Tag: AI

At Google I/O in May, the company demonstrated what was both one of the coolest and most controversial future aspects of Google Assistant.  Using a human sounding voice, referred to as Duplex, Assistant placed a phone call on the users behalf to set an appointment.  The reaction to this has ranged from it being fake all the way around to this being the first indicator of the rise of the machines against humanity.  But the fact is that the technology is there and Google’s AI technology is stunningly powerful.  And it won’t be long before you get to try it yourself.

Google today published a video on their YouTube channel that highlights how Assistant will be able to get things done for you like setting up an appointment or reservation without you having to make the call yourself.  Take a look at the video.

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While we are months away from having this smooth of an interaction, the basic building blocks are there now and public testing has begun.

After being announced last week at Google I/O, the new Google News app is now available in both the Google Play Store for Android users as well as Apple’s App Store for iPhone users.  While the app makes the AI-driven news app available, the Google News site is still hasn’t been updated at the time of this posting.

As you may recall, the new Google News app has an entirely new look and feel, drawing heavily on Material Design for its overall look with lots of visual content for news articles.  It is a far cry from the nearly all text-based version of the old News app.

If you use the Pixel launcher or the Google app on your Android phone, you will have noted a few changes recently to the feed in apps.  The feed, which rolled out with the Google Now launcher, has slowly been improved to provide you more accurate or interesting information to you based on your habits.  Today, Google has pushed the big red button and with a server-side update, everyone’s feed is now showing these improvements.

Inside the Google app, you will see a much improved lists of articles and topics that are potentially of interest to you.  They did this by heavily leaning on Artificial Intelligence to bubble up things that you may find of interest based on other articles you have read or other interactions with Google along with local information on events happening around you.

A new beta of Microsoft Cortana, the personal assistant AI from the Redmond company, is out for Android and with it comes a pretty nice new feature.  In the beta, you can allow Cortana to have access to your Lock Screen.  Why is that a big deal?  You could ask Cortana for information without having to actually unlock your phone.  It appears to function in nearly an identical way to Google Assistant in the Google Pixel Launcher or the Google Now Launcher.

Cortana, the AI character from the Halo series, is perhaps the most forgotten of the AI assistance out there, behind Apple’s Siri and Google Assistant.  But it is a solid performer and is integrated into Windows 10 and in Windows 10 Phone.