Walt Mossberg Calls Siri 'Too Limited and Unreliable' to Compete in 'Coming AI Wars'

[nope7308]

I've noticed little improvement, if any, since Siri's introduction in 2011. It does not transcribe accurately, it does not understand simple commands, and it's just bloody frustrating to use. I turned it off completely about one year ago and haven't regretted the decision one bit.

The more Apple invests in Siri, the less invested I become in Apple.

 

[Rob_2811]

The big handicap Apple have when competing with the likes Google is the commitment they have to privacy and not mining peoples data. Google have no such commitments thus their AI products are better.

 

[mi7chy]

Worse than lacking location and contextual awareness Siri has an issue with understanding basic words. Until that is solved nothing else will improve.

https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/56wk4m/i_challenge_all_of_you_to_try_and_get_siri_to/

In comparison, Google AI has everything Siri is lacking plus it's now beating and teaching the best human Chinese Go player.

 

[jsalda]

Wait a minute, I thought that Siri wasn't able to be improved due to current mic technology? https://www.macrumors.com/2016/08/25/siri-microphone-technology-issues/

 

[skellener]

Mossberg is right.

 

[farmboy]

Institutional ossification. It happens to giant corporations, but it just happened sooner than we expected. The unlimited resources apparently became the source of unlimited paralysis. The Siri team went to sleep or got lost on some side track, and no one was watching.

Ten steps on the polishing of the jet black iPhone was about 8 steps too many, Jonny, and it characterizes your recent design choices. Should Federighi, Cue, Schiller and (hardware guy) be touting the excruciating detail of minor features rather than significant updates to products under their wings? No. The new ARM chips are excellent, tho.

Even the keynotes have gone from the unexpected and insightful to the clipped, very repetitive and timed-to-the-second ennui. They're all reading well-rehearsed scripts instead of talking to their audience. There's no juice. Part of that is no compelling speakers, the bigger part is not much innovation to be excited about. Your little Ear Pod system is wonderful, but there are crickets sounding over on the Mac side (again, for years). Under the hood refinements are nice but not very filling as a steady diet.

I'm not leaving the tent, but I'm not sure I care anymore.

 

[jeffg819]

And all this time I thought it was me...

 

[vmistery]

It would be great in the car if it worked and could control the podcast/music apps I actually use. The last time I had phonecalls to make while driving, Siri's success rate was 1 out of 6.

I've not had a problem with it personally with stock apps, not had a chance to try it on non Apple apps as Siri integration is so new. Could be something environmental for you though, Noisy car? Poor in car Bluetooth? Not speaking clearly / loud enough?

 

[WestonHarvey1]

I tried that, and it worked perfectly first time. Woke up iphone with hey Siri, and asked exactly the words you wrote, and it made an appointment in the calendar.

I'm sure half of what is complained about on here are not correct, ie BS.

Just tried it.
Me: "Make an appointment with Bob Smith for tomorrow at 2PM"

Siri "I don't see 'Bob Smith' in your contacts. Perhaps you meant one of these?"
Bob Xyz
Bob Abc
A different Bob Smith"

Me: "A different Bob Smith"

<Siri repeats list...> "Perhaps you meant one of these?"

Me: "No."

Siri: "All right, I'll leave it off your calendar"

 

[Roadstar]

I've not had a problem with it personally with stock apps, not had a chance to try it on non Apple apps as Siri integration is so new. Could be something environmental for you though, Noisy car? Poor in car Bluetooth? Not speaking clearly / loud enough?

Well, noise shouldn't be an issue as I could see it transcribe my words just fine, it was just failing to act on the information. Might have been some glitch as well since even stuff that had worked before was failing. For example Siri no longer knew what to do when I told it to call my brother. Bluetooth has worked just just fine in my car and at the final attempts I was basically yelling at my phone.

 

[andreiru]

Something is majorly wrong with that assistant... It's only good for basic tasks of opening apps, setting the timers and showing local weather.
[doublepost=1476386105][/doublepost]

Just tried it.
Me: "Make an appointment with Bob Smith for tomorrow at 2PM"

Siri "I don't see 'Bob Smith' in your contacts. Perhaps you meant one of these?"
Bob Xyz
Bob Abc
A different Bob Smith"

Me: "A different Bob Smith"

<Siri repeats list...> "Perhaps you meant one of these?"

Me: "No."

Siri: "All right, I'll leave it off your calendar"

I just tried that and it went into an infinite loop, asking me which 'xyz'... That's a first.

Perhaps they should just discontinue it altogether if they can't seem to get it right...

 

[GeneralChang]

Something is majorly wrong with that assistant... It's only good for basic tasks of opening apps, setting the timers and showing local weather.

I stopped thinking about Siri as a "personal assistant" ages ago. If I think about it as basic voice commands that respond to specific inputs, I'm perfectly satisfied. But yeah, to call it an AI or personal assistant is a little ridiculous.

 

[calzon65]

Hey Walt Mossberg, you better be careful to not to anger the giant or you will become persona non grata and Tim Cook won't invite you for dinner

 

[dan110]

Thank you, Walt.

What will we do when you're gone?
[doublepost=1476388140][/doublepost]

Apple will lose the software game in 4 years at this rate.

