Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, relating to synthetic call status updates. In some implementations, a method includes determining, by a task manager module, that a triggering event has occurred to provide a current status of a user call request. The method may then determine, by the task manager module, the current status of the user call request. A representation of the current status of the user call request is generated. Then, the generated representation of the current status of the user call request is provided to the user.

Abstract: Implementations are directed to updating a trained voice bot that is deployed for conducting conversations on behalf of a third-party. A third-party developer can interact with a voice bot development system that enables the third-party developer to train, update, validate, and monitor performance of the trained voice bot. In various implementations, the trained voice bot can be updated by updating a corpus of training instances that was initially utilized to train the voice bot, and updating the trained voice bot based on the updated corpus. In some implementations, the corpus of training instances may be updated in response to identifying occurrence(s) of behavioral error(s) of the trained voice bot while the conversations are being conducted on behalf of the third-party. In additional or alternative implementations, the corpus of training instances may be updated in response to determining the trained voice bot does not include a desired behavior.

Abstract: Implementations relate to determination and visual display of spoken menus for calls. In some implementations, a computer-implemented method includes receiving audio data output in a call between a call device and a device associated with a target entity. The audio data includes speech indicating one or more selection options for a user of the call device to navigate through a call menu provided by the target entity in the call. Text is determined by programmatically analyzing the audio data, the text representing the speech. The selection options are determined based on programmatically analyzing at least one of the text or the audio data. At least a portion of the text is displayed by the call device during the call, as one or more visual options that correspond to the selection options. The visual options are each selectable via user input to cause corresponding navigation through the call menu.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for an automated calling system are disclosed. In one aspect, a method includes the actions of receiving audio data of an utterance spoken by a user who is having a telephone conversation with a bot. The actions further include determining a context of the telephone conversation. The actions further include determining a user intent of a first previous portion of the telephone conversation spoken by the user and a bot intent of a second previous portion of the telephone conversation outputted by a speech synthesizer of the bot. The actions further include, based on the audio data of the utterance, the context of the telephone conversation, the user intent, and the bot intent, generating synthesized speech of a reply by the bot to the utterance. The actions further include, providing, for output, the synthesized speech.

Abstract: Implementations are directed to providing a voice bot development platform that enables a third-party developer to train a voice bot based on training instance(s). The training instance(s) can each include training input and training output. The training input can include a portion of a corresponding conversation and a prior context of the corresponding conversation. The training output can include a corresponding ground truth response to the portion of the corresponding conversation. Subsequent to training, the voice bot can be deployed for conducting conversations on behalf of a third-party. In some implementations, the voice bot is further trained based on a corresponding feature emphasis input that attentions the voice bot to a particular feature of the portion of the corresponding conversation. In some additional or alternative implementations, the voice bot is further trained to interact with third-party system(s) via remote procedure calls (RPCs).

Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for an automated calling system are disclosed. In one aspect, a method includes the actions of receiving audio data of an utterance spoken by a user who is having a telephone conversation with a bot. The actions further include determining a context of the telephone conversation. The actions further include determining a user intent of a first previous portion of the telephone conversation spoken by the user and a bot intent of a second previous portion of the telephone conversation outputted by a speech synthesizer of the bot. The actions further include, based on the audio data of the utterance, the context of the telephone conversation, the user intent, and the bot intent, generating synthesized speech of a reply by the bot to the utterance. The actions further include, providing, for output, the synthesized speech.

