The Ethics of Google Duplex: A Debate on Transparency and AI Development

As I've been thinking about this feature, I have to admit that I'm torn on how to feel about it. On one side, I think it's a game-changer for people who struggle with communication, like those with disabilities or language barriers. It could be incredibly helpful in making appointments, booking restaurants, and even helping with everyday tasks. But on the other hand, there's a concern that Google Duplex is tricking people into thinking they're talking to a human when they're not.

I've seen a lot of reactions to this feature on Twitter and in videos from people expressing their concerns about it. Some say it's a terrible idea, while others think it's helpful but worry that people will be fooled into thinking they're having a conversation with a real person when they're actually interacting with an AI. I understand both sides of the argument, and I'm mostly on the side of thinking that this feature is particularly helpful, but if I worked in customer service, I would want to know that I'm not speaking to a human when I need clarification or more information.

The question is, does Google have an obligation to let people know they're talking to a robot? On one hand, it's reasonable to expect transparency and clarity in any interaction, especially when it comes to communication. If you're getting a phone call and the person on the other end is responding in a way that feels too human-like for comfort, it can be unsettling. But on the other hand, if Google Duplex is designed to mimic human conversation as closely as possible, then perhaps it's not entirely unreasonable to assume that you're talking to a robot – especially since most people are familiar with AI-powered assistants like Siri or Alexa.

That being said, I do think there's value in acknowledging the limitations of AI and being transparent about the nature of the interaction. If I'm triggering Google Duplex on my phone or using it for dictation, I know I'm interacting with a machine, but when I get a phone call, things can feel different. It's like I'm answering a phone call to a human, and then suddenly finding out that I've been talking to a robot the whole time – and that can be disorienting.

Ultimately, the question is how far do we want to take these kinds of AI-powered assistants in our lives? Are we willing to sacrifice some level of transparency and understanding in order to reap the benefits of convenience and efficiency? For me, I'm not sure where I stand on this issue yet. But one thing's for sure – it's an interesting question that raises all sorts of concerns about the future of AI development.

I had a conversation with Neil deGrasse Tyson recently about this topic, which was really thought-provoking. We discussed how AI systems like Google Duplex start off in a box and are incredibly convincing and useful within their parameters, but as they evolve and become more advanced, we need to keep them in check. It's like trying to corral a wild animal – you can get close to it, but there's always the risk that it'll break free.

I'd love to have this conversation with Elon Musk, who talks about AI and machine learning all the time. I think he might have some insights on how far we need to take these kinds of assistants in order to balance their benefits with their limitations. For now, though, I'm left wondering – where do we draw the line? How much can we trust these machines to make decisions and provide accurate information?

In my final thoughts, I don't think people care that they're talking to a robot – but if you know right off the bat that you're interacting with an AI, it's not as bad. When I use Google Duplex for dictation or trigger it on my phone, I know I'm dealing with a machine, and that takes some of the pressure off. But when I get a phone call and respond to it as usual, that's where things can get weird.

It's like my brain is wired to expect human interaction in social situations, so when Google Duplex responds in a way that feels too perfect or too human-like, it throws me off. It's not necessarily creepy – but it's definitely disorienting. So, while I think there's value in acknowledging the limitations of AI and being transparent about the nature of our interactions, I also believe that we need to be careful about how far we're willing to take these kinds of assistants.

The debate surrounding Google Duplex is an open-ended one, and it invites us to consider all sorts of questions about the future of AI development. As we continue to push the boundaries of what's possible with machine learning, we'll inevitably encounter new challenges and concerns that will require us to re-examine our assumptions about the role of technology in our lives.

