Google has gone to great lengths to enable users to block unwanted calls. In 2018, the search giant introduced the Call Screen feature to combat spam, which uses the Google Assistant voice assistant. He takes over the incoming call, and the user sees the conversation as text and can connect to it at any time. Now, the company appears to be looking to enhance its feature by adding conversational AI to it (a set of technologies that enable devices and apps, like chatbots, to communicate with people in their natural language).
In the latest episode of the Made by Google podcast, Phone app team manager Jonathan Eccles shared the company’s plans to combat spam calls. To begin with, it should be noted that the Call Screen feature already uses artificial intelligence to block unwanted calls. Now the search giant is preparing an update, which is most likely related to the use of the LaMDA language model. This is exactly the model on the basis of which the Bard chatbot was created.
This will allow Google to use “multi-stage, multi-turn conversational AI” in the fight against spam, which Ackles says can open up a lot of interesting things in terms of creating a protective layer before each incoming call. By the way, Call Screen is one of the likely candidates for the implementation of a chatbot similar to ChatGPT. But it’s not yet clear whether Google will decide to use Bard to filter calls and block spam, or come up with a new name for the bot.
Jonathan Eccles does not reveal a clear timeline for when advanced artificial intelligence will appear in Call Screen. He hints at the end of the current year, implying that the update will coincide with a major Google product announcement. By that time, the presentation of the Pixel 8 smartphone should take place. Probably, then details about this feature will appear.
