With the recent unveiling of Google Duplex, a number of commentators expressed concern over the AI not addressing itself when on the phone, Google has come out saying that it definitely will let the person on the other end know they are talking to an AI.

During the I/O developers conference in California last week CEO Sundar Pichai revealed the new technology showing attendees how the Assistant can make a call for you to book a hair appointment or table at a restaurant.

During the call the Assistant never told the other person on the end of the call that it was an AI. This sparked debate and criticism over the internet with some saying its unethical that the AI didn’t identify itself.

What #GoogleDuplex presented, celebrated, and normalized, was:

(a) Recording a person without consent, which is a crime.
(b) Deceiving someone for (a client’s) personal gain.
(c) Deceiving someone for (Google’s) corporate gain.
(d) Doing the above in an automated way, at scale.

— Ka-Ping Yee (@zestyping) May 11, 2018

A spokesperson for Google has come out assuring those worried saying, “We understand and value the discussion around Google Duplex – as we’ve said from the beginning, transparency in the technology is important.

“We are designing this feature with disclosure built-in, and we’ll make sure the system is appropriately identified. What we showed at I/O was an early technology demo, and we look forward to incorporating feedback as we develop this into a product.”

Google says the company is still testing the technology over the next couple of months as the company is ‘proceeding with caution’.