Google has revealed how it is attempting to keep business hours up to date on Google Maps by utilizing artificial intelligence, including its restaurant-calling Duplex technology. The company says it will update the information in Maps if it is confident enough in the AI's prediction of what a business's hours should be.
Google highlights the numerous parameters that AI considers while deciding whether or not to make these improvements in a blog post. To determine how probable the hours are wrong, it looks at when the company profile was last updated, other similar stores' hours, and Popular Times data. For instance, if Google notices that a large number of people visit the shop when it's meant to be closed, that could be a red flag.
Google only updates hours with its ai’s predictions if it has “a high degree of confidence that it’s accurate”
According to Google's post, if the hours should be modified, the AI looks at even more data. It'll use information from the company's website and even scrape street view photographs (which could include business hours signage) to figure out when the company is open. Google claims it will double-check the AI's predictions with real people, such as Google Maps users and business owners, and will even use Duplex in some countries to ask businesses directly about their hours.
"We'll only disclose business hours when we have a high degree of confidence that they're accurate," Google spokesperson Genevieve Park told The Verge. If the AI suspects that the hours are inaccurate but lacks a firm prediction, it adds a warning that the hours may have changed.
Even if it can't supply the proper information itself, Google tries to warn consumers about potentially false information.
Park further stated that Google does not explicitly inform consumers when their hours were altered by AI, and that AI is employed throughout Google Maps. Google appears to be confident in its AI-driven strategy. The company claims that it is "on pace to update the hours for over 20 million enterprises around the world in the next six months" in a blog post.
Google also said that it is testing another AI-powered feature in Maps to assist maintain speed limits up to date. In the United States, it will look to see if its partners have captured photographs of stretches of road with speed limit signs, and it will use AI to assist its operations staff in identifying the sign and the posted speed limit.
While it's unsurprising that Google is employing AI to solve these issues, it's fascinating to see how many interconnected systems are involved. There's computer vision, pattern recognition in location trends, and analyzing data about similar locations (which, of course, also requires figuring out what the similar locations are), all to keep up with how frequently businesses change their hours and ensure it knows the speed limit on certain stretches of road.