Tech

Google's Assistant is getting so smart it can place phone calls and humans think it's real

Key Points
  • Google's Assistant will soon be able to place phone calls to make reservations for you.
  • It has a convincing voice and can save you time by reserving tables, scheduling hair appointments and more.
  • Google says more work has to be done before it's ready.
Google Assistant sounds so human, no one will know it's making reservations for you
VIDEO0:5700:57
Google Assistant sounds so human, no one will know it's making your reservations

The Google Assistant is getting so "smart" that it's soon going to be able to place calls for you.

On Tuesday, at the Google I/O event, CEO Sundar Pichai demoed one experience where this sort of smart technology will be helpful. If you need to make an appointment for a haircut, for example, Google Assistant can call your barber and schedule a visit for you.

You don't need to talk on the phone at all.

In a pre-recorded demo on stage, the Google Assistant voice (which uses Google Duplex AI) sounded convincing enough -- not as robotic as it currently does -- that it successfully booked a hair appointment. In another demo, it was able to have a back-and-forth conversation with a restaurant in order to make a reservation.

Check it out:

tweet

Pichai didn't say when users will be able to take full advantage of these functions but said public testing will begin this summer.

Also at the event, Google showed off new features in Gmail, one of which lets it finish some sentences for you.

Gmail will now use artificial intelligence to write emails for you
VIDEO1:0501:05
Gmail will now use artificial intelligence to write emails for you