In the comments section below, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this topic – where do you stand on the issue of transparency and AI development? Do you think Google Duplex is a game-changer or a recipe for disaster? Share your perspectives, and let's keep the conversation going.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enall right boy do we have some artificial intelligence to talk about today hey what is up guys mkbhd here and yesterday was the day one keynote the main keynote of google i o 2018 and they always go hard with software there and this year was no exception so we got all kinds of great announcements new android p features especially the interesting new gesture navigation which will be interesting to play around with pretty shortly new google news stuff new google maps features android dashboard all this great stuff and in the middle of all that we got one of the most interesting new announcements it went by it was kind of early if you tuned in late you might have missed it maybe you were just tuning in to find out what android p would be called we still don't know but they shared a behavior in there called google duplex and it's a behavior inside of google assistant that they're still working on it's a long way from being finished or from us ever using it so it's maybe a couple years from that but that's what it's called so you know how they're always adding new new features to google assistant to make your life easier you know new reminders new routines new predictive things new things it does to help you out google duplex will make it so that you never have to call a service business ever again so let's say i want to get a haircut next monday at around noon and this is at a place that doesn't do online reservations so you have to call in to make your reservation and you're not really into that so what you want to do is ask google assistant hey assistant make an appointment for my haircut next monday around noon and it will actually call that hair salon pretend to be a human talk to the person that picks up and gets you a reservation for that hair appointment at around noon this is what it sounds like so happening out there hi i'm calling to book a women's haircut for our clients um i'm looking for something on may 3rd store give me one second or what time are you looking for around at 12 p.m we do not have a 12 pm available the closest we have to that is a 1 15. do you have anything between 10 am and uh 12 pm depending on what service she would like what service is she looking for just a woman's haircut for now okay we have a 10 o'clock 10 am is fine okay what's her first name the first name is lisa okay perfect so i will see lisa at 10 o'clock on may 3rd okay great thanks great have a great day bye what did i just did that was actually amazing did google assistant just pass the turing test did that just i think it literally just did that was a that was a real conversation with a real person at a real salon that is both amazing and kind of terrifying it also makes siri look really bad it had all the right inflections and pauses and just the intonation the way it talks was very convincing like i don't know if i was on the other end of that phone and i got that phone call i don't know that i would think that that was a robot if i wasn't told ahead of time i pretty sure i would have been convinced that's a human um i'm looking for something on may 3rd it's so human it's so human especially the way it responds to those questions like i mean i guess that lady could have asked anything but it's very tunneled in on making that appointment and it was just uncanny they did another demo on stage as well hi um i'd like to reserve a table for wednesday v7 okay wait pause right there that um in that sentence that little pause the um it didn't have to do that um but it did hi um i'd like to reserve a table for wednesday v7 they're using that um that little pause specifically to mimic a human like that google programmed it they told it to to make those sounds to convince the person that they're talking to to believe that they're speaking on the phone with a human and the rest of that call went great too it has some more challenging things it was dealing with an accent some unusual questions they had to respond to but it nailed it for seven people um it's for four people four people when today wednesday at 6 pm oh actually we literally for like upper like five people for four people you can come how long is the weight usually to uh be seated when tomorrow or weekday or for next wednesday uh the seven oh no it's not too busy you you can count for four people okay oh i gotcha thanks oh my gosh i like that guy's reaction to at the end he's like i don't know if i just witnessed the scariest or most amazing thing that i've ever seen so there's that on stage and there's also a bunch more examples in a blog post that google's posted i'll drop a link below the like button where there's a bunch more scenarios of things that they've gotten it to successfully navigate through in this human conversation so that just brings me back to how i feel about it a whole day later and really from what i've seen there's there's two main sides to this number one is the incredible technical achievement of google with the machine learning and the artificial intelligence and the natural language processing and all of that this is the culmination of all of their years of listening to our voices to make duplex this good it really is something special in 2018. like we've all gotten those those robocalls that are obviously fake right they're like hi i'm i'm karen want to go on a cruise like you ask it one question and it immediately falls apart like this seems like it it'll legitimately make people's lives easier but then the whole other side of it and it's actually bigger than i initially was thinking is should we be worried about this so i've seen a lot of reactions to this lately on twitter especially and in some videos of people saying this is a terrible idea like this is why would google do this tricking somebody into thinking they're talking to a human when they're not that is deeply concerning and i understand a lot of it even though i'm mostly on the side of this particular feature being particularly helpful but like if i worked in service i think i would still want to know if when i'm not speaking to a human you know what i mean like i don't have any logical reason why it doesn't even really matter on my end but it just the question is does google have an obligation to let that person know that they're not speaking to a human didn't have any like that stylist clearly didn't know that they were speaking to a robot i think a lot of people say yes