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Locutius Letter #19

Google I/O’s VUI Surprise

In this week’s “HOLY SH!T” moment, Google debuted Google Duplex, an AI system for accomplishing real-world tasks over the phone. It’s already tough to tell a machine from a person on TTS samples (a la Tacotron 2), but Duplex goes more than a few steps further with an AI that can make appointments on your behalf.

First, check out this hands-on video from CNET Then, read Google’s blog post on Duplex: Google's AI blog

Reaction from the tech sector, journalists, privacy experts, and assorted others was a combination of "wow," "oh no," and "oh heck no, I didn't hear any notice or consent in that conversation." Since the demo, Google has clarified that there will be notice and consent (see this CNET article). However, Sarah Jeong (my favorite courtroom reporter) declares No one knows how Google Duplex will work with eavesdropping laws.

S. A. Applin (aka AnthroPunk) weighs in

Motherboard: Google Duplex Puts AI Into a Social Uncanny Valley

Early responses from the Technorati

Google’s Demo Duplex Stole the Show /// Wired

It’s hard to believe AI can interact with people this naturally /// The Verge

Uhh, Google Assistant Impersonating a Human on the Phone Is Scary as Hell to Me /// Gizmodo

Google Duplex will call salons, restaurants, and pretend to be human for you /// Ars Technica

Also, I made a Twitter Moment because embedding tweets in emails is THE WORST: Duplex gets its Moment

Is Duplex classist?

Google not only deceived these people, but turned them into inconvenient interfaces. The woman at the restaurant, for example, had a thick accent, so the implication is you don't need to suffer through the experience of dealing with someone who might not look or sound like you. A machine can do it. - Richard Nieva, CNET

And this...

(If you aren't already, you should be following Kortney on Twitter and you should learn about Appolition, his latest project, which was recently featured in Fast Company's World's Most Innovative Companies 2018 series.)

Here's everything else VUI-related from I/O:

Assistant

Six (or seven) new voices With advances in AI and WaveNet, Google can now create a new voice in a few weeks instead of spending months in a studio. The new voices are already available for your assistant /// The Keyword (Google Blog)

Continued Conversations Assistant was updated last year to let you say “Turn on the kitchen lights and turn on the hallway lights” in one go, but now you can say things like “Turn on the kitchen lights and the hallway lights”. Progress. /// Android Police

Custom Commands Developers can now build custom commands into their products so that instead of saying “Ok Google…ask ______” you can give the command directly to Google (or Assistant running on the device). /// CNET

Google Assistant's Pretty Please helps your kids mind their manners Hot on the heels of Alexa’s Magic Word feature, Google adds a own polite mode /// CNET

Google Announces New Developer Tools for Google Action Monetization, Discovery and Engagement Seamless digital subscriptions, re-engagement via notifications, and better discovery for 3rd party apps? /// Voicebot.ai

Assistant + Home + Smart Displays

Google’s Smart Displays are going on sale in July These displays were...on display…(cringe) at CES in January and you can get one in just a couple of months. I’ve been playing with the LG one and it’s the thing I wanted 10 years ago when I bought a Chumby. Also, if you're thinking about getting one, I recommend getting the Lenovo version. It's the prettiest and has the smallest footprint. /// The Verge

Google says Android Things is finally ready for smart devices Launched to developers at the end of 2016, Android Things will be in the Smart Displays and some Assistant-including TVs, but there will also be Android Things that aren’t Google devices, like medical equipment and public signage. /// The Verge

Google Home Coming to 7 More Countries in 2018: Denmark, Korea, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain and Sweden Google Home will be for sale in 80 countries by the end of the year, but these are the next 7 to get localization (Mexico! yay!). /// Voicebot.ai

Assistant + TV

Google partners with JBL for an Android TV-powered soundbar There’s a cute video and it looks much better than my home situation: We have a smart TV at my house. I can use the Google Assistant (via Home via a Chromecast) to turn it on, but not turn it off, which is super awesome and useful /// The Verge (Here’s a hands-on review from The Verge, too - pay attention to those layers - PlayStation + Assistant!)

