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Siri's creators say they've made something better

washingtonpost.com

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Re: Siri's creators say they've made something better

#61

Post by justsaysmthng »

I have my doubts when it comes to replacing colorful, tactile user interfaces with voice conversations.

I don't like the idea at all. I want to interact with my device using a visual interface, which I can "feel" and interact with, rather than a metallic voice.

I want to see what that pizza looks like, not imagine it.

Voice interface is totally unusable in a place were there are several other people - an office, train, bus, doctor's office - places were we tend to dive into our devices.

Re: Siri's creators say they've made something better

#62

Post by sorbits »

spyder wrote: post #46

It sounds like they still have to partner with the different services to create custom integrations with their APIs so they can interact only with these preprogrammed services. But the real impressive AI thing would be if it could figure how to do the order of a service on its own: mimicking how humans do it by using forms on the webpages or writing e-mails or making phone calls for reservations. That would make the…

Having bots fill out forms and write emails is optimistic, but Google already publish how to structure your (HTML) data to make it readable by their bots so that it can extract useful information for their knowledge graph.

Ideally we would have a standardized declarative service description language that “digital assistants” can use to not just answer questions (already possible) but also purchase services and goods.

Although we can’t just trust any “service” discovered on the internet, someone would need to actually vouch for it before it can be used by a digital assistant.

Re: Siri's creators say they've made something better

#63

Post by WillAbides »

eric-hu wrote: post #59
jonathankoren wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have to disagree. Mostly your right, but I have a very specific fail case that happens every time with Siri. I can't call my wife by name. I have to always call her "wife", because it thinks I want to change my name. Now it's a name in the address book, but it never matches against it. I can also use it dictate an email or search the web, and occasionally it fails (maybe 10% of the time?), but it almost never gets…

Okay I'll bite. What's your wife's name?

Cortana

Re: Siri's creators say they've made something better

#64

Post by jsmeaton »

pjc50 wrote: post #58
natrius wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I expect glorified menu systems to be fantastic . I'd like to replace every phone call I make to a corporation with a glorified menu system.

Indeed. I'd like to see this the other way round: a nice web page representing a business's phone tree and scripts, some forms I can fill the answers into, and then I can have a smart text-to-speech robot wait in the queue and answer the questions on my behalf.

Your idea is mostly right. Instead of a robot waiting in queue though you should receive the call with the information you already entered presented to the agent. Some companies do this.

Re: Siri's creators say they've made something better

#65

Post by takno »

nl wrote: post #24

I always find these articles (and the response to them) a bit strange. The hard part of this problem isn't the voice-part - that is doable. The hard part is parsing the question or order! That is so, so far from being solved. Accuracy rates on QA tasks in academia are around 60-70% (depending on the task), which is much worse than the 95-99% accuracy achievable with speech-to-text. That's why the pizza ordering thing…

But it didn't sound any easier than calling the pizza shop, which is something I hated doing before the internet solved that problem for me. The unpleasant experience was caused by the cognitive load of having an unpredictable real-time interaction with something that wasn't laid out in front of me, not by the fact that the thing I was conversing with was human

Re: Siri's creators say they've made something better

#66

Post by ams6110 »

dzhiurgis wrote: post #51
TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Automated pizza making machines already exist[1] (skip to near end of video to see it in action). Proof of concept: Simply take the end product and pick it up with a multi-rotor and have it autonomously deliver it to the next room. I've definitely eaten some frozen pizza that were as good as or better than the $5 pizza's from Dominos, I'm in Australia, YMMV. I imagine if this was more profitable than the existing tec…

Dominos and Pizza Hut are awful in Australia and New Zealand. $5 here is pretty much poverty food; even McDonalds cost way more. In UK Domino's is ok, but cost around 15 pounds delivered.

I agree that Dominos is awful now. I always thought Pizza Hut was pretty bad.

I think when Dominos changed from real baking ovens to what they now use (effectively a conveyorized giant hair dryer) there was a marked change. They had to change the dough so it would not bubble, because the point of the automatic oven is that you would not need a skilled person to monitor the baking.

The conveyor ovens do save labor. When you have 600-degree baking ovens stacked in decks, and you have to watch for and pop bubbles and turn the pies halfway through, and the difference between a pizza being "done" and "burnt" is about 30 seconds, it requires an attentive and coordinated person (sometimes two or three if they are busy) to manage it all. But the pizzas taste better.

Re: Siri's creators say they've made something better

#67

Post by ramblerman »

justsaysmthng wrote: post #61

I have my doubts when it comes to replacing colorful, tactile user interfaces with voice conversations. I don't like the idea at all. I want to interact with my device using a visual interface, which I can "feel" and interact with, rather than a metallic voice. I want to see what that pizza looks like, not imagine it. Voice interface is totally unusable in a place were there are several other people - an office, trai…

> I want to see what that pizza looks like, not imagine it.

I think you're confusing the matter by lumping voice input and voice output into one bucket.

Think star trek 'Computer show me a map of the omnicrom system and highlight possible habitable planets within 10 light years of our current position'

Re: Siri's creators say they've made something better

#68

Post by justsaysmthng »

ramblerman wrote: post #67
justsaysmthng wrote: post #61

I have my doubts when it comes to replacing colorful, tactile user interfaces with voice conversations. I don't like the idea at all. I want to interact with my device using a visual interface, which I can "feel" and interact with, rather than a metallic voice. I want to see what that pizza looks like, not imagine it. Voice interface is totally unusable in a place were there are several other people - an office, trai…

> I want to see what that pizza looks like, not imagine it. I think you're confusing the matter by lumping voice input and voice output into one bucket. Think star trek 'Computer show me a map of the omnicrom system and highlight possible habitable planets within 10 light years of our current position'

You're right, I'm lumping them together, as per the article:

> Then, a text from Viv piped up: "Would you like toppings with that?"

That's not a very good UX in my opinion.

*

> Think star trek 'Computer show me a map of the omnicrom system and highlight possible habitable planets within 10 light years of our current position'

Yes, it would be a nice additional input method , although sometimes pointing things out (like selecting with the mouse or finger) is a lot more efficient than trying to explain it - "highlight that one.. no, no, not that one, the other one! ... stupid toaster!"

I can see voice input being useful when combined with all the other input methods plus good realtime visual feedback.

My prediction is that we'll have really interesting programming environments and programming languages based on voice input in the next couple of years.

Still, voice input is practical in an isolated space, were there are no other people using voice input as well, so although I see a niche, I don't see it replacing mobile devices just yet.

Re: Siri's creators say they've made something better

#69

Post by bagacrap »

seanp2k2 wrote: post #21
ams6110 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is the case. Only when the store is very busy will they have dedicated phone order takers. The rest of the time the drivers who are waiting for the next delivery, the pizza makers, and/or managers handle the phones. Used to work at a Dominos, though it was pre-internet days. Not sure how much online business the typical store now gets, I know I still always call when I order pizza because it's faster than dealin…

Why not get headsets like they have at fast food places? Edit: I feel like that would be a lot cheaper than even one worker comp claim slipping on a flour-covered floor in a pizza place.

I think it's optimistic to think the pizza making process at Domino's involves any loose flour. I would have imagined frozen and/or refrigerated lumps of premade dough on a rack.
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