Want to change Google Assistant’s voice? You have six choices now

At its annual developer conference Google I/O, the company said these six options, which feature both male and female voices, would be rolled out later this year.

Technology News : Making the competition in Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered assistants space tougher, Google on Tuesday announced that people will soon have a choice of choosing from six voices, including one of musician John Legend, to talk to “Google Assistant”. At its annual developer conference Google I/O, the company said these six options, which feature both male and female voices, would be rolled out later this year.

Company CEO Sundar Pichai said that Google has been working on newer and more life-like version of its spoken AI that features a natural voice that is “closer to how humans speak.” The improvements include more natural pauses “that have meaning” and other subtleties to help create a “more natural dialogue” with Assistant. This new version of the Assistant is built on a tech machine learning technology called Wavenet, which the company started building out some 18 months ago.

Now instead of having to say “Hey Google” or “OK Google” every time to give a command, users only have to do this one time and then have a conversation with the Assistant. Google calls this feature “continued conversation” and it’ll roll out in the coming week. The new powerful Assistant can now distinguish between two sentences that are joined by “and” and can reply with two different query-specific answers in one go.

Also Read : Google Gmail now gets smarter with security, productivity and AI features

The tech giant wants to bundle its voice assistant into every device and app and is bringing Google Assistant in Google Maps. It’ll be available on iOS and Android this summer. Users can now share estimated time of arrival with their contacts without touching the device.

Further, the Assistant would soon be able to make calls for you to make reservations at restaurants or salons.

It would also teach children to use polite language when interacting with the Google Assistant’s “Pretty Please feature. When kids say “Please” during a command, they would receive thanks from the virtual assistant in response. Google says that “Pretty Please” feature would launch later this year.

The company also brought Assistant-powered Smart Displays. These devices would be launched in July.

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YouTube Shooting: Shooter Nasim Aghdam identified in California; 10 updates

YouTube employees recounted dramatic scenes as they fled the headquarters of the Google-owned video sharing service near San Francisco.

International News : A woman who had voiced complaints online about YouTube opened fire with a handgun at the tech company’s headquarters near San Francisco on Tuesday, wounding three people before shooting herself dead, authorities and media said.

It was the latest in a string of mass shootings in the United States in recent years. Most recently, the massacre of 17 people at a Florida high school has led to calls for tighter curbs on gun ownership.

Police did not identify the suspect or say what might have motivated Tuesday’s shooting at YouTube, a video-sharing service owned by Alphabet Inc’s Google which employs nearly 2,000 people at the San Bruno, California offices.

The woman approached an outdoor patio and dining courtyard on the campus around lunchtime and began to fire before entering the building, police said. An affiliate of ABC and other local media, citing unnamed sources, identified the woman as Nasim Aghdam.

San Bruno police officials could not immediately be reached for comment on the identity of the attacker.

YouTube spokeswoman Jessica Mason could not immediately be reached for comment on the identification by media.

The website NasimeSabz.com, which media said was linked to the attacker, had several posts about Persian culture and veganism, interspersed with screeds against YouTube.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai thanked the police and first responders for their efforts.

“There are no words to describe the tragedy that occurred today. Susan Wojcicki and I are focused on supporting our employees and the YouTube community through this difficult time together. Thank you to the police & first responders for their efforts, and to all for msgs of support,” he tweeted. YouTube headquarters is located some 30 miles (50 kilometres) from the main Google campus in Mountain View.

Full Updates on → YouTube Shooting