People talking about Google assistants and how to automate voice calls underestimate the creepiness of it all. Case in point: @brainblasted got a call and writes about it, here:
https://floss.social/@brainblasted/100086988061659283
Automated voice calls and automated dialects are already used by political parties and businesses. In the end telephony will be like email: a way to be spammed. We will hide our phone numbers and refuse to take calls from strangers. It’s what I already do. #telephony #spam
@Satsuma @brainblasted Of course. Which is why I delisted and then cancelled my land line years ago and kept my mobile phone number unlisted since the very beginning. I am essentially already treating phone calls spam and I’m not alone. Improving automation in this regard will force more people to make the same decisions, I assume.
Doesn't everyone?
@simon_brooke @brainblasted I keep hearing from people with land lines here in Switzerland how they get calls soliciting this or that, proposals to change healthcare insurance and what not. So I guess not everyone!
@kensanata @brainblasted the thing that worries me is when someone works out how to get the AIs to launch a huge pretexting / social engineering campaign. Human voices make everything seem more realistic and "trustworthy" (for now), especially for less savvy people. It could even go further and:
1. Automatically call for a "survey"
2. One week later, call using a different voice. Say there is a problem with the bank account
3. Automatically call the bank and empty the account
@kensanata @brainblasted Spam callers have predate email and plenty of them already use robocallers
The only difference is that google voices caller is a little more realistic