Apple Acquired Machine Learning Startup Inductiv for Siri Improvements

[macduke]

Maybe this will help Siri finally get there but I doubt it.

Apple still really needs to fix the things that feed into Siri. For instance, it will say I don’t have certain HomeKit devices at all, but I can control them no problem from Control Center or the Home App. They’ll just randomly not register for a day and then work for weeks upon weeks before randomly breaking again—only in when using Siri.

They also need to work more on context based on location, time of day, and other things I’ve asked her both recently and in the past and how I reacted previously should inform her of the type of content I’m trying to retrieve or manipulate. Just like a real assistant learns.

I’m also looking forward to machines being able to pick up on tone of voice and react appropriately. Like if I sound like I’m in a hurry Siri can cut the crap on the response and just deliver the info as fast as possible.

 

[incoherent_1]

Well, eventually they will buy enough people to use them instead of AI. Maybe then Siri will improve.

Haha love this idea!

“No this isn’t Siri. My name is Jim. I just manually searched for restaurants. This one looks good:”

 

[bwilfong]

A reason I shelved my HomePod? Asking Siri what the weather is today. And getting the weather for Newburgh, NY instead of Newburgh, IN. 890 Miles off. What a waste Google? Exact all the time.

 

[Razeus]

I feel like I see and hear about Apple hiring new engineers and acquiring these types of companies for years now. So why is Siri still so far behind the competition?

 

[sofila]

I've been waiting to see when John Giannandrea's work would be revealed but having a deeper look, it's already been trickling through. There is no grand reveal.

The original Siri wasn't built to scale up to a full fledged conversational UI. It was a third party app meant to execute commands on a narrow pre-defined set of actions. They tried grafting new functions onto something that couldn't scale. This is why Siri fell so behind.

Giannandrea came on board and has been rebuilding the entire foundation of Siri while it continued to operate, like rebuilding the wings of an airplane while in flight and carrying passengers oblivious to that work.

The new foundation of Siri is seen in Siri Shortcuts. No longer do you require Sirikit with its very deliberate, yet restricted set of domains. i.e. Message apps, Payments, Workouts, Lists, Ride Booking, etc. Siri Shortcuts allows *any* app to interact with Siri. It's important to note that Siri Shortcuts isn't just an app that users can manually rebuild shortcuts with but an entire foundation of how Siri works now and apps can interact with through Machine Learning.

I'm excited with each new acquisition knowing that Apple is working on the problem. There's still a ways to go but we're no longer in the stuck in the mud phase. Siri is in real advances now, pushing ahead incrementally.

I remember your genuine optimism , almost 2 years have gone since then. Let's see in another couple of years. Geological ages in these times

 

[ipedro]

I remember your genuine optimism , almost 2 years have gone since then. Let's see in another couple of years. Geological ages in these times

I continue to be optimistic because Apple simply cannot afford to not advance Siri. Conversational computer interactions will inevitably outnumber touch UI and become our primary way of interacting with computers/devices. In fact, it's already happening: Apple's big bets on the future and two of their hottest products, AirPods and AppleWatch, already rely on Siri.

For Apple to give up on Siri would mean giving up their position as smart device leaders. They're not, of course. Apple is putting their money where their mouth is. They're expending massive resources towards AI and ML and have poached the man who was responsible for getting Google to where they are in that area.

It's also important to note that as I mentioned in that post from 2 years ago and is still valid, none of the voice assistants are all that great. Google's has access to the world's most powerful search engine which allows it to pull up more information, Apple's is more human-like in its interactions, Amazon's has more "skills", but none of them offer the true conversational interactions that we expect from them. In a decade when Scarlett Johansson type voice assistants are commonplace, we'll look back in retrospect and realize that voice assistants in 2020 had just barely gotten out of the starting line. It's still anybody's game.

 

[BSben]

They bought so many promising companies to improve Siri, so far very little has happened. There are some improvements, but they are too minor. A bit like maps which is getting better, but many promised features just quietly died, and never expanded (flyover, 3D view)

 

[hagar]

Great, now Siri will become more creative when she announces “one moment please”, “I don’t know what you mean”, “please try again later”, “I don’t see any devices like that in your house” or an actual response that’s however completely wrong

 

[ipponrg]

I continue to be optimistic because Apple simply cannot afford to not advance Siri. Conversational computer interactions will inevitably outnumber touch UI and become our primary way of interacting with computers/devices. In fact, it's already happening: Apple's big bets on the future and two of their hottest products, AirPods and AppleWatch, already rely on Siri.

I'd argue that Apple would be just fine without Siri. You don't need Siri to use an Apple Watch or AirPods. It's the other way around. Siri relies on Apple Watch and Airpods in order to gain momentum.

In 2011 I hardly used it, and in 2020 I have disabled it on almost all of my Apple devices.

 

[sofila]

I continue to be optimistic because Apple simply cannot afford to not advance Siri. Conversational computer interactions will inevitably outnumber touch UI and become our primary way of interacting with computers/devices. In fact, it's already happening: Apple's big bets on the future and two of their hottest products, AirPods and AppleWatch, already rely on Siri.

For Apple to give up on Siri would mean giving up their position as smart device leaders. They're not, of course. Apple is putting their money where their mouth is. They're expending massive resources towards AI and ML and have poached the man who was responsible for getting Google to where they are in that area.

It's also important to note that as I mentioned in that post from 2 years ago and is still valid, none of the voice assistants are all that great. Google's has access to the world's most powerful search engine which allows it to pull up more information, Apple's is more human-like in its interactions, Amazon's has more "skills", but none of them offer the true conversational interactions that we expect from them. In a decade when Scarlett Johansson type voice assistants are commonplace, we'll look back in retrospect and realize that voice assistants in 2020 had just barely gotten out of the starting line. It's still anybody's game.

In a decade...: 8 years have passed since its debut and I have yet to see a localized version for my country.
This means for example no HomePod for sale, no Apple TV voice control and lot of other features missing from Apple products, transforming the experience from excellent to half-baked. It's a pity. Unlike what happens for other Apple products, all these news of acquisitions and changes leave little room for imagination.
As I said, a decade is likely to pass too quickly at this rate ....

 

[SBlue1]

Please please please make Siri bilingual!