Microsoft buys Nuance for nearly $20B • Hacker News Board

Re: Microsoft buys Nuance for nearly $20B

#111

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Apr 12, 2021, 2:29 PM UTC

JohnJamesRambo wrote: post #19

bombcar wrote: post #7

Is it just me or have speech recognition platforms like Siri actually gone backwards in the last few years (roughly coinciding with the AI/ML craze)? It feels (anecdata) that Siri is doing a bit better on voice to tex when sending messages but much worse on simple commands like “turn off living room lights”.

Siri is brain-damaged. I am constantly disappointed with how stupid she is compared to Alexa and the gap is widening. I try to keep things as simple as possible with her because she always disappoints me. I wish Apple would open up a tiny bit of those 200 billion in cash reserves on improving Siri.

[deleted]

Re: Microsoft buys Nuance for nearly $20B

#112

Post by hobonumber1 » Mon, Apr 12, 2021, 2:30 PM UTC

DrBazza wrote: post #33

JohnJamesRambo wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Siri is brain-damaged. I am constantly disappointed with how stupid she is compared to Alexa and the gap is widening. I try to keep things as simple as possible with her because she always disappoints me. I wish Apple would open up a tiny bit of those 200 billion in cash reserves on improving Siri.

You clearly haven't had the pleasure of trying to use voice control in a Mercedes-Benz. It makes Siri and Cortana seem telepathic by comparison.

Is that the voice control in the MBUX, or in older Mercedes?

Re: Microsoft buys Nuance for nearly $20B

#113

Post by Nimitz14 » Mon, Apr 12, 2021, 2:31 PM UTC

radicalbyte wrote: post #57

struct wrote: post #4

What does Microsoft get out of this? They already have TTS and deep learning transcription, what technical capabilities does Nuance have that they don't have already (or can't develop for substantially less than $20B?)

Nuance are absolutely miles ahead of the competition the second you're looking any other language than English.

I don't think this is accurate (and I work in this field).

Re: Microsoft buys Nuance for nearly $20B

#114

Post by Alex5899 » Mon, Apr 12, 2021, 2:31 PM UTC

agotterer wrote: post #50

DrBazza wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You clearly haven't had the pleasure of trying to use voice control in a Mercedes-Benz. It makes Siri and Cortana seem telepathic by comparison.

Same with the Audi. I don’t understand why all the car companies aren’t licensing the assistant technology from the big tech companies and using it as the default. I get Siri via car play, but even car play is sandboxed because it can’t control things like the radio or temperature.

If manufacturers use big tech voice assistance, it'd mean extra subscription for the car owners...really sick and tired of these "subscription" thingy. Microsoft Office used to offer one-time purchase, now it isn't an option. Are we going to have everything subscription eventually?

Re: Microsoft buys Nuance for nearly $20B

#115

Post by qwertox » Mon, Apr 12, 2021, 2:32 PM UTC

I knew Nuance sounded very familiar, but when I googled it, the news were about an AI company, which confused me.

DragonDictate / Dragon NaturallySpeaking, that's why it sounded so familiar.

Re: Microsoft buys Nuance for nearly $20B

#116

Post by outside1234 » Mon, Apr 12, 2021, 2:33 PM UTC

CivBase wrote: post #89

Speech recognition in consumer electronics continues to be slow, unreliable, and a privacy nightmare. I can't tell you the last time I saw someone use it seriously. There are reasonable applications for it, but they are few and far between. I wonder what makes it worth $20B to MS. Top comment as I'm writing this says Nuance has a strong presence in the healthcare device market, but I'd be surprised if that alone was…

Talking to Hololens?

Re: Microsoft buys Nuance for nearly $20B

#117

Post by FireBeyond » Mon, Apr 12, 2021, 2:33 PM UTC

ejb999 wrote: post #97

samstave wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And now you know why there will never ever ever be “free healthcare for all” in the US because this is how profitable sickness is. Plandemic.

>>“free healthcare for all” There never has been and will never be 'free healthcare for all' - its not free, it's only free for some people if some other people pay for it.

I'm curious who you think is actually out there laboring under the assumption that healthcare becomes absolutely, and literally, free?

Re: Microsoft buys Nuance for nearly $20B

#118

Post by thedevelopnik » Mon, Apr 12, 2021, 2:36 PM UTC

pinko wrote: post #71

tinus_hn wrote: post #49

So unfair that you are forced with your arms twisted behind your back to spend that much money on such a terrible device! What a gyp!

You may not realize, but "gyp" is a bigoted ethnic slur. Please don't use it here or anywhere.

Yeah this is good to call out. A couple years ago I used it and got dogpiled for racism and I had to say “ok, I will stop using it, but who am I being racist against?” And I got educated, which was good, because I did not know it is a slur against Roma.

A lot of people use it without knowledge of context, so adding the context is important.

Re: Microsoft buys Nuance for nearly $20B

#119

Post by fakedang » Mon, Apr 12, 2021, 2:36 PM UTC

FireBeyond wrote: post #117

ejb999 wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>“free healthcare for all” There never has been and will never be 'free healthcare for all' - its not free, it's only free for some people if some other people pay for it.

I'm curious who you think is actually out there laboring under the assumption that healthcare becomes absolutely, and literally, free?

A lot of Europeans in the lower taxpaying tiers who love to shit on Americans (especially when the American healthcare system has been getting so much coverage the past decade).

Re: Microsoft buys Nuance for nearly $20B

#120

Post by severino » Mon, Apr 12, 2021, 2:38 PM UTC

varispeed wrote: post #26

So Microsoft can see your private repositories, your documents if you use Office, your personal files (one drive), your company communication (teams), now they will be able to listen what you talk about. Where is this going? Should we trust this company so much? I think companies like this should be split up.

Well, they have been doing that for ages already, remember they hold a monopoly on the personal computer operating system software. Of course now it isn't as easy as it used to be as they couldn't just force IE and Bing into everybody's phone, but they're working on it.