It’s because the voice recognition mostly happens in the cloud, not on-device, and Apple’s servers aren’t responding quickly enough (or at all) for whatever reason.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Apple Spending Millions of Dollars a Day on Conversational AI
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Agreed with this 100% I prefer Apple Maps and will not use google maps anymore. Haven't had a need.
I'm also interested in hearing the poster's issue with Music.
HomePods tend to lose their wifi connection for some reason.
I’m not sure people understand what an OS-level integrated proper AI assistant will mean for smartphones (among other devices).
Once somebody gets it, all other smartphones would instantly become dead phones walking.
And I’m not sure how Apple can come up with something like that after years obsessing over privacy.
And lack of a proper AI assistant would end Apple as we know it.
Once somebody gets it, all other smartphones would instantly become dead phones walking.
And I’m not sure how Apple can come up with something like that after years obsessing over privacy.
And lack of a proper AI assistant would end Apple as we know it.
Imagine that, the issue with Siri all along was that people were mumbling..
During the summer I've drove over 2000 km and used Apple Maps and Google Maps head2head on the same journey. During one ride, Apple maps noticed big traffic jam ahead of me and suggested detour from the original road that would save me some time. Same with Google Maps. Before I hit the exit from the highway there was another accident on the suggested detour and Apple Maps again suggested another option how to avoid the high traffic. Eventually Google Maps did the same.
At the end of the day, this is what you expect from navigation to do. I agree that Apple was late to the Maps game, but for people like me, who like to use google service as less as possible its a good thing.
I have Alexas at home, but use Siri in the car. Every time we ask Siri a question it says “I can’t show you that while you’re driving” or some such nonsense. Does the HomePod do that as it doesn’t have a screen? Or is it because it’s on my phone so would like to show me the result but can’t? Or something else?
The only thing Apple missed this year were the investment dollars being pumped into AI. We are still deep in the hype cycle that only exists to raise money. They don't need the money so they didn't miss anything.
Well what are you asking Siri while in the car? Are you using Maps or CarPlay while asking Siri? Siri behaves differently depending upon the device you are using and context of the queries.
It is using car play. Let‘s say general trivia. How old a celebrity is, for example.
True! But remember, 30 years after Apple introduced Newton, people still poke fun about the poor performance of the early versions of its handwriting recognition, which was derided in the Doonesbury comic strip and the Simpsons ep where it was portrayed turning "Beat up Martin" into "Eat up Martha" 🤣🤣 So Apple mistakes do have a tendency to hang around!
So reading this amusing thread, it sounds like Apple is developing a lot of what SoundHound ai already does? And already integrated into 10 carmaker lines. So I'm just curious .. since SoundHound is literally down the road from Apple HQ, and was struggling until recently, why not embed SoundHound's product into Apple's?
Maybe Apple should offer speech therapy courses In Fitness+. “Pronunciation workout with Siri”
Do you have Driving Focus set up in your settings? Make sure that is turned off. If you don't, it sounds like a bug.
I can see this happening given Apple’s notorious history of letting others attempt X product before rolling out their ‘shiny new thing’.
Up against conversational AI from Google and Microsoft, Siri as it is today is an existential crisis for Apple. The future of computing is natural human-like interaction. Speech, touch and gaze will supplant the cursor UI Apple made mainstream with the Mac.
Apple’s four latest new device categories, in order Apple Watch, AirPods, HomePod and Vision Pro all rely heavily on voice interaction — some of them almost entirely.
For Apple to be so far behind Google/Android — their primary competitor in their trillion dollar iPhone business — in developing natural speech, is an extremely dangerous position, strategically.
Apple has the resources to catch up but as I’ve been saying for years, Tim Cook is an excellent CEO but he lacks the visionary capabilities Steve had and that was inevitably going to catch up to Apple.
Steve knew what he was doing when he acquired Siri and embedded it into iPhone years before Amazon had Alexa and Google did the same with Android. Tim didn’t see what Steve did and neglected Siri for over a decade. I’m glad to see Apple finally paying attention to this space.
Apple’s four latest new device categories, in order Apple Watch, AirPods, HomePod and Vision Pro all rely heavily on voice interaction — some of them almost entirely.
For Apple to be so far behind Google/Android — their primary competitor in their trillion dollar iPhone business — in developing natural speech, is an extremely dangerous position, strategically.
Apple has the resources to catch up but as I’ve been saying for years, Tim Cook is an excellent CEO but he lacks the visionary capabilities Steve had and that was inevitably going to catch up to Apple.
Steve knew what he was doing when he acquired Siri and embedded it into iPhone years before Amazon had Alexa and Google did the same with Android. Tim didn’t see what Steve did and neglected Siri for over a decade. I’m glad to see Apple finally paying attention to this space.
Have you tried saying the number more slowly
I have found that if I enunciate troublesome words more slowly, and as clearly as possible, Siri picks up on it. Not optimal behavior for the immense compute power available on iPhone nowadays, agreed.
Am I going to be the only pedant to point out that the likes of ChatGPT, Bard, Stable Diffusion, Dall-E, etc. are not really AI?
"AI" has become like "3nm" - just a term for marketers to use and mindless mass media to repeat.
"AI" has become like "3nm" - just a term for marketers to use and mindless mass media to repeat.