Siri works extremely well for me generally, but that's because I have taken some time to teach myself how to phrase questions to maximize its understanding of what I want.
Using the example Elijahg used above -- at present, the right way to do what they wanted to do would be to ask Siri how much time is left on the timer. Once you have that answer (let's say the answer was "17 minutes"), ask Siri to stop the timer. Then ask Siri to set a 22-minute timer (17+5). This works reliably in my testing.
Is that how it SHOULD work? No, it should work the way Elijahg wanted it to, and I think it will work this way in this next big revision. My current method is reliable, but more "work" (if thinking about how to phrase things and speaking out loud can be considered "work"), but it still beats going to the Mac and "fixing" the time on the Mac or iPhone.
Siri works extremely well for me generally, but that's because I have taken some time to teach myself how to phrase questions to maximize its understanding of what I want.
Using the example Elijahg used above -- at present, the right way to do what they wanted to do would be to ask Siri how much time is left on the timer. Once you have that answer (let's say the answer was "17 minutes"), ask Siri to stop the timer. Then ask Siri to set a 22-minute timer (17+5). This works reliably in my testing.
Is that how it SHOULD work? No, it should work the way Elijahg wanted it to, and I think it will work this way in this next big revision. My current method is reliable, but more "work" (if thinking about how to phrase things and speaking out loud can be considered "work"), but it still beats going to the Mac and "fixing" the time on the Mac or iPhone.
I was more making the point that it's not AI. You shouldn't have to workaround these basic deficiencies, nor would you if it was actually AI.
Siri works extremely well for me generally, but that's because I have taken some time to teach myself how to phrase questions to maximize its understanding of what I want.
Using the example Elijahg used above -- at present, the right way to do what they wanted to do would be to ask Siri how much time is left on the timer. Once you have that answer (let's say the answer was "17 minutes"), ask Siri to stop the timer. Then ask Siri to set a 22-minute timer (17+5). This works reliably in my testing.
Is that how it SHOULD work? No, it should work the way Elijahg wanted it to, and I think it will work this way in this next big revision. My current method is reliable, but more "work" (if thinking about how to phrase things and speaking out loud can be considered "work"), but it still beats going to the Mac and "fixing" the time on the Mac or iPhone.
I was more making the point that it's not AI. You shouldn't have to workaround these basic deficiencies, nor would you if it was actually AI.
Even NLP is a branch of AI. You couldn't use Siri to set a a single timer — which I don't like Siri in the home for because it only allows for a single timer — without it having AI. You can' keep trying, but you'll keep failing at rewriting the definition of AI simply because it's gotten better over the last decade.
Siri works extremely well for me generally, but that's because I have taken some time to teach myself how to phrase questions to maximize its understanding of what I want.
Using the example Elijahg used above -- at present, the right way to do what they wanted to do would be to ask Siri how much time is left on the timer. Once you have that answer (let's say the answer was "17 minutes"), ask Siri to stop the timer. Then ask Siri to set a 22-minute timer (17+5). This works reliably in my testing.
Is that how it SHOULD work? No, it should work the way Elijahg wanted it to, and I think it will work this way in this next big revision. My current method is reliable, but more "work" (if thinking about how to phrase things and speaking out loud can be considered "work"), but it still beats going to the Mac and "fixing" the time on the Mac or iPhone.
I was more making the point that it's not AI. You shouldn't have to workaround these basic deficiencies, nor would you if it was actually AI.
It’s going to be fun to see what the other tech companies besides Apple come up with in AI In light of their recent performances in the last month or two. Hint is not looking too good.
Use an iPhone 14 Pro Max and I’m not about to spend over $1000 to try Apple AI or an updated Siri will have to wait till iPhone 17 Is released next year
18.1 dev beta 1 repeatedly crashes on my 1 TB 15 Pro Max even with all apps closed and a hard restart. It’s a soft kind of crash. After I’m able to get back to the desktop when I relaunch the app I was in it will resume where I left off in it. And a VOIP MagicJack phone call doesn’t get disconnected through the crash. Looking forward to the second beta to hopefully fix this bug.
Text Faith and ask what she wants me to make for dinner, then set a reminder to start cooking at 5," gave us a single text message with the contents "what do you want me to make for dinner, then set a reminder to start cooking at 5.
