The article title is "Google’s AI can now make phone calls for you".

This reminds me of Google IO 2016 (I think) where they had Google Now call to confirm details.

Everything old is new (and AI).

really diabolical to make this opt-out instead of opt-in

Google probably calculated that they'll win more customers with this tech than they lose. If they calculated at all, and it's not just another stab in the dark like many Google products.