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

Re: Microsoft buys Nuance for nearly $20B

#371

Post by Pokepokalypse » Tue, Apr 13, 2021, 1:03 AM UTC

realo wrote: post #236

dntrkv wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ignoring the fact that the research isn't only used one for one purpose, a proper assistant is hugely valuable to me. Simple things like: "Remind me to X tomorrow at 9am" "Add Y to the shopping list" "Remind me to do Z when I get home" This is the only way I do reminders now and it's great. It's especially useful while driving, or when I'm in bed nearly asleep and remember something, I can just tell Siri without havi…

Yes but... Siri is (to me) not there yet. Promising but not there. Siri is unaware of so many things. A simple command that would actually be useful (but fails totally): « Siri, remind me to buy milk the next time I go get groceries. » And even then... I should not have to mention the part about « groceries ». The request should be perfectly understood with a full stop after the word « milk » and a reminder should po…

heh. I'll just say that Alexa rarely misses an opportunity to "remind" me when I need to buy something.

Re: Microsoft buys Nuance for nearly $20B

#372

Post by Pokepokalypse » Tue, Apr 13, 2021, 1:07 AM UTC

mattowen_uk wrote: post #161

idiotsecant wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would argue that in-car infotainment systems should be nothing but a dumb terminal into your phone. We already have devices with voice recognition, navigation, multimedia, etc. Why don't we have a way to just use that?

I've been looking for a single DIN car audio device that is nothing more than an amplifier with Bluetooth, but such a thing does not exist. My phone already does Music/Radio/Maps - all I need is the car head unit to connect to it and playback the audio through the car speakers. I've even started thinking about some sort of home built version using parts from a cheap Bluetooth speaker system (minus the actual speakers…

BlueBus is nice; but it works with the stock BMW head unit (nicely supports steering wheel controls tho). It was for pre-bt-enabled BMW's but I think it's able to be adapted to all k-bus-based cars, so roughly 1998-2010?

Re: Microsoft buys Nuance for nearly $20B

#373

Post by Firehawke » Tue, Apr 13, 2021, 1:08 AM UTC

Is it too early for me to be hoping that Microsoft will integrate Dragon into Windows and make the voice recognition actually work well?

Re: Microsoft buys Nuance for nearly $20B

#374

Post by Pokepokalypse » Tue, Apr 13, 2021, 1:19 AM UTC

mrkramer wrote: post #218

>Microsoft tried to buy TikTok's U.S. operations last year in a deal reportedly valued between $10 billion to $30 billion. >Reports suggest it's in advanced talks with gaming chat app Discord for a deal worth more than $10 billion. >A report in February suggested Microsoft was eyeing a takeover of Pinterest, worth $53 billion on the public market. Last September, it bought gaming giant ZeniMax Media for $7.5 billion.…

TikTok was never a serious purchase. It was a political move to throw up a smoke screen when Trump was making noise about banning them from the US.

Re: Microsoft buys Nuance for nearly $20B

#375

Post by Pokepokalypse » Tue, Apr 13, 2021, 1:25 AM UTC

microtherion wrote: post #283

qntmfred wrote: post #280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.sri.com/hoi/natural-language-speech-recognition/ > SRI spun off market leader Nuance Communications to commercialize the technology https://hbr.org/2015/09/the-president-of-sri-ventures-on-bri...

That's true, but technically, the company that is named "Nuance" today was originally named "ScanSoft". They bought the original Nuance and assumed its name. It's a bit like Symantec, which bought everything, including its name.

The main IP Nuance took away from SRI was SRI's EduSpeak.

Now: Nuance was spun off of SRI probably a decade or more before Siri was birthed in a Darpa program called CALO. CALO may have, in some implementations, used EduSpeak or it's lightweight cousin, Dynaspeak. But I'm pretty sure that when Siri was ALSO spun-off from SRI, and bought by Apple, that Apple did not want to pay the license fee for the EduSpeak code. So they used something else (which, AFAIR; was an Apple-confidential matter).

Re: Microsoft buys Nuance for nearly $20B

#376

Post by Firehawke » Tue, Apr 13, 2021, 1:27 AM UTC

everdrive wrote: post #124

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”.

This never seems to be a popular opinion on hn, but this is the ultimate Rube Goldberg machine: A complex ai built by a billion dollar company, an enormous amount of man hours, only so that switching a light switch because slower, and less deterministic. I'm certainly not suggesting that there are no valid uses for ML/AI, but digital assistants seem to be an enormous waste.

I'm not a full data point to work from, but I've got neuropathy and nerve damage. Side effects include severe short term memory problems (I can forget some things as quickly as 10 seconds, as frustrating as that is..) and sometimes motor control issues.

For me, speech recognition and assistants, along with software like Todoist, are able to keep me far more functional than I would be otherwise.

Re: Microsoft buys Nuance for nearly $20B

#377

Post by Pokepokalypse » Tue, Apr 13, 2021, 1:33 AM UTC

udev wrote: post #46

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…

Also wasn't Siri based on Nuance technology? If so imagine them sales...

When you're talking about Siri; you need to talk about the virtual assistant piece separate from the speech recognition piece.

When Siri's ancestor was being worked on at SRI, it used a cousin of Nuance for the speech part. The PI of the virtual assistant piece of that program spun it out as a separate company, and was immediately snarfed up by Apple.

At that time, they switched speech recognition providers; but I don't know if Apple picked Nuance specifically.

Re: Microsoft buys Nuance for nearly $20B

#378

Post by bobsmooth » Tue, Apr 13, 2021, 3:09 AM UTC

Balgair wrote: post #352

what_ever wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's see the situations when you are setting those reminders - 1. In bed, all ready to fall asleep, you get up to get your notebook from your desk to add the reminder to your notebook. 2. Cooking with hands all messy, you wash your hands, dry them, go to your desk to add the reminder to your notebook. 3. Driving at 40mph, so you pull over in a parking lot, take out your notebook from your bag and add the reminder. Y…

I gotta ask, can one not just use their memory and remember to write those things down in a few minutes/the morning? I know that kinda defeats the purpose of a notebook. But, like, remembering to write down to get more garlic should not be difficult in any way. Also, if one is so perturbed at forgetting things then some other questions and areas need to be explored. If one is having difficulty remembering things this…

Can one not just move closer to things instead of wearing glasses? Can one not just use their legs instead of driving?

Human memory is terrible and should be relied upon as infrequently as possible.

Re: Microsoft buys Nuance for nearly $20B

#379

Post by bobsmooth » Tue, Apr 13, 2021, 3:12 AM UTC

mrkramer wrote: post #218

>Microsoft tried to buy TikTok's U.S. operations last year in a deal reportedly valued between $10 billion to $30 billion. >Reports suggest it's in advanced talks with gaming chat app Discord for a deal worth more than $10 billion. >A report in February suggested Microsoft was eyeing a takeover of Pinterest, worth $53 billion on the public market. Last September, it bought gaming giant ZeniMax Media for $7.5 billion.…

Hopefully these acquisitions wont end up like Mixer

Re: Microsoft buys Nuance for nearly $20B

#380

Post by conanbatt » Tue, Apr 13, 2021, 3:15 AM UTC

riahi wrote: post #269

conanbatt wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh wow. The Dragon headset is a very strange product space. It is used by non-tech savvy doctors to avoid having to type into the EMR.

It’s not just the non tech savvy. It’s substantially faster to dictate text than type it, especially if your hands are occupied with the computer doing something else (ie interpreting radiology exams, dictating a treatment course or visit note while simultaneously reviewing labs).

Only if no one reads the output.