Google’s AI phone assistant Duplex is contacting businesses across the UK and asking them what their coronavirus business hours are.
It is using the responses to update company listings shown on Google Search and Google Maps.
The Duplex AI assistant can be used by people in the US and New Zealand to make restaurant bookings and other reservations.
But those features are not yet coming to the UK.
Google chief executive Sundar Pichai wrote in a blog post that Google was planning to start using Duplex “where possible” to contact businesses about opening times.
The company confirmed to the BBC that it was being rolled out in the UK for the first time for that reason – but not for consumers to make reservations yet.
It is unclear how many UK businesses will receive calls from Duplex ... Read even more
