Apple's Greg Joswiak: Siri Wasn't Engineered to Be Trivial Pursuit

[Schizoid]

Siri is good for one thing... Entertainment.

No I don't mean searching for your films or music, it's entertaining for the wife as she laughs at me trying to get it to do the simplest of tasks before I swear, give up and just type it instead.

 

[shaymanjohn]

Haha, love it how English in the UK is classed as a dialect variant

 

[alex00100]

I feel like an idiot when I use Siri. Like I'm talking to a dog.

 

[s15119]

Siri has been constantly improving. I find it very helpful on all my I Devices.

 

[alex00100]

Siri has been constantly improving. I find it very helpful on all my I Devices.

Said no one ever lol.

 

[rodgersmc]

"We didn't engineer this thing to be Trivial Pursuit!" he told Wired.

A: Don't insult me. I'm not asking "trivial" questions, I'm asking questions that matter to me at that moment. Did he really just tell me "you're using it wrong"? How cliche can an Apple exec get?

B: The user determines what you engineer it for. If we're using it for trivia and getting frustrated that it doesn't deliver - fix it.

 

[Piggie]

But but.......

Almost everyone agree's Siri got worse when Apple took it over, so how can they use this as an excuse ?

 

[tpham5919]

About as deep as puddle of water

Not clear how you can "make Siri great" after "it fails to answer a query properly."
Maybe for every wrong query a deposit to my itunes gift card?

Nah, it does u a favor by telling u that it cannot be of help and send you off to Google search. Isn't she great!

 

[Gasu E.]

As long as Siri doesn't take me seriously, it's difficult to take Siri seriously.

May I suggest couple's therapy?

 

[johncarync]

Here come all the "Siri doesn't understand me" posts. Siri understands me over 95% of the time because I'm talking to it not like it's a human but knowing that it's a computer trying to decipher my requests. I always tell it things in a very specific order of:
[action] [object] [detail]

Examples that are always successful for me...
[set] [timer] [for 10 minutes]
[set] [alarm] [for 8:30 am]
[search] [web] [for pictures of Teslas]
[search] [web] [for stroke symptoms]
[show] [weather] [for tomorrow]
[call] [Jennifer Smith] [mobile]
[send] [e-mail] [to Joe Brown]
[send] [text] [to Richard McDonald]
[show] [stock price] [for Apple]

 

[rodgersmc]

As long as Siri doesn't take me seriously, it's difficult to take Siri seriously.

This would actually be my #1 request, above fixing the myriad problems with Siri's capacity to give the right answer. Namely, turn off what I call "cute mode." I don't want stupid attempts at humor from my AI assistant. It was funny the first time. I don't need "and the suspense is killing me" after the 1,000th time I've set a timer.

 

[Jimmy James]

Yeah, it was designed to be a voice collection scheme.

Otherwise, a computer with the power of an iPhone could, quite effectively, be able to dial any of my contacts without Internet access.

The iPhone 4 did that. My Pre-smartphone did that , too.

 

[Naraxus]

Lol. This guy's been hanging around Phil Schiller way too long. The bs marketing spin is thick with him. "Designed it to be a 'get **** done' machine? If that's the case then everyone involved with Siri at Apple should be fired because Siri is a "can't get **** done" machine.

 

[morcutt11]

I just want Siri to be more context-aware...long story, but I was blanking on Michelle Forbes' name the other day, so i asked Siri "Who played Ensign Ro on Star Trek" and got a series of nonsensical replies.

Then I finally fired up Google, hit the microphone and asked Google, and before my eyes Google corrected "In sign row" to "Ensign Ro" once I said "Star Trek". It also gave me the correct answer.

I don't need to have a conversation with Siri, but I do need her to figure out what I'm asking!

Amen to that. Siri needs capability like that, plus the ability to retain the context across voice commands. If I ask Siri "How tall was Abraham Lincoln", get my answer, and then ask "When was he president?", I want Siri to know who "he" is and produce the answer.

 

[Falhófnir]

Haha, love it how English in the UK is classed as a dialect variant

You raise a good point, Siri seems to understand my [admittedly not that strong] South-West accent quite well, so Apple at least must have a grasp on the fact that there is no UK wide dialect of English!

 

[DaveWil]

The problem for Apple is I tried Siri, it didn't work well, so now in my house I use Alexa. I have all my home automation hooked up to it and it works great. I have not reason to switch to Siri just because it works now. Outside my house I feel stupid talking to Siri. You look like an idiot repeating the same phrase three times in a row.

 

[Zaft]

The thing with Siri is you have to ask questions a certain way.
For example if I ask google "what is falafal made of"? Google reads the ingredients out loud.
If I ask Siri it just takes me to web results. BUT if i ask Siri "What are the ingredients of falafal"? Then I get the ingredients out loud.

 

[FaasNat]

Joswiak says Apple's aim from the beginning has been to make Siri a "get-s**t-done" machine. "We didn't engineer this thing to be Trivial Pursuit!" he told Wired. Apple wants Siri to serve as an automated friend that can help people do more.

F: Hey Siri, what time do I need to leave for my next appointment?
Siri: Your next appointment is at 3:00.

Uh, that doesn't help me.

 

[nvmls]

Too Sirious..

 

[joueboy]

All of a sudden Siri is much better now because she speaks better now (or I say sounds more a regular american)? How? Must be Apple's magic! Tim should call this Siri Pro.

 

[virginblue4]

I really don't understand why so many people have problems with Siri. I use it every single day and it works probably 99% of the time.

Amen to that. Siri needs capability like that, plus the ability to retain the context across voice commands. If I ask Siri "How tall was Abraham Lincoln", get my answer, and then ask "When was he president?", I want Siri to know who "he" is and produce the answer.

I just tested out an example. I asked "how tall is Donald Trump" to which Siri gave me the answer. Then I asked "does he have any children" to which Siri told me the names of his children. I then asked " what is his wife's name" to which it brought up Melania. I asked how tall she was, but it then told me the height of Donald Trump. Of the first three questions, I only use his name once, Siri knew who I was talking about for the next two questions.

 

[desmond2046]

Whenever my friends tell me how scary AI is and how it is going to destroy the human beings, I tell them to try Siri.

 

[julesme]

For such an incredible "get sh** done machine," there sure are an awful lot of excuses being thrown around (they were holding us back, it's not Trivial Pursuit, etc etc).

 

[pdaholic]

Couldn’t care less about how human Siri’s voice sounds.

Do care about the fact that Siri can’t answer a simple question without showing me a list of bing searches. If that’s Trivial Pursuit, then Apple has the wrong mindset, and Siri will never be what it should.

 

[trifid]

I would be glad if a dog barked at me in place of Siri's "natural voice" if it were 10% more intelligent than what Siri is today. The most pathetic piece of crap ever maintained by Apple.

It's caveman Siri.

"According to Wired, Siri's raw voice recognition capabilities are now able to correctly identify 95 percent of users' speech, on par with rivals like Alexa and Cortana." I remember why I stopped subscribing to Wired now.