Google is using AI to update business hours that are out of date on Google Maps

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

To keep business hours up to date on its maps, the company is using artificial intelligence, including its restaurant-calling Duplex tech. If the company is confident in the prediction of hours, it will update the information in Maps.

In a post on its website, the company outlines the various factors it uses to decide if it should do these updates. When the business profile was last updated, other similar shops and Popular Times data are used to decide if the hours are incorrect. If a lot of people visit the shop when it is closed, that may be a red flag.

If the hours should be updated, the post says that the machine will look at even more data. It will take into account information from the business's website and street view images to figure out when the business is open. The company says it will use Duplex in some countries to ask businesses about their hours directly.

When the hours are accurate, they will be published, but only if there is a high degree of confidence that the hours are correct.

Image: Google

Park said that the use of artificial intelligence in the maps is pretty much everywhere else. It seems like the company is pretty bullish on its approach. The company says it is on track to update the hours for 20 million businesses around the globe in the next six months.

The use of artificial intelligence in Maps is being piloted to keep speed limits up to date. In the US, it will try to see if its partners have taken images of the stretches of road with the speed limit signs.

It is interesting to see how many interlocking systems are involved in these problems. There is computer vision, pattern recognition in location trends, and analyzing data about similar locations, all to quietly try and keep up with how often businesses change their hours.