- Google has launched a new AI experience that calls businesses for you
- He can find prices and availability, then sums up the information
- It is limited to car stores and manicure salons for the moment
You may remember Duplex, the artificial intelligence tool of Google (IA) which would call companies and make reservations in your name using a very realistic AI voice. Well, now the research giant is back with another very similar offer which gives a whole new meaning at the term “robocalling”.
This time, Google’s service is called Ask for Me. The idea is that it can do the bulk of work for you by directly calling companies to obtain information on prices, availability, and more depending on this that you want to discover.
Ask for me is part of the Google experimental laboratory division. Google gives the example of the search for terms such as “oil change” or “manicure salons nearby”, and it seems that it is limited to car stores and manicure salons for the moment. After your search, you can say to ask me what you want to know about the company, then the AI will call the company and discover the information you are looking for. Once the call is over, it will send you a summary of prices and availability.
According to Rose Yao, a Google product manager in San Francisco, “this uses the same underlying duplex technology that is used to make restaurant reservations via search / cards.” This suggests that the duplex and asking me are essentially two sides of the same IA piece, with duplexes focusing on restaurants and asking me to help you get more information in local businesses.
How to use Ask for me
The idea behind asking me is that it saves you time by making the call while you do something else. Currently, it works on the desktop and the mobile. Note that you need to access it via the Chrome web browser and that you need to be based in a country that works with Google Labs (this includes the United States but excludes Europe, for example).
To start, head to the Ask for Me website and select the Watlist Joint button. Once you have obtained access, you can try to look for tasks or businesses (such as the examples of Google listed above).
When you do this, you will see a box entitled asking me on the page. Select the Start button, choose the service you need and choose next, add some additional details and say to Google when you need the service, then enter your phone number or email address. Google says you should get an answer within 30 minutes.
Yao added that Demunk reveals to me that his calls have made through an AI, and companies can withdraw if they wish. However, it is not clear how companies will react to the reception of the calls of an incredibly realistic AI which is almost indistinguishable from a human. Time will say about it.