Google Assistant arrives on LG's 2018 premium TVs Prices start at $900 for the 55-inch SK8000 TV (it's currently on sale), up to $4,000 for the 65-inch E8PUA 4K OLED TV. /// Engadget

Assistant + Home appliances

Google Assistant update makes Whirlpool voice commands a breeze No more “Ok Google, ask Whirlpool to heat oven to 400 degrees” now you can just say “Ok Google, heat the oven to 400 degrees” - Turn your volume down before clicking because CNET has noisy autoplay ads. :( /// CNET

Cars

Volvo will embed Google Assistant and Maps into future cars Your car’s system will work separately from your phone, so I’m curious about how hand-off will work /// Engadget

AI

Google renames Google Research to Google AI Deep sigh. If you know me, you know how I feel about this. I love the photo at the bottom of the stories page because it was taken in one of our most-used visitor spaces on main campus, not an actual workspace. /// Google AI + The Verge

Wellbeing

Android P now includes Digital Wellbeing features (downtime) I get two kinds of notifications on my phone: text messages and phone calls. But if you find yourself overwhelmed by notifications (OMG, that notification overload when you first download a new app, I’M LOOKING AT YOU INSTAGRAM), then this might be the phone OS for you /// The Verge

Google launches a site on Digital Wellbeing “Great technology should improve life, not distract from it.” /// wellbeing.google

Check out the original “Digital Distraction” presentation A Call to Minimize Distraction & Respect Users' Attention by Tristan Harris on Scribd

This email isnt’ exhaustive, so check out 100 Things Google announced at IO

Non-Google News

Microsoft demonstrates Alex + Cortana integration You’ll be able to say “Alexa, open Cortana” and then you can use Cortana to send an email because Alexa doesn’t do email...yet. I don’t know about you, but I <3 asking a machine to get another machine for me to talk to. Microsoft has a site where you can sign up for more info when it goes live. /// The Verge

Microsoft launches a unified API for all of its AI speech services The unified speech service will combine Microsoft speech recognition service, text-to-speech API, customized voice models and translation service. Currently, these are all available as separate services. I know, this article is on TechCrunch and they have that weird scrolling UI. I’m sorry. /// TechCrunch

Self-driving cars are here They’re starting with local, on-demand shuttle routes in Frisco, TX /// Andrew Ng on Medium

You can now set Amazon’s Alexa as your default voice assistant on Android No maps or phone calls, but you can...do a Google Search? Ok, Alexa. /// The Verge

Introducing Project Kinect for Azure Microsoft is moving Kinect to the cloud /// Microsoft's post on LinkedIn

How uncertainty could help a machine hold a more eloquent conversation ​“Language isn’t really like a decision tree,” Vigoda (founder & CEO) says. “This is trying to be more like a person.”/// Technology Review

Stuff I bought this week

Light up Crocs. Because I'm a mom. If you buy these for your kid, go up a size from their usual Crocs because the back band seems to be shorter and less flexible.

Pour spouts for bottles. I buy olive oil in bulk and decant it into these smaller bottles to keep it by the stove. a) It makes me feel like I'm a chef, and b) Those pour spout things are awesome and I want to use them everywhere.

Until next week!

👋👋👋

Abi Jones Editor, Locutius

Is there something I missed? Want to chat? I’m on Twitter at @jonesabi

Yes, this newsletter contains affiliate links.

Finally, the opinions in this newsletter are mine, not my employer’s (my employer is Google).

[locutius]

Locutius Letter 13: 🤖Bots, ❄️Iceland, and 👂Soundscapes

The Most Important Design Skill For An AI-Dominated World

Admission: I tried reading John Maeda’s Design in Tech Report while standing in line at Passport Control and I had to give up on page 21 (consulting firms M&A) because it was literally unreadable on my phone. Argh. Ranting about abandoned and/or poorly maintained acquisitions aside, this quote stuck with me:

“Computers aren’t good at inclusion,” he says. “They’re good at exclusion, because they’re only based on past data. The business opportunity for the future-thinking designer is in inclusion.”

