MOUNTAIN VIEW: Google unveiled on Tuesday an artificial intelligence tool capable of handling routine tasks — such as making restaurant bookings — as a way to help people disconnect from their smartphone screens.

Kicking off the tech giant’s annual developers conference, Google chief executive Sundar Pichai argued that its AI-powered digital assistant had the potential to free people from everyday chores.

Pichai played a recording of the Google Assistant independently calling a hair salon and a restaurant to make bookings — interacting with staff who evidently didn’t realise they were dealing with artificial intelligence software, rather than a real customer.

“Our vision for our assistant is to help you get things done,” Pichai told the conference in Google’s hometown of Mountain View, California. “It turns out that a big part of getting things done is making a phone call.”

Google will be testing the digital assistant improvement in the months ahead. “Many of us feel tethered to our phones and worry about what we’ll miss if we’re not connected. We want to help people find the right balance and gain a sense of digital wellbeing,” Pichai said.

In another effort to un-tether people from smartphone screens, a dashboard breaks down time spent on devices and how often they are unlocked. Google also planned to add a “shush” mode to its Android mobile software, switching smartphones to a do-not-disturb mode when they are placed face down on a table.

YouTube watchers will be able to set a pop-up message to remind them to take breaks from viewing, according to Pichai. “This is going to be a deep, ongoing effort across all our platforms,” he said.

“To help you understand habits, focus on what matters, switch off and wind down.”

Google was seeking to make services more personal, relevant and intimate from maps to email, Gartner analyst Brian Blau said after the keynote presentation.

“They are taking a very human approach to technology, and convincing you people can continue to rely on Google,” Blau said. “We have seen, as a central theme, trust.”

Much of the focus in the conference was on Google Assistant, the artificial intelligence application competing against Amazon’s Alexa and others.

Pichai also launched an overhaul of Google News that put AI to work finding trusted sources for stories and balancing perspectives to provide fuller pictures of breaking developments.

Published in Dawn, May 10th, 2018