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Siri is the Next Big Thing

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Re: Siri is the Next Big Thing

#21

Post by alexholehouse »

baggachipz wrote: post #9

What a blindingly ignorant rant. A couple breathless prognostications that really annoyed me: "If A.I. knows about insurance, will you ever google for it?" Uh, all the "A.I." is doing is googling it. So basically Siri will use speech-to-text (which I've had on my Android phone for years) and put it in the google search box for me. Then it will read the first result. Zippity-doo-da. "We will teach it how to use Excel.…

While I agree with you in principle, I feel like the conceptual use cases you're imagining implement current practices with basically a speech to text. What the author is suggesting is that it would be beyond this, skipping out the step where you determine how you do something, but instead telling Siri what you want to do. For example, with excel I'm not sure he envisaged something like "A5 is 20, A6 is 30" and so on, but more like, "Take my taxes from this pdf and put them into a spreadsheet".

That said, irrespective of any kind of AI revolution Siri may (or as I suspect) may not induce, I feel like predicting it's impact before we've even had the chance to test it out in any kind of capacity (OK the 4S has been on sale for two hours, but you know what I mean) is somewhat short sighted.

Re: Siri is the Next Big Thing

#22

Post by yalimgerger »

jenius wrote: post #12

I don't understand how this article rose to the top page of HN... it's not telling us anything that's interesting, new, or news in any way. Artificial intelligence has been around since the dawn of computers (think Clippy), helping us do our shit. In fact, AutoCAD is a bunch of 'artificial intelligence' that's letting you draw vectors and write code in a more intuitive way (ok, not exactly and technically, but you kn…

Hi Author here. Thank your for the harsh words. I guess I gotto take it to the chin.

Please allow me explain my point in another way. I think Siri is to A.I. what Apple II is to computers. Does this analogy explain what I am trying to tell better?

Re: Siri is the Next Big Thing

#23

Post by Pewpewarrows »

Tichy wrote: post #6

Is Siri really more than a little bit of sugarcoating on top of stuff others have been doing for years (Google, Wolfram Alpha)? I suspect it is doing ok for some tasks (calendar), but that is about it. For example on Android people have been calling contacts by saying their names for a quite a while already.

Android user here who frequently uses the voice commands. The primary differences I see between what we have and what Siri offers are:

- More built-in app integration (like GPS). "Remind me to call Jennifer when I leave work" wouldn't compute. The Wolfram Alpha integration is also a nice touch.

- Improved contextual awareness. "Is it going to rain today?" or "I'm in the mood for Italian" don't work for me. I have to explicitly use keywords like asking for a "map of italian restaurants".

- 2-way conversations. I only speak a command and the voice command opens another application based on that command. Siri can talk back to you and resolve conflicts, such as calendar schedule overlaps.

Have we had voice commands on our phones for what seems like forever now? Yep. But that doesn't make me any less jealous of the neat innovations that Apple's done in the speech recognition AI field. Again, a great example of the fierce competition driving innovation, and the consumer wins.

Re: Siri is the Next Big Thing

#24

Post by yalimgerger »

helton wrote: post #19
yalimgerger wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi, Author here. I think you make an excellent point. I think the revolution will start from small things where it is OK to make an error. Stuff like Siri does. Then it will move on to productivity tools or the like...where it is still OK to make a mistake. And A.I. will improve really fast, like the PC has improved. I think in 5-10 years we won't believe what we have accomplished. I think Siri crosses an important t…

Google Translate uses AI. It uses currently translated text to predict translation of strings that you provide.

True. Thank you for pointing that out. I missed it.

Re: Siri is the Next Big Thing

#25

Post by baggachipz »

yalimgerger wrote: post #17
baggachipz wrote: post #9

What a blindingly ignorant rant. A couple breathless prognostications that really annoyed me: "If A.I. knows about insurance, will you ever google for it?" Uh, all the "A.I." is doing is googling it. So basically Siri will use speech-to-text (which I've had on my Android phone for years) and put it in the google search box for me. Then it will read the first result. Zippity-doo-da. "We will teach it how to use Excel.…

No, no and god no. Siri is not voice recognition. It is not even in the same universe as the voice control in Android. And yes of course A.I. will use one or more search engines to look information up. But Google might not necessarily be one of them and consumers will not care two cents as long A.I. gets the job done. My point it that A.I. will fly over Google's moat unless it is Google's A.I.