In fairness this is a tricky request. We’ve all heard the joke where the wife says, “Stop and pick up a quart of milk and if they have eggs get twelve,” and the guy comes back with twelve quarts of milk. Knowing where to parse out these requests can be very hard. People get it wrong all the time. Indeed, a lot of this can be more cultural, than simple language management. Perhaps saying “…and also set a reminder…” would have made a difference.
People say how bad Siri is, and admittedly it could be better. But I’m very careful with how I word my requests, and seldom have a problem.
Text Faith and ask what she wants me to make for dinner, then set a reminder to start cooking at 5," gave us a single text message with the contents "what do you want me to make for dinner, then set a reminder to start cooking at 5.
In fairness this is a tricky request. We’ve all heard the joke where the wife says, “Stop and pick up a quart of milk and if they have eggs get twelve,” and the guy comes back with twelve quarts of milk. Knowing where to parse out these requests can be very hard. People get it wrong all the time. Indeed, a lot of this can be more cultural, than simple language management. Perhaps saying “…and also set a reminder…” would have made a difference.
People say how bad Siri is, and admittedly it could be better. But I’m very careful with how I word my requests, and seldom have a problem.
I'm not sure people realize how capable modern LLMs are for things like this. That's not a difficult request at all, even for a tiny LLM that would easily fit in a cell phone. Here's a response from Gemma2:2b, for example:
>>> You are an AI assistant on a cell phone. Your user asks you to "Text Faith and ask what she wants me to make for dinner, then set a reminder to start cooking at 5" Describe the actions you take to fulfill the request.
Okay, I can help with that! Here's how I'll approach this:
1. **Text Faith:** I will craft and send the text message to Faith: "Hey Faith! What are you craving for dinner tonight? I want to cook something delicious!"
2. **Set Reminder:** To remind myself of the cooking time, I will set a reminder on your phone that says: "Dinner Prep: 5 PM - [Insert Name of Dish/Type of Meal]". You can customize this further if you like!
Text Faith and ask what she wants me to make for dinner, then set a reminder to start cooking at 5," gave us a single text message with the contents "what do you want me to make for dinner, then set a reminder to start cooking at 5.
In fairness this is a tricky request. We’ve all heard the joke where the wife says, “Stop and pick up a quart of milk and if they have eggs get twelve,” and the guy comes back with twelve quarts of milk. Knowing where to parse out these requests can be very hard. People get it wrong all the time. Indeed, a lot of this can be more cultural, than simple language management. Perhaps saying “…and also set a reminder…” would have made a difference.
People say how bad Siri is, and admittedly it could be better. But I’m very careful with how I word my requests, and seldom have a problem.
I'm not sure people realize how capable modern LLMs are for things like this. That's not a difficult request at all, even for a tiny LLM that would easily fit in a cell phone.
Exactly this. People here are ridiculously defensive of Siri, when it's a joke even compared to Alexa etc let alone a LLM. "It works for me because I only ever ask it one thing and I've learnt how to say things exactly how I need to to make it work"
To be fair, I'd have been right there with them a month or two ago. I fell into a rabbit hole exploring LLMs after DuckDuckGo announced their privacy layer for a few models, including ChatGPT, and then I went even deeper when I discovered that running an entire LLM on your own hardware was possible. Since then, and especially with the latter, I've had my mind blown over and over and over again as I've explored what LLMs can (and can't, and sometimes will/won't) do.
But I do want to draw a distinction between an LLM and the much broader term "AI". Siri almost certainly does use some form of AI right now, just in translating the sounds you make into words, if nothing else. Given all the differences in the way people speak, even within a single country, that alone is a feat - and one that Siri has become more and more adept at over the years. But Siri is clearly only using AI for that part, and is otherwise mostly using keywords for parsing and taking action on your commands. Employing an LLM for that would allow Siri to actually understand your meaning and not just parse for keywords. That's really game-changing, and actually can be done on-device in a way that solidly protects privacy.
Comments
People say how bad Siri is, and admittedly it could be better. But I’m very careful with how I word my requests, and seldom have a problem.
1. **Text Faith:** I will craft and send the text message to Faith: "Hey Faith! What are you craving for dinner tonight? I want to cook
something delicious!"
2. **Set Reminder:** To remind myself of the cooking time, I will set a reminder on your phone that says: "Dinner Prep: 5 PM - [Insert Name of
Dish/Type of Meal]". You can customize this further if you like!