My sentiments, too. For how many decades have nerds drooled over smart fridges?
On an iMore podcast once Rene Ritchie was talking about sensors and all the potentials (one example he gave was your TV automatically changing to a specific channel at a specific time on a certain night based on prior viewing habits) and it actually was freaking me out. Basically in his sensor driven universe you'd never be able to switch off or disconnect. It reminded me of a mother overly fussing with a sick child when the child just wants to be left alone to sleep. In the fridge example I gave, what if I'm emptying out my fridge because I'm going on vacation, or I stopped buying something because I got sick of it? Then I don't want my smart fridge to re-order and send me this item. At what point do people just say "enough!" and completely switch off?
I highly doubt it.
I expect it to be vaporware.
A real AI (one that truly passes the Turing test) isn't impossible of course but I don't expect it yet, certainly not from MS.
People seem to think that AI Winter had something to do with a lack of efforts, but AI Winter is not about results but about the amount of unfounded hype/belief in AI on digital computers. In terms of results, the situation has not substantially changed.
That the hype is returning marks the end of the winter-of-AI-hype, not the winter-of-AI.
Read a few years worth of New Scientist and you'll see the pattern. Articles with titles like 'seven major new technologies' these days mention 6 that are actually real and one (AI) that are made up with a lot of 'ifs'. AI is not back (it was never there in the first place) but the unfounded belief is back indeed.
If this is what Microsoft hopes (they already threw away a large amount of $ in the 80's and 90's) time to sell any stock you have left.
Now you know how I always enjoy your prickly, provocative point of view, but I just can't let this one pass, not in this context.
HAL is the tragic figure in Clarke's and Kubrick's drama, a victim of bad programming by his duplicitous American handlers. On the one hand he's designed to sense and report on the absolute reality of everything going on around him. On the other hand, he's been told to keep the reason for the mission a secret from the crew.
Unsolvable dilemma! A human could just sweep it under the rug mentally, put it where he puts all his denials. An honest computer will go insane.
A lesson for us all. This is why the New York critics hated the movie. They didn't see the anti-technocratic, anti-American satire, because they lived in the nerve center of imperial America. But Clarke the ex-pat Brit and Kubrick the ex-pat Yank had a lot of fun with this satire throughout the movie, like when Dr. Floyd comments on how "real" the fake ham sandwiches are on the way to visit the monolith on the Moon.
I've often thought that HAL needs his own PR makeover campaign.
And didn't we love him all the more for it?
Who could forget his classic line 'I'm afraid I can't do that', when requested to open the pod bay doors, an issue I'm sure Cortana would have if ever asked to open the iPod bay doors...
(For those Arthur. C. Clarke fans who wish to be amused, ask Siri to open the pod bay doors)
Insanity appears to be the running theme here, with Cortana also having gone insane in the last Halo game. I don't know what positive spin the Microsoft PR department is going to put on THAT when she becomes available.
Privately, I've always found it amusing that, thanks to both the book and the film 2001, of all the years expected to represent the advancement of the human race you couldn't get one better than that one, yet the most notable thing that occurred that year was some idiot flying a bunch of planes into buildings in order to try and make a point.
History, it appears, is not without a sense of irony.
Hmm... from useless to userless without ever quite getting sense in between. Tall order. What MS is actually saying is that they expect to make their interface more non-verbally perceptive than their Engineers and as such, also better than their Tech Support.
But MS products already speak for themselves, and in so doing have always demonstrated a significant lack of awareness of subtlety-perception: nor have they ever yet really been able to read the actual human needs of their cliental sufficiently, to be able to appropriately respond.
On top of that, do we really want to have machines constantly watching us to create device-shared and thus cloud-based, personal profiles: ones based on the algorithms of MS Programmers, in response to directives from MS consultants and committees, in turn responding to who-knows-what policy-guidelines? ...And if such profiles are acquired by a Govt agency—as they most certainly will—or another third-party, what then? There are negative implications whichever way you go.
Not only so, but I for one want to filter information for myself. The web is already becoming an interchange of closed loops based on previous choices: so that what I search doesn't necessarily turn up what you search, which is a real worry.
How can a democracy be real, if the information we rely on to be informed is filtered, diced and served by algorithms framed by corporate policies whose bottom-line is always corporate profit?
"I speak to Cortana, Cortana responds. I speak back to it, and it understands that we're still in the same conversation. It knows from the first sentence I said what I'm referring to," she said. "That seems like such a small thing for human beings, but it's huge."
Who could forget his classic line 'I'm afraid I can't do that', when requested to open the pod bay doors, an issue I'm sure Cortana would have if ever asked to open the iPod bay doors...
