Considering Duplex. Block or Receive with a Bot?

Good piece in the Verge about Google Duplex.   And how businesses can opt out of incoming calls from it.  Duplex lets you set up a kind of  agent with a script to do tasks.   An example to start with could be making a reservation at a restaurant.   Another might be asking if a particular product is in stock at a location.   Or asking for information about the status of an order.   All with voice interaction. As I understand it the calling agent will always identify itself as an AI.  The fear is that this may get out of hand and these will turn into artificially  generated bot  'robocalls' and tie up the time of small business.  Ultimately too, the receiving call could also be handled by an agent.    In a sense either side of call could be either a bot agent or a person.  Good detail in the article linked to:

How to opt out of automated Google Assistant calls to your business
Reject the Duplex vex         By Natt Garun  @nattgarun in TheVerge

Somewhat buried in a piece I recently wrote about how restaurants have been experiencing Google Duplex — the voice-calling AI that makes reservations on a customer’s behalf — is how the company automatically opts businesses into receiving these types of robocalls if they have a Google business page. While this might be fun for you if you’re interested in hearing what Google Duplex’s strikingly human AI sounds like, you may not want to participate in Google’s machine learning initiative without expressed consent.

Google says its AI may call businesses to make and confirm reservations or inquire about business hours. If, for whatever reason, you want to opt out of receiving calls from Google Assistant, here’s how to ensure you’re blocking these particular robocalls.  .... "