Google has been pulling out the big guns to be a worthy competitor in the monopoly of smart devices that Apple dominates year after year. According to CNet, Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced at this year’s Google I/O Conference that Google Assistant will now have six new voice setting possibilities, which includes, none other than, Mr. Chrissy Teigen himself, John Legend. John and Chrissy recently did a promo ad for the new Google Duo video call feature on Google Pixel, so it is no surprise that John has been closely involved with the Google technology camp.
A few possibilities come with this new setting, especially if you use Google Home. Google Assistant already recognizes different voices and responds accordingly, but now every user can choose a different Google Assistant. So for those people with roommates or spouses that aren’t particularly fond of Mr. Legend telling them “Good Morning” or reading aloud their text messages, they can choose from the other 7 options (2 default robot settings and 5 non-famous recorded voices).
In the announcement, Pichai describes the process used to create these simulated helpful friends. It is a process called WaveNet, which can simulate a human voice without much human recording required. In the video you can see John Legend in a Google studio recording a few nonsensical phrases so that the technology can get a better idea of his pronunciations and accent. This may open up opportunities for many other celebrities to get involved.
Chrissy responds via Twitter, of course in only the way that she can:
I don’t even need human John anymore https://t.co/qF885WtXdp
— chrissy teigen (@chrissyteigen) May 8, 2018
The new Google Assistant will also be able to make phone calls and have conversations on your behalf (which could either go very well or very terrible). Other artificial intelligence features include ordering your favorite takeout, teaching your kids manners with a “pretty please” feature, and responding to personalized commands.
Pretty cool. Will John be the last straw for those fed up with Apple?
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