When AI becomes too human – Introducing Google Duplex

As you may have heard, last month at Google’s developer conference (Google I/O), Google demonstrated a new work-in-progress feature of their Google Assistant software that left many people feeling rather uneasy. The feature is called Google Duplex. In the demonstration, the Google Assistant software, using Google Duplex, placed a call to a hair salon and made an appointment. The call was made to a real hair salon talking to a real person, and that person may not have known that they were talking to an automated system. The Google Assistant using Duplex sounded very real, including adding filler words like “um” that humans would normally use in speaking.

This demonstration has led to quite a few questions and reactions among people. Particularly regarding the advancement of artificial intelligence (AI). If AI can do this now, how much farther can it go in the near future? Have we reached a tipping point of AI? And what does this mean for the future of jobs? Will human assistants become obsolete? What other jobs will AI replace? How can we futureproof our careers?

In the video below, the influential tech reviewer, Marques Brownlee, shows the Google Duplex demonstration and gives his thoughts regarding what we are seeing and what the future could possibly be.

After watching the video, I’d like your thoughts on if you think the progress of AI has gone too far. Or perhaps there’s more you would like to see AI do? Do you think that AI is at the point of replacing a full human job? Or do you think there will always be work available for humans? Let me know in the comments.

Google Assistant making real phone calls?! Artificial intelligence is taking crazy steps forward. How far will it go?