I am not a Googler, and these guidelines are available here: https://abc.xyz/investor/other/google-code-of-conduct.html (since they also apply to investors and external contractors who may not have access to internal policies).

I am not trying to imply you are against the policy, just that it isn't a good idea to make yourself an accessible target in a "witch hunt".

The media is clearly trying to kick up some shit. They know Duplex is hot, and so they try to find another angle/drama/controversy to continue the clicks-cycle. If they had anything of substance, then plenty of AI researchers would be lining up to be cited, warning against AI-hype and winters. The article would be called: "Google faked its Big A.I. Demo!". Now they are still on the prowl for anyone that will dignify them with a soundbite, be that on social media.

Notice how few Facebookers stepped up here on Hackernews, when Facebook was the target of a negative news cycle. There is just no winning, just a lesser of two evils: Take a temporary hit to your pride, or let the media and fellow Hackernews posters take everything you say as an official company statement, attacking you and your colleagues while you weren't even directly involved in the project and can do little to alleviate any concerns or lies.

My 2 cents: The demo was not faked. But of course the samples were cherry-picked to make for a good demo. Also, a large part of the negative coverage stems from irrational fear or misunderstanding of AI, futurism potential, and the first uncanny valley for natural conversation.