Google Enlists Artists To Make Bots Feel Like Friends

Machines may be smart, but they make pretty dull companions. Google knows this, and as it builds out its recently announced Google Assistant personal assistant technology--which, like Apple's Siri and Amazon's Alexa, will answer questions and follow commands like "turn on the lights"--the company is eager to make artificial intelligence more personable. Ryan Germick, who heads the Google Doodle team in Mountain View, is now working on adding a human touch to Google Assistant, along with Emma Coats, a freelance artist best known for her stint as a story artist at Pixar and the author of a viral list of 22 rules of storytelling. In a session at the Moogfest music and technology festival in Durham, North Carolina, this weekend, Germick and Coats talked about the process of making A.I. feel friendlier. Google Assistant is a new take on the artificially intelligent "personal assistant" concept that will be built into Google products like the forthcoming Google Home speaker.