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Why does Siri seem so dumb?

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Re: Why does Siri seem so dumb?

#51

Post by scarface74 »

I have mixed feelings about Siri. The voice recognition has definitely gotten much better. The domains that it knows about isn't increasing nearly enough. That's not even a matter of AI it's just doing the work. For instance knowing what's on tv.

It does come in handy when I'm driving and for reminders. It seems to do pretty well with directions, playing songs, playing podcasts, and messages.

I much rather tell Siri "remind me not to forget my lunch when I get out of the car" than try to do that with the reminders app.

Re: Why does Siri seem so dumb?

#52

Post by brandon272 »

I recently switched back to iOS after using Android for a couple years and one thing I found shocking is how little Siri had improved. I only use her for creating timers these days. I'll try to schedule events but I find her success rate at adding things to my calendar accurately is I asked her for the nearest gas station the other day while driving and I think she responded with a list of google search results? Which is almost comical. I'm not going to grab my phone and sift through Google search results while behind the wheel.

Re: Why does Siri seem so dumb?

#54

Post by thesimpsons1022 »

brandon272 wrote: post #52

I recently switched back to iOS after using Android for a couple years and one thing I found shocking is how little Siri had improved. I only use her for creating timers these days. I'll try to schedule events but I find her success rate at adding things to my calendar accurately is I asked her for the nearest gas station the other day while driving and I think she responded with a list of google search results? Whic…

nearest gas station works for me. i use it all the time. perhaps it's the phrasing. either way, i agree with the general sentiment. only use it for timers and directions while driving

Re: Why does Siri seem so dumb?

#55

Post by brandon272 »

thesimpsons1022 wrote: post #54
brandon272 wrote: post #52

I recently switched back to iOS after using Android for a couple years and one thing I found shocking is how little Siri had improved. I only use her for creating timers these days. I'll try to schedule events but I find her success rate at adding things to my calendar accurately is I asked her for the nearest gas station the other day while driving and I think she responded with a list of google search results? Whic…

nearest gas station works for me. i use it all the time. perhaps it's the phrasing. either way, i agree with the general sentiment. only use it for timers and directions while driving

I'm in Canada which perhaps has something to do with it.

Re: Why does Siri seem so dumb?

#56

Post by spike021 »

bobviolier wrote: post #8
LA_Banker wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see it as humblebragging (any of us could create a Cook contact / ReCode readers likely know Walt Mossberg's relationship to Apple) but, worse, a faulty premise. Odds are, if you have them in your contact database, you already know them; you're not going to want Siri to give you their Wikipedia bio. Siri has myriad faults, and thankfully someone of Mossberg's stature might push Apple to address them, but this…

If you are asking specifically for _who_ somebody is, it should tell you who that person is - not give the contact card, because that card does not tell you who somebody is. At least, that's what I would expect if I asked who somebody is.

Except the contact card has meta-information like: company they work at, where they're located, etc. (including custom fields you can create).

A contact card could definitely be used for that. If one exists, Siri should give the info from it and then wait to see if the user also wants external information (from Wikipedia or elsewhere).

Re: Why does Siri seem so dumb?

#57

Post by dwc »

Luc wrote: post #31

Due to my (very slight) Eurotrash English accent, Siri doesn't even get over the speech recognition hurdle four times out of five. When it does, it replies 'Here's what I found on the web...' I try tricking Google's app with unlikely stuff but it gets it right most of the time, and gives a reasonable answer too.

This always cracks me up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmWRhhvf60Y

Re: Why does Siri seem so dumb?

#58

Post by spike021 »

Best use for Siri: it can turn off all alarms on its own. Helpful for when I set 5 or more occasionally for something, I don't need to keep scrolling the list and disabling them all one by one.

Re: Why does Siri seem so dumb?

#59

Post by Rzah »

vilhelm_s wrote: post #24
shopkins wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not the point either. The point is that if I asked you, a human, "Who is Tim Cook" and you replied "123-555-1212" or "tim@apple.com" I would be a little dumbfounded. If I'm asking the question - maybe a friend is nearby who doesn't know them and I'm too lazy to explain - then I want to know who they are, not what their contact info is.

I could imagine some scenarios when I ask a human assistant "who is Joe Bloggs" and it would be quite reasonable for them to answer "oh you've met him, he even gave you his business card".

Sure, but only after telling you who Joe Bloggs is, because that's what you asked, you didn't ask 'Have I met Joe Bloggs?', an assistant (human or virtual) that doesn't actually help isn't going to keep their job for long.

Re: Why does Siri seem so dumb?

#60

Post by soylentcola »

captainmuon wrote: post #13
givinguflac wrote: post #9

My wife is exactly the customer that's given up on asking Siri questions and uses it for timers. I can agree that Google does a better job at answering questions, but I don't like that Google requires access to just about everything in my life to be at all worthwhile, which is generally why I avoid google services. I realize I'm a minority but I don't like their all or nothing approach to slurping my data.

Does Android really answer questions? The only one I know to work is "How high is Mount Everest?". For everything else, it just reads the first sentence of the Wikipedia article, or presents a search. I'm using a German phone, so an English one might work better. But mine doesn't even know "What color is the sky?"

The thing that always impresses me about Google Now and their voice parsing in general isn't so much about speaking answers back to spoken queries but just how good it can be at guessing what you mean.

My favorite example was a couple of years ago when I was at a bar. There was a song on the jukebox ("Coffee Pot" by Cajmere) which, for reference, is a house music song with a repeated vocal sample that says "It's time for the perculator [sic]". I assume they mean "percolator" but that's how the guy pronounces it in the sample.

Anyway, we were joking around and even though the bar was quite loud with people talking loudly all around and music playing, I pulled out my phone and asked "Ok, Google: is it time for the perculator?" I pronounced it incorrectly like the guy in the song and within seconds, I had results. The top one was a link to the video for "Coffee Pot" by Cajmere on Youtube and the rest were links to other stuff regarding the song.

Now, this was at least 2 years ago and possibly more. The response to my silly joke of a question wasn't so witty as to give me a spoken "it's time for the perculator" or anything like that....but it could parse my words despite all the noise and competing speech around me, it understood a mispronounced word, and it knew that this lyric sample referred to a song with a different title (Coffee Pot) and linked me to the video.

That was seriously the first time I was really impressed by their voice assistant even if it was a ridiculous request. No idea what the result would be on today's Google Now or tomorrow's Assistant (guess I'll find out when my Pixel gets delivered). Still, even if just from an engineering and software angle, that made me grin a bigger geeky grin than I might have imagined.

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