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Google Duplex: The Smartest Chat Agent Ever

Swarali Jambhale
Real world tasks with human talks over the phone by an artificial voice? Sounds apprehensive but also intriguing! Google Duplex strengthens the belief that artificial intelligence would be the ultimate version of Google!

What is Google Duplex?

Google Duplex is one of the most profound high tech software by Google. It is an artificially intelligent chatbot that carries out verbal talks like making reservations with telephonic conversations. A combination of natural language understanding (NLU) and natural language generation (NLG), Duplex enables a 2 way human-to-computer communication.
Announced first at the Google I/O developer conference in May 2018 by Sundar Pichai, Duplex is a service propelled by an AI-driven voice. It is Google’s AI-powered voice booking system where the booking process initiates Google Assistant and a call is made by Duplex with interjections like “ums” and “ahs” in place of the human effort of conversing on phone!

Google Duplex on Technical Terms

Google Duplex is built on a Recurrent Neural Network (RNN) using TensorFlow Extend which is a general purpose machine learning platform being used at Google. This system is specially designed to execute autonomous tasks but also has the ability to indicate a human operator about the inefficacy to complete the task at hand.

Google Duplex is Now Making Appearance

This big leap of evolution in AI was first unveiled to just 4 cities of U.S. viz. Atlanta, New York, Phoenix, and the San Francisco metropolitan area in the fall of 2018. Nonetheless, Google has now unveiled this smart software to an expanse of 43 states in the U.S. for all the Google Pixel owners.

How Is the Google Duplex Triggered?

You need to say “Ok Google” or "tap and hold down the Home Icon" to activate Google Assistant. Saying something like “Book a table for two people at [restaurant name] today night” triggers the Assistant to make the call using Duplex and notify you after the successful reservation.

Google Duplex Supporting Devices

On 6th March, 2019 it was declared that Google Pixel, Pixel XL, Pixel 2, Pixel 2 XL, and Pixel 3 and Google Pixel 3 XL owners will have access to Duplex. It is not yet available on any other Google Assistant-based devices like Google Home smart speaker. Google also plans to roll out Duplex to Android-based devices along with Apple’s iOS products soon!

What can you do with Google Duplex?

At the moment, Google Duplex can only be used for restaurant reservation. However, in the coming days, it would be adequate enough to make a reservation for doctor’s appointment or a hair salon appointment which was shown in the demo video released by Google in the Google I/O conference.

Limitations Reining Duplex

Perhaps the biggest hurdle of this beta version is the inability to hear the Duplex call recording made on your behalf. Also there is no way you can get a written transcript of the recording.
If you wish to cancel a reservation, Duplex cannot be used to make another reservation at the same eatery for at least a day. In case if you make multiple reservations at multiple restaurants and then decide to cancel them, Google will disable your access to Duplex for an uncertain time to avoid Duplex from spamming restaurants with cancellation calls.

Cessation

Inceptive signs seem positive! Google approximates the Duplex software to work four times out of five. Along with Duplex being unveiled, Google rebranded Google Research to Google AI. With such a prodigious upsurge, Google has moved a step ahead in achieving the long-time goal of having humanistic conversations with computers!