Then, please, tell me what Siri is besides the combination of voice recognition and a smart search engine? Because I don't see anything else.

Re: Siri is the Next Big Thing

#26

Post by yalimgerger »

baggachipz wrote: post #25
yalimgerger wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, no and god no. Siri is not voice recognition. It is not even in the same universe as the voice control in Android. And yes of course A.I. will use one or more search engines to look information up. But Google might not necessarily be one of them and consumers will not care two cents as long A.I. gets the job done. My point it that A.I. will fly over Google's moat unless it is Google's A.I.

Then, please, tell me what Siri is besides the combination of voice recognition and a smart search engine? Because I don't see anything else.

It can work without special commands and gets context of a conversation.

Re: Siri is the Next Big Thing

#27

Post by mikeash »

Geee wrote: post #13

No matter how innovative company Apple is, I wouldn't give them credit just because they bought Siri and integrated it into iOS. I somehow find it odd that no one was talking about Siri before Apple's blessing, although it has existed for many years. It has been constantly evolving, and would have without Apple. There's lots of information about Siri available and the vision and goal of the project has been clear all…

Taking an impressive but not all that practical technology demo and integrating it into devices that are going to be in millions of people's hands deserves some credit. The major part of the credit goes to those who developed the technology, of course, but identifying the technology as practical for the masses and getting it out to them is important too.

Re: Siri is the Next Big Thing

#28

Post by mhashim »

baggachipz wrote: post #9

What a blindingly ignorant rant. A couple breathless prognostications that really annoyed me: "If A.I. knows about insurance, will you ever google for it?" Uh, all the "A.I." is doing is googling it. So basically Siri will use speech-to-text (which I've had on my Android phone for years) and put it in the google search box for me. Then it will read the first result. Zippity-doo-da. "We will teach it how to use Excel.…

Yaaa....I think this flew over your head. You are saying that, for example, Wolfram Alpha is like Google. They are completely different: One gives you links that you still have to go through to reach what you need and one gives you a direct answer. Even Woz said in his interview on TC...we don't need search engines, we need answer engines. To say Siri is a search engine with voice to text is a great mistake. Voice recognition is just the outer layer that makes the experience a human experience.

I don't take the words of the author as a prophecy but I see where he is going; and isn't that what science fiction authors kinda did 20-30 years ago? They dreamt; and I wish more people can dream of greater possibilities.

Re: Siri is the Next Big Thing

#29

Post by baggachipz »

baggachipz wrote: post #25
yalimgerger wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, no and god no. Siri is not voice recognition. It is not even in the same universe as the voice control in Android. And yes of course A.I. will use one or more search engines to look information up. But Google might not necessarily be one of them and consumers will not care two cents as long A.I. gets the job done. My point it that A.I. will fly over Google's moat unless it is Google's A.I.

Then, please, tell me what Siri is besides the combination of voice recognition and a smart search engine? Because I don't see anything else.

Kind of like how I just typed "When is thanksgiving day?" and Google told me the date. It understood my question and gave me the answer. How does Siri differ?

Re: Siri is the Next Big Thing

#30

Post by Geee »

incremental wrote: post #16
Geee wrote: post #13

No matter how innovative company Apple is, I wouldn't give them credit just because they bought Siri and integrated it into iOS. I somehow find it odd that no one was talking about Siri before Apple's blessing, although it has existed for many years. It has been constantly evolving, and would have without Apple. There's lots of information about Siri available and the vision and goal of the project has been clear all…

Does Google deserve no credit for Android since they bought that? I presume Apple has done some work on Siri since they bought it over a year ago...

I'd like to credit all those researchers in the original CALO project, and all the hardworking AI scientist all over the world, who have made the evolution of AI to a concrete product possible. If we begin to talk about artificial intelligence revolution, Apple has nothing to do with it in my opinion.
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