Google gave Google Assistant a weirdly specific backstory

Google
CEO Sundar Pichai at a product event for Google
Assistant.
AP Photo/Eric
Risberg

• Google Assistant loves kayaking.
• That’s according to the weirdly specific backstory
  given to the actress who plays Google’s equivalent of Amazon’s
  Alexa.
• Google executives told
  The Atlantic that they wanted Assistant to be humble,
  helpful, and a little playful.
• Google Assistant also has a BA in art history and won a
  $100,000 on a kid’s version of TV gameshow “Jeopardy!”

Virtual assistants need just the right voice — not too human, not
too robotic.

That’s according to the personality teams at Google and Amazon,
who spend their working days crafting the right tone for Google
Assistant and Alexa.

In a wide-ranging Atlantic feature on
voice assistants, Gummi Hafsteinsson, a Google Assistant
product manager, said the AI’s personality is humble, helpful,
and a little playful.

James Giangola, a lead conversation and persona designer, even
created a whole backstory for the actress who plays Google’s
smart helper. Here’s what he told us about the female voice of
Google:

• She is from Colorado, which was chosen because it’s a region
  that lacks a distinctive accent.
• She’s the youngest daughter of a research librarian and a
  physics professor. The Atlantic didn’t elaborate on how many
  siblings she has.
• Assistant has a BA in art history from Northwestern.
• She won $100,000 on the kid’s version of “Jeopardy!”
• She used to work as a personal assistant to “a very popular
  late-night-TV satirical pundit.”
• Oh, and she enjoys kayaking.

The Atlantic reports that one of Giangola’s colleagues once
questioned the wisdom of that final detail, asking: “How does
someone sound like they’re into kayaking?”

Then during auditions, Giangola turned to the colleague and
asked: “The candidate who just gave an audition — do you think
she sounded energetic, like she’s up for kayaking?”

His colleague replied no, and Giangola said “Okay. There you go.”

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