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

[now i see it]

Everyone knows the Siri blows. Or at least is extremely retarded. We didn't need WM to tell us that. Perfect timing though as Sierra comes to the mac with its big hurrah hurrah about having Siri integration.

 

[nagromme]

I know Siri has steadily improved, but it still falls short of "good enough" for all but a few tasks.

 

[pavelbure]

I just want it to recognize the difference between the name "siri" and "sarah".

 

[Karma*Police]

I definitely agree with Walt that Apple squandered their lead, but I think all assistants are a ways off from being truly smart. There are definitely some things that Apple focuses on that Google doesn't and vice versa.

If Walt tried setting a reminder and paused to gather his thoughts, Google would have launched the app whereas Siri would have been "smart" enough to ask him what he'd like to be reminded of. Ask the assistants to set a reminder "tomorrow" a little after midnight, and Siri is smart enough to ask if you meant the same day or the following day whereas Google will blindly set a reminder the following day.

But Walt isn't stupid. He knows writing about how bad Siri is will get far more clicks than an article about how inadequate all assistants are.

 

[Benjamin Frost]

Dear oh dear.

127 almost universally negative comments about Siri; and yet, Siri is supposed to be the leading feature of iOS 10 and macOS Sierra! This is surely a damning indictment of both Siri and the latest operating systems.

I worry for the long-term future of Apple when their software is so clearly floundering. Waze (owned by Google) trounces Apple Maps in the UK, much as I detest using something by Google. Amazon trumps the iTunes Store for speed, ease of use and slickness. When one sees the competition sailing past Apple on such fundamental apps, one ponders whether it might be wise to switch other commonly used apps as well.

 

[Soccertess]

This is another perfect example of why TIM COOK is a failure.

Sure the commercials aren't bad, but they are inaccurate and really a misrepresentation.

Siri is behind the game, and it's pathetic that Apple only responds to customer feedback, and doesn't have the vision to see what a personal assistant should be like. I know you Apple fan boys will hate me, but Steve had vision. Timmy O-tool is a lame duck CEO and is on the chopping block.. I can see him getting ousted in 2018!

 

[hellopupy]

I never used Siri until it came out on OS X and I've been building up my Siri commands but consisntely asking Siri to; "open the iTunes application and play the song xxxxxxxxxx" doesn't work the same way, sometimes it'll pull up a search and sometimes it'll play the right song and sometimes it'll play a completely different song, all by the same command.

This appears to be a serious digital personal assistant failure if the same command can't always yield the same result.

 

[Oldedit]

The Verge's Walt Mossberg today wrote a critical article on Apple's Siri personal assistant, exploring the service's shortcomings, mistakes, and inability to answer some simple questions that competing products have no problem with.

Entitled, "Why does Siri seem so dumb?", Mossberg's article, covers several questions Siri couldn't answer, ranging from queries about political candidates to the date of the World Series to the weather in Crete. In each instance, Siri failed to provide the desired information, while Google Now, Google's Siri competitor, was able to answer every single question correctly.According to Mossberg, Apple has fixed many of the above Siri shortcomings thanks to his feedback, and has "stressed" to him that the company is "constantly improving Siri." Apple says it focuses more on tasks like placing phone calls, sending texts, and finding places rather than "long tail" questions, which aren't as popular with iPhone and iPad users. Mossberg speculates that such questions aren't popular anymore because people "just give up" on asking Siri these types of things due to failed responses.

Mossberg also outlines several failures with Siri's cloud-based services, from searching through iMessages to locating photos to finding calendar appointments, drawing the conclusion that Apple has "wasted its lead" with Siri, which is now forced to compete with services from Google, Amazon, and Microsoft. Mossberg believes that Siri "seems stagnant" and is "too limited and unreliable" compared to other services.

Though it may not seem like it, Apple has been putting a lot of effort into improving Siri. Back in August, Apple executives Eddy Cue, Craig Federighi, and Phil Schiller explained that machine learning techniques have cut Siri's error rate by a factor of two, improving understanding. Since 2014, Siri and other on-device features, like the QuickType keyboard, Spotlight, autocorrect, Maps, and more, have been powered by a neural net-based system that is able to provide users with more personalized responses and actions.

Recent rumors suggest Apple aiming to improve Siri's functionality even further in an effort to build the personal assistant into an Echo-like Smart home device that would do things like control smart home accessories. Apple is also said to be working on an "Invisible Hand" initiative that would allow users to fully control their devices through a Siri command, something that could debut within three years.

Mossberg's full article on Siri, which is well worth reading, can be accessed over at The Verge.

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

Siri could not tell me how to view the Cubs v Giants game on Direct TV in my major city. It directed me to a direct tv bar of some kind. Further, the still faulty Apple Maps makes it difficult, if not impossible to get accurate directions when driving. But when I ask: Broncos score, I get an answer. Also when I ask "Bulls roster".

 

[MacLawyer]

It's so bad that I just disable it on all my devices.

