Google’s incredibly lifelike AI can now call businesses for you – here’s how to use it

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

Google has launched a new AI experiment that calls businesses for you
It can find out prices and availability, then summarizes the info
It’s limited to auto shops and nail salons for now

You might remember Duplex, Google’s artificial intelligence (AI) tool that would call businesses and make reservations on your behalf using a highly realistic AI voice. Well, now the search giant is back with another very similar offering that gives a whole new meaning to the term “robocalling".

This time, Google’s service is called Ask for Me. The idea is it can do the heavy lifting for you by directly calling businesses to get information on pricing, availability, and more based on what you want to find out.

Ask for Me is part of Google’s experimental Labs division. Google gives the example of searching for terms like “oil change” or “nail salons nearby,” and it seems like it’s limited to auto shops and nail salons for now. After you search, you can tell Ask for Me what you want to know about the company, then the AI will call the business and find out the information you’re after. When the call is finished, it’ll send you a summary of prices and availability.

How to use Ask for Me

Three screens of Ask for Me, a Google Labs experiment. — (Image credit: Google)

The idea behind Ask for Me is that it saves you time by conducting the call while you do something else. Right now, it works on desktop and mobile. Note that you need to access it through the Chrome web browser and must be based in a country that works with Google Labs (this includes the United States but excludes Europe, for example).

To get started, head to the Ask for Me website and select the Join Waitlist button. Once you’ve been granted access, you can try searching for tasks or businesses (such as Google’s examples listed above).

When you do that, you’ll see a box titled Ask for Me on the page. Select the Get Started button, pick the service you need and choose Next, add a few more details and tell Google when you need the service, then enter your phone number or email address. Google says you should get a response within 30 minutes.

Yao added that Ask for Me discloses that its calls are made by an AI, and businesses can opt out if they wish. Still, it’s not clear how companies will react to receiving calls from an incredibly lifelike AI that’s almost indistinguishable from a human. Time will tell on that one.

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Alex Blake has been fooling around with computers since the early 1990s, and since that time he's learned a thing or two about tech. No more than two things, though. That's all his brain can hold. As well as TechRadar, Alex writes for iMore, Digital Trends and Creative Bloq, among others. He was previously commissioning editor at MacFormat magazine. That means he mostly covers the world of Apple and its latest products, but also Windows, computer peripherals, mobile apps, and much more beyond. When not writing, you can find him hiking the English countryside and gaming on his PC.