6 ms·

From the tone deaf product org that brought you google glass and whatever wave was, comes a solution that does not so much pretend to be human for you as it doe

From the tone deaf product org that brought you google glass and whatever wave was, comes a solution that does not so much pretend to be human for you as it does simply dispense with the need for you pretend you possessed any humanity whatsoever at all. Next, google Snap! A robot that snaps its fingers at service people to get their attention...

pknopf 9y ago
Well put. 100% spot on. edit: Google Glass has it's uses. The problem was that Google marketed it to consumers instead of businesses.
- kevin_thibedeau 9y ago
  It was never "marketed" except to devs and status signalers. The only one I ever saw in the wild was from a PHB with no use for it.
  - ocdtrekkie 9y ago
    FWIW, it was great as a status signal! I was in a Panda Express with it once and got asked if I wanted a job by another customer who worked in a nearby building! I wore it for about a year, I still think it was way better at notifications and stuff than the current smartwatch trend. But the main problem was the company making it and it's insistence on first party control. It didn't become possible to get non-Gmail email notifications on it until near the end of it's life.
ksk 9y ago
At some point both sides of the conversation will be done by AIs...
- rtkwe 9y ago
  Eh, more likely the AI phone reservation system will also plug into something like OpenTable or it's descendants and Duplex and it's descendant will just check there first.
  - ksk 9y ago
    Maybe.. but voice is a common data format, like piping text streams in UNIX. Don't need gatekeepers like OpenTable...
    - rtkwe 9y ago
      Yeah and the front of house software we're talking about probably plugs/will plug into multiple similar services. Voice isn't a good analog for unix's text piping because it has to go through encoding and decoding on each end and passes through the lossy phone lines and then through interpretation on top of all that.
      - ksk 9y ago
        Oh, I didn't mean it to be a perfect analogy, because nothing is. Text piping is fragile in other ways because it can be broken trivially by changing the order, formating, padding etc, in ways that voice isn't.
- mywittyname 9y ago
  This will break in humorous ways.
zjaffee 9y ago
I'd argue that this product isn't as much tone deaf as it is a brilliant way to force businesses to move to using online reservation systems. Phone calls always take longer, and rather than just selecting a time you have to present times where there this takes longer when things are already booked.
- s2g 9y ago
  Or they can just start hanging up when this stupid thing calls them.
  - Ajedi32 9y ago
    Seems like a great way to lose business. You just got called by an AI trying to make a reservation for someone. Do you: a) Let it book the reservation, and take the customer's money when they show up. b) Hang up on the AI, potentially losing a sale. "Sorry, I tried making a reservation but they hung up on me."
    - ovao 9y ago
      Some retail businesses don’t accept credit cards. Point being: stranger things have happened.
  - sjs382 9y ago
    You would turn down an appointment/sale because it was scheduled by a machine with a human voice?
    - deadmetheny 9y ago
      Yes. I'm perfectly willing to be discerning on who I do business with.
      - sjs382 9y ago
        Same—we just draw our lines in different places. It's been 15+ years since I've worked in the service industry, but from what I remember of it, I think I'd prefer to take reservations & catering orders from a Google Assistant.
brianberns 9y ago
I read the first paragraph in Movie Narrator Voice and was not disappointed.
jsight 9y ago
I think that it was fairly obvious from the demo that this was demo-ware more than anything else. OTOH, the real use case there seemed to have real value. I can imagine that, in many cases, the request for store hours would be a net benefit.

pknopf 9y ago

Well put. 100% spot on. edit: Google Glass has it's uses. The problem was that Google marketed it to consumers instead of businesses.

kevin_thibedeau 9y ago
It was never "marketed" except to devs and status signalers. The only one I ever saw in the wild was from a PHB with no use for it.
- ocdtrekkie 9y ago
  FWIW, it was great as a status signal! I was in a Panda Express with it once and got asked if I wanted a job by another customer who worked in a nearby building! I wore it for about a year, I still think it was way better at notifications and stuff than the current smartwatch trend. But the main problem was the company making it and it's insistence on first party control. It didn't become possible to get non-Gmail email notifications on it until near the end of it's life.

ksk 9y ago

At some point both sides of the conversation will be done by AIs...

rtkwe 9y ago
Eh, more likely the AI phone reservation system will also plug into something like OpenTable or it's descendants and Duplex and it's descendant will just check there first.
- ksk 9y ago
  Maybe.. but voice is a common data format, like piping text streams in UNIX. Don't need gatekeepers like OpenTable...
  - rtkwe 9y ago
    Yeah and the front of house software we're talking about probably plugs/will plug into multiple similar services. Voice isn't a good analog for unix's text piping because it has to go through encoding and decoding on each end and passes through the lossy phone lines and then through interpretation on top of all that.
    - ksk 9y ago
      Oh, I didn't mean it to be a perfect analogy, because nothing is. Text piping is fragile in other ways because it can be broken trivially by changing the order, formating, padding etc, in ways that voice isn't.
mywittyname 9y ago
This will break in humorous ways.

zjaffee 9y ago

I'd argue that this product isn't as much tone deaf as it is a brilliant way to force businesses to move to using online reservation systems. Phone calls always take longer, and rather than just selecting a time you have to present times where there this takes longer when things are already booked.

s2g 9y ago
Or they can just start hanging up when this stupid thing calls them.
- Ajedi32 9y ago
  Seems like a great way to lose business. You just got called by an AI trying to make a reservation for someone. Do you: a) Let it book the reservation, and take the customer's money when they show up. b) Hang up on the AI, potentially losing a sale. "Sorry, I tried making a reservation but they hung up on me."
  - ovao 9y ago
    Some retail businesses don’t accept credit cards. Point being: stranger things have happened.
- sjs382 9y ago
  You would turn down an appointment/sale because it was scheduled by a machine with a human voice?
  - deadmetheny 9y ago
    Yes. I'm perfectly willing to be discerning on who I do business with.
    - sjs382 9y ago
      Same—we just draw our lines in different places. It's been 15+ years since I've worked in the service industry, but from what I remember of it, I think I'd prefer to take reservations & catering orders from a Google Assistant.

brianberns 9y ago

I read the first paragraph in Movie Narrator Voice and was not disappointed.

jsight 9y ago

I think that it was fairly obvious from the demo that this was demo-ware more than anything else. OTOH, the real use case there seemed to have real value. I can imagine that, in many cases, the request for store hours would be a net benefit.