really horrifying to me. My heart goes out to the working-class retail people who are going to have to spend their days chatting with the AI assistants of upper middle class people too busy to call themselves. If the shop owner gets a duplex system to field the calls, then the two robots can subtly signal to the other they aren't actually human, and then start shrieking like a 9600 baud modem to finish the di…

Now I'm wondering what could be code-words to signal that they're AI and go into modem-mode... "Hi there, I'd like to schedule an appointment" "Are you suuuure?" SCCREEECH KSHHH ...

they could just encode the message in a way that’s inaudible to humans.

So a simple “hello” contains a subliminal audio signature that basically is code for “I am a robot. Are you a robot? Feel free to beep bop”

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

#478
post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The spam factor can go the other way too. Imagine the same type of program automating the spam / scam calls to the elderly.

Yeah, the phone lines getting that polluted is not a pleasant prospect. This conversation reminds me of "Lenny", a simple bot someone created to talk pointlessly in circles with telemarketers for hours until they hang up in frustration. https://www.reddit.com/r/itslenny/

Yes, I was thinking the same thing. This Duplex system would be like a super-Lenny. Eventually telemarketers will probably figure out, though, that if they reach someone who is calm and friendly and very receptive to their pitch, yet never quite gets to yes, it's probably an AI.

By the same token, telemarketing companies could employ Duplex to call people. I guess if a Duplex telemarketer reached a Duplex telemarketer-baiter, the conversation could stretch on for a really long time and might make for amusing fodder on Youtube.

It's a strange new world!

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

#479

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Lol, but if you think about it, what stops businesses from doing this today?" Systems like that are much more expensive than paying a receptionist?

That doesn't sound right. I think you'd pay something like $99 per month for a SaaS product that manages bookings and provides an API. That's how much the average receptionist earns in one day ($12.25 per hour.)

And $20,000 to get someone who knows how to install such a system to do the job.

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

#480

Never have we had a more clear example of why Google needs to be regulated, and laws against what they're doing needs to be passed. The fact that they think it's okay to have bots pretending to be human making phone calls, shortly after demonstrating how quickly they can copy someone's voice (re: John Legend), it shows a blatant disregard for what they're creating.

At the very least, there should be an requirement to identify when challenged. "Are you a bot?" "Yes, I am Google Duplex v1.2. This call is being recorded; you can see our privacy policy and terms of service at http://google.com/duplex."

There's no way I should be bound by terms of service that are secret unless I know the "code-phrase" with which to ask for it. Google's whole point was to deceive the user into thinking it isn't a bot -- so you wouldn't even know to ask it.

People will be forced to "discover" that they've been lied to, when the bot is caught in a loop and they're going through emotional distress thinking the "person" on the other end is having some sort of mental breakdown.

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