[svilen_dobrev]

i think it was Eric Schmidt who said that "everyone would need an Assistant" - about 10 years ago. (maybe in [0] ~ 2016). Something to impersonate, talking to it.

Why they didn't do it, even a resemblance of - when they could.. no idea. Instead, meddling with mailboxes and the like.

[0] https://spectrum.ieee.org/google-eric-schmidt-ai

[cmrdporcupine]

They were definitely working on it, and had stuff which they were deliberately keeping behind bars.