Google has ‘killed’ this AI-powered service: All the details – Times of India

Joining the already crowded Google ‘graveyard’ is another service from the tech giant. According to a report by TechCrunch, Google has shut down Duplex on the Web. “Duplex on the Web is deprecated, and will no longer be supported as of December, 2022. Any automation features enabled by Duplex on the Web will no longer be supported after this date,” said Google in a note.
What is Duplex on the Web?
Designed primarily for businesses, Duplex on the Web enabled Google Assistant to perform different actions on a website. Google introduced Duplex on the Web at its 2019 I/O annual developer conference. Duplex on the Web could perform many tasks, including assisted checkouts for online retail outlets, order food from restaurant websites, and even ticket purchases from movie websites.

Why did Google ‘kill’ Duplex on the Web
In an email, a Google spokesperson told TechCrunch, “As we continue to improve the Duplex experience, we’re responding to the feedback we’ve heard from users and developers about how to make it even better.” However, it’s not clear why the service was shut down.
A recent report by The Information suggested that Google wasn’t too keen to invest in developing Google Assistant for devices that aren’t made by Google. The report said rather than that Google believes investing in hardware could be more profitable for the company.
Google ‘graveyard’: what is it
Over the last decade or so, Google has shuttered down many products and services, which has led to the term Google ‘graveyard’. For instance, this year Google shut down the Hangouts app and integrated into the main Google Chat app. It did a similar exercise with the Google Duo app as it merged into the Meet app.