Apple Making Big Hiring Push in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

[thekeyring]

Yes! I can't figure out why simple commands are taking so long to be implemented. The annoying this is, I actually like and use Siri often; I just wish it did more.

Exactly! I understand why speech-to-text accuracy takes time to improve, and why complex commands (like: "Hey Siri, book me a table for two") take time. But not the simpler stuff.

Also, it would be extremely useful to ask Siri "What happened?" and it tell you what/why your phone did a particular thing. For example, non-tech savy users might find their phones have done something odd - or an app might crash, and it would be nice to have Siri telling you what was going on.

 

[StevieD100]

I heard that the original creators of Siri are coming out with something called "Viv".. it's supposed to be way better than Siri. And there's $12 million invested in that.

"Viv' made me smile. Perhaps they have been watching too many re-runs of the 1980's BBC series 'The Young Ones'.
Viv was the token punk with a very limited vocabulary. Hmm. sounds ideal

 

[Oblivious.Robot]

They should spend more time working on their maps database. All I wanted was a sandwich and this came up:

View attachment 579575

To be fair their "Chicken Tikka Masala Sandwich" is probably worth the effort in traveling that far!

 

[thekeyring]

This is one reason I don't begrudge Apple's high prices and large margins. Every company is in it for the money-- that's the nature of business. The real question is-- what is their business model, and can you live with its implications? Apple's business model does not depend on exploiting my private data-- on the contrary, the fact that they don't is a differentiator for them. In contrast, every Android-based phone includes a "free" operating system. "Free" is just another word for "the cost is hidden."

What's odd with Apple is they really want you to pay for internet services. They're quite happy to give away software for free - as the price of hardware pays for it. It would rather pay £29.99 or so for OS X updates every year and have iCloud free.

 

[MrGimper]

It must be quite embarrassing for Apple that Cortana is much much more useful than Siri.

If they were both real, Cortana would be the girl playing naked twister with you while Siri couldn't actually understand the rules.

 

[Oblivious.Robot]

Cortana would be the girl playing naked twister with you while Siri couldn't actually understand the rules.

Now that would be much of an incentive for me to go back to windows.

 

[Lucky736]

I really appreciate Apple's emphasis on privacy, especially in this post-Snowden era. It's what keeps me away from great but creepy services like Google Photos.

Lmao if people think they don't have a profile on every user that one day will come out somewhere, even if it isn't today. They are the second largest aggregator of personal information other than Google and pretty close to overtaking from what I have seen and heard. This will be worth far more than any product down the road, to whom is the only question.

 

[JHankwitz]

You can shut Siri off and use the old voice command system.

I wish it did more too, like "Siri, deposit $100,000 into my checking account."

I'm not talking about everything, silly. I just mean things like 'call xxx', 'text xxx', 'set a reminder for ...'. Simple commands that are going to be used most often. Those could all be offline, quite easily.

Servers are needed to transform the vibrations received by the microphone into something comprehendable and intelligent. That takes an amazing amount of computing power. Once this has been done, it's relatively easy to do the action, whatever it might be.

 

[Tech198]

Privacy on the phone yes, not in the cloud....

Apple can do what they here.. It would be "smart" only if privacy is a non-issue..

Although like other services *hint hint*, I don't expect it to work either.

 

[JohnApples]

Servers are needed to transform the vibrations received by the microphone into something comprehendable and intelligent. That takes an amazing amount of computing power. Once this has been done, it's relatively easy to do the action, whatever it might be.

Yet Cortana, Google Now, and even the iPhone's own Voice Control can take simple, offline requests. No reason why Siri shouldn't be able to easily.

 

[Zirel]

That's why Siri is poop..How is she supposed to be intelligent when she doesn't have enough data to access?

So, what has the competition to offer?

And for which price?

The answer is not even the same, if not less... For a much higher price: privacy.

Siri is poop? I use her all the time, and the dictation feature is excellent (I think it's even better on the watch than on the phone/tablet, don't know why), in fact, compared to Google's and Microsoft's dictation, Apple's is 10 years ahead for Portuguese, e.g.

 

[TranceJD]

Anybody else getting this?

I'm on the latest update of the iOS 9 public beta.

 

[mazz0]

Evidence?

