Siri and Pixel's Google Assistant Compete Side-by-Side in New Video

[840quadra]

Essentially matches our tests at work between Cortana, Siri, and ok google. Not the results as much, but more that you need to ask each system in ways and context each individual system understands / expects.

Siri does learn more than it is given credit for, using dictation more, I feel I have learned how to talk to it better, as well as Siri learning how I speak.

 

[Col4bin]

ROFL at Google Assistant giving the score for a Blazers game from last season.

Perhaps considering regular-season NBA games haven't yet started this year? (ROFL--nah.)

 

[MH01]

That's a reasonable observation. However, you're only focus on Siri and google assistant. My gripe for google is they collect and sell data on EVERY aspect of their service. Not just voice. They really don't care about the user privacy while Apple does, though not 100% but they do care about user privacy in most cases. They even go so far as fighting back the FBI to protect the user. I can't say the same for google.

I see your point, my issue is that everyone collects this data, google , apple, Microsoft , and as a consumer I have no choice. If u want to use these devices I have to accept the conditions, and that includes giving them my data.

The introduction of single sign in , for our devices was the end of privacy, gmail account for android, appleid. Google and apple force it on us, in fact Microsoft is the least invasive .


I own google, Microsoft and apple devices, and my most infuriating experice at the moment is my iPad Pro, it's on 9.3.5.... and I wish to stay in it till 10.1 or 10.2 cause I don't want to deal with buggy software , and every %{%}**{^{ day I get a popup message saying upgrade to 10.....hitting later brings up a scheduled install , which I have to once again hit no to..... and every day I have to go through this......apple does not give a hoot about me the customer, they want me to upgrade asap...and I've never seen such aggressive push by another company...it's really intrusive .
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Or they know the device your using because it's registered with your Apple ID

Of course the do, they know everything about us, cause it's all linked via appleid.

 

[Hanzu Lao]

No offense, but you sound like a huge fanboy who can't accept that Google is way ahead in AI.

Except it's not.

 

[tennisproha]

How is that a valid point? Apple data mines just like Google. Also the questions asked in the video were generic. They didn't require divulging anything private. So again I ask, how is that a valid point?

No, they don't. None of your personal info ever goes off device. Much of the processing for Siri is done on the host iPhone, which is one of the main reasons why Siri is lagging behind the others, who are able to easily build cloud-based neural networks b/c they do all the processing in the cloud. Siri processing is largely done onboard.

You can easily finding documentation of this online.
[doublepost=1477168209][/doublepost]

This comes across to me as though Marques uses Android as his daily phone and knows what to expect from it and hopes that Siri will give him the same result, and not the other way around. For example, he either doesn't know or purposefully omitted that you can ask Siri for "my pictures of cats" and she will show you your own pictures of cats, rather than generic pictures of cats.

He also persisted on asking a contextual follow up question when Siri clearly missed the original question. Of course she's not going to know the follow up. For the record, she understood the same exact question when I asked "How tall is Barack Obama" and unlimited follow ups like "where was he born", "how old is he", etc etc etc... Siri also understood "Mark Zuckerberg" the first time I asked.

I was impressed that Siri was consistently faster at answering questions than Google Assistant and I appreciated the presentation of the answers in a well designed card instead of the small busy copy in Google's responses.

Finally, another one of his criticisms was that Siri presents visual information rather than read it out. Again, his ignorance of iOS is showing. Siri will read information to you when she thinks that you're doing an activity where you're not looking at the screen. For example, when summoning Siri with "Hey Siri", she will read you the answer. If you call her up by pressing the headphone mic button, she'll present information audibly. But when you're pressing the home button to bring up Siri, she correctly assumes that you have the iPhone in front of you and gives you visual information.

Either Brownlee is showing favouritism in his comparisons or he needs to learn more about iOS if he wants to remain credible.

Well said! Those are all good points.

Also, Siri does a lot of processing onboard, as opposed to sending everything to the cloud, which makes it more impressive. I know this is one of the reasons it seems to lag behind others but I think it a point many fail to acknowledge in their critiques.

