One Year Later, Restaurants Are Still Confused By Google Duplex (theverge.com) 30
An anonymous reader shares an excerpt from a report via The Verge: Google Duplex was arguably one of Google's biggest announcements in 2018, but the AI faded into the background this week at the same I/O developer conference that introduced it just one year ago. Rather than an update on how the AI has been improved since its official release, Google CEO Sundar Pichai simply noted that the technology has gotten "great feedback," then he quickly moved on to announce that Duplex would be coming to the web -- no human impersonation necessary. Instead of the stunning voice-calling AI that garnered a mix of excitement and ethical criticism, Duplex is now also a fancy autofill tool that helps move you through a webpage to quickly reserve movie tickets and car rentals.
But Google's machines don't seem to be taking over yet. As the U.S. continues to deal with an onslaught of spammy robocalls, it seems that many restaurant employees are inadvertently shielding themselves from Duplex by ignoring incoming calls that do not display a person's name. Mark Seaman, a manager at two-year-old restaurant Queens Bully, in Forest Hills, New York, says he often tries to avoid calls from businesses that look like they could be pitching the restaurant on a product or service. "Most of our growth comes from our own social media efforts and the parties we throw," Seaman tells me. "We get calls all the time from people trying to sell us something [we don't need]." Although Google does not personally call businesses to convince them to buy ads, it stands to reason why many restaurant employees would shy away from answering calls that list the company in its caller ID in the first place. [...] One year later, Duplex is still limited and, at least for now, has minimal impact on service workers aside from occasionally freaking them out, but there is perhaps an unintended byproduct of AI replacing humans: politeness.
But Google's machines don't seem to be taking over yet. As the U.S. continues to deal with an onslaught of spammy robocalls, it seems that many restaurant employees are inadvertently shielding themselves from Duplex by ignoring incoming calls that do not display a person's name. Mark Seaman, a manager at two-year-old restaurant Queens Bully, in Forest Hills, New York, says he often tries to avoid calls from businesses that look like they could be pitching the restaurant on a product or service. "Most of our growth comes from our own social media efforts and the parties we throw," Seaman tells me. "We get calls all the time from people trying to sell us something [we don't need]." Although Google does not personally call businesses to convince them to buy ads, it stands to reason why many restaurant employees would shy away from answering calls that list the company in its caller ID in the first place. [...] One year later, Duplex is still limited and, at least for now, has minimal impact on service workers aside from occasionally freaking them out, but there is perhaps an unintended byproduct of AI replacing humans: politeness.
Easy fix for Google (Score:3)
Why not just spoof the caller ID to look like a real person from the restaurant's local area?
Everyone else is doing it.
Easy, they will Fine/Shutdown Google (Score:1)
Scammers get away with spoofing because they are operating shady orgs with no accountability.
If Google did it lawyers would be foaming at the mouth for all the class action money they would make whilst fucking the consumer.
Re: (Score:2)
Perhaps it is time to come up with some sort of enforceable authentication system for phone calls.
For example, as a busy restaurant worker who has to decide whether it's worth my while to listen to a robot on the phone or not, I'd like it my phone could reliably tell me that (a) the "person" calling is from a (more or less) known/trusted source (such as Google Duplex, and not Nigerian Scam Center), and (b) that a certain minimum deposit has already been committed to hold the reservation (which can be later
AI is done (Score:4, Informative)
People are starting to realize that AI is complete bullshit. Autonomous driving, "smart" assistants, etc. It will never happen. We can barely even make conventional software that is stable. There is no indication that AI is even possible.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Wrong tool for the job (Score:5, Insightful)
Many (most?) businesses that take reservations or online orders have a web site to do that. Having a machine call by voice seems... inefficient.
It's a bit like using a fax instead of E-Mail.
In the case of a number with an automated attendant (press 1 to place an order), you have a machine talking to a machine - using a human voice protocol. It's quite probably the slowest, most error-prone method possible.
