{"id":117119,"date":"2018-06-07T14:01:36","date_gmt":"2018-06-07T13:01:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/?p=117119"},"modified":"2018-06-07T16:15:25","modified_gmt":"2018-06-07T15:15:25","slug":"google-duplex-for-marketers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/managing-digital-marketing\/managing-marketing-technology\/google-duplex-for-marketers\/","title":{"rendered":"Google Duplex – here’s what it means for marketers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Have you heard of Google Duplex yet? You know, the AI assistant that books appointments and makes reservations on your behalf? Just your next-door robot\u2026<\/span><\/h2>\n

As you may already be aware, Google Duplex<\/a> is a new<\/span>\u00a0technology launched by Google at Google I\/O 2018, the company\u2019s annual developer conference. Google Duplex is an AI system that is designed to accomplish real-world tasks over the phone, by mimicking human conversation. <\/span>Google CEO Sundar Pichai personally demonstrated phones calls made by this digital voice assistant. <\/span><\/p>\n

The product was demoed by showing a phone call where the AI assistant makes an \u00a0appointment at the hairdresser\u2019s, by calling them and having an actual conversation. Now chatbots and voice assistants have been around for a while now, so that probably doesn't sound all that intriguing to you. Although, what you may find really intriguing is that the phone call was a close, rather scarily close, resemblance of an actual human conversation.<\/span><\/p>\n

The AI assistant is able to make real calls to real businesses, and nobody seems to notice that it was a robot that was in conversation with them earlier. Essentially, with the help of Google Duplex, you could help accomplish simple tasks, such as booking appointments etc., without actually having to do them. The bot also mimics the key markers of an actual conversation, such as appropriate pauses and filler words like \u201cum,\u201d \u201cah,\u201d and \u201cuh-huh.\u201d! Baffling. If you haven\u2019t seen the demo yet, a demo of it yet, check it out <\/span>here<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The Turing Test - Look in the past <\/span><\/h3>\n

To give a bit of context, Alan Turing helped pioneer the idea of programmable computers and built one of the first-ever computing machines, <\/span>the Bombe<\/span><\/a>. Alan Turing is to the world of computer science, what Albert Einstein is, to physics. Turing was way ahead of the AI game, thinking about the relationship that could potentially be developed between humans and computer intelligence. <\/span><\/p>\n

Today, that concept has become part of everyday life, with AI forming the basis of video games, GPS and apps on our phone. However, Turing not only pioneered the idea of AI, but also created some metrics that can be used to judge whether we\u2019ve actually reached a point when the AI is <\/span>intelligent<\/span><\/i>. Modern computer scientists refer to these metrics as the Turing test and have played around with it for decades. <\/span><\/p>\n

Even though there have been many recent developments in AI, the Turing test has largely gone unsolved since 1952. The Turing test hasn\u2019t been a priority for the AI developers because it seems to primarily focus on the ability of AI to imitate human conversations. Fast-forward 2018. Google Duplex has now passed the Turing test, not only for text, but also for an actual voice conversation! You can\u2019t tell the difference between the machine making the call versus a human-being making the call. <\/span><\/p>\n

Implications for Marketers<\/span><\/h3>\n

Enough about history. Now that Google Duplex is here, and by the looks of it, here to stay - marketers need to start asking some difficult questions. Will it affect search and SEO? What new marketers opportunities will it bring? What are its business implications? While it\u2019s an exciting new technology for consumer, being constantly bogged down with simple tasks, what\u2019s really fascinating is the potential impact this kind of technology could have on the future of digital marketing. <\/span><\/p>\n