In my opinion, they've already lost to Amazon. The only way I can see them getting back into the fight is to do several aggressive acquisitions, get laser focused on their core (like Steve did), and to throw a major chunk of their war chest at the technology. Since Steve's death, it looks like the entire C-Suite has been in this infinite circle jerk while the company keeps operating on auto pilot.

 

[macguru212]

I gave up on Siri after I found myself yelling at her all time. So we broke up.

 

[dk001]

The big handicap Apple have when competing with the likes Google is the commitment they have to privacy and not mining peoples data. Google have no such commitments thus their AI products are better.

Old aged argument and not very relevant. My asking for directions, the location of X as I drive, flights between X and Y, and other similar contextual requests have little or nothing to do with my private data.

 

[sofila]

Hey Walt Mossberg, you better be careful to not to anger the giant or you will become persona non grata and Tim Cook won't invite you for dinner

persona non gradita is correct, non grata means something like "not thankful".

 

[wesleypitts]

And Siri + Homekit = Frustratingly Disappointing.

For a few weeks, Siri knew what to do when I said, "Turn off the lights in my room." Now Siri tells me it doesn't know what I'm requesting. How Siri got dumber I'm not sure.

I've had very few positive experiences with Siri over the years. The usual patter is I ask a question twice, maybe a third time W I T H G R E A T E N U N C I A T I O N before I give up and mutter something impolite about Siri.

 

[vandeetz]

honestly I had a windows phone for a long time before going back to the iPhone with the 7+ and cortana was light years better than siri is.

I wish apple would unshackle the system and allow google and microsoft to take a whack at designing an assistant. But right now the system is to locked down for them to make legitimately good assistants in IOS

 

[scottmp]

I'm sorry to say Apple's problems are not confined to an almost useless and almost always frustrating Siri -- I prefer 'Surly' most of the time.

Alas, the age of 'It just works," expired with the passing of Steve Jobs.

 

[rlhamil]

Siri needs to be location-sensitive, or to be smarter about it if it is.

I'm in Maryland, and if I say "Navigate to the Bay Bridge", I mean the one across the Chesapeake Bay from Annapolis to Kent Island. So naturally, it wants to send me to the San Fransisco Bay Bridge. Even if I add "in Annapolis" to that, it does the same. If I say "Navigate to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge", it wants to send me to the Beach Movie Bistro in Virginia Beach, VA. If I say "Navigate to the Governor William Preston Lane, Junior Memorial Bridge" (the official name), it says "Sorry, I couldn't find 'governor Willam Preston Ln' in (my town)". Darn if I know how to get directions to the Bay Bridge from Siri. Well, except for saying "Open Google Maps", pressing Google Maps microphone icon, and then saying "Navigate to the Bay Bridge"...which works perfectly.

I think I'm going to send the above comment to Apple, if I can figure out what email to use for best results with Siri feedback.

 

[lordofthereef]

Institutional ossification. It happens to giant corporations, but it just happened sooner than we expected. The unlimited resources apparently became the source of unlimited paralysis. The Siri team went to sleep or got lost on some side track, and no one was watching.

Ten steps on the polishing of the jet black iPhone was about 8 steps too many, Jonny, and it characterizes your recent design choices. Should Federighi, Cue, Schiller and (hardware guy) be touting the excruciating detail of minor features rather than significant updates to products under their wings? No. The new ARM chips are excellent, tho.

Even the keynotes have gone from the unexpected and insightful to the clipped, very repetitive and timed-to-the-second ennui. They're all reading well-rehearsed scripts instead of talking to their audience. There's no juice. Part of that is no compelling speakers, the bigger part is not much innovation to be excited about. Your little Ear Pod system is wonderful, but there are crickets sounding over on the Mac side (again, for years). Under the hood refinements are nice but not very filling as a steady diet.

I'm not leaving the tent, but I'm not sure I care anymore.

I think you just put my exact feelings into words.

 

[ahostmadsen]

From yesterday:
Me: "Set timer for 30 minutes."
Siri: "13 minutes and counting."
Me: "Set timer for 30 minutes." (Siri got 30 this time).
Siri: "Your timer is already running. Do you want to change it"
Me: "Yes."
Siri: "That's what I thought!"

But the timer is till counting down from the original 13 minutes! Siri seems to be happy she got my intention, but has no desire following my intention. So, I had to go in a and change manually. You don't need to experience things like this many time to give up completely.

 

[bernuli]

It seems like Apple thinks I should be excited about the new OS, Sierra because it now includes Siri.

Knowing that there is extra code in there taking up CPU cycles so that Siri can blow it almost every time annoys me more than actually using Siri, which is pretty annoying.

 

[ahostmadsen]

The big handicap Apple have when competing with the likes Google is the commitment they have to privacy and not mining peoples data. Google have no such commitments thus their AI products are better.

Yes, I think that is a big mistake. It makes for good soundbites, but not good engineering.

Evidence: face recognition in Photos. I have 4 Apple devices connected to my iCloud photo library, and I have to merge the same set of faces in each devices. When I got to the 3rd one doing the same steps again, I just gave up. I would willingly give up some privacy to have face recognition work across devices.