A faster, near real-time Google Assistant made its debut at a hardware event held today in New York, where the flagship Pixel 4 smartphone was also debuted. The next-generation Google Assistant can be used to open apps and deliver automated speech transcription from voice recordings, as well as using multi-turn dialogue to respond to multiple commands or queries.
Google Assistant is also getting new privacy-conscious voice commands.
The next-generation Google Assistant was unveiled alongside the Pixel 4 smartphone, new Pixel Buds, Pixelbook Go laptop, a new Nest Mini smart speaker, and Nest Wifi.
Next-generation Google Assistant demo with Pixel 4 onstage at #madebygoogle event pic.twitter.com/KW5T1ky74j
— Khari Johnson (@kharijohnson) October 15, 2019
Google Nest smart speakers got the ability to respond to multiple voice commands with a single utterance of the “Hey Google” wake word in June 2018, while smart displays got the same Continued Conversation feature back in May.
A version of Google Assistant up to 10 times faster first made its debut earlier this year at Google’s I/O developer conference in May. In an onstage demo in May, a Google employee set a timer, checked the weather, asked a series of questions.
Above: Screenshot of automated speech transcription
Faster response to questions when speaking with an AI assistant makes it more likely users will turn to conversational AI from the likes of Google Assistant, Alexa, and Siri to carry out tasks.
In an effort to make more fluid experiences with AI assistants, Amazon introduced the Follow Up Mode, so you can ask Alexa to carry out more than one voice command after saying the “Alexa” wake word. Microsoft also showcased AI assistants with multi-turn dialogue for enterprise customers earlier this year powered by tech from Semantic Machines, a conversational AI startup acquired in 2018.
More to come.
Author: Khari Johnson
Source: Venturebeat
