Google Duplex places human-sounding phone calls on stage
In its Google I/O keynote, Google demonstrated Google Duplex, a system that phones businesses to make appointments. Two recordings were played — one booking a haircut at a salon, another asking a restaurant for a table and being told it did not take reservations for fewer than five people — with the synthetic voice reproducing the "um," "uh," and "mmm hmm" of human speech. The room was impressed; criticism followed within days. Nothing in the recordings suggested the staff knew they were talking to an AI, and the design of letting a machine pass as a person without telling the other party was itself the objection. The demo's authenticity was also questioned, with reporting that the calls had been edited. Two days later Google conceded that Duplex would identify itself when it shipped. The episode planted the question of whether an AI may be mistaken for a human.