I talked to Google's human-sounding AI on the phone: Here's what I learned

[NelsonG]

Google shocked many onlookers earlier this year when, during the keynote at its I/O developer conference, the company unveiled Duplex, a new AI system that can make phone calls on your behalf.

But the biggest "oh shit" moment of the demo was not that Google created a robo-calling system, but that it had developed one that sounded so much like an actual human.

Now, after a lot of questions and much hand-wringing about the ethics of such a system, the company is nearly ready to start testing it for real. 

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Google announced it will begin testing Duplex "in the coming weeks" among a small group of users and businesses. The company isn't disclosing the size of the test group, or how many businesses have signed on to participate, but it's still the first time people outside of Google will be able to test drive the AI calling system. Read more...

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