Microsoft demos its Xiaoice assistant talking to humans on the phone

Google isn't the only company with an artificially intelligent assistant that can place calls. At an AI event in London today, Microsoft showed Xiaoice, the company's social chat bot for Chinese markets, holding a full duplex (two-way) phone conversation with a human on the other end of the line. Xiaoice, unlike Google Duplex, can't make a restaurant reservation or schedule a haircut appointment. But it can converse with someone much in the same way as Google Duplex by predicting what the person will say, and then responding quickly. And, like a human, it can interject to bring attention to important events.