Google Assistant and Duplex can Listen Better

This made me think a while about the implications.  It does not necessarily imply a loss of privacy, these are the actions-skills that we accept as extensions to an assistant.   Commands.   So would seem it would be very useful to office voice actions ....   So I could say 'Copy This',  and what follow would be recorded.    Or  'Translate this ... And the following would be translated.     We know that Google can do that ... just need better context operation.    As long as we can control the results.  Lately too have been impressed how the assistant can better handle my mis-stated commands.  But should that make us fear for privacy?

Google Assistant actions can now continuously listen for specific words
Kyle Wiggers@KYLE_L_WIGGERS in Venturebeat

Google today detailed new tools for partners developing on Google Assistant, its voice platform used by over 500 million people monthly in 30 languages across 90 countries. Actions Builder, a web-based integrated development environment (IDE), provides a graphical interface to show conversation flows and support debugging and training data orchestration. Continuous Match Mode allows Google Assistant to respond immediately to a user’s speech by recognizing specified words and phrases. And AMP-compliant content on smart displays like Nest Hub Max speeds up browsing via the web.

Google also revealed that Duplex, its AI chat agent that can arrange appointments over the phone, has been used to update over half a million business listings in Google Search and Google Maps to date. Back in March, CEO Sundar Pichai said Google would use Duplex “where possible” to contact restaurants and businesses so it can accurately reflect hours, pick-up, and delivery information during the pandemic. The company subsequently expanded Duplex in a limited capacity to the U.K., Australia, Canada, and Spain, adding support for the Spanish language in the last instance.  ... " 

Google Launches Local Home SDK

In the Google Developer Blog.  Permits you to create better home integration with Google Assistant. Looks to be a considerable direction.  Developer Technical.

Local Home SDK Ready for Actions
Monday, April 6, 2020 Google Blog
Posted by Dave Smith, Developer Advocate

Last year we introduced the developer preview of the Local Home SDK, a suite of local technologies to enhance your smart home integration with Google Assistant by adding local fulfillment. Since then, we've been hard at work incorporating your feedback and getting the experience ready for production. Starting today, we're exiting developer preview and allowing you to submit local fulfillment apps along with your smart home Action through the Actions console using Local Home SDK v1.0.

As part of the Smart Home platform, local fulfillment extends your smart home Action and routes commands to devices through the local network, benefitting users with reduced latency and higher reliability. If a local path cannot be successfully established, commands fall back to your cloud fulfillment.

The Local Home SDK v1.0 supports discovery of local devices over Wi-Fi using the mDNS, UDP, or UPnP protocols. Once a local path is established, apps can send commands to devices using TCP, UDP, or HTTP. For more details on the API changes in SDK v1.0, check out the changelog.  ...."

 Local Home SDK Video Intro:  https://youtu.be/aaaUSeQGLAA 

Google Home Advisor Expands with 30 Services

I am continuing to do a test of voice based advisory systems, comparing the Google Home to the Amazon Echo.   Google Home just announced an expansion of services available.   Looks good but none very surprising.  All very home rather than business oriented.   I am also looking at the business/home overlap.   All of the current major players are building platforms and now allowing external developers to provide new skills and actions.   Continue to look forward to the comparison.   I do like to call these Services as opposed to Skills.  Have yet to see much that embodies the intelligence that might be called a skill.   Any ideas, pass them on.

Google Home expands its mind with more than 30 new services
Now you can talk about news, food, and health with your voice-activated roommate.  By Michael Simon    ....  " 

Google Opens Home to Third Party Devs: My Challenge

Good, now lets see some really innovative efforts.  With AI and pattern recognition embedded.  Not just find me a recipe, or recite the last three headlines or tell me a joke or Order me a Pizza.  Can do those already. We did that in the 90s.  Show me some intelligence.    Impress me.  My GHome is ready.

Not having to enable an action is a good start,  a conversation should detect the need for an action, and get the data it needs to proceed.  The skills/actions competition is good too.

Google will open Home to third party developers   In Mashable by Karissa Bell
The company is opening its voice-enabled Assistant to developers who can start creating "actions" for the device. Early partners will include media companies like NBC News, Buzzfeed and NPR, as well as consumer apps like Quora, Genius and Todoist.

The idea is similar to the "skills" developers create for Amazon's Echo line: companies can create "Conversation Actions" that link their services to Google Assistant on Home. 

Using the actions created by Domino's, for example, you can ask Google Assistant to order you a pizza, or ask for the latest CNN headlines.

Unlike Alexa's skills that have to be manually enabled, Google notes that once developers create a conversation action, they're automatically available. "It really is a conversation — users won't need to enable a skill or install an app, they can just ask to talk to your action," Jason Douglas, Google's product manager for actions, writes in a blog post.   ... " 

Brought to my attention by Walter Riker.