Abstract: Implementations relate to determination and visual display of spoken menus for calls. In some implementations, a computer-implemented method includes receiving audio data output in a call between a call device and a device associated with a target entity. The audio data includes speech indicating one or more selection options for a user of the call device to navigate through a call menu provided by the target entity in the call. Text is determined by programmatically analyzing the audio data, the text representing the speech. The selection options are determined based on programmatically analyzing at least one of the text or the audio data. At least a portion of the text is displayed by the call device during the call, as one or more visual options that correspond to the selection options. The visual options are each selectable via user input to cause corresponding navigation through the call menu.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for an automated calling system are disclosed. In one aspect, a method includes the actions of receiving audio data of an utterance spoken by a user who is having a telephone conversation with a bot. The actions further include determining a context of the telephone conversation. The actions further include determining a user intent of a first previous portion of the telephone conversation spoken by the user and a bot intent of a second previous portion of the telephone conversation outputted by a speech synthesizer of the bot. The actions further include, based on the audio data of the utterance, the context of the telephone conversation, the user intent, and the bot intent, generating synthesized speech of a reply by the bot to the utterance. The actions further include, providing, for output, the synthesized speech.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, relating to synthetic call status updates. In some implementations, a method includes determining, by a task manager module, that a triggering event has occurred to provide a current status of a user call request. The method may then determine, by the task manager module, the current status of the user call request. A representation of the current status of the user call request is generated. Then, the generated representation of the current status of the user call request is provided to the user.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus for an automated calling system are disclosed. Some implementations are directed to using a bot to initiate telephone calls and conduct telephone conversations with a user. The bot may be interrupted while providing synthesized speech during the telephone call. The interruption can be classified into one of multiple disparate interruption types, and the bot can react to the interruption based on the interruption type. Some implementations are directed to determining that a first user is placed on hold by a second user during a telephone conversation, and maintaining the telephone call in an active state in response to determining the first user hung up the telephone call. The first user can be notified when the second user rejoins the call, and a bot associated with the first user can notify the first user that the second user has rejoined the telephone call.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for an automated calling system are disclosed. In one aspect, a method includes the actions of receiving audio data of an utterance spoken by a user who is having a telephone conversation with a bot. The actions further include determining a context of the telephone conversation. The actions further include determining a user intent of a first previous portion of the telephone conversation spoken by the user and a bot intent of a second previous portion of the telephone conversation outputted by a speech synthesizer of the bot. The actions further include, based on the audio data of the utterance, the context of the telephone conversation, the user intent, and the bot intent, generating synthesized speech of a reply by the bot to the utterance. The actions further include, providing, for output, the synthesized speech.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus for an automated calling system are disclosed. Some implementations are directed to using a bot to initiate telephone calls and conduct telephone conversations with a user. The bot may be interrupted while providing synthesized speech during the telephone call. The interruption can be classified into one of multiple disparate interruption types, and the bot can react to the interruption based on the interruption type. Some implementations are directed to determining that a first user is placed on hold by a second user during a telephone conversation, and maintaining the telephone call in an active state in response to determining the first user hung up the telephone call. The first user can be notified when the second user rejoins the call, and a bot associated with the first user can notify the first user that the second user has rejoined the telephone call.

Abstract: Implementations are directed to updating a trained voice bot that is deployed for conducting conversations on behalf of a third-party. A third-party developer can interact with a voice bot development system that enables the third-party developer to train, update, validate, and monitor performance of the trained voice bot. In various implementations, the trained voice bot can be updated by updating a corpus of training instances that was initially utilized to train the voice bot, and updating the trained voice bot based on the updated corpus. In some implementations, the corpus of training instances may be updated in response to identifying occurrence(s) of behavioral error(s) of the trained voice bot while the conversations are being conducted on behalf of the third-party. In additional or alternative implementations, the corpus of training instances may be updated in response to determining the trained voice bot does not include a desired behavior.

Abstract: Implementations are directed to providing a voice bot development platform that enables a third-party developer to train a voice bot based on training instance(s). The training instance(s) can each include training input and training output. The training input can include a portion of a corresponding conversation and a prior context of the corresponding conversation. The training output can include a corresponding ground truth response to the portion of the corresponding conversation. Subsequent to training, the voice bot can be deployed for conducting conversations on behalf of a third-party. In some implementations, the voice bot is further trained based on a corresponding feature emphasis input that attentions the voice bot to a particular feature of the portion of the corresponding conversation. In some additional or alternative implementations, the voice bot is further trained to interact with third-party system(s) via remote procedure calls (RPCs).

