SAN FRANCISCO - The new Google digital assistant converses so naturally it may seem like a real person. Tell the Google Assistant to book a table for four at 6:00 pm, it tends to the phone call in a human-sounding voice complete with "speech disfluencies" such as "ums" and "uhs." The digital assistant was also programmed to understand when to respond quickly, such as after someone says "hello," versus pausing as a person might before answering complex questions. Google will be testing the digital assistant improvement in the months ahead. "Google Duplex is the most incredible, terrifying thing out of #IO18 so far," tweeted Chris Messina, a product designer whose resume includes Google and bringing the idea of the hashtag to Twitter.

Source: Bangkok Post May 10, 2018 01:52 UTC