 

[baryon]

Siri usually works well for me, except when the connection is slow and then of course Siri will take ages to respond. People forget that Siri isn't on your iPhone, it's on Apple's servers, and your phone is merely sending your voice to Apple. Apple's servers then process it, and send you back the response for Siri to say. That's why it's slow sometimes, and that's why it doesn't work without a connection.

I usually find myself only asking very simple questions. It's impressive to see more advanced assistants answer questions like "What time would it be in Korea 5 years from now if the Earth was spinning 12% faster?", but I doubt these are things you often want to ask. Usually it's "what is 5 pounds in kg", "convert 1000 Euros to Dollars", "remind me about <something> in 2 hours" or "make an appointment for tomorrow". Simple things that tend to work reliably.

I just wish Siri could control Google Maps instead of Apple Maps! That's the worst thing about it for me. Apple Maps is just ridiculously bad most of the time.

 

[wigby]

What Siri reads out loud greatly depends on how you invoke it.

When you hold the home button and ask something, Siri will often only display results, as it assumes that you are holding your device in your hand and are looking at it. If you say "Hey Siri", with the Display turned off before, Siri will read out more of what it has found, as it assumes, you are not looking at the screen.

That's an interesting point. I wish both modes to invoke the assistants we're tried.
[doublepost=1477178373][/doublepost]

This comes across to me as though Marques uses Android as his daily phone and knows what to expect from it and hopes that Siri will give him the same result, and not the other way around. For example, he either doesn't know or purposefully omitted that you can ask Siri for "my pictures of cats" and she will show you your own pictures of cats, rather than generic pictures of cats.

He also persisted on asking a contextual follow up question when Siri clearly missed the original question. Of course she's not going to know the follow up. For the record, she understood the same exact question when I asked "How tall is Barack Obama" and unlimited follow ups like "where was he born", "how old is he", etc etc etc... Siri also understood "Mark Zuckerberg" the first time I asked.

I was impressed that Siri was consistently faster at answering questions than Google Assistant and I appreciated the presentation of the answers in a well designed card instead of the small busy copy in Google's responses.

Finally, another one of his criticisms was that Siri presents visual information rather than read it out. Again, his ignorance of iOS is showing. Siri will read information to you when she thinks that you're doing an activity where you're not looking at the screen. For example, when summoning Siri with "Hey Siri", she will read you the answer. If you call her up by pressing the headphone mic button, she'll present information audibly. But when you're pressing the home button to bring up Siri, she correctly assumes that you have the iPhone in front of you and gives you visual information.

Either Brownlee is showing favouritism in his comparisons or he needs to learn more about iOS if he wants to remain credible.

Agreed. If you look at the screen when he asks about Zuckerberg, Siri doesn't miss it the first time because various web stories about Zuckerberg are shown including one on "SuckerBerg". I notice a lot of people dismiss Siri when the dictation is spelled wrong or seems totally off but the answer is actually correct or at least relevant. Siri doesn't always correct herself in the actual text displayed vs. what she comprehends so maybe a Apple could tweak that as well.

I think the biggest problem with Siri might be the fact that she is just not as consistent as Google assistant or what people expect an AI assistant to be. Sometimes she gives a lot of information and sometimes it's very simple. And sometimes she provides visual information and sometimes it's just text. It's not always clear what she's gonna do so I think that throws off a lot of users. And sometimes she can continue on with contextual conversations and sometime she cannot.

 

[44267547]

Yeah. Right. Okay.

You just presumed GA was much better. It isn't. Get over it.

What's there to get over? I posted my opinion on my differences between both Siri and Google, yet you apparently refuse to read anything further else aside from what you commented on. Both Google and Siri have advantages, which I listed to another forum member.

The only thing I presumed, is you have nothing pertinent to offer in discussion, other than making shoddy, sophomoric remarks, again, showing your ill-tempered.

If your going to reply, please contribute to something worth discussing, like the topic of discussion for example. But I'm sure that's to much to ask for, at least from someone like yourself, who doesn't like to read.

 

[5105973]

Google demographic data that in no way identifies you, sold as demographic data

As apposed to everything you say to Siri in your voice ....but assigned a random indentifier....cause your voice is not potentially unique.

You do realise that Siri will capture anything you say, so if you accidentally trigger Siri and say something personal you don't want anyone to know, that is being stored by apple for 2 years as a voice file. Just cause Siri does not give you an answer it does not mean it's not recorded it for processing.