(For those Arthur. C. Clarke fans who wish to be amused, ask Siri to open the pod bay doors)
Insanity appears to be the running theme here, with Cortana also having gone insane in the last Halo game. I don't know what positive spin the Microsoft PR department is going to put on THAT when she becomes available.
Privately, I've always found it amusing that, thanks to both the book and the film 2001, of all the years expected to represent the advancement of the human race you couldn't get one better than that one, yet the most notable thing that occurred that year was some idiot flying a bunch of planes into buildings in order to try and make a point.
History, it appears, is not without a sense of irony.
Hmm, I should have known I was lecturing the professor. True about that irony. There's another good one I can't think of right now.
Anyway, I happened to find out the inventor of the paper clip today, none other than social Darwinist Herbert Spencer..
Insanity appears to be the running theme here, with Cortana also having gone insane in the last Halo game. I don't know what positive spin the Microsoft PR department is going to put on THAT when she becomes available.
On an iMore podcast once Rene Ritchie was talking about sensors and all the potentials (one example he gave was your TV automatically changing to a specific channel at a specific time on a certain night based on prior viewing habits) and it actually was freaking me out. Basically in his sensor driven universe you'd never be able to switch off or disconnect. It reminded me of a mother overly fussing with a sick child when the child just wants to be left alone to sleep. In the fridge example I gave, what if I'm emptying out my fridge because I'm going on vacation, or I stopped buying something because I got sick of it? Then I don't want my smart fridge to re-order and send me this item. At what point do people just say "enough!" and completely switch off?
Quite! It's the same with recommendations and personalised everything. Being given exactly what you want-how do you know what you want? You may want something else for a change! There's just too much bloody information.
Who could forget his classic line 'I'm afraid I can't do that', when requested to open the pod bay doors, an issue I'm sure Cortana would have if ever asked to open the iPod bay doors...
(For those Arthur. C. Clarke fans who wish to be amused, ask Siri to open the pod bay doors)
Insanity appears to be the running theme here, with Cortana also having gone insane in the last Halo game. I don't know what positive spin the Microsoft PR department is going to put on THAT when she becomes available.
Privately, I've always found it amusing that, thanks to both the book and the film 2001, of all the years expected to represent the advancement of the human race you couldn't get one better than that one, yet the most notable thing that occurred that year was some idiot flying a bunch of planes into buildings in order to try and make a point.
History, it appears, is not without a sense of irony.
Yes. Most of us can't predict the future, save prophets and a hallowed few(see Steve Jobs).
OMG, are they nuts, again M$ thinks they know what is best again and will attempt to make product which seem to know what you want. Really, how many people you know, know what they want at any given time of the day. Most people walk around in a fog and ignorant bliss. Somehow M$ is going o make sense of a human and predict what they want to do and just make it happen before they type, talk or gesture.
I hope MS will be able to predict me telling them to F themselves as I give them the finger.
Comments
Do it and release it!
Oh dear…
Cortana is just Clippy with breasts, isn’t it?
Nope. They are totally different
No it's me knowitall.
And now you mention it, this is an excellent piece on MS: http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/04/build-2014-a-very-different-microsoft-takes-aim-at-the-future/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+arstechnica/index+(Ars+Technica+-+All+content)
I expect it to be vaporware.
A real AI (one that truly passes the Turing test) isn't impossible of course but I don't expect it yet, certainly not from MS.
I highly doubt it.
I expect it to be vaporware.
A real AI (one that truly passes the Turing test) isn't impossible of course but I don't expect it yet, certainly not from MS.
It's not vaporware. Belfiore demonstrated it in the keynote.
Hmmm, I'd say impertinent, rather than funny. Microsoft know 'Next' is the foundation of OSX.
va-por-ware
People seem to think that AI Winter had something to do with a lack of efforts, but AI Winter is not about results but about the amount of unfounded hype/belief in AI on digital computers. In terms of results, the situation has not substantially changed.
That the hype is returning marks the end of the winter-of-AI-hype, not the winter-of-AI.
Read a few years worth of New Scientist and you'll see the pattern. Articles with titles like 'seven major new technologies' these days mention 6 that are actually real and one (AI) that are made up with a lot of 'ifs'. AI is not back (it was never there in the first place) but the unfounded belief is back indeed.
If this is what Microsoft hopes (they already threw away a large amount of $ in the 80's and 90's) time to sell any stock you have left.
A UI that is 'not available for useful interaction' (invisible) is quite characteristic for Microsoft.
And didn't we love him all the more for it?