you gotta tell them you gotta immediately let them know that it's a robot but on the other hand if you're if you're coming from google's point of view you have to mimic a human as closely as possible to make it work if you want to actually get the person on the call to pick up and respond to you and book that appointment they're listening to humans all day they're talking to people on the phone if they get a call that just says hi i'm a google assistant like they're not gonna they're probably gonna hang up they're not gonna wanna answer that so you actually have to blend in and make it as seamless as possible for google to do their job and the assistant to actually assist you it's just weird from our end that you know all the the ums and the pauses and sounding so human-like when it's not is just uncanny so i know it's not it's not full open-ended ai it's not that creepy like pseudo-human robo status like it hasn't gotten quite there yet it has a very specific goal that it has to tunnel in on but i guess it's interesting that basically you can see these goal posts getting wider like back in the day we used to just say look i just want the assistant to tell me what the weather is tomorrow and just be like as human as possible so you'd say hey google do i need a jacket tomorrow you get your answer now the goal post is look i want the assistant to just make a hair appointment for me on monday i don't really have the time to call i'm gonna go get on the train to work just make that appointment for me and now it's gonna start doing that but then next the goal post is gonna be what like i wanted to edit my youtube videos for me i wanted to run a company i wanted to drive me to work how far does it go i guess that's really my question at the end of this how far does it go i had this conversation briefly with neil degrasse tyson actually in a video i'll link that below it's pretty sweet i would love to have this conversation with elon musk he talks about this kind of stuff all the time hitting me up elon but for real it's like one of those ai versus machine learning things where it kind of starts in a box and it's really convincing and excellent and useful in this box but you got to keep it in that box but my final thoughts on google duplex are this i don't know if people care that they're talking to a robot i think there's going to be people on both sides of the spectrum but i feel like it wouldn't be that bad if you know right off the bat you're talking to a robot like when i when i trigger the assistant on my phone or on siri or on alexa or any of those and it responds like a human i know it's a robot still like it can be as seamless and human-like as possible in the voice and the dictation but it's because i'm triggering it myself in my phone i know it's a robot but when you get a phone call and you answer the phone call that gets weird because you think you're answering and talking to a human and then you might like find out during that that you're actually talking to a robot and then you were fooled and then it then it feels weird then it feels creepy so that brings us to number two which is just how far does it go i always wonder what are we willing to do with robots that's a weird question but really how far are we gonna go with these these robot assistants in our lives google duplex really triggering the intense questions out here i'll hang out in the comments section below it's open-ended feel free to let me know what you guys think but until the next one thanks for watching talk to you later peaceall right boy do we have some artificial intelligence to talk about today hey what is up guys mkbhd here and yesterday was the day one keynote the main keynote of google i o 2018 and they always go hard with software there and this year was no exception so we got all kinds of great announcements new android p features especially the interesting new gesture navigation which will be interesting to play around with pretty shortly new google news stuff new google maps features android dashboard all this great stuff and in the middle of all that we got one of the most interesting new announcements it went by it was kind of early if you tuned in late you might have missed it maybe you were just tuning in to find out what android p would be called we still don't know but they shared a behavior in there called google duplex and it's a behavior inside of google assistant that they're still working on it's a long way from being finished or from us ever using it so it's maybe a couple years from that but that's what it's called so you know how they're always adding new new features to google assistant to make your life easier you know new reminders new routines new predictive things new things it does to help you out google duplex will make it so that you never have to call a service business ever again so let's say i want to get a haircut next monday at around noon and this is at a place that doesn't do online reservations so you have to call in to make your reservation and you're not really into that so what you want to do is ask google assistant hey assistant make an appointment for my haircut next monday around noon and it will actually call that hair salon pretend to be a human talk to the person that picks up and gets you a reservation for that hair appointment at around noon this is what it sounds like so happening out there hi i'm calling to book a women's haircut for our clients um i'm looking for something on may 3rd store give me one second or what time are you looking for around at 12 p.m we do not have a 12 pm available the closest we have to that is a 1 15. do you have anything between 10 am and uh 12 pm depending on what service she would like what service is she looking for just a woman's haircut for now okay we have a 10 o'clock 10 am is fine okay what's her first name the first name is lisa okay perfect so i will see lisa at 10 o'clock on may 3rd okay great thanks great have a great day bye what did i just did that was actually amazing did google assistant just pass the turing test did that just i think it literally just did that was a that was a real conversation with a real person at a real salon that is both amazing and kind of terrifying it also makes siri look really bad it had all the right inflections and pauses and just the intonation the way it talks was very convincing like i don't know if i was on the other end of that phone and i got that phone call i don't know that i would think that that was a robot if i wasn't told ahead of time i pretty sure i would have been convinced that's a human um i'm looking for something on may 3rd it's so human it's so human especially the way it responds to those questions like i mean i guess that lady could