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Siri Still Struggles to Answer Very Basic Questions

valentinjesse said:
The hardware level playing field has evened out. Every smartphone/tablet/computer looks the same and performs almost the same. Now it's all about software and AI, and Apple is losing the game. Berkshire sold the top

This is where I knew that they were bullsh itting.

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Apple created a brand that is much stronger than whatever AI trick that the competitors could bring to the table. My assessment is that all brands are struggling to create meaningful and useful user experiences out of AI and I'm yet to see someone achieving it. The score on the board is still 0:0 so it is still too early to talk about winners and losers IMO.
 
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Marlor said:
Siri really doesn't know how to handle music in my iCloud Music Library.

Me: "Siri, Play Bruce Springsteen Letter To You"
Siri: "Now playing the Essential Bruce Springsteen"
Me: "Siri, Play Bruce Springsteen Letter To You from my Music Library"
Siri: "Now playing the Essential Bruce Springsteen"
Me: "Siri, Play the album Letter To You by Bruce Springsteen"
Siri: "Now playing the Essential Bruce Springsteen"
Me: Screw it. "Siri, Play the album Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen"
Siri: "Now playing the track Born to Run from the Essential Bruce Springsteen"

I give up. Let's just get pizza.

Siri: "Siri, how far is it to the nearest pizza place"
Siri: "John's Pizzeria of Times Square is 15,998km from your current location"

Well, damn.
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While in my car, I have asked Siri to play songs that I personally loaded on my phone (not even in the cloud) by EXACT WORD-FOR-WORD TITLE, and Siri couldn’t find them.

I really think Apple never understood what an “assistant” is supposed to do. If they had, they would have at least ensured it could intelligently manipulate a lot of elements in the built-in (as in “Apple put it there”) device software on your behalf. Things like using voice to reliably toggle settings, handle all manner of music requests, contact requests, calendar requests, location requests, etc. should have been a priority for an “assistant”, and they should have gotten those right before even thinking about adding “general information lookup” or control of externals like home automation.

It looks like at some point someone decided that rather than fix Siri to intrinsically be a better assistant, they should just hack together a bridge to an “automation” tool (Shortcuts) and let us fend for ourselves. And all was well . . . I guess. If someone complained that Siri should be able to do “X”, someone else could suggest they make it possible via Shortcuts rather than making sure Siri can actually handle it.

Given all Apple has NOT done to make Siri better, I don’t think even the “sunk cost fallacy” applies here. They need to scrap it and start over.
 
I get a kick out of my common exchanges with Siri:

"Siri, tell my wife I'll be home at 5:15"
"Your message to wife says - I'll be home at Five Hundred Fifteen ... Send it?"

How can it not discern I am talking about a time?
 
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iPhoneFan5349 said:
What? You are completely wrong. Didn’t you watch the keynote? They promised a Siri on par with ChatGPT and other assistances
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No, they didn’t.
They announce a new layer that would allow it to tap into a lot of your personal information that exists on your phone, but it was still the same Siri.
Same canned responses, same speech recognition from years ago, same guardrails.
 
This morning I said, “Siri, play songs by band of horses” the reply was “I cannot find Frank Zappa in your music”. I usually have little problems with her, but recently …
 
revenantananias said:
This morning I said, “Siri, play songs by band of horses” the reply was “I cannot find Frank Zappa in your music”. I usually have little problems with her, but recently …
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You got me on that one...I love them and have them both in Apple Music and in downloaded playlists...haven't figured that one out yet. d'oh
 
revenantananias said:
This morning I said, “Siri, play songs by band of horses” the reply was “I cannot find Frank Zappa in your music”. I usually have little problems with her, but recently …
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Well...I asked a normal one for me with some artists, "Siri, play the latest album by the band Band of Horses"

That one worked...hmmmmm...just glad it understood "Band of Horses"


"Siri, play Band of Horses" also worked...
 
