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The call with Chinese restaurant was simply jaw dropping. Sundar says that it was real and I have no grounds not to believe him. This is as close of a demo of

by TY 8y ago

The call with Chinese restaurant was simply jaw dropping. Sundar says that it was real and I have no grounds not to believe him. This is as close of a demo of technology passing the Turing test as I have ever seen. Sure, it's not a fully free form conversation on any subject, but incredibly impressive nevertheless. Oh yes, and the voice synthesis is just simply amazing. I don't think I'd be able to tell that I was talking to a bot either. So far, it's been the most impressive Google I/O keynote that I've ever seen and it's not over yet.

fragilistical 8y ago
If you'd like to read up on Google's voice synthesis system do read up on wavenet: https://deepmind.com/blog/wavenet-generative-model-raw-audio/ https://deepmind.com/blog/wavenet-generative-model-raw-audio... from deepmind.
VikingCoder 8y ago
I missed that. Can someone link to that moment?
- dperfect 8y ago
  https://youtu.be/ogfYd705cRs?t=1h57m57s https://youtu.be/ogfYd705cRs?t=1h57m57s
  - nfoz 8y ago
    I'm really trying not to be another "dystopian" commentor, but I can't help but feel sad for the restaurant. The call was awkward. Restaurants are busy. The AI would pause too long and leave her guessing, and respond with the wrong type of emotion (e.g. a dejected sounding "oh, gotcha... thanks..." after she had answered his question with the positive "you can come for four people, ok?". I can't help but think this sort of "corporate lying" (yes it is a lie to robo-call and pretend to be a live human voice) has an external cost of frustration and emotional drainage to be borne by society's ordinary people.
    - slow_donkey 8y ago
      Maybe I'm a robot but i feel like I would have answered similarly to Duplex. I expected to be able to make a reservation but got told I have to walk-in instead. I'm actually quite surprised it asked for the wait time afterwards, I'm not sure I'd remember do such a thing.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- timeu 8y ago
  https://ai.googleblog.com/2018/05/duplex-ai-system-for-natural-conversation.html https://ai.googleblog.com/2018/05/duplex-ai-system-for-natur... here are some more examples
- zbobet2012 8y ago
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RHG5DFAjp8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RHG5DFAjp8
tyrankh 8y ago
Yeah, that was pretty much jaw dropping. I'm excited to see it in action.
MarkMc 8y ago
I wonder how long it will be before there is a call to book a restaurant where both sides are AI assistants
- herewulf 8y ago
  AI assistant calls could start with a modem style handshake to determine whether they can conduct the transaction much more quickly with an Internet API. I'm sure it could be much shorter these days, but hearing the same noisy handshake today would be amusing.
  - chipperyman573 8y ago
    Bringing us alllllll the way back to dial-up
VikingCoder 8y ago
Jeez, this thing is just about ready to Dungeon Master. Assistant, "Okay, I need you to roll initiative. What did you get?" Me: "27." Assistant, "Umm... You're a first level Barbarian. How did you roll 27 on Initiative?" Me: "I mean 17." Assistant, "Uh huh."

by TY 8y ago

fragilistical 8y ago

If you'd like to read up on Google's voice synthesis system do read up on wavenet: https://deepmind.com/blog/wavenet-generative-model-raw-audio/ https://deepmind.com/blog/wavenet-generative-model-raw-audio... from deepmind.

VikingCoder 8y ago

I missed that. Can someone link to that moment?

dperfect 8y ago
https://youtu.be/ogfYd705cRs?t=1h57m57s https://youtu.be/ogfYd705cRs?t=1h57m57s
- nfoz 8y ago
  I'm really trying not to be another "dystopian" commentor, but I can't help but feel sad for the restaurant. The call was awkward. Restaurants are busy. The AI would pause too long and leave her guessing, and respond with the wrong type of emotion (e.g. a dejected sounding "oh, gotcha... thanks..." after she had answered his question with the positive "you can come for four people, ok?". I can't help but think this sort of "corporate lying" (yes it is a lie to robo-call and pretend to be a live human voice) has an external cost of frustration and emotional drainage to be borne by society's ordinary people.
  - slow_donkey 8y ago
    Maybe I'm a robot but i feel like I would have answered similarly to Duplex. I expected to be able to make a reservation but got told I have to walk-in instead. I'm actually quite surprised it asked for the wait time afterwards, I'm not sure I'd remember do such a thing.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
timeu 8y ago
https://ai.googleblog.com/2018/05/duplex-ai-system-for-natural-conversation.html https://ai.googleblog.com/2018/05/duplex-ai-system-for-natur... here are some more examples
zbobet2012 8y ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RHG5DFAjp8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RHG5DFAjp8

tyrankh 8y ago

Yeah, that was pretty much jaw dropping. I'm excited to see it in action.

MarkMc 8y ago

I wonder how long it will be before there is a call to book a restaurant where both sides are AI assistants

herewulf 8y ago
AI assistant calls could start with a modem style handshake to determine whether they can conduct the transaction much more quickly with an Internet API. I'm sure it could be much shorter these days, but hearing the same noisy handshake today would be amusing.
- chipperyman573 8y ago
  Bringing us alllllll the way back to dial-up

VikingCoder 8y ago

Jeez, this thing is just about ready to Dungeon Master. Assistant, "Okay, I need you to roll initiative. What did you get?" Me: "27." Assistant, "Umm... You're a first level Barbarian. How did you roll 27 on Initiative?" Me: "I mean 17." Assistant, "Uh huh."