It doesn't have to pass the Turing test to masquerade as you.
The John Legend voice for Google Assistant was apparently made without hours of recordings. Companies like https://lyrebird.ai/ do a basic job of copying your voice with about a minute worth of samples (more obviously helps).
I think it's entirely inevitable that at some point you will be able to customize the Google Assistant to use your own voice thanks to WaveNet and it's successors. Instead of the recognizable assistant making calls, every assistant will be different.
The implication is that Google Assistant will gain a will of its own and start masquerading as end-users for it's own benefit. No. Ain't gonna happen. Not even remotely possible.
Why would "will" and special "intelligence" be needed?
A bad algorithm, that tries to "predict your schedule" and e.g. cancels your meeting when you didn't want to, or sends flowers to the wrong person at the wrong time, is enough.
Think of it like a modern Clippy that can also make calls as you.
This is spot on. The illusion doesn't have to be prefect, just convincing. Huge convenience factor to automation of communications like calls and emails, but it does break the simple mental contract we currently have that "this email was written by Jonathan" and "I'm currently talking to Jonathan on the phone."
Not sure I'm looking forward to a continual game of "guess when it's a robot".
The John Legend voice for Google Assistant was apparently made without hours of recordings. Companies like https://lyrebird.ai/ do a basic job of copying your voice with about a minute worth of samples (more obviously helps).
I think it's entirely inevitable that at some point you will be able to customize the Google Assistant to use your own voice thanks to WaveNet and it's successors. Instead of the recognizable assistant making calls, every assistant will be different.