Who could forget his classic line 'I'm afraid I can't do that', when requested to open the pod bay doors, an issue I'm sure Cortana would have if ever asked to open the iPod bay doors...
(For those Arthur. C. Clarke fans who wish to be amused, ask Siri to open the pod bay doors)
Insanity appears to be the running theme here, with Cortana also having gone insane in the last Halo game. I don't know what positive spin the Microsoft PR department is going to put on THAT when she becomes available.
Privately, I've always found it amusing that, thanks to both the book and the film 2001, of all the years expected to represent the advancement of the human race you couldn't get one better than that one, yet the most notable thing that occurred that year was some idiot flying a bunch of planes into buildings in order to try and make a point.
History, it appears, is not without a sense of irony.
Hmm... from useless to userless without ever quite getting sense in between. Tall order. What MS is actually saying is that they expect to make their interface more non-verbally perceptive than their Engineers and as such, also better than their Tech Support.
But MS products already speak for themselves, and in so doing have always demonstrated a significant lack of awareness of subtlety-perception: nor have they ever yet really been able to read the actual human needs of their cliental sufficiently, to be able to appropriately respond.
On top of that, do we really want to have machines constantly watching us to create device-shared and thus cloud-based, personal profiles: ones based on the algorithms of MS Programmers, in response to directives from MS consultants and committees, in turn responding to who-knows-what policy-guidelines? ...And if such profiles are acquired by a Govt agency—as they most certainly will—or another third-party, what then? There are negative implications whichever way you go.
Not only so, but I for one want to filter information for myself. The web is already becoming an interchange of closed loops based on previous choices: so that what I search doesn't necessarily turn up what you search, which is a real worry.
How can a democracy be real, if the information we rely on to be informed is filtered, diced and served by algorithms framed by corporate policies whose bottom-line is always corporate profit?
"I speak to Cortana, Cortana responds. I speak back to it, and it understands that we're still in the same conversation. It knows from the first sentence I said what I'm referring to," she said. "That seems like such a small thing for human beings, but it's huge."
If someone thinks this is huge, is not
Its always nice to have valuable information on discussion forums which are very helpful and interesting thanks for this useful info.
Hmm, I should have known I was lecturing the professor. True about that irony. There's another good one I can't think of right now.
Anyway, I happened to find out the inventor of the paper clip today, none other than social Darwinist Herbert Spencer..
Clippy's godfather. http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-derbyshire-26940646
Anyway, I happened to find out the inventor of the paper clip today, none other than social Darwinist Herbert Spencer..
Clippy's godfather. http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-derbyshire-26940646
A gentleman with facial hair like this is always going to be responsible for inventing some form or other of clip...
MS can talk all they like.
Meanwhile their entire mobile strategy barely has any traction in the market.
Maybe they will release Cortana as an iPhone app?
Insanity appears to be the running theme here, with Cortana also having gone insane in the last Halo game. I don't know what positive spin the Microsoft PR department is going to put on THAT when she becomes available.
Haha, gold.
On an iMore podcast once Rene Ritchie was talking about sensors and all the potentials (one example he gave was your TV automatically changing to a specific channel at a specific time on a certain night based on prior viewing habits) and it actually was freaking me out. Basically in his sensor driven universe you'd never be able to switch off or disconnect. It reminded me of a mother overly fussing with a sick child when the child just wants to be left alone to sleep. In the fridge example I gave, what if I'm emptying out my fridge because I'm going on vacation, or I stopped buying something because I got sick of it? Then I don't want my smart fridge to re-order and send me this item. At what point do people just say "enough!" and completely switch off?
Quite! It's the same with recommendations and personalised everything. Being given exactly what you want-how do you know what you want? You may want something else for a change! There's just too much bloody information.
And didn't we love him all the more for it?
Who could forget his classic line 'I'm afraid I can't do that', when requested to open the pod bay doors, an issue I'm sure Cortana would have if ever asked to open the iPod bay doors...
(For those Arthur. C. Clarke fans who wish to be amused, ask Siri to open the pod bay doors)
Insanity appears to be the running theme here, with Cortana also having gone insane in the last Halo game. I don't know what positive spin the Microsoft PR department is going to put on THAT when she becomes available.
Privately, I've always found it amusing that, thanks to both the book and the film 2001, of all the years expected to represent the advancement of the human race you couldn't get one better than that one, yet the most notable thing that occurred that year was some idiot flying a bunch of planes into buildings in order to try and make a point.
History, it appears, is not without a sense of irony.
Yes. Most of us can't predict the future, save prophets and a hallowed few(see Steve Jobs).
I hope MS will be able to predict me telling them to F themselves as I give them the finger.