have asked anything but it's very tunneled in on making that appointment and it was just uncanny they did another demo on stage as well hi um i'd like to reserve a table for wednesday v7 okay wait pause right there that um in that sentence that little pause the um it didn't have to do that um but it did hi um i'd like to reserve a table for wednesday v7 they're using that um that little pause specifically to mimic a human like that google programmed it they told it to to make those sounds to convince the person that they're talking to to believe that they're speaking on the phone with a human and the rest of that call went great too it has some more challenging things it was dealing with an accent some unusual questions they had to respond to but it nailed it for seven people um it's for four people four people when today wednesday at 6 pm oh actually we literally for like upper like five people for four people you can come how long is the weight usually to uh be seated when tomorrow or weekday or for next wednesday uh the seven oh no it's not too busy you you can count for four people okay oh i gotcha thanks oh my gosh i like that guy's reaction to at the end he's like i don't know if i just witnessed the scariest or most amazing thing that i've ever seen so there's that on stage and there's also a bunch more examples in a blog post that google's posted i'll drop a link below the like button where there's a bunch more scenarios of things that they've gotten it to successfully navigate through in this human conversation so that just brings me back to how i feel about it a whole day later and really from what i've seen there's there's two main sides to this number one is the incredible technical achievement of google with the machine learning and the artificial intelligence and the natural language processing and all of that this is the culmination of all of their years of listening to our voices to make duplex this good it really is something special in 2018. like we've all gotten those those robocalls that are obviously fake right they're like hi i'm i'm karen want to go on a cruise like you ask it one question and it immediately falls apart like this seems like it it'll legitimately make people's lives easier but then the whole other side of it and it's actually bigger than i initially was thinking is should we be worried about this so i've seen a lot of reactions to this lately on twitter especially and in some videos of people saying this is a terrible idea like this is why would google do this tricking somebody into thinking they're talking to a human when they're not that is deeply concerning and i understand a lot of it even though i'm mostly on the side of this particular feature being particularly helpful but like if i worked in service i think i would still want to know if when i'm not speaking to a human you know what i mean like i don't have any logical reason why it doesn't even really matter on my end but it just the question is does google have an obligation to let that person know that they're not speaking to a human didn't have any like that stylist clearly didn't know that they were speaking to a robot i think a lot of people say yes you gotta tell them you gotta immediately let them know that it's a robot but on the other hand if you're if you're coming from google's point of view you have to mimic a human as closely as possible to make it work if you want to actually get the person on the call to pick up and respond to you and book that appointment they're listening to humans all day they're talking to people on the phone if they get a call that just says hi i'm a google assistant like they're not gonna they're probably gonna hang up they're not gonna wanna answer that so you actually have to blend in and make it as seamless as possible for google to do their job and the assistant to actually assist you it's just weird from our end that you know all the the ums and the pauses and sounding so human-like when it's not is just uncanny so i know it's not it's not full open-ended ai it's not that creepy like pseudo-human robo status like it hasn't gotten quite there yet it has a very specific goal that it has to tunnel in on but i guess it's interesting that basically you can see these goal posts getting wider like back in the day we used to just say look i just want the assistant to tell me what the weather is tomorrow and just be like as human as possible so you'd say hey google do i need a jacket tomorrow you get your answer now the goal post is look i want the assistant to just make a hair appointment for me on monday i don't really have the time to call i'm gonna go get on the train to work just make that appointment for me and now it's gonna start doing that but then next the goal post is gonna be what like i wanted to edit my youtube videos for me i wanted to run a company i wanted to drive me to work how far does it go i guess that's really my question at the end of this how far does it go i had this conversation briefly with neil degrasse tyson actually in a video i'll link that below it's pretty sweet i would love to have this conversation with elon musk he talks about this kind of stuff all the time hitting me up elon but for real it's like one of those ai versus machine learning things where it kind of starts in a box and it's really convincing and excellent and useful in this box but you got to keep it in that box but my final thoughts on google duplex are this i don't know if people care that they're talking to a robot i think there's going to be people on both sides of the spectrum but i feel like it wouldn't be that bad if you know right off the bat you're talking to a robot like when i when i trigger the assistant on my phone or on siri or on alexa or any of those and it responds like a human i know it's a robot still like it can be as seamless and human-like as possible in the voice and the dictation but it's because i'm triggering it myself in my phone i know it's a robot but when you get a phone call and you answer the phone call that gets weird because you think you're answering and talking to a human and then you might like find out during that that you're actually talking to a robot and then you were fooled and then it then it feels weird then it feels creepy so that brings us to number two which is just how far does it go i always wonder what are we willing to do with robots that's a weird question but really how far are we gonna go with these these robot assistants in our lives google duplex really triggering the intense questions out here i'll hang out in the comments section below it's open-ended feel free to let me know what you guys think but until the next one thanks for watching talk to you later peace\n"