Google has quietly expanded its Duplex artificial intelligence to Australia, Canada, and the U.K. The conversational AI, first introduced in the U.S. back in 2018 before being piloted in New Zealand last year, allows you to ask Google Assistant to call a restaurant and book a reservation, for example.
The service"s support page has now been updated with phone numbers that will be used by Google to call businesses in different countries (via VentureBeat). The list, which previously included phone numbers for the U.S and New Zealand only, now shows contact numbers for the U.K., Canada and Australia. Duplex"s rollout in those countries is limited for now as you can"t make restaurant reservations in those territories like you can do in the U.S. That said, the latest development is part of Google"s effort to confirm the operating hours of businesses amid coronavirus-related lockdown, VentureBeat reports. The updated details will be reflected in Google Search and Maps.
At its I/O developer conference in May 2018, Google demonstrated how Duplex can maintain a normal conversation with a real human being. It was first available on Pixel 3 devices before finally going live for iOS and other Android phones beyond the Pixel lineup.