Apple Looking to Hire Writers to Enhance Siri's Witty Personality

[charlituna]

Originally Posted by b166er

Siri had such huge potential, but even Apple doesn't take it seriously. When I saw it demoed I was so impressed. I do use it for reminders and some other tasks while I'm driving, but it doesn't offer anything the competition can't at this point.

And? Apple might not be trying to make something super special at this point. After all, who cares is it has AI that can make it seem like your best friend if the key systems are borked. Baby steps are sometimes best.

As for this position, if true it sounds more like an add on to the many engineers they have in the mix. Someone more of a creative type to think up natural language input folks might use and give back more natural replies. They know that folks like to prank Siri so why not include some appropriate replies. Better to have one person working on this than the key engineers who should be working in her reply times, search results etc.

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Originally Posted by Ivan0310

[Edit: I feel I need to qualify this response. My problem is that it feels like it's been a while since Apple wowed us with a bit of true innovation.

And how are they supposed to do that. Short of building the T-100, where is this innovation supposed to come from. Everything they would be doing would just be tweaking an existing thing.

Heck even building the t-100 would be true innovation since they didn't think it up but copied the idea from a movie (same with UI glasses, watches, TV walls etc. all from books, movies or TV shows)

[Macrolido]

Originally Posted by rbrian

I don't think Siri needs to be wittier. Every time I demonstrate him to friends or family, within seconds we are all crying with laughter!

Your post made my day, lol.

[charlituna]

Originally Posted by longofest

Wait... I thought this position was already filled?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQj0uueIzAQ

That's Siri, this would be more like her Professor Higgins

[charlituna]

Originally Posted by Zunjine

I said that a smartwatch type of devices is a good bet. This technology is still maturing and Apple will wait until it can do something that radically improves on the current smartwatch experience. I think maybe within the next two years we'll see an Apple branded wearable device of some sort.

Of we won't, for the same reasons we won't see an Apple ISP, cable company etc. Apple isn't trying to be all things to all people. Unlike companies like Samsung, Apple is happy to share the wealth and let some things stay in the hands of other folks. Especially niche things like UI glasses and watches.

Something like a TV they might do because that could just be an expansion on their display tech but otherwise, they leave the toasters, refrigerators etc to the rest of the world

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Originally Posted by Shrink

I thought perhaps I was the only one who didn't need Siri to be cute, or my friend. It's a piece of software, and I don't need, or want, it to be human-like,

By are you the majority or the minority? I'm guessing minority. For the majority, who are more common folks and common users, getting them to use Siri and thus add more samples to the database to improve Siri, being more human may be vital.

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Originally Posted by zosokm

The expectations from Apple are very high . Yet if you look at this list of innovations objectively- they have 4 major contributions in the last 20 years.

If you do the same with all other tech companies they look as bad, if not worse

However , the expectations from apple are very high because the came up with the iphone and the ipad in rapid succession within a span of 3 years when the competition was taken by surprise.

Not really that hard when they are basically the same thing

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Originally Posted by nutmac

Speaking of innovation, I read Ben Brook's "More Data Detector Please" blog post last night. He proposes integrating Siri to voice calls, where Siri can listen in to detect and make a note of things like appointments, phone numbers, addresses, etc. And at the end of the call, I can review the summary to confirm individual actions.

Sounds cool but it is ripe for abuse and screaming from the privacy nuts. After all, for all we know those calls would be recorded and kept on some server for someone to review her performance. And who knows if it is truly anonymous in the sense there is no way even with a warrant to find out where something came from

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Originally Posted by Bubba Satori

Thank goodness they are taking care of this before they update the MacPro.
Gotta have priorities.

Well yes, because there is only one team working on everything Apple does.

Oh wait, correct that. It's just Sir J. He does everything. He even builds all of it which is why supply is constrained. Those Chinese workers are just actors paid to cover up the truth

[Zunjine]

Originally Posted by charlituna

Of we won't, for the same reasons we won't see an Apple ISP, cable company etc. Apple isn't trying to be all things to all people. Unlike companies like Samsung, Apple is happy to share the wealth and let some things stay in the hands of other folks. Especially niche things like UI glasses and watches.

