HomePod “I’m sorry, I can’t tell which speaker you’re referring to.” — Siri

[ipedro]

Hey Siri, add this song to my library. “I’m sorry, I can’t tell which speaker you’re referring to” — Siri says while answering on the speaker I was talking to.

It’s not everyone’s imagination. Siri is actually getting worse. Anyone else getting that response?

 

[russell_314]

Hey Siri, add this song to my library. “I’m sorry, I can’t tell which speaker you’re referring to” — Siri says while answering on the speaker I was talking to.

It’s not everyone’s imagination. Siri is actually getting worse. Anyone else getting that response?

I usually get the what light when I ask her to turn off the lights and for some reason my iPhone sitting on the desk answers instead of my HomePod mini I'm standing next to.... I haven't got that one though but I only have one HomePod

Siri is 💩... If you asked me and I didn't know better there's no way I'd think Siri was something made by Apple. I think input methods like a voice assistant are going to be the way of the future and it's really sad to see Apple put zero effort into it. Apple is doing what Blackberry did when the iPhone came out.

 

[coredev]

I had the same response this morning when telling Siri to continue paused playback. I could do it from the home app by pressing the play button on the speaker's card. Very strange and certainly a regression.
Before - with lights and speakers - Siri would ask me which device I mean in case of uncertainty.

 

[sparky672]

I told Siri to activate a scene using the exact name of the scene. She ignored me and activated something else entirely. It was not a misunderstanding... no matter how many times I said the exact name of the scene, it was ignored in favor of something else.

How 💩 does voice recognition programming need to be when it puts exact names at a lower priority than things that don't even sound similar?

 

[curdy]

I can't even set a timer on my iPhone using Siri anymore as it immediately goes to a HomePod timer instead. Even if I purposely activate Siri on my iPhone and then say the command...it still goes to my HomePods. Even if I try "Hey Siri, set a 15 minute timer on my IPHONE" (activated on my iPhone too) it still goes to the HomePods. I just end up manually setting a timer on my iPhone as I want to be able to see the time remaining on the screen (usually when cooking).

 

[sparky672]

• "Hey Siri - what is the outside temperature?" - "it's 20 degrees outside."

• "Hey Siri - what is the outdoor temperature?" - "Hmmm, there are no accessories in the yard that support temperature control."

Siri will never be the "I" in "AI" when the basic context of the most simple commands cannot be interpreted properly.

FWIW, the example above was reported as a bug through proper channels several major iOS versions ago (years).

 

[ipedro]

Siri will never be the "I" in "AI" when the basic context of the most simple commands cannot be interpreted properly.

FWIW, the example above was reported as a bug through proper channels several major iOS versions ago (years).

My suspicion is that Apple has stopped fixing bugs on the existing Siri because it was not scalable and needs a complete re-write. I mean, Tim Cook has to use this sh*t so it's not like it's not getting to upper management.

There are rumours of a Mesh AI which make a lot of sense from the groundwork Apple has been laying and how it typically operates. Every chip with a Neural Engine which goes back to iPhone X and Ultrawide Band chip which is in its fourth generation will form a mesh network dedicated to AI.

My hunch that this is close to release is largely based on the fact that Apple simply cannot launch their glasses which will rely so heavily on SIri, using the current state of Siri. So fingers tightly crossed for WWDC.

 

[sparky672]

There are rumours of a Mesh AI which make a lot of sense from the groundwork Apple has been laying and how it typically operates. Every chip with a Neural Engine which goes back to iPhone X and Ultrawide Band chip which is in its fourth generation will form a mesh network dedicated to AI.

The rumor relies on people allowing their own devices to be part of global mesh? Interesting concept, but imagine the privacy outcry, or the outcry about one's phone's processor & network resources being "shared" this way. I'm not so sure about that.

 

[sparky672]

Since when does "Podcast" mean anything other than the Podcast app? Answer: when Siri is involved!

• "Hey Siri - resume Podcast" - plays Music instead

• "Hey Siri - play Podcast" - responds "now playing Apple Podcasts" and then plays Music instead

• "Hey Siri - play a f*****ing Podcast from the Podcast app" - plays Music instead

• "Hey Siri - resume play Podcast" - plays Music instead ... maybe 20% of the time, actually resumes the pending Podcast, and then there's a good chance after playing for 30 seconds, will stop the Podcast and resume playing music.

This actually used to work fairly well. Stopped working sometime within the last year.

 

[ipedro]

The rumor relies on people allowing their own devices to be part of global mesh? Interesting concept, but imagine the privacy outcry, or the outcry about one's phone's processor & network resources being "shared" this way. I'm not so sure about that.

iPhone users are already a part of a mesh network for FindMy where they listen for strangers’ AirTags and devices and report back to Apple their geo coordinates. It happens seamlessly in the background and nobody notices.

I’m not sure how the resources will be distributed in a mesh AI but I suspect that every node will be more or less isolated to their own AI usage, however learning algorithms will be shared throughout the mesh. Instead of AI in the cloud like openAI, Bing and Google are doing, it’ll be AI in a mesh of worldwide Apple devices, each pulling their own weight while helping the whole to grow smarter.

The hints of this are there as is the absolute life or death demand for Apple to deliver on the latest generation AI given the rapidly growing competition. It’ll be such a disappointment and a terrible foreshadowing for Apple if WWDC comes and goes without any mention of a new Siri.

 

[ipedro]

This actually used to work fairly well. Stopped working sometime within the last year.

I think it became clear that this wasn’t going to be scalable when Apple brought on special SiriKit APIs for certain services that could plug into Siri, such as a ride share API for example, then pulled it and went with a different approach using Siri Shortcuts.

This used to get me an Uber:


…and now:


The fact that things are getting worse without an all hands on deck approach to quickly fix these things, tells me that they’ve largely abandoned it in favour of a completely rebuilt Siri where they’re pouring their resources into.

…at least one has to hope.

 

[AL2TEACH]

Maybe Apple needs to take a break from the iPhone and concentrate on the HP software for once. I think, I read Siri is due for a complete overhaul soon.

 

[firewire9000]

Yep, sometimes I have the same problem. Even if I say Siri, play this song to the bedroom, this useless idiot says that she doesn’t know which speaker I’m referring to. And I’m like I just told you which one you dumb assistant.

 

[ipedro]

Wow. Can’t believe it but they finally fixed this in iOS and HomePod OS 16.4

Add this song to library , play this in the living room too, play this song everywhere all work correctly now. 🙏🏻