🖥🖥🖥

Microsoft Soundscape

So often we think about accessibility in terms of telling people about what’s right in front of them (or obstacles in the way), but if you’ve ever travelled to an unfamiliar place, you know that discovery comes from paying attention to what’s off the beaten path as well.

“Obstacle avoidance is not the problem, we have a dog, a cane and our blindness skills for that,” said Erin Lauridsen, Access Technology Director, LightHouse for the Blind in San Francisco. “The gap is knowing where things are and being able to decide what's of interest.”

When I travelled to Tokyo I ran into a lot of problems because I couldn’t read street signs or business names. This is a problem that visually impaired people deal with every day. I recommend watching the video to get an idea of what the app can do. Read more:

Watch the video on the project site (It’s the best explainer)

Soundscape app empowers people who are Blind or have Low Vision to explore the world

Download the app (iOS only, sorry)

👂👂👂

Bots! Why your chatbot needs to care about context

When it comes to conversation design, chatbots and VUIs have a lot in common (and a lot not-in-common..ephemerality, cough, cough). In this article, Gillian Armstrong covers some of the context your chatbot should care about, beyond When, Where, and What (these are things your VUI should care about, too). Read it: Why your chatbot needs to care about context

🤖🤖🤖

More bots: Mental health AI platform, Woebot lands $8M in funding

What makes Woebot different? Before founding the company, Alison Darcy was a clinical psychologist at Stanford. How rare (and great?!?) is it to see someone with subject matter expertise founding a company. Interested in working at Woebot? They’re hiring a creative writer who can specialize in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: https://woebot.workable.com/jobs/655376 Read more about Woebot:

The Chatbot Therapist Will See You Now and

I spent 2 weeks texting a bot about my anxiety — and found it to be surprisingly helpful

😞😞😞

Facebook / Iceland / Linguistics

When I interviewed at Facebook, one thing the Groups team was excited about was that most women on Facebook in Iceland belong to the same Facebook group. Yeah, like Pantsuit Nation, but for *all* of the ladies in Iceland. Granted, there are only 167,000 women of any age in Iceland, but when you’re talking about cultural decimation, those numbers become even more important. In an article in The Guardian, Jon Henley details how digital language chips away at Iceland’s language and culture, one phone at a time, in interviews with Icelandic professors of linguistics and digital media. “Once, outside school you’d do sport, learn an instrument, read, watch the same TV, play the same computer games,”...“Now on phones, tablets, computers, TVs, there are countless games, films, series, videos, songs. You converse with Google Home or Alexa. All in English.” Read more:

Icelandic language battles threat of digital extinction

No mean girls: Why one-third of this nation's women joined same Facebook group

❄❄❄

Locutius Links

Oral-B made a 2-minute podcast for when your kids brush their teeth. It’s marketed for Alexa, but it works on Google, too. / Gimlet Media

Alexa has follow-up mode Now you don’t have to say “Alexa, turn on the kitchen lights.” and then “Alexa, turn on the dining room lights.” You can’t say “Alexa, turn on the kitchen and dining room lights” or “Alexa, turn on the lights for dinner.” But baby steps, eh? / Apple Insider

Microsoft drops ‘Hey Cortana’ in favor of just ‘Cortana’ on smart speakers / The Verge

How Otto, a German ecommerce giant, uses artificial intelligence. This one you'll need to read for yourself. Automation isn't going away. / The Economist

Why you Shouldn’t Skip a Linguistics Analysis Before you Pick a Company Name “The three basic metrics to test for are pronounceability, negative meanings, and existing brand associations.” / Rewind and Capture

Review: I tried Levi's $350 denim jacket featuring Google technology — and it made my commute so much better I’ve tried this jacket, too. All I can say is that I wish they made a ladies version because the cut on this one is strictly for guys with trim waists and big shoulder muscles. Also how 'alterable' is "smart" clothing? / Business Insider

