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

[Rob_2811]

And none of the virtual assistants are.

Yes they are, obviously its not perfect but Googles assistant is way ahead of Siri in this regard. Watch the conversation she has with the Google assistant from 40 seconds in. Go and try it with Siri and post up the results ...

You can even ask the Google assistant questions about on screen content, again try that with the "get sh*t done machine"

 

[jerryk]

You know I use my Amazon Echo many times a day, but never use Siri. Why? Because my Echos let control the lights, fans, A/C, A/V unit, have my books read me, order products, and get my favorite pizza delivered. Oh, and the Echo Dot is so cheap I can have them all over my house. And now Microsoft and Amazon are integrating Alexa and Cortana. Not quite the computer on the Enterprise, but getting closer.

 

[9081094]

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.

Update: Siri is still a mess compared to the competition. The gap is widening each year.

 

[gooey]

It is true that Siri is far superior than others in multi-language capabilities, but it's almost useless if you live in bilingual life. I need Siri most while I am driving, especially texts. Siri language setting is applied system-wide, and it cannot be changed on-the-fly, while texting in multiple languages happen to me all the time! I understand that Siri cannot understand my spoken language well enough if it does not know what language it is (Murders in the Rue Morgue?). Then at least make it possible to change it on the fly, like it's possible to change keyboards on the fly! It's possible to use different voice keyboards on the fly, but Siri does not work that way. It's very frustrating. Or change it according to the text encoding of the message you received!

 

[Naraxus]

I also love how Joz refuses to take responsibility for a sub-par product and instead tries to pass the buck along in Han Solo tradition

 

[Robert.Walter]

I’m running beta and she does sound smoother, but I rather like the old Susan Bennett voice.

 

[now i see it]

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

Perhaps. But it ended up that way regardless.

 

[Iconoclysm]

Yeah, it’s been garbage in and garbage out for years and now Apple wants us to forget that?

They want to CHANGE that. Who cares what it was if it's something good now?

 

[ackmondual]

"Siri, why are you so awful?"
*Bum bum*
I'm afraid I don't understand the question

 

[purplehaze0]

It (not she) frequently fails. I find myself doing manual searches much of the time. Some automation features are good but there is certainly a long way to go.

 

[citysnaps]

They should just give up on Siri. It's completely useless...

Nope... I use it every day. It's incredibly useful.

Though I realize that's not a popular narrative here, and reflexive bashing builds one's cred.

 

[StyxMaker]

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

That’s why Linguists don’t talk about English as a language but say the English languages. They are all variants.

 

[nexesnex]

He should have spent more time making Siri function well, instead of making the voice sound more "human like". I don't care about the voice I hear as long as the voice it hears gives me the feedback I ask Siri to give.

 

[T-Will]

I’ll be honest, I haven’t noticed that much different in Siri’s iOS 11 voice compared to iOS 10.

I think I had to flip between a couple of the Siri voices in Settings for the new voice to start working. Not sure why it didn’t work off the bat, but it was still using the iOS 10 voice for a while. The iOS 11 voice is a noticeable difference from iOS 10.

 

[Brookzy]

Apple must know from their usage stats that no-one uses Siri.

And hopefully they can infer, like the rest of us can, that this is because it's ****.

 

[Juiceboy]

Shame it's still so awful for Australians. If i have to say something twice i've already wasted too much time using siri

 

[AppleScruff1]

Trivial pursuit? More like Chutes and Ladders.

 

[sinsin07]

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]

Try set [set] [alarm] [for 4:30 am or pm]

 

[makinao]

Apple must know from their usage stats that no-one uses Siri.

Hmmmmm .... that makes me no-one?

 

[sinsin07]

Just asked "Suri who won the Yankees Orioles game today, the reply was
"the Yankees's did not play today--their next game is against the Rangers tomorrow"

Next time try asking "Siri".

 

[morcutt11]

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.



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.

Interesting - I tried the very example I gave (albeit I typed it in Siri as I was in a noisy environment and it had no idea who "he" was when I asked when "he" was president.

 

[Moonlight]

Siri is still a B.

Example today:

Me - Play the album The Graduate

Siri - .........

Me - Hey Siri, Play the album The Graduate

Siri - ........

Me - Siri you are worthless

Siri - I am sorry (or some other nonsense)

Me - F you Siri

 

[DevNull0]

They should just give up on Siri. It's completely useless...

They should make Siri into a useful, effective digital assistant like so many other companies currently offer. It's just beyond their current engineering skill.

 

[tpham5919]

"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.

Well, he's probably ingrained in the mentality of "We're Apple so we know exactly what you, the users, want. Take it or leave it". Of course when there's uproar about product short-comings then they'll throw us a bone or two so we go away. It has worked amazingly well thus far.

 

[AppleScruff1]

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.



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.

That's incredible!