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Siri's Accuracy Continues to Improve as Apple Works to Reduce Reliance on Google

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Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, who has regularly assessed Siri's accuracy in terms of correctly interpreting and answering queries, has issued the latest version of his Siri report card, noting that Siri has continued to improve under iOS 7, particularly in terms of being able to properly interpret questions being asked.
The primary improvement between Siri in iOS 6 and iOS 7 came from its performance in noisier areas, where Siri was able to translate better through a noisy environment (94% vs. 83% correct in Aug iOS 6). Based on our testing, iOS 7 Siri's net ability to answer questions (factors in questions not correctly understood) improved to 79% from 77% in August with iOS 6.
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munster_siri_dec13_report.jpg
The improvements in Siri's understanding come alongside but separate from Apple's continued efforts to reduce its reliance on Google, as evidenced by Siri's shift to emphasize Bing, Wikipedia, and WolframAlpha results. In Munster's most recent testing, only 4 percent of Siri's answers relied on Google, compared to 17 percent in August testing and 27 percent in December 2012.

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Munster also compares Siri to Google Now, finding that the two services are now essentially tied in effectiveness with a "C+" score after Siri held a substantial lead in the year-ago testing. In the latest testing, Google Now held small leads in content areas such as commerce and information, while Siri performed significantly better for operating system controls.

munster_siri_dec13_questions.jpg

Article Link: Siri's Accuracy Continues to Improve as Apple Works to Reduce Reliance on Google
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2013/12/10/siris-accuracy-continues-to-improve-as-apple-works-to-reduce-reliance-on-google/
roadbloc

roadbloc

macrumors G3
Aug 24, 2009
8,784
215
UK
Regretfully, Siri still doesn't understand me. Good job I have no real need for voice control.
 
chirpie

chirpie

macrumors 6502a
Jul 23, 2010
646
183
I don't know, that net percentage increase (4% better) year over year seems kind of low to me. Am I the only one who feels that way? Not my field of study, so I'm not entirely sure if this is supposed to be impressive.
 
V

Ventilatedbrain

macrumors regular
Nov 22, 2012
201
68
I may be in the monitory here but I really find Siri to be very helpful especially when biking.. i ask it to read my texts and call someone etc .. Google now on my nexus 4 feels a bit distant
 
steve-p

steve-p

macrumors 68000
Oct 14, 2008
1,740
42
Newbury, UK
If the purpose really is to reduce reliance on Google, then maybe the effort would be better spent working on a search engine I can type stuff into, not just talk to.
 
N

NachoGrande

macrumors 6502a
Mar 30, 2010
986
1,714
I know one phrase is get correct 100% of the time. SIRI, you suck! After I get the message that SIRI cannot help me right now.
 
M

Michael CM1

macrumors 603
Feb 4, 2008
5,681
276
When I got iOS 7 I did notice a pronunciation correction. There's a town nearby called Braselton, pronounced "Brah-zel-ton." Siri had been pronouncing it "Bray-zel-ton." It's correct on TBT directions now. But she still can't pronounce "sugar" like there's an h after the s.
 
H

HurtinMinorKey

macrumors 6502
Jan 18, 2012
439
171
This, and the eventual analog on Windows, will be the death of Google. Or at the very least, a breakup of its monopoly on search ads.
 
H

HenryDJP

Suspended
Nov 25, 2012
5,084
843
United States
roadbloc said:
Regretfully, Siri still doesn't understand me. Good job I have no real need for voice control.
Click to expand...

The one thing I will greatly defend Apple and Siri for is trying to understand people's voices. People either have a strong accent, speak with a lisp, speak too fast, speak too slow, speak with a low register voice, have an annoying voice, mumble their words, garble their words and most of all they try and use Siri in a noisy atmosphere along with any of the above.

No matter what, it's still an electronic device and people just have to learn to speak properly based on the source or just don't use as you've appeared to do. You say you have no need for voice control, it's not just about voice control. Many times I need to look up sports scores, it's much faster and easier just to ask Siri the game stats than typing them in or opening an app and searching.
 
zombierunner

zombierunner

macrumors 68000
Jan 18, 2011
1,691
2,152
UK
Google voice does better than Siri if you have an accent .. I tried both .. Google seems to work more times than Siri .. Hopefully Apple can sort this out
 
S

Simmias

macrumors regular
May 22, 2010
136
339
I have had the opposite experience. After seeing steady improvement in Siri, it has recently gotten worse and become almost unusable for me.

Specifically, I use Siri a lot to play music in the car. I will say "Play Song X" or "Play Album Y". Siri used to be pretty good at hearing the name of the song and finding it in my music library. Now it frequently hear the names incorrectly. Even when it does hear the correct name, it will play a song with a completely different name or simply say "Sorry, I couldn't find that in your music". What do you mean you couldn't find David Bowie in my music??? It's right there!

This regression is quite infuriating. Also, Siri still often fails to respond ("Sorry, there's something wrong") or take 20+ seconds to respond with the wrong answer. I believe we need to give all of Apple's web services time to gather data and make iterative improvements, but I have very little tolerance when they actually get worse over time.
 
NightFox

NightFox

macrumors 68040
May 10, 2005
3,240
4,487
Shropshire, UK
HenryDJP said:
The one thing I will greatly defend Apple and Siri for is trying to understand people's voices. People either have a strong accent, speak with a lisp, speak too fast, speak too slow, speak with a low register voice, have an annoying voice, mumble their words, garble their words and most of all they try and use Siri in a noisy atmosphere along with any of the above.

No matter what, it's still an electronic device and people just have to learn to speak properly based on the source or just don't use as you've appeared to do. You say you have no need for voice control, it's not just about voice control. Many times I need to look up sports scores, it's much faster and easier just to ask Siri the game stats than typing them in or opening an app and searching.
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Never defend a technology! Technology is meant to develop to serve the requirements/limitations of existing human behaviour; human behaviour shouldn't be expected to adapt to meet the requirements/limitations of technology.
 
J

JHankwitz

macrumors 68000
Oct 31, 2005
1,911
58
Wisconsin
Amazing Iceman said:
How could Un-Controlled Environment results for iOS 7 be 94% and 7%, which adds to 101% ???

The same happens to Controlled Environment for iOS 6.
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Haven't you ever heard of the "new math"? It was all the rage back in the 70's and 80's. The kids from that era now work for the media, spewing forth whatever numbers they get without analysis or question.
 
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