The use case for Duplex could be tremendous for people like me (deaf etc) depending on the implementation/rollout. Too many times I’m unable to interact with remote banks because they refuse to accept my calls through relay services. Right now I’m completely locked out of USAA despite the fact I’ve been a customer of them since the 70s. It’s forced me to have accounts with local banks in case I have to appear in person.
I don’t know if this tech will help me in the future but am looking forward to the possibilities.
People have been saying the art of letter writing has been declining for a century for a century.[1] > A hundred years ago it took so long and cost so much to send a letter that it seemed worth while to put some time and thought into writing it. -- Percy Holmes Boynton, in 1915, 103 years ago The pace of modern life has been accelerating since before some of our grandparents were born. [1]: https://www.xkcd.com/1227/
This does hint at the root of the matter: letter writing is a format dictated by the constraints of communication. These constraints changed between 1815 and 1915, and are all but gone today - so the format of the communication changes accordingly. The letters of yore we revere today were written by intellectuals and are fascinating, but that wasn't what all letters were like. The letters written by regular people we…
This same concept, by the way, is why we always say that music from $previous generation is better than music from $current generation. We have access to all of the bad music from today, but the only music we remember from the good old days is the good stuff, this is doubly true if we weren't alive back then. We only have the music that survived because it was good (popular and lasting).
I have a friend who was participating often in psychology experiments at Stanford, and he became familiar with the whole procedure of letting the subjects believe that they were interacting with another person via a computer, when in fact they were interacting with a program (makes everything more standard and easier to analyse). One day he participated in this "split or share" kind of experiment, and he was ruthless…
There's the reverse where, what if AIs do develop feelings like that? Why shouldn't they be treated with the courtesy we treat other humans? Just thought of these: - Would this kind of personal assisstant be useful for people on the autism spectrum, to help navigate the kind of implied and unspoken narratives that people with autism seem to have difficulty with? - Would there be a call to train Duplex to speak in a w…
> Why shouldn't they be treated with the courtesy we treat other humans?
Because courtesy requires some amount of empathy and mental effort on top of what's required just to communicate your point. That effort is wasted on a machine.
Sure sure. The question is how large a market people like you actually make up, since companies like Google usually want to make products that can reach as many people as possible.
I doubt it's unusual. My father used to solve this problem by making my mother make all the calls, but that is a harder sell these days.
You can easily opt-out of the auto-complete feature and if it being your own words with your own personality is important to you, then you likely will actually type them rather than autocomplete to the close-enough response Google suggested. Seems like plenty of people are happy with this trade-off, and that's who the feature is for.
The problem is it affects two way communication. You might be okay with the trade off, I am not. But you may subject me to it. While a few niche businesses will make news stating they'll reject robo call based appointment scheduling because they care about their actual human employees, most will just accept it. The employees won't have a choice and will just be subjected to this. Same for email. I want to hear from p…
What are they being "subjected" to? Presumably the conversation will go similarly to how it would with a person? We aren't talking about spam calls, just a difference of who does the talking. This will increase business for places where people wouldn't want to go through the effort of calling themselves.
For email how will you know if I auto-completed my sentence or typed it? You are free to not use the feature, and as someone talking to you I am able to use it to save time writing an email if I find the suggestions in line with what I wanted to say.
It's bizarre to me that this is the red line for everybody.
It is a red line, not the red line. For a while I've felt like the solution was that I needed to be detached from Google products and services (along with similar data-driven companies), and that was good enough. I feel like we're rapidly approaching the territory where I need to make sure nobody I talk to is attached to Google products and services. I feel like this is line we're crossing now, where Google has inser…
What makes it so different from canned text messages?
The art of letter writing has been declining for a century. Most people don't even use email for most daily communication, but instant messaging. And it seems a lot of instant messaging boils down to pictures, emoji, memes, and short responses ("I'll be there at XXX") The ship has really already sailed on longform communication, perhaps out of laziness or cost/benefit. Part of what we're seeing with the automation go…
I’ve previously posted (to surprisingly supportive reception) about my Dad’s collection of letters from 1956-1966 while traveling some 4 million miles around the world in the navy and State Department. Some might find it interesting: https://www.amazon.com/Dear-Mom-Odyssey-World-Travel-ebook/d... Separately, my grandfather (on my Mom’s side) was likely one of those “elites” having been a named partner of an AM100 law…
I've had autocomplete seem to deliberately try to break me up with my girlfriend. I don't have time to dig up the most egregious of those. Here's one that happened just yesterday with my wife: Wife: Thank you. Love you too. Me: Are you going to be honest nary? Me: Hungry Me: Darn spell check! My wife, having grown up in China, still didn't understand and I had some 'splainin to do when I got home. It's absolutely ter…
Remember this story? A Cellphone's Missing Dot Kills Two People, Puts Three More in Jail https://gizmodo.com/382026/a-cellphones-missing-dot-kills-tw...
That title is atrocious, though. The cellphone didn't kill anyone, this is basically an "honor killing".
The art of letter writing has been declining for a century. Most people don't even use email for most daily communication, but instant messaging. And it seems a lot of instant messaging boils down to pictures, emoji, memes, and short responses ("I'll be there at XXX") The ship has really already sailed on longform communication, perhaps out of laziness or cost/benefit. Part of what we're seeing with the automation go…
I’ve previously posted (to surprisingly supportive reception) about my Dad’s collection of letters from 1956-1966 while traveling some 4 million miles around the world in the navy and State Department. Some might find it interesting: https://www.amazon.com/Dear-Mom-Odyssey-World-Travel-ebook/d... Separately, my grandfather (on my Mom’s side) was likely one of those “elites” having been a named partner of an AM100 law…
Having read the description on the Amazon page, this sounds precisely like the type of candid material i seek in general. Is there any non-kindle format available for purchase?
I like to be clear on whether I'm interacting with a human or a bot because different social conventions apply. If you're human, I'll treat you like one, and that means giving you some consideration at the expense of expediency. If you're a bot, let's just cut to the fucking chase. So a bot that acts like a human (with hems and haws) is just wasting my time. Ditto a human being that has been reduced to a bot by follo…
I have a friend who was participating often in psychology experiments at Stanford, and he became familiar with the whole procedure of letting the subjects believe that they were interacting with another person via a computer, when in fact they were interacting with a program (makes everything more standard and easier to analyse). One day he participated in this "split or share" kind of experiment, and he was ruthless…
It's going to be quite the adventure for anyone who happens to sound like the automated voices.