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Microsoft buys Nuance for nearly $20B

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Re: Microsoft buys Nuance for nearly $20B

#201

Post by bombcar »

gambiting wrote: post #181
agotterer wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Because even the "big" tech from "big" companies is still shit. Have a 2020 LG TV with Google assistant built in, and it's a piece of hot garbage. Example: I frequently switch between display profiles to suit what I need. Saying "switch to cinema display mode" - works fine. Saying: "switch to user display mode" - 100% of the time results in the TV replying "which user would you like to select?". Like...it's not my fa…

The move to companies naming everything "Brand Name Generic Name" coincided with the move to voice assistants in the worst possible way. "iTunes" is unique but "Apple Music" is just two nouns - and we see this across so many properties.

Re: Microsoft buys Nuance for nearly $20B

#202

Post by Nimitz14 »

eghad wrote: post #158
Nimitz14 wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

And what do you suggest is better? I've worked with nearly every tool (open source and closed) under the sun in medical, industrial, and personal settings and Dragon NaturallySpeaking/Professional was by far the best in terms of accuracy regardless of prosody, accent, background noise, technical terms used, etc. Personally I think they should've been acquired a decade ago.

That answer depends on the language and on your use case. It seems like you're asking about desktop apps, but my parent was not talking in that context. Indeed there's not a lot of choice there because there's no money in it.

Re: Microsoft buys Nuance for nearly $20B

#203

Post by ratsforhorses »

fakedang wrote: post #168
FireBeyond wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who was born under the NHS in Scotland, grew up in Australia under its Medicare system (and the introduction of partial privatiz(s)ation), and has lived in the US since 2006, no-one is laboring under that misapprehension. Medicare tax is indeed a line item on Australian taxation paperwork.

I don't know where you get the impression that I'm criticizing the NHS or a nationalized Healthcare service. I'm all for a nationalized healthcare service. My issue is with people who pay nil significant taxes in Europe gloating ignorantly about how European Healthcare is free, and won't stop shitting on American Healthcare. Yeah, your healthcare is cheaper than the US but it isn't free. There is a whole bunch of mid…

Just a thought, "paying nil significant taxes" would mean lower or nil income...? we could also include refugees, prisoners in that group I guess.... these people, may also be providing a huge extra to society in the form of being low paid, having future potential or not adding to externalisation costs such as increased infrastructure needs higher income earners do... also I think the main criticisms of the US health system is that insurance is in most cases part of the job contract and that there are huge (cost) inefficiencies due to insurers battling over coverage costs with health providers... as an aside I live in Romania and as a low income earner I forgoe insurance because it's a lot cheaper to get care when I need it

Re: Microsoft buys Nuance for nearly $20B

#204

Post by vagrantJin »

fakedang wrote: post #168
FireBeyond wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who was born under the NHS in Scotland, grew up in Australia under its Medicare system (and the introduction of partial privatiz(s)ation), and has lived in the US since 2006, no-one is laboring under that misapprehension. Medicare tax is indeed a line item on Australian taxation paperwork.

I don't know where you get the impression that I'm criticizing the NHS or a nationalized Healthcare service. I'm all for a nationalized healthcare service. My issue is with people who pay nil significant taxes in Europe gloating ignorantly about how European Healthcare is free, and won't stop shitting on American Healthcare. Yeah, your healthcare is cheaper than the US but it isn't free. There is a whole bunch of mid…

Bruh.

You have deep issues. No thinking thinks anything is free. Its free as in I can walk in get treated and walk out without having a cent or anyone asking about my credit details. The difference is in the quality of care as gov run hospitals have much tighter budget constraints and can't treat patients with as much delicacy as private medical institutions.

Re: Microsoft buys Nuance for nearly $20B

#205

Post by FourthProtocol »

fakedang wrote: post #119
FireBeyond wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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).

Some examples would be useful. Yes, many that don't pay tax benefit from the government, and yes, you can view that as a working class paying for the unemployed.

Imagine, if you will, a 50-year-old woman on the dole (she's paid a monthly sum by the government). In Germany, for instance, this is only paid if she can prove that she applied, and continues to apply for work/seek employment.

It's a bit of a mad circle - she doesn't want work, because she has a comfortable, if meagre life. Of course she dutifully applies for employment every month, and occasionally lands an interview.

She's been out of work for so long though, that's she's no longer employable. She's too old for manual labour, cannot type, doesn't do Internet. And so no one will have her.

It's not ideal for someone expecting to get out what they put into the system, but it's a social safety net that's better than forcing people out onto the street. Will all the problems that brings.