So which is worse , google tracking that 34% of people in Shepherd's Bush searched for X brand of pancakes on Friday or Siri capturing in your voice that you like to smear pancakes on my body (as a joke)

Would you prefer to be an anonymous sample of that 34% or your voice recording stored for 2 years..... I know which is a breech of my privacy.

The reality here is both google and apple are as bad as each over. Privacy is not who you sell data to....its what you collect, your privacy is breached at the collection point.

Though the above is just to illustrate ananymous demographic data v unique individual collection of data , your voice, I assume google assistant is just as bad in capturing your voice data.

OMG, somewhere there are recordings of my voice insulting Siri in some pretty colorful language when I did something like ask about Lasagna and she told me about Los Angeles instead.

 

[brueck]

Excited to see this test performed again in a year. Now that apple is collecting data anonymously, siri should catch up pretty quickly.

 

[chr1s60]

let's be fair, nobody gives a damn about pre-season.

True, but nobody cares about the score of a game from 4 months ago either.

I think both assistants work well. Google seems to have a much more laid back feel to it as stated in the video. It makes it seem more like a casual conversation. However, Siri I think does a much better job at getting information and displaying it when needed such as with stocks. It kind of comes down to personal preference. I think both will work well for the average user. I'd give Google the slight edge, but nowhere near as far ahead as some would make you think. If Siri was say a 7 out of 10, Google would be an 8.

 

[SMIDG3T]

What's there to get over? I posted my opinion on my differences between both Siri and Google, yet you apparently refuse to read anything further else aside from what you commented on. Both Google and Siri have advantages, which I listed to another forum member.

The only thing I presumed, is you have nothing pertinent to offer in discussion, other than making shoddy, sophomoric remarks, again, showing your ill-tempered.

If your going to reply, please contribute to something worth discussing, like the topic of discussion for example. But I'm sure that's to much to ask for, at least from someone like yourself, who doesn't like to read.

You're*

 

[44267547]

You're*

Good. Step 1, It shows your actually reading the posts more thoroughly. Step 2, learning to actually post something of substance to the topic. You can do it!

 

[M. Gustave]

I really want to like Siri but it's so unrealistic for anything taking place outside its own "playground".

Most recent example for me is this:
Yesterday morning I asked "who has bagels with lox around here?"
It heard me as such and returned the following answer:
"Who has bagels with locks around here?"
"I don't understand who has bagels with locks around here"

I asked it again clearly and slowly: same result.

I'm sorry but that's just an absurd example, and it shows that you simply don't understand how to use the feature. I asked Siri, "What bagel stores are near here?", and she immediately returned the five closest (correct) restaurants and stores that sell bagels. The Yelp integration is great too, since I can see their ratings right in the Siri results now.

This is the funny thing, that people assume that they don't need to learn how to use a voice control feature, or even use logical questions and commands.

Educate yourselves folks:
https://hey-siri.io/

 

[SMIDG3T]

Good. Step 1, It shows your actually reading the posts more thoroughly. Step 2, learning to actually post something of substance to the topic. You can do it!

Thanks. Appreciate it.

 

[spinedoc77]

They both kind of suck, just glorified internet searches. At least with Siri I feel much much safer in regards to privacy and my data. But I just feel like all this hoopla over what are just internet searches is not really true AI.

 

[waitandwait]

No offense, but you sound like a huge fanboy who can't accept that Google is way ahead in AI.

Way Ahead? In your dreams? Bet you haven't watched the video...

Anyway Siri is really good.. considering they don't invade my privacy and collect my information and track my location to collect this data for their Assistant...

 

[chfilm]

Siri has improved for sure. They need to do WAY more though. Sooo many topics where she's completely lost. "Who's the president of the United States" leads to a google search. C'mon Siri. She should be able to perform a bing search in the background and understand the information and read it out to you.

Or translation. Why can she not dop simple translations from let's say english to French or German? She doesnt have to read it out, just show it to me. She has a dictionary on the phone!

 

[mistasopz]

Siri is way behind. And the fact that it does a Bing search instead of a Google search makes it 100 times worse.

