Close
  • Latest News
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Video
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
Read Down
Sign in
Close
Welcome!Log into your account
Forgot your password?
Read Down
Password recovery
Recover your password
Close
Search
Logo
Logo
  • Latest News
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Video
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
More
    Home Android
    • Android
    • Big Data and Analytics
    • Cloud
    • Development
    • Innovation
    • Mobile

    How Google Is Changing the Way We Plan Dinners, Consume News

    Written by

    Chris Preimesberger
    Published May 8, 2018
    Share
    Facebook
    Twitter
    Linkedin

      eWEEK content and product recommendations are editorially independent. We may make money when you click on links to our partners. Learn More.

      MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Google made its usual series of interesting and semi-interesting product and update announcements onstage May 8 on Day One of its I/O conference at Shoreline Amphitheater.

      But it truly stunned the crowd of about 10,000 developers with these two: 1) a demonstration of Google Assistant conducting very human-like conversations in making typical haircut and restaurant reservations; and 2) the advancements Google has made in packaging and delivering news content.

      We’re only a short time away from allowing our autonomous cars to make traffic decisions in transporting us around town; now it looks like we’re on the edge of letting digital assistants make dinner reservations for us—also without human intervention.

      Google Assistant, though still in development, is becoming capable of making phone calls and having intelligent conversations for users the way an avatar might do it, only there’s nothing robotic or unnatural about how it works.

      Google Assistant Plus Duplex AI is Impressive

      CEO Sundar Pichai demonstrated two phone call recordings placed by Google Assistant—the first to a hair salon, the second to a restaurant. The voices—the first a woman, the second a man—sounded astoundingly natural; the humans on the other end hadn’t a clue they were talking to an artificial intelligence-powered digital helper.

      The Assistant, in effect, was able to think for itself; in fact, in this instance it thought more effectively than the human in the restaurant reservation scenario. The Assistant was very clear, and in a nice way, about what day and time it wanted to reserve a table for a group of four people. The clerk at the restaurant kept forgetting the day, the number of people in the party and whether there might be a long wait for the group at that particular time. It was a very humanlike interaction all the way around, and the demo earned laughter as well as respect for the technology.

      Pichai said that “this is the result of many years of work with natural language processing, machine learning, deep neural networks and other technologies.”

      Google will conduct early testing of Duplex—the AI engine inside Assistant—this summer specifically to help users make the type of hair and restaurant reservations noted above. Once those use cases are locked down satisfactorily, the team will move on to other tasks.

      Pichai said Assistant and Duplex can handle interactions gracefully and react intelligently, “even when a conversation turns into a misunderstanding or results in something unexpected.” In its current test mode, Google said the feature is able to complete most conversations successfully on its own without intervention from a person on Google’s end.

      As one might imagine, there are still instances where it becomes confused and must hand off the task to a human.

      Go here to read a blog post on how Google plans to continue developing Duplex with Assistant.

      How Google News is Evolving

      “We recently started our Google News Initiative and committed $300 million over the next three years to work with organizations and journalists to develop innovative and programs that help the industry,” Pichai said. “There is more great journalism being produced today than ever before. It’s also true that people turn to Google in times of need, and we have a responsibility to provide that information.”

      So Google now is using AI to “bring forward the best of what journalism has to offer,” Pichai said. “We want to give readers quality sources they can trust, but we also want to build a product that works for publishers. Above all, we want to make sure we’re giving them deeper insight and a fuller perspective about any topic they’re interested in.”

      When users now go to Google News, they now will see the day’s top five news stories–using the company’s vast knowledge about you—that Google thinks you would want to see. And Google knows a lot about its users, so it’s probably going to be pretty accurate most of the time.

      “Google constantly threads through millions of articles, video, podcasts and web sites published every minute and assembles the key things you need to know,” Google Distinguished Engineer Tristan Upstill (pictured) said during the keynote.

      Google News also pulls in local news and event in the user’s immediate area. You don’t have to tell the app anything about what you like to read, what your politics are, or what sports team you follow; Google AI already knows, and this all works automatically.

      Of course that can be creepy, but we should all be quite used to this tradeoff of personal information for services by now. If you’re not, then stay with it or get out: the choice is yours.

      It Can Be Invasive, But You Can Control It

      At any point, users can tell Google News to show less or more of any publisher or topic. There are always controls.

      When a user wants to see what stories the world is reading, he or she can switch over to Google Headlines to see general news, sports and features from around the world. The app also brings in YouTube videos along with everything else in real time.

