Two weeks ago, Google previewed its big new product: A smart, ubiquitous assistant that puts Google search and voice interaction inside a wealth of devices and places. It didn’t offer much more detail beyond that.
Here’s one way Google might make its new robot assistant less creepy
Hint: It’s a lot like Chrome.
Google did say it built the product to comply with privacy and security standards, but didn’t go into details.
At the Code Conference in Southern California, CEO Sundar Pichai gave some hints. It will operate a bit like Chrome, the browser that Pichai co-created.
Chrome offers a way for users to hide themselves from Google’s data searching: “Incognito Mode.” The Google assistant, Pichai said, will work similarly — you can have it remember as much or as little personal information as you like.
“Very soon, you’ll be able to just say your name to Google and your settings will pop up,” Pichai said. “You should be able to tell Google, ‘Last four hours: take it off.’ We did that when we built Chrome.”
He didn’t note this, but Google clearly would prefer you don’t take too many hours off. The only way the assistant product can improve its voice interaction is by getting more voice interactions.
But the company is promising an out.
“I want to be able to save every conversation I have with my daughter for eternity,” Pichai said. “Some of my conversations, I want them to be private.”
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
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