Because their continuing stream of widely varied patents, their continued entry into new areas, and their hiring (cars!) are all are evidence to the contrary.

If you have solid proof info that Apple no longer spends money on anything that doesn't end up shipping, that would be an amazing glimpse behind their corporate secrecy. And it would mean they have a time machine to predict the future, which would be pretty cool.

No need to get so defensive.

Firstly, to tackle your straw man: I didn't say they never research things that don't make it to production, but researching what management has decided is a potentially promising avenue (whether it's later cancelled or put on hold or not) isn't the same as wild, blue skies messing around ala Google.

Steve Jobs closing their general research department is something I read about ages, I don't have a link to hand, perhaps somebody else knows what I'm talking about and can furnish me with one?

As for their current areas of research: you don't have to be a spy to have some idea what they're working on these days. Now it could be that their work with cars, tv, improved UI and the handful of other things we know about is only a tiny subset of what they file patents for, make acquisitions relating to and hire people to work on but for some reason it's the only stuff people bother reporting, or it could be that's more or less all they're working on.

Personally, given that Apple haven't done anything for years without a lot leaking out about it for quite a while before hand I'm going to assume there's not much going on other than what we've already had numerous hints about.

I speak, I might add, as something of a fanboy - Apple make the best computers, in my opinion, be it wrist worn, pocket size, iPad size, laptop or PC. I don't like Windows Phone and I can't stand Android, but I do suspect that their wider array of areas of experimentation (and, as mentioned by others, their huge amount of our private data) will give Google an advantage in some areas, while Apple have to buy companies as and when a particular area proves useful. I could be wrong - perhaps waiting and buying startups is actually better, but I suspect that a) working at Google makes progress easier than being a startup, and b) Google benefits from that experimentation happing internally, with knowledge and ideas spreading around the company.

 

[CarpalMac]

What is it you think Google does that Apple doesn't? I've asked this question of several posters who espouse a similar belief as you. None ever answer. Your posts tend to be very well written. Maybe you can help me see the difference between what the companies do with data. I'm not talking about the oft quote "their business model". I'm talking about actual customer data. Let's use our data, Gasu E. and 69Mustang, as examples. What would either company do with it?

Thing is, the same people who bemoan Googles data capture are the same people who readily register themselves onto forums, giving away quite a surprising amount of digital information. Probably with Facebook and Whatsapp accounts as well.

It's almost as if they believe that someone at Google specifically looks up and studies their individual, personal data and uses it for nefarious purposes. Or sells it for criminal purposes.

 

[samcraig]

Apple's introduction of Siri was extremely innovative. They are the best at taking new or floundering technology and making it useable and useful.

As someone who used Siri before Apple integrated it, I can say it was a solid product. The only thing it lacked on iOS WAS integration because Apple wouldn't allow it. I wouldn't call Siri's "introduction" innovative.

 

[mazz0]

Anybody else getting this?

I'm on the latest update of the iOS 9 public beta.

I got it last night, but there's no update OTA or on the Developer site.

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

it's going to be a long, long time before the dream of a truly "intelligent assistant" is realised.

#1 - What is "a long, long time"?

#2 - What is a "intelligent assistant"? If you just mean capable of doing what Siri should be capable of, then I see that as approximately as complicated as a self-driving car. Both should happen by 2020. Not sure if 5 years is "a long, long time".

If you mean a general purpose intelligence which replicates a person, that's expected to arrive sometime between 2040 and 2060. At that point, it'll be capable of programming better versions of itself, which means it'll explode into some sort of God nearly instantaneously (AKA, the singularity). So that'll take a few decades, but it's still less than a lifetime (just 25-45 years). So most of us on the forums will live to see that, assuming nothing apocalyptic happens between then and now.

 

[Rocketman]

I think the persistent commands idea is a good one and is made quite practical by app thinning.

While you're at it, how about frequently used commands being stored locally as well?

Note this:

• On Thursday, Apple gained approvals for the first phase of a $950 million data center campus in Galway, Ireland. The company envisions building as many as eight data center facilities at the site, providing capacity of up to 160 megawatts.

 

[vmistery]

It must be quite embarrassing for Apple that Cortana is much much more useful than Siri.

