In Lawsuit Over Siri, Apple Says the Technology is "Cutting Edge"

[kdarling]

Apple bought the rights to the Siri name. Siri itself (under different names and applications over the decades) has been in development for over 40 years!

While voice recognition has been in development for decades, Siri has not. See last paragraph below.

I assume Apple released it while still in beta so it can learn millions of voices to improve. Since it uses AI (Artificial Intelligence), I can't think of any better way for it to learn and get better, especially since it needs no individual training.

You're mixing voice recognition training and AI training, although you're right that both get better with more users.

(Supposedly, Siri relies on the Nuance voice recognition engine for its input. The input method could change without changing the Siri AI engine.)

Unlike most other voice recognition programs, applications, systems, etc., it works right out of the box. That's big.

Google Voice Search works great out of the box.

Even DARPA was involved.

Yep, the DARPA PAL (Personalized Assistant that Learns) project dates from 2003.

They assigned it to Stanford Research Institute (SRI... one origin of the name "SiRI").

Siri was spun off into a for-profit company in 2007.

 

[mikefj2004]

Siri, help me sue Apple

I'm sorry Mike, this phone is now set to self-destruct in 20 seconds...sorry it will destruct now.

 

[derickdub]

I'm going to sue car manufacturers for having to sit at red lights and drive in rush-hour traffic. In all the commercials they were driving the cars around curves at high speeds.

Who ever brought this case up needs to be sent far away from any civilization.

 

[djstile]

Ummm among the other arguments...its a BETA release.

The main problem with this argument is that nowhere in the commercial television ads or on the print ads for the iPhone 4S in the stores indicate it is a beta feature. Only the small percent of consumer technology enthusiasts would even be aware it is beta. Apple clearly advertises it as a final version of software and a main reason to purchase the iPhone 4S.

 

[nuckinfutz]

The main problem with this argument is that nowhere in the commercial television ads or on the print ads for the iPhone 4S in the stores indicate it is a beta feature. Only the small percent of consumer technology enthusiasts would even be aware it is beta. Apple clearly advertises it as a final version of software and a main reason to purchase the iPhone 4S.

Doesn't matter. 30 Day return policy on the phone ensures that no one can say they got mislead.

 

[Rad99004]

Doesn't matter. 30 Day return policy on the phone ensures that no one can say they got mislead.

Unfortunately Siri was Great when it first launched. Lately it just doesn't work very reliable. Needless to say I rarely use it any more. Would I return the phone because of it; absolutly Not!

 

[kd5jos]

You like dictators?

Shakespeare was right about wanting to get rid of the layers.

He said that because attorneys are the ones that understand the law, and defend people against the government. The character in Henry the 6th that said this (Dick) supported installing an autocrat in a communist revolution. You want this?

Maybe look at context before you quote?

 

[iScott428]

The main problem with this argument is that nowhere in the commercial television ads or on the print ads for the iPhone 4S in the stores indicate it is a beta feature. Only the small percent of consumer technology enthusiasts would even be aware it is beta. Apple clearly advertises it as a final version of software and a main reason to purchase the iPhone 4S.

Here is where you go terribly wrong. And if people are dumb enough not to read the fine print or do their own research when buying a product, then it is their damn fault when they realize red bull does not give you wings and siri can not bake you cake, call your mother, and massage your back.

 

[Dark Goob]

Siri is good for certain things.

"Siri, do I need my coat today?"

"It looks like rain."

"Thanks."

or

"Siri, I need to get laid."

"I found these escort services near you."

"Holy &*( WTF is wrong with you."

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Well I'm for the plaintiff on this one, but purely as Apple need a serious, and public kick up the ass about Siri. I use Siri every day, so let me explain why:

1. There is no public listing of current bugs with Siri. If Siri isn't behaving as expected I cannot check and confirm it's because of a bug. It's a beta product, in public beta, and I can't have this information because that's not how Apple works.
2. Apple won't acknowledge a bug (unless I log in as a developer) or tell me when it has been resolved. So assuming I have a bug, and know it's a bug, I will stop using that feature because it doesn't work. So now, if Apple fix it, I don't know it's now fixed (I suspect they won't detail all the bug fixes) then I will never use that feature again. How many features will I never use as a consequence.
3. AppleCare are also unable to tell you what behaviour is a bug with Siri, nor will the record a possible bug. They will point you at a standard troubleshooting document and hope you go away. Having spoken to someone at Apple Exec. Relations this is exactly what they've been told to do - they have no other information. This means, that as a user I have no idea if my handset is in fact faulty, or simply has a bug with Siri. That strikes me as a fundamental problem - how long do I assume something is a bug before it turns out that it's a handset fault? 1 month? 6 months? Until the warranty runs out?
4. If AppleCare can't tell you if it's a bug I waste considerable time satisfying myself that a problem I'm seeing is a bug by logically diagnosing when and how it occurs. That doesn't make me a happy customer.
5. Having got so pissed off with this I ended up on the phone with Apple Executive Relations who were able to, over a three week period, and acting as an intermediary to Apple's Engineering team, determine that one of my current faults is indeed a bug (cause as yet unknown), and that the other fault was "behaviour by design". That behaviour by design means that I should "expect to have to invoke Siri twice on occasions when at home on my wifi". Why? Because the power-saving in iOS5 switches off wifi periodically. If I invoke Siri when it's in this state Siri will attempt to use the mobile network which has limited GSM data connectivity (very low signal) and after a long delay, will fail (I'm really sorry about this...). If there's no mobile network at all I get told to connect to the internet. This is because Siri initiates the network before wifi re-connects (1-2s), so trying again immediately afterwards will work. The generic nature of Siri's failure message may be masking just how many people this problem may be affecting so I thought I'd share it.
6. I too have experienced the bizarre non-sequential of Siri at times. I get halfway through doing one thing, and say OK or something similar and it decides to call someone or do something entirely unrelated despite actually correctly interpreting the command I gave it.