 

[luddx]

i've never seen so many people complain about the way apple is going...
one has to wonder what's the ambiance like inside apple right now ?

 

[bushman4]

Siri's good for simple things like "Remind me to..." or "wake me up at..." but that's really just voice commands which tech has been able to do since the early 2000s. When Forstall announced Siri he said "the ability to understand what you mean and act on it...that's the breakthrough" and Siri has never been able to do that to me. It just recognized certain phrases.

I'm shocked at what Siri can't do. I can imagine some common stuff that Siri still can't do like:

• "What time is XXXX on TV tonight?"
• "What channel is XXXX on?"
• "How much is XXXX on Amazon?"
• "Check for new emails."
• "When was my last email from X?"
• "Text XXXX about [subject] in one hour."
• "What's the best way to go to work this morning."

Some of those things are fairly advanced but with Apple's tight software integration and 5 years of Siri use I would think Apple could have taken it farther. And all this is ignoring the accuracy rates of speech recognition.


------
Some super cool things that could leverage app integration would be thinks like:

• "Order my usual pizza from X."
• "Open X files and send them as a PDF to XX"
• "Back up my system to Time Machine and then put the computer to sleep."
• "Retrive [file name] from my last time Machine backup."
• "Copy [folder name] to iCloud Drive

 

[Zaft]

I must say I never expected Walt Mossberg, the long time Apple Shill who was chosen and personally groomed by Steve Jobs, to ever question anything Apple. But with Jobs dead and no longer available to look after his charges like Walt, David Pogue, and others it's more of a level playing field, Mossberg feels free to speak out.

I guess you don't remember him ripping mobile me

 

[jdawgnoonan]

I just came back to iOS on a 7 Plus from a Nexus 6P and I can say for certain that in my case Siri is extremely behind what Google can do.

 

[Soni Sanjay]

Tim Cook is not the man to lead Apple. As simple as that.

 

[fhall1]

My wife and I sitting by a fire one night - the moon looked large and my wife wondered if it was full. I I pulled out my 6s and asked Siri "When is the full moon this month?" Her answer: "I can't tell you the weather that far out."

 

[xander49x]

I hope they make an app for viv. it is by far the best in AI.

 

[canadianreader]

They need to give it a soul like the Doctor on Star Trek Voyager

 

[caliguy]

No woman should be spoken to the way I speak to Siri. "NO SIRI, YOU DUMB ******* *****!!!"

 

[azentropy]

Keep on waiting for Siri to get better, it hasn't. Doesn't do enough and just has a hard time understanding me. I've found Amazon and Google's implementation to be much much better.

 

[duervo]

He's not wrong at all. I've had most of the same issues in that list. It can get a little annoying sometimes.

 

[slimothy]

At least it doesn't data mine you.

 

[phairphan]

When one of your most ardent cheerleaders is being incredibly critical of one of the major features on both your mobile and desktop OS (and the main new feature of your new desktop OS) and it's a feature for which there's a general consensus that it's where "the future" is headed, you should be really, really concerned.

 

[sziehr]

Siri may blow but at least I am not giving up mountains of data for some goliath to scan and sell me to some third party. I am slowly becoming the minority who still wants to have my stuff private just cause.

 

[scuac]

Siri is way behind, and it is not because of "Apple refusing to harvest your data" as some people suggest. I have almost never gotten an useful answer from Siri beyond the weather.

The Amazon Echo on the other hand has been spot on most of the time. Last month I was arguing with my parents about what was the first album recorded by the Beatles. I asked Siri, "what was the first album recorded by the Beatles", and it showed the question exactly as it was on the screen, so no misunderstanding, and it replied that it didn't understand the question. I then asked Alexa the same question, and immediately got "first album was Revolver recorded in ... blah blah blah... would you like to hear it on Amazon Prime music?". Now that was more like it.

 

[ErikGrim]

Siri is certainly bad at many of the things Walt describes, however to suggest that Siri should be good at those things is also short sighted to how the services are used.

Siri and Google Assistant are approaching the same goals from different directions and that is obvious when you use either service.

Siri is starting from phone & services shortcuts and moving up into the information services space. Google is leveraging search to start from information and moving down into phone and services.

The result of this is obvious: Siri is not as good at online information look up requests, and Google Assistant isn't as well integrated into the OS's services and app ecosystem.

Google continually tout this difference as their advantage "why are flamingos pink?" however Apple is also right in knowing that most people aren't going to be asking that of their phone. Second to this - Google Assistant comes undone the moment there is a level of ambiguity to the question - which again takes away the point of even directing those questions to a voice search app.

Bingo.

Those kinds of questions make for good ads and canned shootouts, but in reality who are asking these questions from their phones/cylinders/watches/tvs/computers? Maybe long tail questions shouldn't be the focus ahead of making utilitarian tasks work reliably.

And the less said about Mossberg's turn against Apple post his friend dying the better.