Google reveals artificial intelligence technology to replace humans on the phone, in email, and in cars

GOOGLE is known for pushing the boundaries of technology, but is its new chillingly realistic digital assistant going too far?

ROBOTS officially began their human takeover this morning as Google unveiled a series of creepy new innovations to completely replace human interaction in everything from phone calls to car trips.

In one of the most chilling technological demonstrations to date, the internet giant showed its digital assistant could mimic a human over the phone so convincingly the person on the other end of the line had no idea they were talking to a machine.

The company unveiled the technology at its annual developers conference, Google I/O, alongside other artificially intelligent additions that could write emails and drive cars, cutting humans out of the picture.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai revealed new technology that allowed a machine to make a phone call without revealing its identity. Picture: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images/AFP

But phone calls made by machines pretending to be human, without revealing their identity to the recipient, won gasps from the audience of 7000 attendees.

In two phone calls, the Google Assistant booked a haircut and inquired about a restaurant reservation, with the machine even mumbling “umm” and “mmhmm” to appear more human, and adapting when told the restaurant did not accept reservations for fewer than five people.

Google chief executive Sundar Pichai said the technology, called Duplex, was designed to make phone calls “in the background” of an app so humans no longer had to talk to other people on the phone.

“Our vision for our Assistant is to help you get things done. It turns out a big part of getting things done is making a phone call,” he said.

“The amazing thing is that our system can actually understand the nuances of conversation. We’ve been working on this technology for many years. It brings together all our investments over the years in natural language understanding, deep learning, text-to-speech.”

The technology was also made more realistic thanks to the addition of six new voices in the Google Assistant that use new technology to sound “closer to how humans speak — the pitch, the pace, even all the pauses that convey meaning,” Mr Pichai said.

One of those voices will include that of All of Me singer John Legend, though Mr Pichai said his voice would only be available “in certain contexts” due to limited time spent in the studio.

Attendees cheer before the start of the Google I/O 2018 Conference at Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, California. Picture: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images/AFP

The technology is expected to roll out in the coming months and, although it doesn’t warn recipients they are talking to a machine, Google principal engineer Yaniv Leviathan said the company would “be experimenting with the right approach” before launch.

Mr Pichai also unveiled a new artificially intelligent tool to automatically write emails on behalf of users, tapping into their data such as location and the subject line to suggest content, while Waymo chief executive John Krafcik revealed plans to replace humans behind the driving wheel.

The company, an offshoot of Google that uses its self-driving car technology, will launch a fully autonomous car service in Phoenix later this year that riders will be able to order as they would an Uber ride.

“Soon, everyone will be able to call Waymo using our app and a fully self-driving car will pull up with no one in the driver’s seat to whisk them away to their destination,” Mr Krafcik said. “And that’s just the beginning.”

Mr Krafcik said the autonomous vehicles could also replace delivery drivers for logistics companies.

The future of self-driving technology is under a cloud after recent fatal crashes, however, with technology from both Tesla and Uber currently under investigation.

The tech giant also used its developers’ conference to reveal its Assistant would listen to users even without the “OK Google” wake word in future, the company would roll out a “Pretty Please” addition to encourage manners in “bossy and demanding” kids this year, and would introduce a Newsstand app to let readers take out subscriptions to news sources from within Google.