The new Google digital assistant converses so naturally it may seem like a real person.
The unveiling of the natural-sounding robo-assistant by the tech giant this week wowed some observers, but left others fretting over the ethics of how the human-seeming software might be used.
Google chief Sundar Pichai played a recording of the Google Assistant independently calling a hair salon and a restaurant to make bookings -- interacting with staff who evidently didn't realise they were dealing with artificial intelligence software, rather than a real customer.
Tell the Google Assistant to book a table for four at 6 pm, it tends to the phone call in a human-sounding voice complete with "speech disfluencies" such as "ums" and "uhs."