Google talked about many innovations at the I/O conference, 2018. But besides these, there is GOOGLE DUPLEX, which has attracted a lot of attention and even reaction of people. This software is a feature that will be added into google assistant. You might not know it yet, but this feature makes the assistant real on your phone.
For example, you need to go to a barber, and you couldn’t get an appointment because of busy schedule at work. In this case, it will be enough to ask your google assistant. Google duplex calls a barber and makes an appointment for you by talking on the phone like a normal human.
It is a real telephone conversation between artificial intelligence and person. What surprises me most is that when talking to a person the assistant understands all questions asked and answers naturally. At this moment there is no another such software which is able to imitate people so fluently and well. You remember Sofia as well, even if you talk to her on the phone, without looking at her cute, incredibly natural face, you’ll definetely know that she is a robot.
Google Duplex clearly understands the conversation and maintains communication and fulfills the task, even if the opposite side speaks with an accent or uses incorrect sentences.
If I were on the other side of such a real conversation, probably, I couldn’t notice that it was artificial intelligence at all. I think, now when it has become impossible to distinguish artificial intelligence from real people, Google Duplex can pass the *Turing Test.
(*Turing test, performed by Alan Turing in 1950, tests a machine’s ability to exhibit intelligent behavior equivalent to, or indistinguishable from that of a human)
To tell the truth, I was very impressed when I first knew this feature; technology that allows us to see clearly the improvement of the artificial intelligence. It’s both scary and favourable. Now most people even think that by not introducing itself as an assistant it deceives people which is not ethical. Obviously, it does not bother me to know whether or not the other side is artificial intelligence, but I am worried more about what can happen next.
For example, it can cause people working at call centers of large companies to lose their jobs. Imagine that a company that adapts this system to its sales department is calling you. (wait a bit) Google system… No one knows you better than google with the data it has about you! (Shortly called Facebook). Since Google knows all your habits, what you like and what you do not like, I do not think there is a person who will sell you a product better than such a clever artificial intelligence which has so much information about you. And will these phone calls be recorded? If so, we should be warned of this.
On the other hand, it can open up much more creative techniques for the already common phone scams.
Beside artificial intelligence improvement, robot technology is also developing rapidly. Robots are widely used in factories or warehouses. For example, the huge warehouse built by an English company works with the system including hundreds of robots which receive incoming orders and take them to the delivery unit contacting with each other with air traffic control technology and 4g.
In addition to these, now, powerful humanoid robots and even robots resembling 4-legged animals are being developed.
The robots developed by Boston Dynamic company are now able to run and even somersault, while in the beginning they were just trying to walk, and they can do more things day by day.
This company has also developed a robot named spot mini that looks like a dog. This robot with several sensors on it and cameras located in the front, back, right and left sides is able to see obstacles and act accordingly.
In other words, when it is moved by manual control, it maps out the route and then moves on its own according to that map.
This little friend can also wear a mechanical arm attachment which helps it to do certain simple tasks like opening doors. However, it will be possible to add more different functions in the future.
You have no chance of reaching any of these robots for the moment, but according to the company’s CEO, these robots are supposed to be released in 2019. They are planning to produce 100 items by the end of 2019. Although the price will probably be equivalent to an ultra-luxury car, now availability of this kind of technology for people becomes possible.
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Alp Gursoy
www.youtube.com/alpgursoy
