The person making the haircut appointment for her boss? She’s not a person.

　　那个为老板预约理发的并不是真人。

　　There’s a trend rapidly developing in AI—have it do the things we don’t want to do. Self-driving cars get a lot of attention in this arena. But Google recently demonstrated AI for more mundane tasks. Their system is called Google Duplex—it’s a voice assistant designed to mimic the ways humans speak to one another.

　　在美国，人工智能正在朝着一种趋势发展，就是去做一些人类不想去做的事。自动驾驶汽车在这个领域得到了广泛的关注。但是谷歌最近又演示了人工智能的一些日常任务。他们推出了一种称为谷歌duplex系统的语音助手，旨在模仿人类彼此间的说话方式。

　　Amazon, Apple and other tech companies also make voice assistants, of course. What’s new with Duplex is that it can carry on a conversation seemingly as a human being—that is, somewhat awkwardly. And that’s the point of course—Google doesn’t want Duplex to sound like a machine. In the hair salon example, the woman who answers the phone throws Duplex a curveball:

　　当然，亚马逊(Amazon)、苹果(Apple)和其他科技公司也会做语音助手。但不同的是Duplex可以像人类一样进行对话—听起来有点奇怪。谷歌的技术关键在于其不想让Duplex听起来像机器在发音。在美发沙龙的例子中，接听电话的女士绕起了弯子：

　　There is a point in the exchange where Duplex shows its true colors, though. Listen carefully and you’ll hear a distinct difference between the AI’s pronunciation of “10 A.M.” and “12 P.M.”

　　在接电话过程中，Duplex最大的特点显露出来，仔细听你会听到人工智能在说“上午10点”和“下午12点”时有明显区别。

　　For just an instant, Duplex’s mismatched tones remind you of being on hold with your bank.

　　仅仅是一瞬间，Duplex这种不匹配的音调令你感觉你像和银行柜员对话一样。

　　A second Duplex clip is a bit more impressive, because the person answering the phone doesn’t seem to be fully paying attention. Duplex tells the woman three times that he wants to come by on Wednesday.

　　第二个Duplex试验更令人印象深刻，因为接听电话的人似乎完全没注意到这不是一个人在给他打电话。Duplex三次告诉这个女人他星期三要来。

　　Duplex has a ways to go before it’ll be ready to handle open-ended conversations on random topics. But one day you may be freed from all kinds of unpleasant vocal interactions. Leaving more time for unpleasant social media interactions.

　　Duplex在准备好处理随意话题的开放式对话之前有自己的处理方式。但是有一天你可能会从各种不愉快的声音交流中解脱出来。给不愉快的社交媒体互动留出更多时间。