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Google Duplex Is Classist: Here's How to Fix It

With Duplex, the Google Assistant can trick people into thinking it's human. It's cool, but ultimately turns service workers into inconvenient interfaces. Google can do better.

By Max Eddy
May 10, 2018
Cyber Support

As always, the rumors were flying before Google I/O. Would the company change up its branding? Introduce new VR hardware? Instead, the most surprising moment was the Google Duplex demo.

Opinions This forthcoming feature for the Google Assistant places calls on your behalf. But instead of putting you on the line to talk, it pretends to be human in order to book appointments, make reservations, and so on.

It's horrifying.

In fairness to Google, its on-stage demonstration at I/O was breathtaking. In two clips, we heard the Assistant impersonate a human to book a hair appointment and make reservations at a restaurant.

In both, the assistant hmm-ed and umm-ed like a real person and negotiated unexpected situations. When the woman who answered the phone at the restaurant said she only accepted reservations for large parties, the Assistant deftly asked if it would be crowded on a particular day.

The assistant's voice was a touch robotic, and there were a few stilted shifts in the conversation, but it worked. The machine tricked the person.

In doing so, Google not only deceived these people, but turned them into inconvenient interfaces. The woman at the restaurant, for example, had a thick accent, so the implication is you don't need to suffer through the experience of dealing with someone who might not look or sound like you. A machine can do it.

This feels very different from what we're used to voice assistants doing. Until now, voice assistants have primarily done tedious digital tasks—setting a timer, sending a text message, and so on. Even when an assistant ordered a pizza or called an Uber, it did so through a digital interface: it talked to another computer. Google Duplex takes "inconvenient" service employees and erases them.

I recently finished watching Downton Abbey, and that series immediately sprang to mind during the Google Duplex demo. I was reminded of how "the help" was meant to be invisible, below stairs until summoned. It was a world where a certain class of people simply did not have to think about the lives of people in their own homes.

It's that antiquated, classist idea that Google drives with Duplex. That service workers are beneath consideration. They should be neither seen nor heard, nor given a thought. In doing so, we devalue their labor because we don't see the work or the people doing the work.

That's not to mention that the people on the phone with Google Duplex are being made to do work created by the Google Assistant. As deft as it was at handling the conversations (and again, it was very good), it surely would have been faster and easier for a human to call the place themselves. There were some moments when the Assistant fumbled, and it was clear that the service worker struggled to make sense of what they were hearing. Why should they have to struggle with the shortcomings of digital speech?

Going Duplex

There are a number of ways Google could fix this. The easiest would be to simply have the Assistant announce that it is a bot. No one likes being lied to, especially by machines. I have received more than my fair share of spam robo calls, and I hate it. Not only because my time is wasted but because a machine tricked me into picking up my phone.

When we heard it at Google I/O, the Assistant said it was making the call on behalf of someone else, but could easily say "I am a digital assistant." But I strongly suspect the reason it doesn't do this is that Google found it doesn't work, and that people hang up on robots.

That deception is also part of the devaluation of the service employee speaking to the Assistant, who doesn't get to opt-in to speaking to a machine or having their conversation recorded by Google.

Another way Google could make Duplex less gross would be to have the Google Assistant make the call but then connect to a real person upon pickup. The Assistant could stay on the line, quietly listening, and use its powerful language parsing abilities to add the final appointment to your calendar. Or perhaps you could hand the call back to the Assistant after the details had been settled to recite payment information—something I hate doing over the phone.

Or better yet, Google could flip the script. Instead of offering Google Duplex to customers who use the Google Assistant, market it as an assistant for small businesses. Let the Assistant answer calls for free, and operate within parameters set by the businesses. Taking it further, I could imagine a future where my Assistant calls a company, identifies that the call has been answered by another Assistant (perhaps using ultrasonic tones) and then switches to a purely digital conversation. But I digress.

Be Honest, Don't Be Evil

I sincerely hope Google changes something about this, because it really is an impressive technology. But it's also one that dehumanizes and deceives one person for the convenience of another. If Google can build a machine that can make me a hair appointment, it can do it in a way that's really a solution.

We're at the cusp of a new phase in consumer technology, one powered by machine learning that's able to communicate with us on our own level. I know this, because Google has been talking about it for years at I/O. The robots are coming, over the phone or in person, and their introduction to the world can't be based on exploitation or a lie.

Editor's Note 5/11: Amidst pushback on the potential for misuse with Duplex, Google said it will tell people they're talking to bots. It's early days for Duplex, according to Google, which promised to incorporate feedback as it moves toward a full rollout.

"One update about Duplex is that before this launches, we're going to have the system disclose that it is an automated agent," Jeff Dean, a Senior Fellow for Google AI, tweeted a day later.

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About Max Eddy

Lead Security Analyst

Since my start in 2008, I've covered a wide variety of topics from space missions to fax service reviews. At PCMag, much of my work has been focused on security and privacy services, as well as a video game or two. I also write the occasional security columns, focused on making information security practical for normal people. I helped organize the Ziff Davis Creators Guild union and currently serve as its Unit Chair.

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