When Jobs introduced Siri he said it’s going to be a conversational AI assistant. I know it could be hard to do, but it’s been 10 years! Siri had a huge head start, it should be better than the competition in every way.
While Apple may have appeared to have a bit of a head start, Google had the advantage in most ways over Apple. The foundation that Google could build their assistant off of came from their work with predictive search, scanning the worlds books, digitizing and cataloging everything else, and all the work done with targeted, personalized ads. All Apple had as a potential base to build off of was, IMO, finder. Apple’s business model and all their learnings over the years are not very transferable to the creation of a voice assistant; Google’s (and Amazon’s and even Meta’s) are transferable. Using this as a potential predictive model; if one knew Microsoft’s business model, could they have predicted where they would fall in advancement of Cortana? I would say yes. Microsoft did try to pivot a bit with the release of Bing, but they were over a decade behind Google in Search.
I use Siri daily, and while she has gotten better, the more proficient and comfortable I am becoming with speaking my thoughts instead of taking the slower time of typing them down, the more aggravating it is as I hit up against more boundaries of her abilities. I do hope that the work that they have been doing with Maps and Siri suggested search results starts to expand Siri’s portfolio. Luckily for Apple, I really don’t know what I am missing, yet, as I am invested in their ecosystem and most of my immediate and extended family and friend groups are too. Those that are using Android, are not using Okay Google in any meaningful way either. But for how much longer… I do hope Apple steps up their game in this area and soon too. Perhaps the release of a significant upgrade will be coincided with the release of their AR headset? 🤷♂️🤞
Cheers.
Siri started as a speech synthesizer in the early 80’s. Besides, conversational would depend more on approach than content. All major assistants base their training on the quality of their synthetic content which is can produce much better models than natural content. Natural content needs transcription for high confidence scores, which is time consuming and prone to human error. Synthetic nowadays is mainstream even in facial recognition and autonomous vehicles
Siri will trigger all the time when I say stuff like “seriously?!” Also recently, my Alexa will trigger all the time when I say “hey Siri” and idk if it’s because of Matter or not, but I’m always like “no bxtch not you”
I find Siri to be if a say "Hey Siri, Please [insert request]. Thanks" I'm sure the only reason it works is just more natural timing, but clearly it works.
When Jobs introduced Siri he said it’s going to be a conversational AI assistant. I know it could be hard to do, but it’s been 10 years! Siri had a huge head start, it should be better than the competition in every way.
While Apple may have appeared to have a bit of a head start, Google had the advantage in most ways over Apple. The foundation that Google could build their assistant off of came from their work with predictive search, scanning the worlds books, digitizing and cataloging everything else, and all the work done with targeted, personalized ads. All Apple had as a potential base to build off of was, IMO, finder. Apple’s business model and all their learnings over the years are not very transferable to the creation of a voice assistant; Google’s (and Amazon’s and even Meta’s) are transferable. Using this as a potential predictive model; if one knew Microsoft’s business model, could they have predicted where they would fall in advancement of Cortana? I would say yes. Microsoft did try to pivot a bit with the release of Bing, but they were over a decade behind Google in Search.
I use Siri daily, and while she has gotten better, the more proficient and comfortable I am becoming with speaking my thoughts instead of taking the slower time of typing them down, the more aggravating it is as I hit up against more boundaries of her abilities. I do hope that the work that they have been doing with Maps and Siri suggested search results starts to expand Siri’s portfolio. Luckily for Apple, I really don’t know what I am missing, yet, as I am invested in their ecosystem and most of my immediate and extended family and friend groups are too. Those that are using Android, are not using Okay Google in any meaningful way either. But for how much longer… I do hope Apple steps up their game in this area and soon too. Perhaps the release of a significant upgrade will be coincided with the release of their AR headset? 🤷♂️🤞
Cheers.
Siri started as a speech synthesizer in the early 80’s. Besides, conversational would depend more on approach than content. All major assistants base their training on the quality of their synthetic content which is can produce much better models than natural content. Natural content needs transcription for high confidence scores, which is time consuming and prone to human error. Synthetic nowadays is mainstream even in facial recognition and autonomous vehicles
Saying that Siri started as a speech synthesizer in the early 80’s is your opinion. In my opinion Siri started in July of 2005 when Susan Bennett did the voice work for Siri.
Personally, I am glad to see Hey in Hey Siri go away. However there are lots of good points being made. Apple tried to humanize Siri like we were taking to someone we knew and to me it’s been terrible. I think many people would be happy to have Siri to talk like the Star Trek computer.
There’s lots of reasons why they are still having issues and I think it will take a lot longer before it talks as good as Mrs Roddenberry’s voice.
Definitely improved but still infuriating. Especially when you can’t figure the delay in listening while over Bluetooth. Honestly, I’d like Siri to be able to do much more and do it better. It’s been around since iPhone 4s. I find it easier to do most things by typing.
My own personal Siri fantasy involves being able to rename her “Computer” and a cheap HomeKit-enabled smart plug attached to my electric tea kettle haha. “Computer: Tea, Earl Grey, Hot.”
Part of the reason Google had a head start is because they introduced the free “Goog411”. Seemed like a great directory assistance service, and after 18 months they canned it. The reason was it was simply used by them to hear people saying every possible query in every possible accent and voice through phone connections. AI training disguised as a free info service.
Is anybody able to get Siri to read notifications on the iPad anymore? In iPadOS 15 and before I could ask Siri to read my notifications. She doesn’t do that anymore, or am I mistaken? That was a pretty vital function for me.
I use Siri all the time all day. Doing without saying hey, is a lot less important to me than having Apple bring back Siri’s ability to search photos for objects, dates and locations and other functions that I used all day I used to have her read my notifications to me , while I get dressed, etc. That was the function I used every day and now in IPadOS it is gone. I don’t understand why Apple keeps taking away, important functions and leaving us with silly things like taking away the “hey” in hey Siri. Useless. Am I missing something that was announced? Is there a way to get her to continue reading notifications like she did in iPadOS 15? I’m not one of these people who thinks Siri needs to be as good as Google assistant or Alexa. But for goodness sake, stop taking away the functions that it was doing, and that guy, as an elderly person depend on every day.
I had never thought to ask Siri to read my notifications. So I said “Read my notifications” and it did so. iPadOS 16.1. I have no idea why it wouldn’t work for you.
Much of the angst here can be prevented if Apple allows the user to opt in to (or at least opt out of) a hey-less Siri. Otherwise, households containing one or more people named Sarah will not be happy.
I had never thought to ask Siri to read my notifications. So I said “Read my notifications” and it did so. iPadOS 16.1. I have no idea why it wouldn’t work for you.
Bono Bob,
Thank you so very much for answering my post. Prior to your answer, I thought that function was just yet another example of Apple, taking away functions from Siri and not mentioning it, the way they did, when they took away Siri’s, ability to search, photos by location, date, and objects. You let me know that the problem was on my device alone so I restarted it and it reads notifications now. This is a big help to me, because as an older woman, sometimes it takes me a lot of time and stiffness to get up out of bed and so meanwhile I have Siri read my notifications for the day and my daily update. I thought that function was gone. Thanks for letting me know just to restart that iPad.
Comments
Both Siri and I will get frustration headaches...
-- a long-time Apple guy
I think I'll stick to with Hey
Just an idea