Did Google fake its Google Duplex AI demo?

[Shawn Knight]

Google during its keynote speech at the annual I/O developer conference last week stunned onlookers with a demonstration of its Google Assistant calling local businesses and conducting natural conversation to carry out “real world” tasks on behalf of users. It’s called Google Duplex and if you missed the demos, they’re certainly worth checking out.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai insisted that the pre-recorded calls are real calls. “What you’re going to hear is the Google Assistant actually calling a real salon to schedule an appointment for you,” Pichai said of one of the calls.

But was Google being entirely truthful about the presentation? Axios has some questions.

In a recent piece, the publication highlights how receptionists at most businesses are trained to identify the business itself when answering the phone. To prove its point, Axios called over two dozen hair salons and restaurants (the same types of businesses Google called in its demo) and every time, the receptionist immediately gave the name of the business.

In both of Google’s calls, that didn’t happen.

Axios also notes the lack of ambient noise in the background on both of Google’s calls. In a hair salon and a restaurant, you may expect to hear things like hair dryers or silverware clanking but neither was present in Google’s demo.

Also curious is the fact that neither the hair salon nor the restaurant asked Google’s AI for a contact number.

Axios asked Google for the name of the salon and restaurant used in the calls to verify that both are indeed real businesses. Even when guaranteeing (in writing) that the names of both establishments wouldn’t be publicly identified, a longtime Google spokesperson declined to provide either name.

Axios then asked if either call was edited, even if briefly to censor the business name. The spokesperson declined to comment but said they would get back to them. She didn’t, so a follow-up email was sent that copied another member of Google’s communications team. A reply was sent saying they’d get right back to Axios but that didn’t happen, either.

What are your thoughts on the matter? Do you think Google presented the calls as they actually happened without any editing or pre-planning? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.

Sundar image courtesy David Paul Morris, Getty Images

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https://www.techspot.com/news/74688-did-google-fake-google-duplex-ai-demo.html

 

[DealershipNews]

He lied. He lied to a billion people in order to sell an invasive product. Remember that when you use Google products. This is not unusual for this company. Two years ago they admitted that 54% of their display ads were never seen, yet no one went to jail...just to the bank. This company is based on fraud on virtually every level. Talk about data mining? This group knows EVERYTHING about you. They are the biggest player in the corporate technocracy.

 

[senketsu]

It is indeed suspect. Any business I call immediately identifies itself. For some services like a haircut they also get a contact number like the author mentioned. Smells bad to me.
I also wish 'they' would get after Google like they are now with Facebook regarding data, but so far they seem Teflon coated.

 

[Trillionsin]

Do you think Google presented the calls as they actually happened without any editing or pre-planning?

Was there.... any doubt? really? I thought this was obvious that it was scripted, and this is what I automatically assumed.

Seems like something they are just trying to hype people up about, but... do we really want it? Do we really need it? Yes, let's all become even less attached socially, that's what we need.

 

[IAMTHESTIG]

Google knows more about you than you know about you... but yeah this sounds totally fake.

 

[Noah Klayman]

What if Google called their on campus hair salon/restaurant? If they closed the place that would explain the ambient noise and they would not need consent to record the call. The place would also have no need to really identify itself, and it still counts as a real restaurant/salon.

 

[kapital98]

What if Google called their on campus hair salon/restaurant? If they closed the place that would explain the ambient noise and they would not need consent to record the call. The place would also have no need to really identify itself, and it still counts as a real restaurant/salon.

That's still failure to disclose. Especially when the meaning behind "a real call" was obvious and made several times.

I love Google, I use many of their products, but it's hard to imagine the calls above were real. Even if they were real, it's about impossible to think of them as not selectively edited or manipulated in some way. The second call was a little more realistic because it wasn't a perfect A-B conversation (common in TV -- not in real life, hence the need for AI). Still, it's very suspect.

We can nitpick but without further proof of what happened (even if just known to reporters) it's hard to trust google.

 

[danny22]

Of course it was staged, the stakes are to high to allow any mistakes.

 

[JaredTheDragon]

I love it when everyone cries "tin foil" for years and then stuff like this happens and everyone's all, "I told you so!"

 

[GrahamDroid]

What if Google called their on campus hair salon/restaurant? If they closed the place that would explain the ambient noise and they would not need consent to record the call. The place would also have no need to really identify itself, and it still counts as a real restaurant/salon.

That's genius. When did Google hire Nathan Fielder?

 

[mbrowne5061]

What if Google called their on campus hair salon/restaurant? If they closed the place that would explain the ambient noise and they would not need consent to record the call. The place would also have no need to really identify itself, and it still counts as a real restaurant/salon.

Then why not simply say that once someone asked?

"We called our own hair salon, and closed it for the test of a beta product." sounds infinitely better than "[no comment]"

 

[havok585]

Shawn Knight, short answer: yes !

Who is Google kidding ? Have you ever heard of a big giant company like Google be 100% transparent?

 

[Reachable]

Staged? Yes. But not baloney. They HAD to stage it. What are they going to do -- embarrass the businesses that they gulled? I'm sure they tried it out on authentic situations and saw that it worked before preparing these simulations. This isn't some start-up that's trying to raise funds. Google has nothing to prove and no hurry to present this until it's an actuality.

Sheesh! There's a lot to criticize in this world, including numerous aspects of Google. Serious criticism. But don't waste your breath and keystrokes on this.

 

[Adorerai]

It was obviously in a controlled environment. Even if it wasn’t scripted, it was recorded, with plenty of opportunity to cherry pick the best results.

 

[DaveBG]

Even if it was not fake, it was cherry picked and edited from many that failed awkwardly ...

 

[penn919]

I guess it's too late to say this, but I really did suspect it was fake all along. Technology progresses in increments. All of the sudden a company (even google) pulling this off seemed extremely unlikely. The A.I. basically would have passed the turing test.