谷歌實(shí)現(xiàn)人工智能新突破

For many of us, it’s easy to tell if it’s a computer that’s calling you on your phone. Its voice
makes it obvious before it has the chance to finish telling you that you can get a free loan or that you are invited for a customer survey. It’s also easy to hang up – it’s just a computer, after all.

我們不少人很容易就能辨別出是否是一臺(tái)電腦在給你打電話。在電話那頭告訴你獲得免息貸款或者邀請(qǐng)參加客戶調(diào)查之前，電腦的聲音就已經(jīng)相當(dāng)明顯了。這也讓人們很容易就掛斷電話 —— 畢竟那只是一臺(tái)電腦而已。

But Google Duplex, an artificial intelligence (AI) voice assistant, has shown that computers are able to “conduct a natural conversation with a human over the phone and complete simple real-world tasks,” reported tech site Wired.

但據(jù)科技網(wǎng)站W(wǎng)ired報(bào)道，谷歌人工智能語(yǔ)音助手Duplex能夠與人類進(jìn)行自然的電話溝通，并完成現(xiàn)實(shí)中的簡(jiǎn)單任務(wù)。

On May 8 during its annual developer conference Google I/O, the company showed Duplex making phone calls and having full conversations. First, it called a hair salon to make an appointment, before calling a restaurant to make a reservation.

在今年5月8日舉行的谷歌年度開(kāi)發(fā)者大會(huì)(Google I/O 2018)上，谷歌公司用Duplex打電話并進(jìn)行了完整的對(duì)話。它先給美發(fā)店打了個(gè)預(yù)約電話，然后再給一家餐廳打電話訂位。

As CNET noted, not only has Google changed the typical computerized voice, but the company has taken “extra steps to disguise the system to sound more like a human”.

正如科技資訊網(wǎng)站CNET所指出的那樣，谷歌不光改變了典型的電腦語(yǔ)音，還“進(jìn)一步讓該系統(tǒng)聽(tīng)起來(lái)更像人類”。

Duplex comes with imperfections – “umms” and “uhhs” – and uses typical human phrasing such as “Oh, gotcha.”

Duplex 會(huì)使用一些如“嗯”、“啊”之類的停頓語(yǔ)氣詞，以及常見(jiàn)的人類使用的措辭，如“啊，明白了。”

As a result, “the receptionists on the other end of the call have no idea they are conversing back and forth with AI,” commented CNET.

所以，“電話另一頭的人并不知道他們?cè)诤腿斯ぶ悄芙徽劊?rdquo;CNET評(píng)論道。

Some see Duplex as quite a breakthrough – it will be able to help humans cut down on boring tasks. But for the rest, it “straddles a fine line between being convenient and deceptive,” as Wired wrote. People have a hard enough time knowing whether news is real or fake, or what photos are to be trusted. And now, we may not be able to trust our own ears.

一些人將Duplex視為一大突破 —— 它能幫助人們完成枯燥的工作。但正如Wired所寫(xiě)的那樣，還有一些人認(rèn)為，它“跨越了便利和欺騙的界線”。人們現(xiàn)在已經(jīng)很難分辨新聞和照片的真?zhèn)瘟恕６缃?，我們或許也無(wú)法相信自己的耳朵。

Google also mentioned that soon, Duplex will be able to imitate the owner’s voice. While this is a great step forward in AI, it also raises many concerns. For example, students could use Duplex to call their school to pretend they’re sick by using their mother’s or father’s voice.

谷歌也指出，很快，Duplex就能模仿主人的聲音。盡管這是人工智能向前邁進(jìn)的一大步，但它也引發(fā)了諸多擔(dān)憂。比如，學(xué)生們可以用Duplex模仿父母的聲音，給學(xué)校打電話謊稱病假。

Since people are shocked by the fact that a machine can imitate a human so well, Google has promised that in the future the voice will tell the listener that it’s not a real person.

人們對(duì)于機(jī)器能夠如此惟妙惟肖地模仿人類感到震驚，鑒于此，谷歌承諾將來(lái)的語(yǔ)音將告知對(duì)方所聽(tīng)見(jiàn)的聲音并非真人。

According to Alexander Rudnicky, a researcher of human-computer speech interaction at Carnegie Mellon University, technology like this is something people are only going to become more aware of. “We just assimilate this interaction into our culture,” he told Wired.

美國(guó)卡內(nèi)基梅隆大學(xué)人機(jī)言語(yǔ)互動(dòng)研究人員亞歷山大·魯?shù)履峥苏J(rèn)為，人們對(duì)這樣的技術(shù)會(huì)越來(lái)越了解。“我們只是將這樣的互動(dòng)融入我們的文化，”他在接受Wired采訪時(shí)說(shuō)道。