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Google expands its conversational Duplex AI to the UK, Australia and Canada

Google is using Duplex to confirm businesses' operating hours in the countries.

Google

Google’s high-tech Duplex AI calling service has quietly made its way to the UK, Australia and Canada. The tech giant originally launched the feature in the US back in 2018 before it started a pilot testing for it in New Zealand a year later. With Duplex, you can ask Google Assistant to call, say, restaurants or car rentals for you, so you can make a table reservation or book a vehicle.

VentureBeat has spotted a change on a Help Center page that shows the phone numbers Google will use to call business owners per country. The updated list now includes the UK, Australia and Canada in addition to the US and New Zealand.

According to the publication, though, those countries aren’t getting the full Duplex experience yet. Google told VentureBeat that this rollout is part of the company’s efforts to confirm businesses’ operating hours using the Duplex AI. The tech giant is taking steps to include businesses’ status and hours in search results, so that people don’t go out unnecessarily while the world is still trying to flatten the coronavirus curve.