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Siri Co-Founders Building Viv, a Next-Generation Flexible Virtual Assistant
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HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
Apparently Apple...
Sounds like management wanted Siri to go one way and these guys wanted to go toward this Viv. So they left and are building Viv. In the meantime, Siri has gone whatever way management thought best, getting us the wonders that are Siri today.
Not really true. Sometimes, bureaucracy and marketing constraints limit you from innovate. Natural language processing is a pretty mature area these days. There are tons of techniques developed in universities just waiting for being implemented and tested as a commercial solution.
Natural language processing is so not mature these days. They've been working on it a long time, but it sill has a long way to go. They just try to trick you into thinking otherwise by teaching them to understand common statements/questions.
Errrr, really, are they being serious here?
"Im extremely proud of Siri and the impact its had on the world"
The Impact it's had on the World.........
Really?
"Im extremely proud of Siri and the impact its had on the world"
The Impact it's had on the World.........
Really?
Not really. I agree that at the moment the methods are pretty dumb, like recognizing predefined patterns like "Give me directions to ...". But it wouldn't need to be like this. I think a startup would have better insights on this field than a big, bureaucratic company. Currently, it's easier recognizing what someone speaks than what someone wants to say -- this last part is the tricky one, but not impossible.
It's like a text-based question/answering system, but with commercial effort, that can reach results in which the academy is not really interested. You can pre-process the input with a text-simplification system, while clustering techniques detect the categories and concepts contained in the query.
Actually it's better not having deadlines persecuting you to deliver a working product. I think a startup is able to deliver a better solution in the medium term.
Googs
That sounds revolutionary! Google would get a serious h@ard-on for that advanced user learning software! Hope they never get their data thieving hands on it or buy them out for billions
That sounds revolutionary! Google would get a serious h@ard-on for that advanced user learning software! Hope they never get their data thieving hands on it or buy them out for billions
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Perhaps you shouldn't assume someone else has your inadequacies. So what makes you think winston1236 mumbles?
Maybe you have a higher tolerance for Siri's level of accuracy.What were they going to do, override Apple's vision for Siri? Personally, I think they did the right thing. They left Apple without making a fuss or causing a media storm. They're now doing what they want to do and they get to do it their way. In a way, this reminds me of Bungie and Microsoft. Both smaller companies were acquired by large corporations. Both got instant financial security and both lost control of the direction of their product. Both left and we have Viv in development, and Destiny about to roll out. Sounds like a win for all involved.
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These virtual assistants are invaluable for the majority of people on the Earth. These people go to restaurants and catch flights every day. So it is in fact unimaginable now how we managed to get by before they were invented. Excuse me now. I have a flight to catch .. then a meal before I go...
Siri! Where is the nearest restaurant in the airport wot I am sitting in please? And when I fly again tomorrow then where else can I enjoy Thai food with a Mexican starter. And the day after that .. Where is the check in desk for my flight to Buenos Aires the week after that. And where can I eat a Bangladeshi Curry with a peswhari naan bread?
See? Essential to our daily lives. Eat. Fly. Land. Eat.
Sorted!
Siri! Where is the nearest restaurant in the airport wot I am sitting in please? And when I fly again tomorrow then where else can I enjoy Thai food with a Mexican starter. And the day after that .. Where is the check in desk for my flight to Buenos Aires the week after that. And where can I eat a Bangladeshi Curry with a peswhari naan bread?
See? Essential to our daily lives. Eat. Fly. Land. Eat.
Sorted!
I think it's safe to say this is what we all hoped that Siri would eventually turn into. I still can't believe that Siri doesn't have APIs so that developers can add app-specific functionality.
Interesting, but others are already well down this path. Amazon has (from a start-up called True Knowledge that they bought in 2012) an obscure little division called Evi that has been working on a conversational system that ties together many data sources along these lines for several years.
See http://evi.com/app and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrCK0ya097Q
Good luck to them, but hard to see how they make headway over Apple, Google, and Amazon's efforts in this space.
See http://evi.com/app and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrCK0ya097Q
Good luck to them, but hard to see how they make headway over Apple, Google, and Amazon's efforts in this space.
I wouldn't rely on this. If it gets one thing wrong, you're finished. Does anyone remember CleverBot, the AI that would learn from people to give responses?
This is disappointing when innovators are bought out and then not supported. I thought Apple was increasing the proportion of R&D funding?
By all means take Siri and change its focus to shoving products in front of people, or aligning search results with 3rd party partners, or however else they are monetising its use, but at least keep the creatives on the payroll and support them in brainstorming your next big thing.
By all means take Siri and change its focus to shoving products in front of people, or aligning search results with 3rd party partners, or however else they are monetising its use, but at least keep the creatives on the payroll and support them in brainstorming your next big thing.
I hate to say it, but Siri is among the worst products apple has ever made.
In fact it is very unlike apple. It is unfinished,
Unpolished and does not do what it is supposed to do. It is still an alpha product to me.
I think someone at apple (I think it was Scott forstall ) said that Siri was demoed to
Steve jobs during one of his last meetings at Apple, when he was already terminally ill.
I kind of get the feeling that Siri is one of the products, Steve jobs never really had an eye on.
In fact it is very unlike apple. It is unfinished,
Unpolished and does not do what it is supposed to do. It is still an alpha product to me.
I think someone at apple (I think it was Scott forstall ) said that Siri was demoed to
Steve jobs during one of his last meetings at Apple, when he was already terminally ill.
I kind of get the feeling that Siri is one of the products, Steve jobs never really had an eye on.
Totally agree with your incredulity. After the initial 5 mins of playing when I and my friends got their iPhone 4s I can safely say that absolutely none of us have used it since then nor have I ever seen anyone using it, ever. I actually had forgotten that I even had it on my phone until I read this thread. Not saying that I know everyone ever, but for something that has had that much impact (apparently) you would surely have expected me to of seen it in use at least once in the last 2+ years.
Changed the world... Lol.. Keep on drinking that Kool Aid.
Perhaps you shouldn't assume someone else has your inadequacies. So what makes you think winston1236 mumbles?
Perhaps I do. But I'd say that 98-99% accuracy is a pretty reasonable "tolerance."
I never said winston1236 mumbles. But millions of people use Siri with no issue. Perhaps the winston1236's original message could have been something along the lines of, "I don't know about others, but I find Siri lacking in voice recognition accuracy." instead of a blanket statement about its inadequacies just because they can't seem to find a way to make it work for them.
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Not sure that's true. I know a bunch of people who are artificially intelligent...