The Feds Can Now (Probably) Unlock Every iPhone Model In Existence / Forbes

Now we know why Siri was so dumb for so long / Mashable

It turns out that humans don’t like robots that don’t like humans. Who could have predicted this?!?! / AV Club (no, not The Onion - this is a real story about people putting BBQ sauce on robots)

Robotic Tortoise Helps Kids to Learn That Robot Abuse Is a Bad Thing. What are the ethical implications of harming a robot? Do we get mad if people hurt their cars? Or are robots more like pets? Is there something predictive about how we treat robots? Or are humans actually smart enough to know that robots don’t have feelings and they’re just machines? Why do we describe breaking a robot as immoral, but we wouldn’t use the same description for a vacuum cleaner? I mean, unless it was a robot vacuum cleaner. / IEEE Spectrum

Robot ethics aside, here are the best things I bought this week:

Melatonin. I just returned from Tokyo and right now I’m confused by two things: 1. Which side of the sidewalk to walk on, and 2. How there is a 16 hour difference between Tokyo and San Francisco, and yet I am somehow not jet-lagged? I’m chalking this up to 3 mg of melatonin on my first night in each place (Yeah, just one pill, one time, each way - for $8.00 you get more melatonin than you'll use in 10 years). At this point, I don’t care if Melatonin is a placebo. I just know that I feel like a normal human being, which should be impossible.

Make your kid happy with a set of My First Temporary Tattoos: Adventure, Creatures, Sports, and More. These temporary tattoos are easy to apply and look cool for a week. The only downside is that a) they're an add-on item, and b) you have to use rubbing alcohol to remove them.

A PURSE THAT CAN FIT A 10.5” iPAD PRO IN A CASE INSIDE OF IT. And that’s all you need to know. Okay, also it is leather, it’s on sale for 70% off of the regular price. And it is SUCH A NICE BAG, with zipper pockets and places to put your charger and your wallet and even your pens.

Until next week! Abi Jones Editor, Locutius Is there something I missed? Reply to this email with a link! Want to chat? I’m on Twitter at @jonesabi Disclaimers: Yes, this newsletter includes affiliate links! I've made $2.14. Thank you, whoever clicked on a link in this newsletter and ended up buying The Hobbit: The Motion Picture Trilogy. And yes, I work at Google. The views in this newsletter are mine, not Google’s, obvs.

[locutius]

12: Why Alexa was laughing at you 😂+ Consensual software

When your VUI refuses to follow instructions

No, it's not the premise for a new sci-fi film - it's what happened on a variety of Alexa devices, scaring the ever-loving-bejeezus out of the people. That is, until Amazon changed the command from "Alexa, laugh" to "Alexa, can you laugh?".

Note that the laugh no longer sounds like a ghost child haunting your kitchen. Also, I can't wait for when people start gaslighting each other using voice interfaces. "Did you hear something?" "No, I didn't hear anything." "I could have sworn I heard something."

Read more:

Alexa, Please Stop Laughing

😂😂😂

Night-mode for Google Home = lifesaver

Unlike every human being in existence, your Google Home or Alexa or whatever you use (What do you use?) doesn't understand the context in which it's responding to your request. Rocking out at 6PM? Guess what, now it's 9:30PM, your kid's asleep, the house is quiet, you ask what year Sputnik launched and get an answer at VOLUME SEVEN.

Great. Now you'r

Smart home devices aren't very "smart" yet, but now you can turn down the volume on your Google Home after hours.

Follow these instructions to set the night mode on your Google Home

. Yes, it's a just a dumb (as in, not a smart, learning from you a la Nest "Smart") scheduler, but it should save you that awkward 11PM blaring trivia answer.

Note: There are TWO (yes, count 'em, two) places where there are settings for your Google Home device. Follow the instructions linked above, that's how you'll find the right setting. And yes, this is a per-device setting.

🦇🦇🦇

Smart Home technology...wastes?!?...energy

In leaky, poorly built, or old homes, smart thermostats and other devices can save energy. But with something like the Passive House (it has 18" of insulation), having a "smart home" doesn't do you a lot of good, energy-wise.

