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AT&T is testing an AI-powered assistant designed to screen phone calls for you. The mobile carrier is bringing the feature to a select group of customers this year, and likens it to a “digital receptionist” that can identify and filter out robocallers based on the information from its network, like your call history.
“This is only the foundation of what it can do,” Andy Markus, AT&T’s chief data officer, tells The Verge, adding that the AI assistant could eventually help you make reservations or schedule appointments in the future, similar to what you can do with Google’s AI assistant.
When you receive a call from an unknown number, AT&T’s AI assistant will pick up and ask for more information about who’s calling and why. The AI assistant will patch the call through to you if it meets certain criteria, such as whether it determines the caller is human based on the sound of its voice or if it detects a sense of urgency. Otherwise, it can take a message or hang up.
Image: AT&T
AT&T will use the information from its network to determine whether a caller is someone you interact with frequently, but you’ll also be able to put numbers on a “Do Not Screen” list, allowing calls from lesser-used numbers, like your doctor’s office or your child’s school, to go directly to you.
Markus says that building the AI agent directly into the carrier’s network is what helps make it stand out from other call-screening features, like those launched by Google and Apple. “Using the network, it understands the pattern that you as a consumer have,” Markus says. “Based on what we understand through the network, if my brother calls, we see that I interact with my brother all the time. Of course, that call should go through.”
Google’s Call Screen feature, on the other hand, uses your phone’s contact list to determine if you know an incoming caller. It also detects spam based on what the caller says, as well as by comparing numbers against its database of known spammers and robocallers.
But AT&T’s on-network assistant doesn’t need a specific device to use the feature. AT&T will also let you see the AI assistant’s transcript in real time from its app, allowing you to keep tabs on the conversation while it happens. You can pick up the call at any time, or let the AI assistant handle it and provide an AI-generated summary of what it gathered.
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