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How Alexa knows “peanut butter” is one shopping-list item, not two

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Re: How Alexa knows “peanut butter” is one shopping-list item, not two

#131
post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sentences spoken aloud don't have commas.

OK, bullets then. At any rate ... a one-line of code solution is a flimsy excuse for a product placement.

What single line of code could solve this problem?

Re: How Alexa knows “peanut butter” is one shopping-list item, not two

#132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"coffee cream" AKA "half and half" in much of the US or "half cream" in the UK

I (native UK) have never heard of "half cream", is that like "single cream"?

Half cream is less than single cream. AFAIK single cream has half the milkfat of whipping cream, while half-and-half/half cream has about 1/3.

Re: How Alexa knows “peanut butter” is one shopping-list item, not two

#133
post #114

All of these AI's are not actually even AI. They are client-server voice commands. True AI requires zero internet connection which no commercially included AI on any smartphone or tablet can offer today.

"True AI" (or any kind of AI for that matter) is not defined by the presence or absence of an internet connection.

Re: How Alexa knows “peanut butter” is one shopping-list item, not two

#134
post #63
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No one ever gets a single "peanut". So unless you mush mouth the "S", the reasonable expectation for both your cohabitator and the robot is to bring peanuts and butter. A better question is "coconut, milk" versus "coconut milk".

> A better question is "coconut, milk" versus "coconut milk". Sure, but if you were dictating to a human that would still be an easy one for them to get wrong, depending on how long you paused. I find this interesting with phone numbers. In some countries you hear people say "thirty three sixty two" and they mean 303602

"Coconut" is still an anomalous grocery item. You'd want one of

- a coconut

- [number] coconuts

- shredded coconut

"Coconut" is best matched to that last option, but it's not a natural word choice. (Although it is a natural list entry... do people think of themselves as dictating to Alexa, or as writing the list themselves while happening to use their voice?)

Re: How Alexa knows “peanut butter” is one shopping-list item, not two

#135
post #63
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No one ever gets a single "peanut". So unless you mush mouth the "S", the reasonable expectation for both your cohabitator and the robot is to bring peanuts and butter. A better question is "coconut, milk" versus "coconut milk".

> A better question is "coconut, milk" versus "coconut milk". Sure, but if you were dictating to a human that would still be an easy one for them to get wrong, depending on how long you paused. I find this interesting with phone numbers. In some countries you hear people say "thirty three sixty two" and they mean 303602

[deleted]

Re: How Alexa knows “peanut butter” is one shopping-list item, not two

#136
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would disagree here. Especially in the context of a shopping list. If I were to say 'peanut' 'butter' my interlocutor would probably interrupt me to ask for confirmation because that would be enough to create doubt. 'Peanut' and 'butter' are two unrelated words and it is the absence of pause that creates a pseudo single word. Pauses are extremely important in spoken language and should be exploited.

>If I were to say 'peanut' 'butter' my interlocutor would probably interrupt me I'm on the parent's side on this. "Peanut butter" is such a common item that if someone were to pause in between the words I would assume they just got distracted for some reason. In the context of a shopping list, "peanut" singular just doesn't make sense. A better example would be something like "yogurt ice cream" which is technically i…

Deliberate pause sounds a bit different than a pause caused by distraction.

Re: How Alexa knows “peanut butter” is one shopping-list item, not two

#137
post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sentences spoken aloud don't have commas.

You don't need commas to do that in text parsing either. Newlines, for example, will do. When spoken, a shopping list is not a sentence. There's a small pause and/or different emphasis on the start of each item that can be learned (humans, for one, can discern it). "Eggs milk peanut-butter" sounds different than "Eggs milk peanut butter". (Besides it can easily learn that peanut, singular, is not a thing people order…

You're basically saying that they should build a speech recognition system that links words that should belong together with a hyphen... great then: that's exactly what this article is about.

Re: How Alexa knows “peanut butter” is one shopping-list item, not two

#138
post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A better question is "coconut, milk" versus "coconut milk". Sure, but if you were dictating to a human that would still be an easy one for them to get wrong, depending on how long you paused. I find this interesting with phone numbers. In some countries you hear people say "thirty three sixty two" and they mean 303602

"Coconut" is still an anomalous grocery item. You'd want one of - a coconut - [number] coconuts - shredded coconut "Coconut" is best matched to that last option, but it's not a natural word choice. (Although it is a natural list entry... do people think of themselves as dictating to Alexa, or as writing the list themselves while happening to use their voice?)

The one I thought of was "peanut butter M&Ms"

Re: How Alexa knows “peanut butter” is one shopping-list item, not two

#139
post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A better question is "coconut, milk" versus "coconut milk". Sure, but if you were dictating to a human that would still be an easy one for them to get wrong, depending on how long you paused. I find this interesting with phone numbers. In some countries you hear people say "thirty three sixty two" and they mean 303602

"Coconut" is still an anomalous grocery item. You'd want one of - a coconut - [number] coconuts - shredded coconut "Coconut" is best matched to that last option, but it's not a natural word choice. (Although it is a natural list entry... do people think of themselves as dictating to Alexa, or as writing the list themselves while happening to use their voice?)

If i'm making a list as a reminder to actually pick up items.. coconut will suffice.

Re: How Alexa knows “peanut butter” is one shopping-list item, not two

#140
post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Coconut" is still an anomalous grocery item. You'd want one of - a coconut - [number] coconuts - shredded coconut "Coconut" is best matched to that last option, but it's not a natural word choice. (Although it is a natural list entry... do people think of themselves as dictating to Alexa, or as writing the list themselves while happening to use their voice?)

If i'm making a list as a reminder to actually pick up items.. coconut will suffice.

This is a good point - in reality Alexa doesn't really have to do a great job transcribing at all if it's just constructing a list as a reminder for you later.

If this is a precursor to being able to quickly voice order stuff off amazon to be delivered though it's a different story.

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