Google first announced Duplex as an extension of its phone booking service in 2019. This feature was originally designed to help Android users buy movie tickets.Duplex gave the assistant the ability to navigate websites independently. Provided your credit card information was saved in Chrome, the assistant was able to take on all the hassle of buying movie tickets for you. Google later expanded this feature to protect users from leaking online data. At one point, it also began to be used to check-in for flights and track discounts.
It’s not clear why the Duplex web version was shut down
As for why Google shut down the web version of Duplex, TechCrunch suggests that the decision may be related to the cost of training artificial intelligence to parse websites. However, it is unclear why the service was shut down completely.
In an email to TechCrunch, however, a Google spokesperson said: “As we continue to improve the Duplex experience, we are responding to feedback we receive from users and developers on how we can make Duplex better.”
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