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Apple's latest attempt to launch the new Siri runs into snags

bloomberg.com

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Re: Apple's latest attempt to launch the new Siri runs into snags

#121

Post by lxgr »

onion2k wrote: post #112
halapro wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's not core to their business You're not thinking ahead. AI isn't just chat bots and image editing. I want to tell my phone: I'm road tripping to XYZ tomorrow, 10 am to 5 pm. and have my phone become a guide for the day, including stops it knows I like and hotel in my price range with the amenities it knows I need. If I get hungry it just slips in a stop wherever I ask. This can come as an "everything app" or it…

I think that sounds like an incredible feature, but like so many things my phone can already do I'd never actually use it. I just don't want to become someone who does what their phone suggests. Plus I have a partner and friends, so unless we all want to follow my phone's instructions it's not going to work.

That's the neat thing about suggestions: You don't have to follow them.

Re: Apple's latest attempt to launch the new Siri runs into snags

#122

Post by onion2k »

janalsncm wrote: post #114
onion2k wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that sounds like an incredible feature, but like so many things my phone can already do I'd never actually use it. I just don't want to become someone who does what their phone suggests. Plus I have a partner and friends, so unless we all want to follow my phone's instructions it's not going to work.

Most people do not use most of the features in their phones. But those features exist because all of the features are used by some people.

I'm not arguing that the feature wouldn't be used at all, just that I believe I'm fairly typical in not using clever phone features. It'd be used by a small number of people but that wouldn't make a noticeable change in marketshare if Android had it and iOS didn't.

To be honest, there probably isn't any feature of a phone OS would make a difference these days. People have decided which camp they're in and they're not going to change.

Re: Apple's latest attempt to launch the new Siri runs into snags

#123

Post by lxgr »

mitemte wrote: post #113
halapro wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's not core to their business You're not thinking ahead. AI isn't just chat bots and image editing. I want to tell my phone: I'm road tripping to XYZ tomorrow, 10 am to 5 pm. and have my phone become a guide for the day, including stops it knows I like and hotel in my price range with the amenities it knows I need. If I get hungry it just slips in a stop wherever I ask. This can come as an "everything app" or it…

Do you actually want that built into the OS? To me, this is an app but an invasion of privacy if it’s integrated into the OS.

After having given Openclaw a try as my "personal assistant" for a day when traveling, I 100% want this to be one possible way I can interact with my computer going forward.

Of course it's failed hilariously in many instances, is currently not private (I want local inference before giving it access to anything material, or it'll indeed be a privacy nightmare), and crashes all the time, but the fact that a (not yet) walking, talking CVE can do a better job at this than one of the most wealthy corporations in the world after several years of trying should give them some serious pause.

Re: Apple's latest attempt to launch the new Siri runs into snags

#124

Post by lxgr »

mrweasel wrote: post #116

It's hard to imagine that just killing off Siri would hurt iPhone sales. It would be interesting to know how many people actually use, or even want Siri, or any type of voice assistant for that matter. The primary value of Siri is to check a box for investors, who are riding the AI wave. The same people how rode the voice assistant wave 15 years ago. There's a lot of AI features that makes sense for Apple to include…

> It would be interesting to know how many people actually use, or even want Siri, or any type of voice assistant for that matter.

Do you drive to work?

I don't either, but I suspect anyone that does, and that's hundreds of millions of people in the US alone, would get a lot of value out of a version of Siri that can actually act as a "personal assistant", capable of doing things like booking a doctor's appointment that fits into their calendar, summarizing email, canceling subscriptions etc.

And beyond that, I suspect the main reason voice assistants haven't taken off yet is the fact that they just haven't been possible pre-LLMs. Siri has been voice dial on a prescription-free amount of steroids. Imagine what it could do with actual contextual understanding.

Re: Apple's latest attempt to launch the new Siri runs into snags

#125

Post by pwagland »

mrweasel wrote: post #116

It's hard to imagine that just killing off Siri would hurt iPhone sales. It would be interesting to know how many people actually use, or even want Siri, or any type of voice assistant for that matter. The primary value of Siri is to check a box for investors, who are riding the AI wave. The same people how rode the voice assistant wave 15 years ago. There's a lot of AI features that makes sense for Apple to include…

You would be surprised I think. I know a bunch of people who use Siri, for all sorts of things. I personally regularly use the "push to activate" Siri for quickly setting up meetings et al.

And a *lot* of people want to use Siri while driving, when they can't access the phone, at least not legally.

