So, I tolerate the "ums" and "ahs" and "uhs" in conversation from humans because they're human. If an AI is going to speak to me (gods forbid), it better be concise and clear and focused, or I'm throwing it out the fucking window.

It is interesting that they've done this reasonably successfully, impressive technology. Novel ideas can have inherent value, absent direct uses they may have, as they can be a stepping stone toward other inventions. But, I'm having a hard time coming up with a use case that isn't predatory or intentionally misleading. Company support agents pretending to be human, for instance. Or, taking the next step on AI girlfriend/boyfriend type interactions. Or, outright scams. Models already do an excellent job with voice cloning, at least for intonation and timbre, adding realistic conversational tics makes it even more likely grandma is going to fall for it when her "nephew" calls needing help.

But, that seems to be extremely common with new tech these days. There's always an angle that is unsavory. Marketing, scams, propaganda, surveillance, killing, that's where the money is, so everything bends toward them.

I came here to say the same thing. I don't want a computer constantly inserting stop words, pauses, laughing unnecessarily and interrupting me. This seems technically impressive but is not something I'd want to interact with.

I also don't get the need for all these imperfections. In some examples it sounds like "she" is half asleep or even tipsy. If I want to talk to an all powered machine that knows my codebase inside out, or that can discuss about technical topics like the universe, science, or a specific technical book, etc... I expect it to be an eloquent speaker, capable of a good cadence, and that's easy to understand. I don't need it to mimic all the imperfections, I want it to be like when I'm talking to a really smart person that keeps me engaged and makes me feel smart.

Especially when you keep in mind that not everyone knows english as their first language. I know he's a bit controversial sometimes but Neil deGrasse Tyson is easy to understand and explained interesting topics in his podcast (I could still understand most of it when I was still getting used to listening to english 15+ years ago).

If conversation is the new interface then we will need UX designers to take care of this.