If they were both real, Cortana would be the girl playing naked twister with you while Siri couldn't actually understand the rules.

Whilst sending all the pictures back to Microsoft? I am good for that I think

 

[V.K.]

The next step for apple in ai will be to have the ai on the phone in hw and software, instead of the web/internet. That way everything will stay on your phone and your privacy will be quaranteed.

Something like having siri on your phone instead of siri having too acces a remote database.
It is the next step in making your iphone a " robot" . M9 coprocessor perhaps ?

I definitely would like that to be the case but I have no idea if it's possible. As I understand it, siri and all similar programs work by matching what you say to an audio database which lives in the cloud. that database is surely huge and impossible to store on individual phones. How does one change that? But yeh, I certainly would like it to be able to work locally. because it's all in the cloud and is based on average English pronunciation it's mostly useless for me or anybody else with an accent. It has ZERO capabilities of learning how a particular person speaks and has no abilities to adapt to individual accents no matter how many times one corrects it.

 

[69Mustang]

Thing is, the same people who bemoan Googles data capture are the same people who readily register themselves onto forums, giving away quite a surprising amount of digital information. Probably with Facebook and Whatsapp accounts as well.

It's almost as if they believe that someone at Google specifically looks up and studies their individual, personal data and uses it for nefarious purposes. Or sells it for criminal purposes.

100% this. It seems there are some who naively believe purchasing Apple products grants blanket protection from data mining. Apple products, like everyone else's in the category, are merely a conduit to a larger internet. An internet where people readily share the information with multiple companies. Apple has simply, brilliantly, and very effectively found a way to market privacy in a way that enhances the company profile. They proudly place an emphasis on preserving the privacy of customer's personal information. That phrase is key; personal information. Per the policy: Personal information is data that can be used to identify or contact a single person.
This is personal information: name, mailing address, phone number, email address, contact preferences, and credit card information. Neither Apple nor Google shares or sells this information.
This is not: occupation, language, zip code, area code, unique device identifier, referrer URL, location, and the time zone where an Apple product is used so that we can better understand customer behavior and improve our products, services, and advertising. Both Apple and Google use this information for selling ad space.

There's much more in the privacy policy, but it's much easier to spout misinformation than read it. So that's what some people do. Personally, I don't think there's one damn thing wrong with what Apple does. They use customer information to sell ad space. So what? They place a strong emphasis on a portion of their privacy policy and depend on people to get the rest of the information on their own. That's smart business.

 

[TranceJD]

I got it last night, but there's no update OTA or on the Developer site.

Same

 

[Nevaborn]

Apple can get around privacy by asking for consent.

 

[samcraig]

100% this. It seems there are some who naively believe purchasing Apple products grants blanket protection from data mining. Apple products, like everyone else's in the category, are merely a conduit to a larger internet. An internet where people readily share the information with multiple companies. Apple has simply, brilliantly, and very effectively found a way to market privacy in a way that enhances the company profile. They proudly place an emphasis on preserving the privacy of customer's personal information. That phrase is key; personal information. Per the policy: Personal information is data that can be used to identify or contact a single person.
This is personal information: name, mailing address, phone number, email address, contact preferences, and credit card information. Neither Apple nor Google shares or sells this information.
This is not: occupation, language, zip code, area code, unique device identifier, referrer URL, location, and the time zone where an Apple product is used so that we can better understand customer behavior and improve our products, services, and advertising. Both Apple and Google use this information for selling ad space.

There's much more in the privacy policy, but it's much easier to spout misinformation than read it. So that's what some people do. Personally, I don't think there's one damn thing wrong with what Apple does. They use customer information to sell ad space. So what? They place a strong emphasis on a portion of their privacy policy and depend on people to get the rest of the information on their own. That's smart business.

To some degree, Google is also "punished" for being successful at it. As if Apple hasn't or isn't trying to be.

Both companies have very similar privacy policies. It's a shame people are far too believe forum fud versus learning what is accurate and not.

 

[subsonix]

Hopefully we'll see something come of this. The amount of things Siri knows it can't do is… odd, actually.

Why is that odd? It's not more odd than any other application's inability to change some random setting. The difference is that you can not see the options, it's an open ended interface much like a command line interface. If you in contrast look at preferences for example, all available options are visible in the GUI.