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Siri is the Next Big Thing

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Re: Siri is the Next Big Thing

#51

Post by baggachipz »

baggachipz wrote: post #33
mhashim wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 re…

And I think that my post flew over your head. Wolfram Alpha and Google are different, sure, but at the end of the day they're simply algorithms that take requests, process the data to find the best answers they know how, and return results. That's it. To call those, Siri, or anything else more than that is intellectually dishonest. Siri might be a great interface, and I bet it's really handy to be integrated into app…

"The biggest problem with the Segway is that you look like a total dork using it."

And you'll look like a dork telling your phone that you like Italian food.

Re: Siri is the Next Big Thing

#52

Post by yalimgerger »

john_b wrote: post #44
yalimgerger wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

I think that was clear from the article. What jenius, I think, was saying is that you don't offer much support for this claim. How, for example, can startups get on the AI-as-a-service bandwagon without having the resources and experience of a company like Apple?

I have thoughts on the particular question you asked too. But I cannot cram every bit Of thought I have to one blog post. It would make a terrible article. This article makes a prediction baldly. It asserts a threshold in A.I. is crossed and it's implications will be big. Diverging into startup funding in this area would just not fit in well. That deserves its own post. :-)

Re: Siri is the Next Big Thing

#53

Post by jenius »

john_b wrote: post #44
yalimgerger wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

I think that was clear from the article. What jenius, I think, was saying is that you don't offer much support for this claim. How, for example, can startups get on the AI-as-a-service bandwagon without having the resources and experience of a company like Apple?

Exactly right john_b... the author's follow-up comment addressed nothing that I said, just made another baseless claim - that "I think it's like the apple II of computers". Why? What makes it like the apple II? You have to back yourself up. I personally think they are nothing alike, and here's why:

The Apple II was a revolution of personal computing. It brought the personal computer to the masses, and made it infinitely more accessible in both form and function. The form and parts for the Apple II became the base for all other computers. Nobody had ever made anything like the Apple II before. The Apple II on its own sold like crazy, and brought the entire company to success. Siri is a small piece of software on an already successful device (which is significantly more 'revolutionary' that siri on its own). The idea for siri has been come up with and implemented many times before, in the exact same manner (see the many android comments). Apple just worked really hard on it and they allegedly did a good job.

Re: Siri is the Next Big Thing

#54

Post by jenius »

yalimgerger wrote: post #22
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?

Also guys -- remember smarterchild? Did just about the same thing in terms of the artificial intelligence (not the voice recognition, but that wasn;t the author's point)... how long ago was that?

Re: Siri is the Next Big Thing

#55

Post by ippisl »

agentultra wrote: post #4

Is the AI winter really over? Or is Siri simply the practical application of machine learning and NLP which we've manage to derive from off-shoots of AI research? I think it will be some time yet when I can make a natural language query and have an AI agent fetch relevant data, sort it, and present it contextually. Or sketch an idea for a building and have an AI do all the hard work of creating the blueprints. In the…

>>> a natural language query and have an AI agent fetch relevant data, sort it, and present it contextually.

What about IBM's watson : you asks it a question: am i sick? it gathers symptoms from you , looks in the medical literature and concludes your possible illnesses and in what likelihood.

I think it can also refer you to the relevant literature.

>>> Or sketch an idea for a building and have an AI do all the hard work of creating the blueprints.

bluethink house designer[1] does that.You enter a very high level drawing , and it fills in all the details according to regulations, cost efficency and best practices.

[1]http://www.aecbytes.com/buildingthefuture/2009/BluethinkHous...

Re: Siri is the Next Big Thing

#56

Post by icandoitbetter »

yalimgerger wrote: post #22
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?

Google was the Apple II of AI.

Re: Siri is the Next Big Thing

#57

Post by ippisl »

zipdog wrote: post #3

It's interesting that the Printing Press didn't make the list of previous revolutions, because I think this highlights two different ways of thinking about intelligence (and thus AI). We can either build AI systems that give us a correct answer 95% of the time and we don't care how they got it, or we can build systems that have some sort of designed thinking (ie we understand our own thoughts and try and replicate th…

How do you judge a new medicine? do you ask if does the correct things 100% of the time? or do you just want it to be better than the other drugs ?

I think the same logic applies to other technologies: products generally have to pass the standard safety tests/level common in their industry, not be perfect.

Will this too happen in AI ? maybe , but maybe due to political pressure , the standards require from AI will be much higher.

Re: Siri is the Next Big Thing

#58

Post by nasmorn »

suivix wrote: post #50
baggachipz wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And I think that my post flew over your head. Wolfram Alpha and Google are different, sure, but at the end of the day they're simply algorithms that take requests, process the data to find the best answers they know how, and return results. That's it. To call those, Siri, or anything else more than that is intellectually dishonest. Siri might be a great interface, and I bet it's really handy to be integrated into app…

The biggest problem with the Segway is that you look like a total dork using it. Do people on motorcycles look like lazy idiots? You totally missed the reason why it failed.

Motorcycles tend to kill a nice proportion of its users so lazy is not the first association really. So it is: Too young or reckless to use a car.

With segways its more like: Too lazy to get on a bicycle.

Re: Siri is the Next Big Thing

#59

Post by jonknee »

Game_Ender wrote: post #34
baggachipz wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Try "will it rain tomorrow", or "should I wear a coat tomorrow"? Siri is an answer engine that tries to determine the meaning of your query and answer it. Google in recent years has started to add those capabilities to it's search interface, but it is not there yet. Siri is much more like Wolfram Alpha or IBM's Watson then a standard search engine.

... Siri is a front-end to Wolfram Alpha and other data providers. It roughly identifies what you're looking for and forwards it along to the best data provider. Google has the advantage of being one of those data providers.

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/apples_siri_teams_up_wi...

> As Siri CEO Dag Kittlaus once told us, Siri really is the "mother of all mashups."

Re: Siri is the Next Big Thing

#60

Post by podperson »

Tichy wrote: post #41
podperson wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never been able to get squat out of Wolframe Alpha. Even on things that seem like it should be right up its alley ("compare health care costs in Texas to Wisconsin" -- "no data available" -- Oh really?)

Maybe, but Siri merely refers to Wolfram Alpha for most requests, so it is hardly an improvement. I think it is an improvement in the way it is integrated into the phone, but not in AI capability.

So if I said to my phone "please book me a flight to Kansas tomorrow" and it did you would point out that Travelocity does this and this is merely an improved method of integration into the phone?
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