This pair of articles contains some info I didn't expect: most homes have 65 devices sucking down energy at any given time. Wow. (Note: there's some ableism in the articles, ignoring that for some people, having the ability to turn on and off lights without walking through a dark room can be a help.)

Read more:

Vampire power is back, and it's thirstier than ever in the new smart home

Read more:

Smart Home technology won't save energy; it wastes it.

🦇🦇🦇

Consensual Software

No, this isn't about Consent Blockchains (which are a fucking horrible idea - pun intended) - it's an open-source project advocating for better user consent in software design. Take a look at their Twitter account - you'll cringe. And then you'll go update your LinkedIn settings. Consensual Software on Twitter: https://twitter.com/consentsoftware

👍👍👍

"Great Rooms" as a space for introducing new tech

"Great Rooms" are the combination of kitchen, dining, and living space, frequently found in American homes built in the last 20 years. Nowadays we call it an "Open floor plan" because "Great room" sounds like the 90's, but the concept is the same - a giant unified space instead of separate rooms for cooking, eating, and relaxing or entertaining. This paper by Scott Mainwaring and Allison Woodruff explores great rooms, including the hedonic experience, wastefulness, invasiveness, and the implications for technoogy design. Disclosure: Allison and I used to be on the same team at Google, but she doesn't know I'm sharing this paper. And she wrote the paper while she was at Intel Research. Read the article (PDF): Investigating Mobility, Technology, And Space In Homes, Starting With “Great Rooms”

🔗🔗🔗

Locutius links

Trying to cover the "whole world" with the voice interface Scott Huffman, VP at Google gives a brief (2 min) interview on Google's Assistant + VUI + AI / Bloomberg Tech

Projector + Nest Cam = Verifying you know everyone in The Walking Dead Thanks for the laugh, Jina! / @jina on Twitter

Toward an ethical, transparent, and fair AI - a reading list "We also need to remind ourselves that algorithms don’t exercise their power over us. People do." / Eirini Malliaraki on Medium

Cathy Pearl is doing an AMA next Tuesday, March 20th / Proof on Twitter

Ever heard your own echo on a conference call? Arghghg. It turns out that a delay of over 50 milliseconds creates a 'train tunnel' effect and distracts you. This is the technology that prevents that: Echo suppression and cancellation. Always nice to know the technological underpinnings of your work, right? / Wikipedia

💸💸💸

The best thing I bought this week

I'm a huge "25 things on ASOS that are sooo cute" window-shopper (I have never bought something from ASOS, sorry Buzzfeed), so I figured I'd share two essential items. One is for people with dogs. One is for no-dog people.

Do you have a dog? Does it like to chew on things? Get your dog a Benebone bacon dog bone. My dog can eat a Nylabone in 15 minutes. Benebones last for a month. Also, when these come in the mail he hounds me (haha)until I open the box. Required dog photo below. 

Stop trying to manually squish things into your carry-on suitcase. Get yourself a set (or two) of Eagle Creek Pack It Specter Compression Cube Set (they should be ~$32). Stacy-Marie Ishmael recommended packing cubes last year. I finally took her advice and now I regret all of the times I didn't use them. They are AMAZING. I am actually thinking about bringing a robe with me.

👋👋👋

I'm heading to Tokyo tomorrow to give a talk at UX Days Tokyo and teach a day-long VUI design & prototyping workshop. It's my usual half-day workshop, but it'll be live translated line-by-line, so it will take twice as long. I'm also planning more and shorter activities for the workshop since time flies when you learn from activities, not lectures. Wish us luck!

また今度 (next time),

Abi Jones Editor, Locutius Is there something I missed?

Reply to this email with a link! Want to chat? I’m on Twitter at @jonesabi

Disclaimers: Yes, this newsletter includes affiliate links! I have made $1.13 so far. I am raking it in. And yes, I work at Google. The views in this newsletter are mine, not Google’s, obvs