Re: (Score:2)
It's good in the edge cases. When a winter storm is coming down, few businesses make the effort to update all their online presence to say whether they are open or not. I can't imagine how many calls a typical grocery store must get when that's happening.
OpenTable is great when everything is running smoothly, but i've managed to make a reservation for thanksgiving (a month in advance) to have it canceled by the restaurant the day before. They probably knew that they were going to be closed on that day well
Re: (Score:2)
Many (most?) businesses that take reservations or online orders have a web site to do that. Having a machine call by voice seems... inefficient.
It's a bit like using a fax instead of E-Mail.
In the case of a number with an automated attendant (press 1 to place an order), you have a machine talking to a machine - using a human voice protocol. It's quite probably the slowest, most error-prone method possible.
Well ... the one possible advantage I can see is that it's the monkey wrench of tools. No matter what online booking tools a restaurant has, it's still going to allow people to call and do stuff.
If it could really reliably simulate human voice interaction, I can see the usefulness of that.
Same justification as for humanoid robots; our human world is built for humans. Build something that can act like a human and it can just step right in. Sure, you could purpose build stuff to be more efficient, but there
Just got back from a cybersecurity conference (Score:3)
And the presenter there said his biggest current AI security concern was overseas hackers using Duplex for social engineering. Foreign hackers will no longer need to find members with a good American accent and cultural understanding to try to socially infiltrate a network. They'll just have Duplex do it for them. It was interesting to hear someone have an "unintended consequence" viewpoint on it, especially one pertaining to cybersecurity.
Re: Just got back from a cybersecurity conference (Score:1)
That was his biggest concern? Not the fact that the so called AI companies claim all IP that comes out of their analysis of your data as their own?
Lol at your security guru
Another one on it's way to the Google Graveyard (Score:5, Funny)
It's the recorded calls isn't it? (Score:1)
Aren't all the Duplex calls recorded and run afoul of state laws prohibiting third party recording of calls without notification to all parties involved? I don't see how they're going to get around that unless at the beginning of the call Duplex announces its recording to the other party.
Re: (Score:2)
Aren't all the Duplex calls recorded and run afoul of state laws prohibiting third party recording of calls without notification to all parties involved? I don't see how they're going to get around that
That is an issue...
...unless at the beginning of the call Duplex announces its recording to the other party.
Oh, so you do see how they're going to get around that issue.
Sigh. (Score:5, Insightful)
1) AI is bunk. It's not. To paraphrase Arthur C. Clarke it's "sufficiently advanced technology indistinguishable from magic". Except... it's not advanced enough. It looks really convincing, until you ask it anything out of the ordinary scope, where it fails to cope spectacularly.
2) If you want to book a restaurant, and it's 2019, and they don't have online booking via OpenTable or similar... give it up. Honestly, it's not going to work for you and they won't know how to deal with that kind of robot, and the robot won't know how to respond to them. They will also, once they realise what it is, stop taking calls from it anyway. It's probably also a bad idea to provide such an interface to them, because that will give them even less reason to get into the 21st Century.
3) I can think of no reason why I'd want to have a computer speak like a human, to another human, on my behalf. Except possibly for fraudulent purposes. And I'm absolutely useless at speaking to new people, and will do everything I possibly can to avoid having to phone somewhere (literally all my service-providers that I use in my personal life are electronic, online, and with as little human interaction as possible.. from my bank account to my energy supplier, ISP to mobile phone, tax payment to passport renewal).
It's a solution in search of a problem, and pretty much nobody has a problem booking a restaurant.
lol (Score:3)
Weird thing is... (Score:1)
Re: Weird thing is... (Score:1)
It wouldn't matter what laws you make because making a law doesn't change people's behavior. it's the first step of justifying a strategy of enforcement the overtime shapes the culture and the shaping people's motivations.
In us culture that values selfish gain and profit above all other values, people will continue to bypass accountability and thus make any fine irrelevant