 

[Hanzu Lao]

Siri is way behind. And the fact that it does a Bing search instead of a Google search makes it 100 times worse.

Educate yourself and rewatch the video.

 

[Nefilim]

I haven't tried googles assistant so far but I am quite happy with Siri lately, I don't use her for much more than adding stuff to grocery lists or setting alarms but all in all it's good. Will check out google when I get a chance

 

[ikramerica]

I'm sorry but that's just an absurd example, and it shows that you simply don't understand how to use the feature. I asked Siri, "What bagel stores are near here?", and she immediately returned the five closest (correct) restaurants and stores that sell bagels. The Yelp integration is great too, since I can see their ratings right in the Siri results now.

This is the funny thing, that people assume that they don't need to learn how to use a voice control feature, or even use logical questions and commands.

Educate yourselves folks:
https://hey-siri.io/

Call it salmon? You don't actually want lox, at least I doubt you do. Most people aren't eating lox even when they think they are.

Of course I couldn't get Siri to give that answer either but she didn't call it locks.

 

[69Mustang]

Way Ahead? In your dreams? Bet you haven't watched the video...

Anyway Siri is really good.. considering they don't invade my privacy and collect my information and track my location to collect this data for their Assistant...

Your quote shows that you don't understand how Siri works. It might also show you don't understand how Google's assistant works either, but it definitely shows you don't understand how Siri works.

This invasion of privacy you speak of... what exactly do you think is private that Google is tracking and mining for it's assistant that Apple isn't tracking and mining for Siri?

 

[CPx]

I thought it was going to be a blowout in favor of Google, but Siri did better than I expected. It's not good at contextual followup questions, but that's no secret.

 

[ososX]

This comes across to me as though Marques uses Android as his daily phone and knows what to expect from it and hopes that Siri will give him the same result, and not the other way around. For example, he either doesn't know or purposefully omitted that you can ask Siri for "my pictures of cats" and she will show you your own pictures of cats, rather than generic pictures of cats.

He also persisted on asking a contextual follow up question when Siri clearly missed the original question. Of course she's not going to know the follow up. For the record, she understood the same exact question when I asked "How tall is Barack Obama" and unlimited follow ups like "where was he born", "how old is he", etc etc etc... Siri also understood "Mark Zuckerberg" the first time I asked.

I was impressed that Siri was consistently faster at answering questions than Google Assistant and I appreciated the presentation of the answers in a well designed card instead of the small busy copy in Google's responses.

Finally, another one of his criticisms was that Siri presents visual information rather than read it out. Again, his ignorance of iOS is showing. Siri will read information to you when she thinks that you're doing an activity where you're not looking at the screen. For example, when summoning Siri with "Hey Siri", she will read you the answer. If you call her up by pressing the headphone mic button, she'll present information audibly. But when you're pressing the home button to bring up Siri, she correctly assumes that you have the iPhone in front of you and gives you visual information.

Either Brownlee is showing favouritism in his comparisons or he needs to learn more about iOS if he wants to remain credible.

Agree with your conclusion that the video is biased.
[doublepost=1477250532][/doublepost]

one point were Siri is terrible is giving driving directions. I recently switched to Dutch Siri so I'm not sure that's why she is dumber than ever. But this is what I got when asking directions to one of the biggest amusement parks in Belgium (Walibi Belgium, it was Six Flags Belgium for a while):

- I ask driving directions to Walibi and she sends me to the train station of that town instead.
- So, I look up on Apple Maps how the exact name of the park is. Apparently it's Walibi BELGIUM. But asking directions that way again gets me to the train station.
- Then I ask directions to "Amusement park walibi" and she answers she doesn't know any places by that name.
- Just before I want to throw my iPhone out of the car, I try "Amusement park walibi belgium" and she sends me to... Spark of Divine, a Naturopathic shop in Florida, US. on the other site of the Atlantic Ocean.
- But... when I ask driving directions to a particular ride inside the park (rollercoaster Vampire), she does it flawlessly!

Is she kidding me???

Also, can we report such horrible experiences to Apple? Filing out a Bug Report seems too much. Using Apple Maps "Report Issues" doesn't seem to deal with Siri. So how can we let Apple know about this?

I think that the problem is more with Apple's maps that are really really bad outside the US than with Siri ...