      Newscasts is another new feature that offers a preview of a story as it appears in a newspaper column, so that users can scan it more thoroughly than a headline and sentence or two below it.

      Google’s Full Coverage view, using a technology called Temporal Colocality, is a literal wide-angle look at the day’s news, sort of like physically opening a newspaper to its full width. It collates the people, places, things and action in a story and presents it all in real time.

      “This is by far the most powerful feature of the app,” Upstill said, “and provides a whole new way to dig into the news.”

      Full Coverage presents a topic or single story from many different points of view and media types; users will see standard news stories, videos, podcasts, Twitter tweets, static images and others all on one large layout that’s really made for a laptop or desktop computer rather than a phone.

      For example, a Full Coverage look at the recent power outage in Puerto Rico displayed stories about how it started, how could it have been prevented, if things are actually getting better, and so on.

      Google I/O continues through May 10.

      Image: Chris Preimesberger

      Chris Preimesberger
      Chris Preimesberger
      https://www.eweek.com/author/cpreimesberger/
      Chris J. Preimesberger is Editor Emeritus of eWEEK. In his 16 years and more than 5,000 articles at eWEEK, he distinguished himself in reporting and analysis of the business use of new-gen IT in a variety of sectors, including cloud computing, data center systems, storage, edge systems, security and others. In February 2017 and September 2018, Chris was named among the 250 most influential business journalists in the world (https://richtopia.com/inspirational-people/top-250-business-journalists/) by Richtopia, a UK research firm that used analytics to compile the ranking. He has won several national and regional awards for his work, including a 2011 Folio Award for a profile (https://www.eweek.com/cloud/marc-benioff-trend-seer-and-business-socialist/) of Salesforce founder/CEO Marc Benioff--the only time he has entered the competition. Previously, Chris was a founding editor of both IT Manager's Journal and DevX.com and was managing editor of Software Development magazine. He has been a stringer for the Associated Press since 1983 and resides in Silicon Valley.
      Linkedin Twitter

      Get the Free Newsletter!

      Subscribe to Daily Tech Insider for top news, trends & analysis

      Get the Free Newsletter!

      Subscribe to Daily Tech Insider for top news, trends & analysis

      MOST POPULAR ARTICLES

      Artificial Intelligence

      9 Best AI 3D Generators You Need...

      Sam Rinko - June 25, 2024 0
      AI 3D Generators are powerful tools for many different industries. Discover the best AI 3D Generators, and learn which is best for your specific use case.
      Read more
      Cloud

      RingCentral Expands Its Collaboration Platform

      Zeus Kerravala - November 22, 2023 0
      RingCentral adds AI-enabled contact center and hybrid event products to its suite of collaboration services.
      Read more
      Artificial Intelligence

      8 Best AI Data Analytics Software &...

      Aminu Abdullahi - January 18, 2024 0
      Learn the top AI data analytics software to use. Compare AI data analytics solutions & features to make the best choice for your business.
      Read more
      Latest News

      Zeus Kerravala on Networking: Multicloud, 5G, and...

      James Maguire - December 16, 2022 0
      I spoke with Zeus Kerravala, industry analyst at ZK Research, about the rapid changes in enterprise networking, as tech advances and digital transformation prompt...
      Read more
      Video

      Datadog President Amit Agarwal on Trends in...

      James Maguire - November 11, 2022 0
      I spoke with Amit Agarwal, President of Datadog, about infrastructure observability, from current trends to key challenges to the future of this rapidly growing...
      Read more
      Logo

      eWeek has the latest technology news and analysis, buying guides, and product reviews for IT professionals and technology buyers. The site’s focus is on innovative solutions and covering in-depth technical content. eWeek stays on the cutting edge of technology news and IT trends through interviews and expert analysis. Gain insight from top innovators and thought leaders in the fields of IT, business, enterprise software, startups, and more.

      Facebook
      Linkedin
      RSS
      Twitter
      Youtube

      Advertisers

      Advertise with TechnologyAdvice on eWeek and our other IT-focused platforms.

      Advertise with Us

      Menu

      • About eWeek
      • Subscribe to our Newsletter
      • Latest News

      Our Brands

      • Privacy Policy
      • Terms
      • About
      • Contact
      • Advertise
      • Sitemap
      • California – Do Not Sell My Information

      Property of TechnologyAdvice.
      © 2024 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

      Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.

      ×