[Courtesy of Kakao]
SEOUL -- South Korea's web service giant Kakao has revealed a project to develop artificial intelligence capable of smoothly interacting with humans to assist work at call centers and coffee shops.
"We are developing an artificial intelligence (AI) system that is capable of smooth and natural dialogue interactions to replace specific tasks that people actually perform in the real world," Kakao's AI division head Kim Byung-hak said at a developer conference in Seoul on Friday.
Kim stressed that the new AI system would carry out initial tasks which require simple dialogue such as making restaurant reservations via a phone call or receiving orders at a drive-through cafe before being upgraded to implement comprehensive tasks such as guiding customers at a call center.
Kakao has focused its AI research on the development of AI voice assistants doing simple tasks based on web searches and applications. The company has also developed AI solutions for chatbots which would answer to users' questions in text with its technologies used for AI smart speakers and its chatting app "Kakao Talk".
Every tech company dreams of developing AI, which can fully and naturally interact with people. While AI used in commercial sectors to provide basic interactions through short, simple conversations, the user experience is rather mechanic.
American tech company Google amazed the world in May last year when it demonstrated Duplex, an AI technology for natural conversations, by having a robot call a hair salon to make an appointment. The AI-driven voice not only made the human hairdresser think it’s a person but perfectly spoke in a naturally-sounding synthesized voice. Duplex's voice also used words like "um" to make itself sound more natural.
Such efforts by tech companies to create AI technologies which can assist humans in a natural way is considered a way to accelerate the adoption of AI in daily life because it doesn't require humans to adapt to a machine.
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
