Google's Duplex AI System Gets Kudos for Accuracy, is Bashed Over Ethics

Google’s announcement from its I/O event Tuesday that it's making the Assistant voice control engine more “naturally conversational” took an ethics beating before the Duplex voice system reached users. The company said its Google Duplex is able to understand “complex sentences, fast speech, and long remarks, so it can respond naturally in a phone conversation.” The artificial intelligence technology is expected to begin tests this summer, Google said. By Thursday, after the ethics backlash, Google said calls would include a disclosure that the calling bot is not a person, putting a bit of a leash on the nascent voice-spoof technology, reports said. Demonstrations were so convincing, showing bots making haircut and dinner appointments with real people over the phone, that many responded to the eerily convincing technology with unease. For a population already inundated with unwanted calls from bots promoting politicians, timeshares and financial scams, the idea of being on the other end of the line with a robot was off-putting to many. “During its pre-recorded demonstration of Duplex, Google didn’t say if the experimental service, powered by Google’s WaveNet natural speech generator, would identify itself as a robot when it makes your phone calls,” wrote Gizmodo editor Patrick Lucas Austin. Bridget Carey, senior editor-CNET, said in a video, “There’s nothing to indicate that you’re talking to something that’s not alive, and that’s a problem." On ethics, Carey asked whether consumers have the right to know whether they’re talking to a robot and lamented the current “age of disinformation,” where people can’t tell the difference between fake and real news and where photos are manipulated to play on emotions. “Google is showing us how easy it is for dialog to be spoofed,” and that could lead to even more scams down the road, she said. Duplex had its share of admirers, too. Said Twitter user Sarang Brahme following Duplex's introduction: “Listen to these real-time Google AI conversations with real people, Mind blowing! ... Future is here?”