Abstract: Implementations are directed to providing a voice bot development platform that enables a third-party developer to train a voice bot based on training instance(s). The training instance(s) can each include training input and training output. The training input can include a portion of a corresponding conversation and a prior context of the corresponding conversation. The training output can include a corresponding ground truth response to the portion of the corresponding conversation. Subsequent to training, the voice bot can be deployed for conducting conversations on behalf of a third-party. In some implementations, the voice bot is further trained based on a corresponding feature emphasis input that attentions the voice bot to a particular feature of the portion of the corresponding conversation. In some additional or alternative implementations, the voice bot is further trained to interact with third-party system(s) via remote procedure calls (RPCs).

Abstract: Implementations are directed to using an automated assistant to initiate an assisted call on behalf of a given user. The assistant can, during the assisted call, receiving a request, from an additional user on the assisted call, for information that is not known to the assistant. In response, the assistant can render a prompt for the information and, while awaiting responsive input from the given user, continue the assisted call using already resolved value(s) for the assisted call. If responsive input is received within a threshold duration of time, synthesized speech, corresponding to the responsive input, is rendered as part of the assisted call. Implementations are additionally or alternatively directed to using the automated assistant to provide, during an ongoing call between a given user and an additional user, output that is based on a value requested by the additional user during the ongoing call.

Abstract: Systems and methods are provided for searching and identifying quotes in response to a query from a user. Consistent with certain embodiments, systems and methods are provided for identifying one or more subject entities associated with the query and for identifying, from a database or from search results obtained in response to the query, a set of quotes corresponding to the one or more subject entities. Further, systems and methods are provided for determining quote scores for the identified quotes based on at least one of the relationship of each quote to the one or more subject entities, the recency of each quote, and the popularity of each quote. Additionally, systems and methods are provided for organizing the identified quotes in a rank order based on the quote scores and selecting quotes based on the rank order or based on the quote scores. In addition, systems and methods are provided for transmitting information to display the selected quotes on a display device.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for an automated calling system are disclosed. In one aspect, a method includes the actions of receiving audio data of an utterance spoken by a user who is having a telephone conversation with a bot. The actions further include determining a context of the telephone conversation. The actions further include determining a user intent of a first previous portion of the telephone conversation spoken by the user and a bot intent of a second previous portion of the telephone conversation outputted by a speech synthesizer of the bot. The actions further include, based on the audio data of the utterance, the context of the telephone conversation, the user intent, and the bot intent, generating synthesized speech of a reply by the bot to the utterance. The actions further include, providing, for output, the synthesized speech.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus for an automated calling system are disclosed. Some implementations are directed to using a bot to initiate telephone calls and conduct telephone conversations with a user. The bot may be interrupted while providing synthesized speech during the telephone call. The interruption can be classified into one of multiple disparate interruption types, and the bot can react to the interruption based on the interruption type. Some implementations are directed to determining that a first user is placed on hold by a second user during a telephone conversation, and maintaining the telephone call in an active state in response to determining the first user hung up the telephone call. The first user can be notified when the second user rejoins the call, and a bot associated with the first user can notify the first user that the second user has rejoined the telephone call.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for an automated calling system are disclosed. In one aspect, a method includes the actions of receiving audio data of an utterance spoken by a user who is having a telephone conversation with a bot. The actions further include determining a context of the telephone conversation. The actions further include determining a user intent of a first previous portion of the telephone conversation spoken by the user and a bot intent of a second previous portion of the telephone conversation outputted by a speech synthesizer of the bot. The actions further include, based on the audio data of the utterance, the context of the telephone conversation, the user intent, and the bot intent, generating synthesized speech of a reply by the bot to the utterance. The actions further include, providing, for output, the synthesized speech.