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Siri, What Time Is It in London?

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Re: Siri, What Time Is It in London?

#141

Post by ensiferum »

mattlondon wrote: post #76

I get this problem all the time and I live in "the right" London so it is not just a "nearest London" thing. It is not just digital assistants, but so many other things like Google maps, e-commerce sites, address auto-completes etc seem to assume that I want the North American one with a population of 300k that no one knows about, not the one that everyone has heard of with a population of 9 million. I've always just…

Don't forget the "world series" for major league baseball played in the US and Canada. ;-)

Re: Siri, What Time Is It in London?

#142

Post by raverbashing »

AmericanChopper wrote: post #131
mattlondon wrote: post #76

I get this problem all the time and I live in "the right" London so it is not just a "nearest London" thing. It is not just digital assistants, but so many other things like Google maps, e-commerce sites, address auto-completes etc seem to assume that I want the North American one with a population of 300k that no one knows about, not the one that everyone has heard of with a population of 9 million. I've always just…

For a lot of products, US sales are just worth so much more than sales from anywhere else, that it is reasonably common to not care much about the rest of the world. I’ve worked for a few companies that started out with a heavy focus on localization, but eventually realized it was just a massive waste of money.

Chicken and egg problem, maybe the US sales being stronger are a reflection of the system's lack of ability to deal with international customers (even if only in English)

Though yes, cross-border commerce is annoying.

Re: Siri, What Time Is It in London?

#143

Post by AnssiH »

brnt wrote: post #78
Hamuko wrote: post #11

Same thing happens with Frankfurt. If I order something from Amazon.de, my package usually goes through Frankfurt. When I checked my package tracker app on my iPhone, I was surprised to find out that Frankfurt is actually on the Germany-Poland border. Turns out that if I enter "Frankfurt, Germany" into Apple Maps (which I assume is what the package tracker app does), it takes me to "Frankfurt (Oder), Germany" instead…

If you ever cross the border from Frankfurt/Oder, the first thing you see in Poland is a giant Amazon building. Despite that building being there, Polish people still can't order at Amazon.

> Polish people still can't order at Amazon.

That is not true. Amazon.de is even available in Polish, with free shipping for €39+ orders.

Re: Siri, What Time Is It in London?

#144

Post by ewindal »

toyg wrote: post #95
DangerousPie wrote: post #41

It's ridiculous how Siri is still this shitty. I have an 11 Pro and even on such an expensive phone I can't really trust it to do anything more advanced than set timers. Every few months I try to do something else and just get annoyed at how bad it is. Before lockdown I even had it disabled entirely because it would get activated randomly from time to time, even if nobody in the vicinity said anything remotely close…

TBH, Google Assistant is not that much better. In the last few months it has become absurdly racist against my Italian accent, replying to me in Italian after I ask stuff in English - and getting the question wrong anyway. But yes, Siri is the worst.

There’s nothing worse than being forced to use a language you didn’t explicitly request.

Well, maybe some things are worse.

Re: Siri, What Time Is It in London?

#146

Post by pjc50 »

DangerousPie wrote: post #41

It's ridiculous how Siri is still this shitty. I have an 11 Pro and even on such an expensive phone I can't really trust it to do anything more advanced than set timers. Every few months I try to do something else and just get annoyed at how bad it is. Before lockdown I even had it disabled entirely because it would get activated randomly from time to time, even if nobody in the vicinity said anything remotely close…

The problem is not just that it is wrong, nor that it doesn't have enough personal information, but that it lacks proper personalisation and the ability to learn.

You can't reply with "no Siri, not that London" and have it remember. It doesn't learn your voice among the people who normally use your Siri in your household.

"Artificial intelligence" is always going to make mistakes, as do real humans. Humans can perform unsupervised learning - in fact it's one of the key skills that employers like to select on! Until AI can learn in context it's going to be very limited.

Re: Siri, What Time Is It in London?

#147

Post by an_ko »

Hamuko wrote: post #11

Same thing happens with Frankfurt. If I order something from Amazon.de, my package usually goes through Frankfurt. When I checked my package tracker app on my iPhone, I was surprised to find out that Frankfurt is actually on the Germany-Poland border. Turns out that if I enter "Frankfurt, Germany" into Apple Maps (which I assume is what the package tracker app does), it takes me to "Frankfurt (Oder), Germany" instead…

Fun etymology fact: Both Frankfurts get their name from a simple description of the same thing, which they both are instances of: settlements adjacent to a Frankish river ford (place where the river is shallow enough to cross without a bridge). The English "ford" and German "Furt" come from the same root; hence Francoford / Franken-Furt / Frankfurt. The "an der Oder" (at the Oder) and "am Main" (at the Main) suffixes are clarifications to describe which river is involved.

Re: Siri, What Time Is It in London?

#148

Post by tasssko »

torgian wrote: post #93
rland wrote: post #70

I've read that Siri collects/sends home significantly less information about the user than its counterparts. It might just be that "getting it right" requires a complete violation of user privacy. I actually am perfectly fine with this.

Agreed

In a short period of time companies with databases of human activity will be finding new opportunities to profit off this data. Your insurance premiums, credit rating and even potential relationships will be influenced by a third party. When all you have to do is say 'Hey Siri what time is it in London, UK'.

Re: Siri, What Time Is It in London?

#149

Post by djaouen »

mojuba wrote: post #75

This example illustrates how difficult AGI is and how far we are from it. We, humans, tend to take advantage of the context to make communication simpler and shorter. Just think about all the implications of this one simple question: what time is it in London? Or e.g. how can I get from London to Dublin? If the person asking the question lives in Ohio, they may actually be talking about London OH (or Dublin OH). Some…

The problem can be reduced to finding the subset of people for which the question is not ambiguous (or the analogous).

Re: Siri, What Time Is It in London?

#150

Post by pawelk »

brnt wrote: post #78
Hamuko wrote: post #11

Same thing happens with Frankfurt. If I order something from Amazon.de, my package usually goes through Frankfurt. When I checked my package tracker app on my iPhone, I was surprised to find out that Frankfurt is actually on the Germany-Poland border. Turns out that if I enter "Frankfurt, Germany" into Apple Maps (which I assume is what the package tracker app does), it takes me to "Frankfurt (Oder), Germany" instead…

If you ever cross the border from Frankfurt/Oder, the first thing you see in Poland is a giant Amazon building. Despite that building being there, Polish people still can't order at Amazon.

We can order from amazon.de, it even offers localized UI and (poorly auto-translated) product descriptions.

But yes, I think it's likely that an order from amazon.de goes trough Frankfurt am Oder, as it probably originated from one of many Amazon warehouses in Poland.

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