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AI Google

Google Unveils Duplex for Web, Says the Feature Can Do a Range of Tasks Including Reserving Rental Cars and Booking Movie Tickets (venturebeat.com) 35

Posted by msmash from the pushing-the-limits dept.
Google Duplex, Google's AI chat agent that can arrange appointments over the phone, will soon expand to more places -- namely the web. From a report: Today at I/O 2019, Google announced Duplex on the web, which will handle things like rental car bookings and movie tickets. "We want to build a more helpful Google for everyone," said CEO Sundar Pichai onstage in Mountain View, California. "We're going to be thoughtful [about this]." When Duplex on the web debuts, you'll be able to issue Google Assistant a command like "Book me a car from Hertz." That command will navigate to the relevant web page and automatically fill in details like your name, payment information, car preferences, trip dates (using information from Gmail and Chrome autofill), and more. Throughout the process, you'll see a progress bar. And whenever Duplex needs more information, like a price or seat selection, it'll pause and prompt you to make a selection. Once you're finished, a tap of the confirmation button will beam a receipt to your inbox. It'll launch later this year on Android phones.
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Google Unveils Duplex for Web, Says the Feature Can Do a Range of Tasks Including Reserving Rental Cars and Booking Movie Ticket More

Google Unveils Duplex for Web, Says the Feature Can Do a Range of Tasks Including Reserving Rental Cars and Booking Movie Ticket

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  • >> Google Duplex

    Congratulations you invented the VRU. Next on the tech tree is "online banking"
  • This is just, well, sad. Only thing more sad is /. shilling this garbage.

  • The example seems a bit too convenient for me. Normally when ever I spend money, I would like to have a little extra thought before I do such.

  • I can't remember the last time I bought a movie ticket or rented a car over the phone? I actually did both over the past few days and totally over the web.

    I guess where there could be some moderately complex human interaction, this could be okay, but I'm not sure how it will be a time saver. The only want I see it working is if you are meticulous with your calendar with all your social plans along with work.

    Even then... "Duplex: Reserve me a table at the ABCD bistro for dinner tonight with Rodney, Jane

    • I usually call or drop by the car rental office to make reservations. They often gave me a better rate and/or better terms than their website quotes me. If you find a good car rental office, they're willing to work with you to customize your rental to suit your needs. e.g. The 15-passenger van I rented for our eclipse trip normally had a surcharge for unlimited mileage. But since I only needed the van for 5 days instead of the full week (lower rate on a week rental than 5 days), they threw unlimited mile
      • The reason to rent online is because you can reserve the car. If you rent in person, sometimes they don't have a car for you. Especially in Germany around Christmas. Or on the Peninsula when Oracle has big meetings.

        The good thing is, the person at the desk can help you, and even change your reservation, when you arrive in person.

  • Do I really trust an AI to spend my money? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Not everyone is a rich, overworked silicone valley type that values convenience over price. Most of us spend quite a lot of time trying to shop around and balance price with desire. Requesting "find me a good deal on a car rental" is a lot more complex than "book a car with Hertz".

    Then if you want to get really complex, try searching for cheap flights. That can get complex fast. The last flight I booked I had to buy two separate tickets for me and my wife, since the flight we wanted was just at the thre

  • Standardized RPCs needed instead (Score:5, Interesting)

    by bussdriver ( 620565 ) on Tuesday May 07, 2019 @02:05PM (#58553376)

    how about a W3C spec and large definition list for XML/JSON RPC to handle a higher App-layer protocol of common things?

    The process- not the VoiceXML of it... 1 GUI app could do it without voice.

    This would allow PRICE compares; or prefer places you have a history with or make it automatic to sign up and checkout and pay with 1 generic interface for an app or agent to use.

    Similar to the hoops you have to jump thru to get products on google shopping or the much more work to get listed on Amazon.

    Search engines / Apps / Services / Agents could all utilize this in various ways. Right now we just have lower level standards of the web -- we need some higher level API standards.

    Big corps are creating too many walled gardens like AOL and this prevents interaction in new ways until they provide it to their limited set of partners in their limited way... like AOL did with it's pre-web network.

  • Don't know for the US but here in Europe, you book your car on the web, fill out everything about you, your driving license, etc. Then, on the rental day at the agency, the first thing asked is always: "Could you fill this for me, sir ?". with the exact same information asked a second time while 6 people are waiting for their turns. And of course even though you did not ask for any of their crap insurance on the website, they will pitch them to you for 5 minutes at the end of which I'll say no again. Talk a

    • In my experience in the US, if you pre-book and fill out all that crap, you usually just need to swipe your driver's license on a kiosk and then confirm the rest. Well, that's true if you are working with a rental company that has their head out of their ass - some of them are exactly what you describe.

  • Google wants to turn everyone into a completely helpless robot that is completely dependent on them for every aspect of their "life". They want to eliminate all sense of wonder and amazement and randomness and life. I don't want their AI or their robots or autonomous vehicles. I want no part of this. There is no point to living if google is deciding and managing everything.

    • I'm fine with "Hey GoSirBy, Book me a car from date x to date y in place z" and then it goes out and finds me a deal on it and asks me to confirm and book. I don't want some sweetheart deal with a particular agency where the rates start competitive, but they figure out how to determine the traffic coming from that contractual tie-in and hike the rates to abuse it (or worse, kick a taste back to Google for delivering the business) because you aren't actually paying attention and relying on the "AI" instead.

  • ...scambait all those robocallers who want to sell me overpriced stuff by calling me all hours of the day and night? THAT is what we need AI for!

  • Google should take justice into their own hands and fix the telemarketing/robocall problem that the phone companies don't want to fix. Turn this thing loose on robocalls and let a sophisticated AI waste their time and make their venture unprofitable. The phone company will still get paid, but scammers will stop calling people since the people they employ will be tied up with AIs and not making any money.

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