And yes, the 50-year-old gets "free" healthcare. Which I contribute to, from my hard work. And I think this system among the best on the planet.

Re: Microsoft buys Nuance for nearly $20B

#206

Post by CerealFounder »

bombcar wrote: post #190
dalbasal wrote: post #188

I think a lot of big acquisitions make "sense," given the current market. The most successful companies have lots of cash, high share prices, and amazing cash cows. They could borrow for (almost) free, so resources are practically unlimited. Their R&D is already well funded. Most of their big, growth oriented endeavours are not cash-constrained. There are usually no factories to build or production to scale up. Googl…

Acquiring is a simple way to show the Board/Shareholders that you're "doing something" - but I suspect it's rarely very successful in the long run. Unless you acquire a business that ACTUALLY provides some synergies you're just on the path of transitioning from a successful company to a poor imitation of Berkshire Hathaway. It does have the advantage that you can "spin off" your acquisitions once they fail to do anyt…

Its rarely the syngeries that make it work, instead its often they bought a business they leave alone that has much more room to grow.

Re: Microsoft buys Nuance for nearly $20B

#207

Post by tachyonbeam »

bombcar wrote: post #190
dalbasal wrote: post #188

I think a lot of big acquisitions make "sense," given the current market. The most successful companies have lots of cash, high share prices, and amazing cash cows. They could borrow for (almost) free, so resources are practically unlimited. Their R&D is already well funded. Most of their big, growth oriented endeavours are not cash-constrained. There are usually no factories to build or production to scale up. Googl…

Acquiring is a simple way to show the Board/Shareholders that you're "doing something" - but I suspect it's rarely very successful in the long run. Unless you acquire a business that ACTUALLY provides some synergies you're just on the path of transitioning from a successful company to a poor imitation of Berkshire Hathaway. It does have the advantage that you can "spin off" your acquisitions once they fail to do anyt…

Can't you just acquire a successful business and then do nothing? Just let the business you acquired keep being successful? It's not that different from investing in the stock market, except that you can have more control over the business you acquired if you need to down the line. You also then own their IP, which might be the most important part.

Re: Microsoft buys Nuance for nearly $20B

#208

Post by 6gvONxR4sf7o »

somethingAlex wrote: post #167

I'm not super deep into the world to NLP, but from what I have kept up with, it seems that the state-of-the-art is almost constantly open-sourced. I understand certain companies have personal relationships already built which may be what MS is after more so than the IP, but isn't there a "canonical" way of building a, for example, speech to text system for your phone? Is there really a lot of NLP IP hidden behind cor…

I recently went through a ton of speech to text engines to test them. There are a lot of open source research projects as well as paid products, including amazon and google's paid products, which I assumed would be paying for the best of the best. Dragon (nuance's products) blew them out of the water in my experience. I was very surprised. Sentence error rate is still pretty shit across the board, so tiny improvements still make a massive difference in usability.

Re: Microsoft buys Nuance for nearly $20B

#209

Post by iudqnolq »

someperson wrote: post #11

Several years ago I used a Nuance product named Dragon NaturallySpeaking that had speech-to-text capability and adds verbal accessibility features on Windows platforms (eg, say "Open Word", speak your document aloud, then "Close Word") I had no idea they had enough sales to justify a $20 billion valuation. Though to be fair, Microsoft tends to acquire companies at high price tags (eg, Skype, LinkedIn, Minecraft) comp…

Yeah, but they've got their tentacles into a lot of complicated sticky markets.

For example, they've done all the work to get that same software certified healthcare grade and convinced lots of hospitals to adopt it for their doctors. They can sell that for a lot more than they sell the essentially same software to you.

If you go to a corporate website and see an "Industries" section with Healthcare, Telecommunications, Finance, Government, and more you know they're good at this sort of rent-seeking.

Re: Microsoft buys Nuance for nearly $20B

#210

Post by benreesman »

tachyonbeam wrote: post #207
bombcar wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Acquiring is a simple way to show the Board/Shareholders that you're "doing something" - but I suspect it's rarely very successful in the long run. Unless you acquire a business that ACTUALLY provides some synergies you're just on the path of transitioning from a successful company to a poor imitation of Berkshire Hathaway. It does have the advantage that you can "spin off" your acquisitions once they fail to do anyt…

Can't you just acquire a successful business and then do nothing? Just let the business you acquired keep being successful? It's not that different from investing in the stock market, except that you can have more control over the business you acquired if you need to down the line. You also then own their IP, which might be the most important part.

I think that’s what GP meant by poor imitation of BH.
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