Google's AI sounds so human it has to tell you it's a robot

Google's next Assistant, Duplex, is eerily hard to tell apart from a real person.

The audience at the I/O developer conference where the assistant was demonstrated was said to be partly amazed but partly horrified.

Google says it trained Duplex the robot by playing it real phone conversations.

CEO of Google Sundar Pichai says they thought the technology would take years to develop.

"So what we're seeing is something I thought we'd see in three years and we're seeing it now."

It's not without criticism though, as editor in chief of Wired Nick Thompson points out.

"In short the rise of AI will be either the best or worst thing ever to happen to humanity."

Already Google has been forced to make the robot introduce itself when it calls.

While the bot can save us time making a doctor's appointment, big business could also harness one to convince us to buy things we don't need.

Google says this is only the beginning.

"We are still developing this technology and we actually want to work hard to get this right - get the user experience and the expectation right for both businesses and users."

Newshub.