25% of Google Duplex calls are made by human beings

A report by The New York Times on Wednesday revealed that some Google Duplex calls are actually made by real humans.

Duplex is the company’s AI-powered service that helps users make restaurant bookings online via their smartphones.

According to the report, a waiter received a call from a “Google Assistant” who jokingly revealed he wasn’t a robot when asked. Google later confirmed to The New York Times that 25% of Duplex calls are initiated by humans in a call centre while 15% are taken over by a person at some point.

In testing the service further, the publication noted that Google’s artificial intelligence did sound very human when it was the one making calls.

Either way, having people provide at least a quarter of its AI service makes Google’s Duplex rather counter productive.

Currently, Duplex is available in the United States.

Feature image: Google’s Home Mini Assistant-powered speaker, by Memeburn