Unfortunately i have used Google now and think its a load of crap compared to Siri.
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Apple Acquired Speech Recognition Firm Novauris Last Year for Siri Team
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Unfortunately i have used Google now and think its a load of crap compared to Siri.
In Walter Isaacson's biography of Jobs, Steve said he once had hoped to get Apple employees to wear some sort of uniform.
Maybe Apple acquired Novauris not for the speech-recognition technology, but for the ballerina tutus.
No. We have figured out some aspects of AI, and we have figured out how to program some behaviours that look intelligent and look human.
What is Siri, Google Now, Cortana? These are all keyword-based assistants. Their "understanding" of what you are saying is entirely based on looking for keywords that trigger actions, then looking for other keywords nearby in context to satisfy the required inputs for those triggers. They try to pull out the data they need to complete their task. They ignore everything not related to the keywords detected, including "fluff" words like "the", "please", etc.
Wrap that up in a magical layer of speech recognition (so you say the sentence instead of typing it) and text-to-speech (so you hear the response instead of reading it), and you get a device that seems intelligent. And it kind of is. But not really. Play with it long enough and the cracks are soon apparent.
Try it yourself. Say "Siri, would you please be a dear and set my alarm for 7:30 tomorrow morning? Thanks so much." It worked, right? She understood a natural English sentence! Intelligent!
But you could also say "set alarm 7:30". Or something gibberish like "Mind the set and alarm the pickle 7:30" -- Siri isn't trying to comprehend anything there, it just plucks out the keywords it needs (a time of some sort) to associate with the keywords "set" and "alarm". Or say "Set my alarm for 7:30 and then tell me if I have any appointments tomorrow" - the second half of your instructions are ignored because they are not relevant to the first part. Why? Because Apple hasn't programmed Siri to handle compound statements. (In fact when I tried it, Siri pulled the old ELIZA trick of taking my whole compound phrase and trying to stuff it into the command it was trying to execute -- by calling my 7:30 alarm "my alarm for 7:30 and then tell me if I have any appointments tomorrow".
The more actions they program into the assistant (the more it can do), the smarter it looks. But that's all it is. Keyword-based fuzzy logic inference engines, API services, rules engines for matching input parameters. Then they throw in some fun, useless, "if user says X then respond with witty remark Y" rules, to make it pretend to have a personality. It's fun, but let's not think we're talking to any sort of intelligence here.
It's very slick. And pretty advanced. I don't mean to minimize the work they've done on these assistants. But AI in general? No, we have barely, barely scratched the surface.
(signed, notjustjay, M.A.Sc. thesis topic on machine learning and behaviour imitation)
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You wouldn't have batted an eye if I said Siri was first place, you iSheep.
P.S. I use Google Now on my iPhone, since ya know, Google isn't stingy with their products.
1) Really? Go youtube / twitter or a tech site, and say ''I hate Google and Fandroids, Apple is so much better'' people will probably down vote your comments and write bad comments about your comment. Then say ''I hate Apple and iSheeps, Android is so much better'', people will up vote and write good things about your comments. Also, if I say something bad about Apple on an Apple based site, and if there is logic behind it, even Apple Fans will agree with me but if I say something bad About Android on an Android based site, people will probably insult me even thought there is logic behind. You can try it, really you'll see I am write
2) Google now is not really a voice assistant, I tried it on an Android phone, and I can say that it's a Voice search. Siri and Cortana is real voice assistants but sadly I haven't had a change to try Cortana yet.
better huh ?
I bet to differ..... Siri has trouble in places so does Dragon or any voice software... Its not perfect ....
I sure hope Apple realizes that even all words spoken in the world would equal 5TB of data.
Just a heads up
Until this happens, i don't believe that any voice software weather it be on a desktop, or integrated into phones like Siri, will be able to understand every single word.....
Sometimes it IS often quicker typing.
While this is a battle, it won't be the finish line i think for a time yet. No matter what "advances" we all achieve... It will bring us closer, but never 100%, which is a shame.
I bet to differ..... Siri has trouble in places so does Dragon or any voice software... Its not perfect ....
I sure hope Apple realizes that even all words spoken in the world would equal 5TB of data.
Just a heads up
Until this happens, i don't believe that any voice software weather it be on a desktop, or integrated into phones like Siri, will be able to understand every single word.....
Sometimes it IS often quicker typing.
While this is a battle, it won't be the finish line i think for a time yet. No matter what "advances" we all achieve... It will bring us closer, but never 100%, which is a shame.
This might be true, but I've played with Google Now on a friend's tablet and as far as regonising what you're saying, Google Now has an edge over Siri.
Also, Siri can sometimes take a while to talk to the server. All things that I'm sure will be ironed out over time.
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Why is this bad? 'We want people to be able to talk to their phones, we don't quite know what we're doing, but you guys do. Want to join us?'
Google Now is in first place.
From knowing the weather before you start your day, to planning the best route to avoid traffic, or checking your favorite team’s score (Go Miami Heat!) while they’re playing, Google Now is an AI assistant that beats the hell out of Siri.
Really? Can Google Now get me information from my calendars in non-Google services? Oh, that's right, it can't.
Can I use Google Now without it draining my battery in an hour?
Face it, Google Now is pretty much a glorified weather app.
Even when I did have Gmail, half of the time it couldn't even pick up packages or flight information.
And the other half it gave me directions for going home on the way to work.
And don't even get me started on the "magical" ability to have to say the thing I want to search for five times before giving up and just typing it into google search in Safari.
Waze, Motorola, Sparrow, Nest.
