Google has spent 3.9 billion dollars on AI and neural networks over the years, and the outcome so far is what is considered the world's best chatbot. Released at the Google IO 2018 conference, Google Duplex utilizes Google's research in deep learning, text to speech, and voice recognition to place phone calls to businesses for anything from scheduling a haircut to making a reservation.
It all starts with the command. You can say something like "Hey Google, schedule me a reservation at Bill's Italian between 5pm and 7pm". The command goes to Google, and Google's Duplex calls the restaurant, mimicking a human in every way from subtle Ums and other natural speech nuances, and makes a reservation flawlessly. When it's done, a simple notification appears on your device.
Watch the amazing the demo (YouTube)
So what does this mean? Computers can now call humans and perfectly mimic another person, this raises concerns about privacy and how this technology could be abused, maybe not by Google, but from others. Google Duplex also violates eavesdropping laws so when it gets released to consumers in a few years. It still needs a little work and Google says they need to make Duplex identify itself when calling someone.