I find your position so bizarre. It isn’t about privacy at all. You just object to Google’s business model. You are fine sharing your information with a company that charges you to use products but not one that provides free products supported by advertising. You’re going to see ads all over the web. How is seeing relevant, targeted ads such a bad thing? I can’t stand seeing useless irrelevant ads. I’d much rather see ones that speak to my interests. Sorry, I completely don’t understand your objection. You’ve ascribed some nefarious intentions to Google because they don’t charge you to use their products while you’re happy to toss all of your “privacy” related concerns out the window for a company that sells you something. I don’t get it.
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Google Assistant Gaining Support for Multiple Requests and Continued Conversations, Will Be Able to Make Phone Calls for You in the Future
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I find your position so bizarre. It isn’t about privacy at all. You just object to Google’s business model. You are fine sharing your information with a company that charges you to use products but not one that provides free products supported by advertising. You’re going to see ads all over the web. How is seeing relevant, targeted ads such a bad thing? I can’t stand seeing useless irrelevant ads. I’d much rather see ones that speak to my interests. Sorry, I completely don’t understand your objection. You’ve ascribed some nefarious intentions to Google because they don’t charge you to use their products while you’re happy to toss all of your “privacy” related concerns out the window for a company that sells you something. I don’t get it.
I guess they will eventually but I think google have invested so much into AI and software based solutions. Apple clearly have not. It will take Apple at least half a decade to get to where google are now. I think even longer to be honest.
I completely agree. And Apple will never catch up to them. Google will always be 5 years ahead because Apple's management was asleep at the wheel. All these billions of dollars and the best they can come up with is buying back their shares.
Apple seem to have invested in various things, whereas google appear to have a vision and have invested heavily in one area.
That’s understandable. It still ultimately comes down to privacy though as Apple wouldn’t be using my data for advertising revenue. They’d be using it to improve personal services for me, the consumer, keeping all that info in house. I’d much prefer this than giving my info to an advertising company. I don’t expect you to agree, but that’s how I feel about it.
after using google assistant on my iPhone and now iPad it is pretty awesome. nice to use it for 3D Touch so it's not as big of a pain to always click the app to access it.
It was an impressive demo but you could tell the voice was pre-recorded snippets strung together. Basically an AI controlled soundboard. I also rather chew broken glass than use a Google product again.
Did the thread article include video links? Because my iPad mini only showed static images, not anything like this:
The first call is impressive, and the second one even more so.
The first call is impressive, and the second one even more so.
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Interacting with bots made by an advertising company, this sounds like it will end well. Answer the phone, have to listen to a 30 second ad prior to receiving your message from your AI bot.
not like you can't use google assistant on your iphone/ipad and get a google mini/google home
Why do you keep spouting nonsense about ads? Google Assistant, Google Home or Amazon Echo don't do such things.
Because the discussion is about... an advertising company. YouTube started out without ads also. Give it time.
I noticed a lot of Internet echo chamber clickbait articles today, blabbing about how "scary" and "unethical" it is to use natural sounding voice assistants to call a real person.
This cracks me up, not only because it's been a dream of many people for decades, but because:
- Don't they realize that businesses would adore having the same capability on their side? No need to stop working to take reservations. Much cheaper (and more understandable) help lines than using third world humans. Etc. We could easily end up with our assistant calling their assistant
- Nobody had any problem with it when Apple made their concept Knowledge Navigator video in 1987. Throughout it is implied that it talks to others behind the scenes.
Towards the end near 4:55 the digital assistant also implied it talked to the guy's Mother, and indeed answers a call from his Mom a few seconds later without identifying itself as a robot assistant.
Now if you want to talk about something truly scary, just check out the above Navigator assistant's look
This cracks me up, not only because it's been a dream of many people for decades, but because:
- Don't they realize that businesses would adore having the same capability on their side? No need to stop working to take reservations. Much cheaper (and more understandable) help lines than using third world humans. Etc. We could easily end up with our assistant calling their assistant
- Nobody had any problem with it when Apple made their concept Knowledge Navigator video in 1987. Throughout it is implied that it talks to others behind the scenes.
Towards the end near 4:55 the digital assistant also implied it talked to the guy's Mother, and indeed answers a call from his Mom a few seconds later without identifying itself as a robot assistant.
Now if you want to talk about something truly scary, just check out the above Navigator assistant's look
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Yea I am not sure how to feel about this whole thing. On one end, I see it as progress and I understand that many people and businesses alike would love this functionality as it increases efficiency and decreases costs. On the other end, I feel that removing interaction from our lives is a negative and I could see how this further damages human interaction. Technology should enhance our lives and this certainly has the potential to do so, but I just hope we are careful with how we implement. All in all, still an impressive demo as it stands today.
Based on the video a few posts up this looks amazing. However, how does it know where you are planning to get your haircut or which restaurant/restaurant location you are planning to be at? It seems like there would be a lot of information you would need to give the assistant before they could make the call. As cool as I think this is I just cant see myself using it. I use Siri for playing music, controlling HomeKit, making phone calls and occasionally sending a text message. I don't really understand the need for a personal assistant that can do all of this. The thing from this that I would LOVE for Siri to be able to handle is multiple requests at once. It would be nice if I could tell Siri to "turn off the kitchen and kids room and turn on the living room." All that said, this technology looks incredible.
On another note, I think this could be huge for businesses if it is able to be customized for the specific business. Say someone calls in to make a reservation and ends up asking about the menu or other special arrangements, then what?
On another note, I think this could be huge for businesses if it is able to be customized for the specific business. Say someone calls in to make a reservation and ends up asking about the menu or other special arrangements, then what?
I would totally use it if it worked properly. Imagine using it to phone in sick at work lol
Yeah I had seen the clip earlier but didn't realize there was a second part to it. I think someone had clipped it shorter for social media or something. The second part was even more impressive. For now it only works with reservations—from what I heard—but knowing Google it won't be long before this can be used for all sorts of things. This is an embarrassment for Apple and may very well be looked back on as one of their few blunders in seemingly ignoring the AI/machine learning space for so long—or at least by letting Siri stagnate after getting an early lead. Hopefully this competition will push them to catch up, but at this point I feel like Google is sucking in all the talent like some kind of singularity…
Yes, it was very impressive.
It struck me that one of the best things about a nicely programmed virtual assistant, is that it doesn't show impatience or frustration with repeated questions, such as occurred in that second restaurant scenario.
On an iPhone X it would hardly be hands free which is sort of the whole point of a voice assistant...
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You can still get the google home.
Mine came today. I’m impressed with it. I can make phone calls with it and I can just tell it to play a show and it will automatically start playing on my chromecast. I can also tell it to play YouTube videos and it will automatically play them on my chromecast. It even auto switches if I have it on another input.
it takes about one sec to launch the app and use the google assistant. hardly an issue.
with sometimes how long it takes Siri to respond going into the app can sometimes be quicker anyway. you can also use google assistant on the lock screen widgets and just use Face ID to open the app without needing to click the app.
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ordered a google mini from google today. was £10 off the retail price think arrives tomorrow.
Why should it? It’s not a real person and that’s what it was programmed to do.
If anything, shouldn’t google assistant identify itself as such upfront so the recipient can dispense with all pleasantries and decorum and just cut to the chase? After all, why bother being polite with AI that has no feelings or can’t get hurt?