I think Siri works went your question is specific question, but when you miss a key word Siri can't answer your question. This is where Siri is weak in comparison to other systems.
 
nikaru said:
Apple created a brand that is much stronger than whatever AI trick that the competitors could bring to the table. My assessment is that all brands are struggling to create meaningful and useful user experiences out of AI and I'm yet to see someone achieving it. The score on the board is still 0:0 so it is still too early to talk about winners and losers IMO.
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I respectfully disagree.

Look at the car industry and how it’s evolved over the years. Once the playing field started to even out with the shift to electric cars and all-display cockpits, big brands like Mercedes, BMW, and Audi began to lose ground. Their market share in their biggest market - China - has been shrinking aggressively year after year.

It's the same story with Apple now. Software/UI/UX is going to be heavily driven by AI in the future, and Apple just isn't there yet. On top of that, even in hardware, they're facing tough competition from Huawei with their trifold device, Xiaomi with their Modular Optical System, DJI is going to probably melt faces soon, and plenty of other companies that are now coming with real innovation and are focusing on vertical integration. Also, there are tons of strategic alliances between major Chinese tech companies compared to those in the US. Then there's competition from Google, Meta and OpenAI

When speaking about China and its car/hardware/software companies, nobody is laughing anymore. Apple still has a strong brand, but it will face deterioration if it lags behind its competitors in development for years.
 
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MozMan68 said:
Siri has always worked for me for what I use it for...CarPlay, playing music...any errors I have seen are usually due to me saying a word incorrectly (like classical instead of classic for example).

I have to say, when I see some of these examples of "dumb" failures like, "what month is it?"...sure..should be easy to answer, but why is it being asked in the first place?? It's like asking Siri, "what's my name?" and being upset if it gives you the wrong or no answer. Like, stop being an idiot and ask it what it is supposed to answer or do...🤣
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What if I just came out of a coma and needed to know my name or what month it was? 😒
So, in other words, you’re saying John Q. Public is asking Siri the wrong questions?! That’s almost akin to saying “you’re holding it wrong”!
 
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Siri is just awful. I've always hated it, disabled it as fast as I could and would LOVE to replace it altogether with either ChatGPT or a similar awesome AI that actually works. Apple is late to the game on legit everything now a days.
 
It really has become a complete mess. Things that used to be reliable no longer work, something as basic as the wake word. HomePod mics are so sensitive that you could whisper "Hey Siri" from across the room, over music playing and it would dip the audio to listen to your command. Now, I'm just a few feet away and I have to practically shout HEY SIRI! for it to listen.

If Apple Maps got Scott Forstall fired, losing the decade head start that Siri had on chatGPT should prompt Tim Cook to retire if not be ushered out the door.
 
It's always bugged me how stupid Siri is. It can't answer the most basic questions. It can't perform simple operations like activating the flashlight, or search for emails or texts for certain content that I'm looking for. It's useless for everything except maybe setting timers and alarms. Massively disappointing.
 
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Think|Different said:
Literally, okay? Dozens of Siri devices around me at all times, yes, it occasionally has goofs like this but 90% of the time everything is fine, response to turning on every light perfectly, the weather, timers, etc. Could it be better? Sure. And I’m sure it will be. It certainly hasn’t regressed as people love to say.
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Maybe everyones different but besides setting a timer correctly, Siri does nothing for me except "Here's what I found on the web for you"
 
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I/0 said:
I think they should move away from Siri branding, it’s already too stained and even if it’s fixed eventually most people won’t even give it a try.

If they fix they should rebrand it to Apple Assistant or something like that.
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Agreed, but only with a radically better product.
 
verdi1987 said:
It’s fine for automation, but if you ask HomePod anything that would require it to perform a search query it just tells you to ask Siri on your iPhone. My fairly old Google Home provides the answer very easily.
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I wonder if they could have a piggy back system where on the same network your homepod could just ask your phone and then vocalize the answer

But then, how would they sell a wave of all new AI enabled devices I guess. The Homepod with a screen will certainly have it.

But how will it scale to the Apple Watch? Why can't that at least ask your iPhone?
 
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