What’s new: xAI’s Grok Bot can now call a business, talk to a real person, and report back. Musk previewed it Oct 25. It rolled out in early November, for US numbers only.
How it works:
You say who to call and what you want, plus rules (“don’t accept a discount”).
A confirmation card shows who it will call; you press Call.
A live transcript runs, with Take over and End call buttons.
If it’s stuck, a question card asks you. You type, it speaks.
It must say it’s a virtual assistant, and calls may be recorded.
Why it matters:
One creator reportedly cut an internet bill from $84 to $45 a month. The bot paused for approval before accepting.
Not every call works: one rep refused to cancel once they realized it was an AI.
Per the terms (as summarized by AiNews), customers are responsible for the agent’s actions, even unintended ones.
Dev takeaway: Build agents with approval gates, clear permissions, and logs. Google’s 2018 Duplex also handed off to humans when stuck.
Tags: #ai #agents #webdev #productivity
Media
🖼️ Duplex flow diagram (user asks Assistant, Duplex calls the business): https://storage.googleapis.com/gweb-research2023-media/original_images/Duplex_assistant.png
🖼️ Duplex speech pipeline diagram (sound in, text analyzed, speech out): https://storage.googleapis.com/gweb-research2023-media/original_images/Duplex_ASR_system.png
🎥 Peter Yang’s real Comcast call with Grok Bot: https://youtu.be/F-356TczoQU
References & Credits
Teslarati
AiNews, Alicia Shapiro
Google Research, Yaniv Leviathan and Yossi Matias (images)
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