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When Google unveiled its Duplex project during the I/O conference, the world was caught by surprise with how human-like the machine could speak. In terms of intonation, voice modulation, and even pauses, it sounded more human than any other smart assistant. Google recently invited journalists for even more demonstrations of Duplex and many came away believing the hype.
The event was held in THEP, a Thai Restaurant in New York City, where select publications were asked to attend for a very special occasion. The establishment was turned into a presentation area where journalists were able to speak to Duplex themselves, Ars Technica reports. They basically acted as employees of the restaurant where Duplex was trying to make a reservation.
In its complete form, this revolutionary offering from Google is supposed to be easy to employ. Users simply fire up the Google Assistant with a voice command, and that assistant will leave the call to Duplex. During the presentation, this particular chain wasn’t working, so an engineer had to manually input the commands using his computer.
This doesn’t really take anything away from the accomplishment, however, since Google Assistant has already proven capable of taking voice command. Even if the feature wasn’t available during the presentation, it’s not difficult to imagine that integration won’t pose a problem.
In any case, because of just how promising the project is, Google will soon start rolling out tests of the feature in the coming weeks. Unfortunately, not just anyone can take Duplex out for a spin, The Verge reports. According to Nick Fox, product and design vice-president for Google Assistant, a set of trusted users will be testing it out for now.
The proving grounds will largely revolve around three areas: holiday hours, restaurant reservations, and salon reservations. While it’s clear that there are more tests that need to be made, journalists who attended the presentation agree that the hype around Duplex is real.