So that's my view - Apple have dropped both balls with this one and I think they need a good public kick to encourage them to sort themselves out and be a bit more receptive to user feedback, and perhaps a bit more open about current Siri bugs. For reference, I'm in the UK on the O2 network. This all stems from an email I sent to Tim Cook asking whether the "S" in 4S stood for the number of times Siri says "Sorry" to me through the course of a day.

I can't agree more. You are 100% correct that Apple direly needs to get its bug-tracking to be more accessible to concerned users who are not developers.

Developers are computer nerds who really SHOULDN'T have time to be bug-checking things like Siri that are intended for use by the public. They should be coding and working on their own software not wasting time reporting Apple's bugs to them (unless those bugs are directly related to APIs and features they are using in their software).

The public can just submit "feedback" to apple, but you never hear back from them, you never get acknowledgement if your feedback was even received, you never get told if it's a bug or something wrong with your device. So ultimately therefore you have to call in and waste support's time, which could be saved if they just had a simple issue-tracking system like almost any other major software company...

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Here is where you go terribly wrong. And if people are dumb enough not to read the fine print or do their own research when buying a product, then it is their damn fault when they realize red bull does not give you wings and siri can not bake you cake, call your mother, and massage your back.

No, he's right, they do advertise it as a main feature. I did not know it was a beta and I'm a developer.

It has lots of problems. Most annoying to me is that it thinks you're done talking if you pause for more than a second to think. I wish it would wait until I'm done talking and say "done". Or if it had easier ways to correct words that were said wrongly.

Also there is almost no documentation on all its features with the product. I really hate it that companies have stopped documenting all the features of their products in user manuals. Software used to come with extensive documentation. Now you have to google and sift through lots of annoying forums like this one, getting lots of wrong answers along with the correct ones, to find information about core features such as OS X's dscl command.

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Doesn't matter. 30 Day return policy on the phone ensures that no one can say they got mislead.

I disagree. Even if Siri doesn't live up to claims, the iPhone 4S is still the best phone on the market. The fact that someone would have to be inflicted with an inferior phone because Siri doesn't work right is reason enough to have a grievance.

 

[djstile]

Here is where you go terribly wrong. And if people are dumb enough not to read the fine print or do their own research when buying a product, then it is their damn fault when they realize red bull does not give you wings and siri can not bake you cake, call your mother, and massage your back.

Again, Apple's main selling point of the 4S (as CLEARLY advertised in numerous commercials) is Siri. And it is not prominently shown to be a "beta" product. As to your reference of red bull not growing wings on a human being who drinks the product as even slightly relevant to the iPhone 4S, that is just dumb and doesn't really require a response.

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Doesn't matter. 30 Day return policy on the phone ensures that no one can say they got mislead.

That's not the point. The point is Apple is pushing Siri as the reason to get an iPhone 4S (look at all the celebrity commercials that have recently come out). If it is a "beta" product, they should either finish it and make it a "release" product and then advertise the hell out of it, or not advertise it until it is done.

 

[88keydave]

The other woman in my life

Siri amuses me sometimes, she often surprises me, and she frustrates me regularly. Is this not the very embodiment of a woman inside my iPhone?
There is one difference - Siri doesn't speak unless I want her to.

 

[Rodimus Prime]

Here is where you go terribly wrong. And if people are dumb enough not to read the fine print or do their own research when buying a product, then it is their damn fault when they realize red bull does not give you wings and siri can not bake you cake, call your mother, and massage your back.

I am going to point out to fine print is not some magic get out of jail free card.

It only works so far. In Apples case they did some blatantly false advertisement. They showed comands Siri can not nor ever will do and acted like it was legit. Fine print does not get you out of that.

Also Apple has a rather long history of doing some lies in its advertistments and really pushed the limited of the truth. That never goes well when a company has a history of pushing limits that way.

Apple should get slapped down for this one.

 

[BadVorlon]

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Apple has filed a motion to dismiss in a case filed by customers over alleged misleading advertising depicting the Siri technology in the iPhone 4S. The lawsuit, filed in March, alleges that Apple's advertising of Siri doesn't reflect real-world usage. When asked for directions or to locate a store, "Siri either did not understand what Plaintiff was asking, or, after a very long wait time, responded with the wrong answer."

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In a motion to dismiss (via Scribd), Apple attempts to shoot down the Plaintiff's arguments, reports the Wall Street Journal:
Apple continues to heavily advertise Siri and the iPhone 4S. The two latest ads for the product feature celebrities Samuel L. Jackson and Zooey Deschanel using Siri to plan date night and to get tomato soup delivered.

Article Link: In Lawsuit Over Siri, Apple Says the Technology is "Cutting Edge"

Sorry but Apple is abusing this one.... AND needs to cool it or lose in court.

Tonight I tried the same queries as John Malkovich in the adds, WHILE it was running on TV... but got different responses. Like, Joke? Siri told me "I don't know any jokes".

A lawyer will have field day in court, when the ADD shows a response that CANNOT be reproduced (imagine a jury seing differnt answers in real time from the TV ads).

Siri works really well in my opinion compared to the voice response in my previous phones....BUT it does not work as Apple is advertising it.

 

[TwilightHop]

Siri doesn't work as well as Apple advertises, but it's just ridiculous how people try to sue over all these little things.

 

[theelysium]

Not quite sure what "clear english" you're speaking, but I just tried this out quoting you word for word. With a TV on in the background and me speaking quite fast, Siri understood me perfectly..

It's inconsistent. I speak better English then you....