Today, the AI has evolved beyond setting timers, shopping, or playing music. With Google Duplex the tech giant has, apparently, captured the essence of real AI. Google’s AI smarts have outsmarted all other players in the realm, exhibiting jaw-dropping capabilities. In the ongoing Google I/O 2018 developer conference, the company unveiled its major AI developments, but the “Google Duplex” demo stole the show. The new “Duplex” tool has mind-boggling capabilities and can probably be AI’s future. But, more importantly, this may also transform the future of mobile communication.
On a phone, one can usually tell right away if he is talking to a bot or a human being because a robot’s voice is unnaturally efficient and rarely stumbles. But the Google’s AI can call you and you wouldn’t even realize that you are talking to a bot or a human. As per its demo, Google’s Duplex can make Google Assistant the most lifelike AI yet.
Personal voice assistants are clearly disrupting the technology ecosystem and Google Duplex can change the paradigm of mobile communication. Smartphone users have been increasingly getting fond of digital assistants accomplishing one to many tasks such as – controlling smart home devices, playing music/videos, shopping and various stuff where one can bypass the app road. A whole lot of Mobile interactions – like process calls, booking reservations, getting an appointment, etc. – sometimes may not really be of utmost importance, but can be hectic and unavoidable.
Google Duplex has got the fix! Just one instruction to the Google Assistant and the job is done – your table is booked, appointment fixed, and your digital helper can’t even cringe.
The Duplex might as well break the stereotype of being technically sound enough to use the technology – you should just know the language. Duplex enables Google’s machine intelligence-powered digital assistant to conduct a natural conversation with a person over the phone. It even deployed a super casual “mmhmmm” during its demo. Google says that the Duplex is able to understand “complex sentences, fast speech, and long remarks“. Google will also introduce six naturally sounding voices to the Assistant – including American singer-songwriter John Legend’s – for a more human touch to the AI. It partially implies that Duplex could personify the Assistant as Samantha, the OS from the Hollywood flick “Her”.
This could possibly be the next big wave of naturally sounding and fully autonomous AI-led conversations. The Google’s Assistant has already outperformed Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri and Microsoft’s Cortana in intelligence on its Home smart speakers. Siri and Cortana don’t even come close leaving only Amazon Alexa as the chief rival. But, after the latest demo of Google Duplex by none other than Sundar Pichai himself, looks like Jeff Bezos has to step-up Alexa remarkably to compete with the Duplex.
Alexa was introduced with Amazon Echo speakers, and though it still does reflect impeccable AI smarts, Amazon lacks a non-voice controlling hardware, much like a smartphone. On the other hand, Google already embedded the Google Assistant in Android smartphones, and now with Duplex’s abilities, it might become a game changer. Even if we exclude the competition, Google Duplex has a long way to go considering it still remains an experiment for now, though we will see some Google Assistant updates in other areas soon. The internet giant can possibly achieve its AI ambitions if it expands the Duplex technology to Google Home and other consumer-facing products.
We could always use a friendly digital assistant whose voice doesn’t seem automated. The Duplex technology can apparently help us to make the most efficient ways of communicating with our smartphones. For most parts, it will make us avoid the excessive use of smartphones for good.
We wouldn’t have to deliver instructions to our smartphone apps through our fingers or let alone even touch the screen in some cases, just a verbal command and you are good to go. The opportunities and use cases are endless. This could be projected as the next generation of mobile communication. Call it Mobile Communication 2.0!
