Google Duplex will call salons, restaurants, and pretend to be human for you
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/05/google-duplex-will-call-salons-restaurants-and-pretend-to-be-human-for-you/
Tuesday's I/O keynote included a segment on Google Assistant with a slew of newly announced features, but none was as startling as its rollout of Google Duplex: a voice-powered service that pretends to be human and calls businesses on your behalf.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai played back two phone conversations that he alleged were 100 percent legitimate, in which Google's AI-driven voice service called real-world businesses and scheduled appointments based on a user's data. In both cases, voices that sounded decidedly more human and realistic than the default female Google Assistant voice used seemingly natural speech patterns. Phrases like "um" and a decidedly West Coast question-like tilt could be heard as Google Duplex confirmed both a salon appointment and a dinner reservation. (The two calls were completed with different voices: one male, one female.)