Google just demo-ed Duplex, a powerful upgrade to the Google Assistant, that could potentially revolutionize both our personal productivity as well as the expectations we have of AI in our lives. In this demo, the bot not only makes an appointment at a salon but also has a complex interaction with someone at a restaurant and is able to showcase human-like dexterity. As Google supercharges our Assistants with more and more AI here are a few things to ponder – 1. How far behind is Siri now? The ball is in Apple’s court and it needs to prove that it can still compete with Google and Amazon on this front. Facebook and Microsoft seem to be irrelevant here. 2. What will we choose to do with the time savings that result from all of us having smart assistants? I suspect the vast majority will invest it into YouTube or Netflix. 3. Majority of routine and procedural communication (say with banks or telcos) will no longer involve humans and instead be bot-to-bot based on our instructions. What will be the security and privacy consequences of such interactions? 4. Google is seriously…
