Human-sounding Google Assistant using Duplex tech sparks racial and ethnic debate

SAN FRANCISCO: The new Google digital assistant converses so naturally it may seem like a real person. The unveiling of the natural-sounding robo-assistant by the tech giant this week wowed some observers, but left others fretting over the ethics of how the human-seeming software might be used. Google chief Sundar Pichai played a recording of the Google Assistant independently calling a hair salon and a restaurant to make bookings -- interacting with staff who evidently didn't realise they were dealing with artificial intelligence software, rather than a real customer. Tell the Google Assistant to book a table for four at 6 pm, it tends to the phone call in a human-sounding voice complete with "speech disfluencies" such as "ums" and "uhs." "This is what people often do when they are gathering their thoughts," Google engineers Yaniv Leviathan and Yossi Matias said in a Duplex blog post. Google Assistant artificial intelligence enhanced with "Duplex" technology that let it engage like a real person on the phone was a surprise and, for some unsettling, star of the internet giant's annual developers conference this week in its home town of Mountain View, California.