71Coats tells me about the questions
Googlers consider when crafting a re-
sponse that’s lively but not misleading.
Among them: What does the user hope
to get out of the interaction? How can
Google put a positive spin on the answer?
How can it keep the conversation going?
Then Coats gives me a specific example:
When asking Assistant if it’s afraid of the
dark, it won’t respond with an answer
that suggests it feels fear. Instead it says,
“I like the dark because that’s when stars
come out. Without the stars we wouldn’t
be able to learn about planets and con-
stellations.” Explains Coats: “This is a
service from Google. We want to be as
conversational as possible without pre-
tending to be anything we’re not.”
This often involves analyzing the sub-
text of why someone may have asked a
particular question in the first place.
When asked “Will you marry me?”—
a request Google says it’s seen tens of
thousands of times—Assistant doesn’t
give a straight answer, but deflects that
it’s flattered its owner is looking for more
commitment.
Questions like this can be banal or
emanate from complex emotions. While
it’s unlikely anyone presenting Assistant
with a marriage proposal expects a
serious answer, the company is trying to
systematically understand how various
emotional states differ from one another.
Danielle Krettek’s job at Google as an
empathic designer is to help the creative
writers do that. It’s easiest to think of
Krettek’s role as a sort of emotional
interpreter. Not long after sitting down
with her, I understand why: she’s bubbly
and animated, with facial expressions
that telegraph exactly how she’s feeling
at any given moment. “There are things
that people feel and say, and there are
the things they don’t say,” she tells me.
“My ability to read that is what I bring
to the team.”
Krettek talks her colleagues throughBRAINSTORMS
Google’s personality team
draws on a broad range of
sources to hone the character
of the company’s voice-enabled
Assistant. Writers use notes
and doodles to track potential
ideas that eventually show up
in products like this white-and-
brass-colored Google Home,
top center, and the Pixel
smartphone, bottom right.