Google Assistant making calls pretending to be human not only without disclosing that it's a bot, but adding "ummm" and "aaah" to deceive the human on the other end with the room cheering it... horrifying. Silicon Valley is ethically lost, rudderless and has not learned a thing.
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Replying to @zeynep
I agree this is a questionable decision. But hyperbolic reactions like this only really get people to stop listening. ‘Ethically lost’? What, all of the hundreds of thousand of people building things across an entire industry?
24 replies 4 retweets 251 likes -
Replying to @benedictevans @zeynep
I would add this after a few decades of thought on this very subject. Imagine if this was a prosthetic voice for a human. Would the disclosed still be needed? Would we require a test that the prosthetic was “necessary”? Slippery slope folks...
2 replies 0 retweets 2 likes -
Replying to @BrianRoemmele @benedictevans
Many reasonable uses for synthetic voices, with disinfluencers to normalize it even, as replacement or as extension, sure. Start it off the wrong foot—it gets perceived as attached to deception and is cheered on wildly as such—you lose possibilities. The room should have gasped.
2 replies 1 retweet 10 likes
Really, great point! I agree.
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