Something like a TV they might do because that could just be an expansion on their display tech but otherwise, they leave the toasters, refrigerators etc to the rest of the world[COLOR="#808080"]

While I tend to agree in principal, Apple will not go the Samsung way, I don't feel that AR glasses and smart watches are necessarily niche items. They certainly aren't like toasters and refrigerators. They are two very likely large parts of the post-PC computing era. They may be the smartphone and tablet of the next decade. Do you think Apple won't want a part of that?

We're talking here about how we will interact with our data, our media and information services in the future. We'll use smartphones, tablets and laptops of course. But surely our TVs and other devices, wearable electronics, will be part of that soon.

They may not be stand-alone devices like smartphones and tablets but they'll certainly be key technologies. If, in the future, your smartphone is largely controlled by a wearable devices - like a watch - and the output is primarily to some kind of head mounted devices through advanced AR, then Apple will want to be making those devices for one very important reason; controlling the user experience.

Apple is happy to allow partners to make non-essential peripherals. They're not competing with high end headphones or with printers. They aren't trying to make keyboards for their iPad - stuff like that. They see those as non-essential, tangental to the core user experience. But if we will primarily interact with our smartphones and tablets through wearable tech - if those become parts of the core experience, you can bet your bottom that Apple will be in that space. Otherwise they start to lose that relationship with the customer. Instead of us experiencing Apple when we use our tablets, we'll be experiencing the apps and interface as designed by whoever made our glasses or watch etc.

[gnasher729]

Originally Posted by charlituna

As for this position, if true it sounds more like an add on to the many engineers they have in the mix. Someone more of a creative type to think up natural language input folks might use and give back more natural replies. They know that folks like to prank Siri so why not include some appropriate replies. Better to have one person working on this than the key engineers who should be working in her reply times, search results etc.

I'd write a bit of software first, then create a list of the most asked questions (tell me a joke! is probably near the top of the list), have some lowly employee mark those that are "joke" questions where you don't really want the real answer, and hand them to a writer with a sense of humor. There aren't _that_ many joke questions, so with three months of work you'd get some impressive results.

[SgtPepper12]

Originally Posted by rmwebs

Money well spent

How about fix the most basic cockups first?

Temperature here is currently -3 CELSIUS. If I ask Siri what the temperature is in Fahrenheit it just repeats the 'witty' Celsius temperature by saying "Brr! its -3 outside.".

Basic little things like this really shouldn't take a few seconds to fix.

I'm glad to hear that Apple tries to teach Americans the superior metric system.

[pooleman]

Originally Posted by mabhatter

George Lucas is free now!! He is a MASTER of witty dialogue.

Yeah, he could make Siri speak in Ewok.

I's rather have them hire some engineers to make Siri function correctly.

[rmwebs]

Originally Posted by SgtPepper12

I'm glad to hear that Apple tries to teach Americans the superior metric system.

Given that I'm in the UK I dont see who that comment was really aimed at. For what its worth we use the metric system. Older generations however used the imperial system, so it would make sense for Siri to be able to tell you both on request.

[SmileyBlast!]

Looking forward to the results from the new team members.

[b166er]

Originally Posted by charlituna

And? Apple might not be trying to make something super special at this point.

That's exactly my point.

[XboxMySocks]

Originally Posted by Bubba Satori

Thank goodness they are taking care of this before they update the MacPro.
Gotta have priorities.

It's such a shame that such a huge company like Apple can only work on one thing at a time, right?

[Fresh Pie]

If you can carry out a conversation with the current version of Siri, that says something horrible about your intelligence.

If you want to carry out a conversation with Siri, that says something worse about your social life.

[rang]

Really...they want to waste money on making the G_D DAMN wench more witty???!!!

How about take some of that money set aside for this stoooooopid effort and put it toward a huge effort in making it responsive to simple commands like dialing someone in my contact list???

I don't have an accent...no Jersey or Brooklyn or southern or midwest or Canadian accent here. No "eh" and the end of my sentences. Yet this dumb ass wench can't even respond correctly to a simple "Call Robert Smith on cell" command when he is the one and only Robert Smith in my contact list. And the damn room is quiet.

It was a good idea to fire the idiot in charge of Maps and Siri but COME ON...instead of hiring a leader in the field of speech recognition and or GIS...Apple is going to waste money on making the wench "WITTY"???

Seriously!!!

[designs216]

Should I have another margarita Siri? It's 5 o'clock somewhere, sir!