Watch out Google Duplex: Microsoft just demoed its own AI having a full-on phone call

It's called XiaoIce, and it is popular in China.
 By 
Jack Morse
 on 
Watch out Google Duplex: Microsoft just demoed its own AI having a full-on phone call
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Google Duplex isn't the only big dog in AI Town.

The artificial intelligence-powered assistant that can, in certain circumstances, have a real back and forth conversation with a human, has found a bit of competition in Microsoft's XiaoIce (that's a capital I not a lowercase L, and it's pronounced shao-ice).

Microsoft announced back in April that its chatbot — popular in China — could speak and listen simultaneously (known as full duplexing), but didn't provide a demo at the time. That has changed.

The Verge's Tom Warren published a video to YouTube on Tuesday showing a demo of the AI in action at a London event. According to The Verge, the video shows XiaoIce talking with what is reportedly a real person over the phone.

No word yet on whether XiaoIce will play nice with Google Duplex. Perhaps they should make a dinner reservation together to hash it out.

Mashable Image
Jack Morse

Professionally paranoid. Covering privacy, security, and all things cryptocurrency and blockchain from San Francisco.


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