Re: Apple's latest attempt to launch the new Siri runs into snags

#126

Post by trinix912 »

lxgr wrote: post #124
mrweasel wrote: post #116

It's hard to imagine that just killing off Siri would hurt iPhone sales. It would be interesting to know how many people actually use, or even want Siri, or any type of voice assistant for that matter. The primary value of Siri is to check a box for investors, who are riding the AI wave. The same people how rode the voice assistant wave 15 years ago. There's a lot of AI features that makes sense for Apple to include…

> It would be interesting to know how many people actually use, or even want Siri, or any type of voice assistant for that matter. Do you drive to work? I don't either, but I suspect anyone that does, and that's hundreds of millions of people in the US alone, would get a lot of value out of a version of Siri that can actually act as a "personal assistant", capable of doing things like booking a doctor's appointment t…

I drive, and right now I honestly can't trust Siri to even add a to-do item properly. Sometimes it creates a calendar entry, sometimes it randomly decides to do a web search instead. They haven't really been doing anything to fix this (until now, that is).

Re: Apple's latest attempt to launch the new Siri runs into snags

#127

Post by spyke112 »

mrweasel wrote: post #116

It's hard to imagine that just killing off Siri would hurt iPhone sales. It would be interesting to know how many people actually use, or even want Siri, or any type of voice assistant for that matter. The primary value of Siri is to check a box for investors, who are riding the AI wave. The same people how rode the voice assistant wave 15 years ago. There's a lot of AI features that makes sense for Apple to include…

Anecdotal data coming in hot.

I use Siri daily for controlling HomeKit devices. She's not always on point though. I've named a light basically "Radiohouse", because that's what the designer called it, but 25% of the time she insists of playing radio instead of turning on the light. I'm not a native english speaker and communicate with Siri in Danish, but still. Siri is definitely not useless and I would love for her to become a lot better.

You may be right that the majority probably doesn't use Siri, but that's because it doesn't really make sense to use Siri on the phone. I rely on HomePod speakers to interface with it, that makes a lot more sense for me.

Re: Apple's latest attempt to launch the new Siri runs into snags

#128

Post by lopis »

mrweasel wrote: post #116

It's hard to imagine that just killing off Siri would hurt iPhone sales. It would be interesting to know how many people actually use, or even want Siri, or any type of voice assistant for that matter. The primary value of Siri is to check a box for investors, who are riding the AI wave. The same people how rode the voice assistant wave 15 years ago. There's a lot of AI features that makes sense for Apple to include…

Just because you can't find use in a voice assistant, it doesn't mean others don't. At the very least, Siri is an important accessibility tool and everyone benefits from accessibility.

Re: Apple's latest attempt to launch the new Siri runs into snags

#129

Post by paganel »

halapro wrote: post #93
nilkn wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just my opinion: Apple doesn't need to solve AI. It's not core to their business in the same way that search engines aren't core to their business. What Apple does best lies at the combination of hardware, software, physical materials, and human-computer interface design. This is why they're spending so much more on mixed reality than AI, even knowing that a product like the Vision Pro today isn't going to be a big s…

> It's not core to their business You're not thinking ahead. AI isn't just chat bots and image editing. I want to tell my phone: I'm road tripping to XYZ tomorrow, 10 am to 5 pm. and have my phone become a guide for the day, including stops it knows I like and hotel in my price range with the amenities it knows I need. If I get hungry it just slips in a stop wherever I ask. This can come as an "everything app" or it…

> and have my phone become a guide for the day,

Why would you ever want to do that? Why wont' you stop and live life for a moment?, stop delegating stuff to your phone, especially when it comes to personal trips. Really bleak, this "always optimizing stuff" thing, really, really bleak. Tech-bro culture has done a good one to mainstream culture, because I see the same mindset seeping through to mainstream life.

Re: Apple's latest attempt to launch the new Siri runs into snags

#130

Post by mingus88 »

lxgr wrote: post #123
mitemte wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you actually want that built into the OS? To me, this is an app but an invasion of privacy if it’s integrated into the OS.

After having given Openclaw a try as my "personal assistant" for a day when traveling, I 100% want this to be one possible way I can interact with my computer going forward. Of course it's failed hilariously in many instances, is currently not private (I want local inference before giving it access to anything material, or it'll indeed be a privacy nightmare), and crashes all the time, but the fact that a (not yet) w…

The “failing hilariously” bit is critical for this road-tripping use case.

It’s only going to take one bad suggestion that leaves someone in a dangerous situation to lose faith in simply handing over a whole day’s itinerary to an LLM. Honestly that can go so bad very easily.

We are decades into the GPS navigation era and I still don’t trust the route my vehicle suggests. I have been burned so many times that we literally still compare routes from different providers for a new trip.

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