Carl Sagan Posted May 12, 2018 Share Posted May 12, 2018 Here's an amazing video of the Google Assistant making phonecalls to unsuspecting real people: I don't think this is on YouTube for me to be able to embed propery, but you must click on the short clip above ("Google Assistant makes calls"). Truly! If you want to see a bit more of what Google's doing wiith artificial intelligence for regular users, there's a fuller video at This doesn't really include the London company Deep Mind that leads the world in AI and which Google bought a few years' ago, but runs largely separate. I've applied a few times to work there (and failed). On Monday, when the rest of you are watching the playoff second leg, Google have invited me to the London HQ for a fancy night where they'll be showing off their work in artificial intelligence (I publish books on how to stop the machines wiping us out when they're a lot smarter than us). Of course I'd rather watch the game, but this is about future-proofing my life and worming my way in, so I can't turn it down! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Day Posted May 12, 2018 Share Posted May 12, 2018 Can it handle the monthly calls to check in with my Mum, let her know I’m still alive though? If not, I’ll pass. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boycie Posted May 12, 2018 Share Posted May 12, 2018 Gullible fools whooping in the background, it’s not even an Apple product. of course it goes as smoothly as on the video clips. i bet the haircut was for the year after. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parsnip Posted May 12, 2018 Share Posted May 12, 2018 15 minutes ago, Carl Sagan said: Here's an amazing video of the Google Assistant making phonecalls to unsuspecting real people Why are people clapping and cheering this??? Surely it needs to be stopped? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boycie Posted May 12, 2018 Share Posted May 12, 2018 I couldn’t understand what the restaurant lady was saying, but good old google could. BS. so google assistant reports back “just turn up mate, no need to book” You know damn well you’re going to make the call yourself just to confirm and not waste a journey out there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gee SCREAMER !! Posted May 12, 2018 Share Posted May 12, 2018 the way technology is moving forward in so many pointless ways I can see a scenario coming where a product will be designed at a cost of millions . Nobody will buy it . Why, why is nobody buying our new product will be the cry . Because the technology you have created has put us all out of work and we have no money to buy your product . At that point we all revert back to video recorders and walkmans Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cosmic Posted May 12, 2018 Share Posted May 12, 2018 As with most tech nowadays, we’ve got ask ourselves, do we really need this? It’s amazing and worrying etc. but it’s not really solving a problem or enhancing our lives. Home hubs are the same for me - nifty and showy but largely useless (and that’s before we even go into the ethics/privacy stuff). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LesterRam Posted May 12, 2018 Share Posted May 12, 2018 3 hours ago, David said: Can it handle the monthly calls to check in with my Mum, let her know I’m still alive though? If not, I’ll pass. Monthly, you tight bugger? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carl Sagan Posted May 12, 2018 Author Share Posted May 12, 2018 Google may be smart, but one thing that shocked me is that it doesnt know there's no such time as 12pm. Always use 12 noon or 12 midnight: https://www.rmg.co.uk/discover/explore/noon-12-am-or-12-pm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoetheRam Posted May 12, 2018 Share Posted May 12, 2018 Not entirely sure of the usefulness of this, other than to put human PA's out of work, although I'm sure the advertising and marketing men will come up with something. The technological feat is quite impressive I suppose, but the idea of talking to a machine as if it were human is at best stupid, and at worst a distopian nightmare to me. Have fun hobnobbing it up though! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Comrade 86 Posted May 13, 2018 Share Posted May 13, 2018 3 hours ago, JoetheRam said: Not entirely sure of the usefulness of this, other than to put human PA's out of work, although I'm sure the advertising and marketing men will come up with something. The technological feat is quite impressive I suppose, but the idea of talking to a machine as if it were human is at best stupid, and at worst a distopian nightmare to me. Have fun hobnobbing it up though! Endless applications. Bear in mind that if the software can interpret and respond to spoken words, it'll be even more accurate in its responses to written text. It's a gamechanger Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uptherams Posted May 13, 2018 Share Posted May 13, 2018 17 hours ago, cosmic said: As with most tech nowadays, we’ve got ask ourselves, do we really need this? It’s amazing and worrying etc. but it’s not really solving a problem or enhancing our lives. Home hubs are the same for me - nifty and showy but largely useless (and that’s before we even go into the ethics/privacy stuff). True. But these things will be there for people to use if they so choose. Most applications will go unused 'directly' by the average person. But some will be so seemless and realistic we will forget or never even know we are not interacting with another human. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TigerTedd Posted May 13, 2018 Share Posted May 13, 2018 Like they say at the end with their experiment getting the google assistant to check opening hours with businesses. I bet you’ll be talking to google and you won’t even know it’s not a human. What makes me laugh though is the thought that making a booking from the providers point of view is a pretty simple process that can be done by a computer in online booking systems etc. So you could develop this technology to work from the other end too, and book people in. More intuitive than the automated lines these days. But the funny thing is that you’d then end up with a computer talking to a computer, but because they’re so good at the nuances of natural conversation, they’ll just start chatting about the weather, and end up in a loop of endless inane drivel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SillyBilly Posted May 15, 2018 Share Posted May 15, 2018 I see AI and automation as just taking away the jobs that make us human so we can give more time to doing whatever work remains. In the future I expect to be driven into work by an automated vehicle which gives me the great "benefit" of being able to work to and from work. And then to sit at work in a nappy contraption which self-cleans my arse and an intravenous drip of coffee which doses me the exact right hit per hour (so I don't have to leave the computer at any point). And then for all my "pointless tasks" like supermarket shopping Amazon or the likes can take care of by machine learning my shopping habits and buying it in for me. They can organise all aspects of my life while I can devote more of this "free leisure time" we were promised to sit on the laptop making the overlords more money. Jokes aside I just don't see the benefit of dehumanising every task when my work hours seem to be going up and up. Perhaps its just me but technology just means more stress as employers stake a claim on whatever "free" time is created. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob The Badger Posted May 15, 2018 Share Posted May 15, 2018 On 12/05/2018 at 13:12, Carl Sagan said: Google may be smart, but one thing that shocked me is that it doesnt know there's no such time as 12pm. Always use 12 noon or 12 midnight: https://www.rmg.co.uk/discover/explore/noon-12-am-or-12-pm Have you read Homo Deus? Fascinating and scary as %$#& Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kash_a_ram_a_ding_dong Posted May 15, 2018 Share Posted May 15, 2018 It's pretty amazing and particularly useful for all of us useless blokes who can't sort this sort of **** out themselves... Slightly scary too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1of4 Posted May 16, 2018 Share Posted May 16, 2018 10 hours ago, kash_a_ram_a_ding_dong said: It's pretty amazing and particularly useful for all of us useless blokes who can't sort this sort of **** out themselves... Slightly scary too. Something that can communicate in coherent sentences, maybe the Whitehouse should give it a try. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.