Microsoft is working on an advanced version of its competitor to Apple’s Siri, using research from an artificial intelligence project called “Einstein.”
Microsoft has been running its “personal assistant” Cortana on its Windows phones for a year, and will put the new version on the desktop with the arrival of Windows 10 this autumn. Later, Cortana will be available as a standalone app, usable on phones and tablets powered by Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android, people familiar with the project said.
Does anybody actually use these digital assistants? Google Now is kind of useful because it actually anticipates what you need, but even then, it seems like it’s for a niche group of people (e.g. those who travel a lot). Aside from the gimmick factor of asking Siri or Cortana funny questions, and the occasional setting of an alarm – does anybody actually use these things?
I use Siri with exactly one phrase “set timer to 7 minutes” when I want boiled eggs. Faster than looking for timer app.
From my point of view the problem is in the language. Maybe these assistants work well in English, but in my language they are not available or the functionality is not as good.
Siri sure isn’t good even in English, though Google does much better. Siri reacts on exact phrases, so saying something like “look up the phone number for x” will not always give you the phone number for x, but saying “what is the phone number for x” will. Also, it tries to over-analyze what you say. I’ve got two examples, one sad and one funny: 1. I looked for a store up in Canada called The Wine Rack and Siri said “I didn’t find any results for thirst-quenching retailer.” Not even remotely close to what I said, and that was in English mind you. Secondly, again up in Canada, I looked for a butcher shop called The Pig and Olive and what I got was “I found an article on gay Skype sex.” I shit you not, that is the result I got. I’ve never had any problems like that with Google Now, and I can’t speak for Cortana since I’ve never used it. I do, however, find Siri completely useless.
Aside from setting alarms, I only use Siri to set reminders or reply messages while driving. That’s about it. I would use ‘her’ for traffic/navigation tips (like fastest route and whatnot), but Apple Maps sucks at that.
And just as hot as he was.
Is part of their EEE (Embrace – Extend – Extinguish) strategy for Android. This is one more of the building blocks they make available, so some phone makers can be convinced (or “convinced”) to use Microsoft apps and have a checklist of features as long as if they went with Google counterparts.
For Microsoft is totally lucrative to have Android phones that 1. pay patent royalties 2. use Microsoft apps instead of Google apps.
When Google Now first turned up, I played with it a bit and despite having a fairly neutral British English accent, I’d often find a word or two misinterpreted. For most voice queries, Google Now literally just passes the text along to Google Search unless it traps certain topics.
I think the novelty lasted about 2 days before I gave up on forever. Even simple voice dictation was hard when most punctuation is spelled out! A bluetooth keyboard purchase proved more productive than voice dictation…
I only use the voice component when I am alone in the car.
But Cortana also pops up at 8:15 saying “with current traphic you should leave if you want to arrive at work at 9:00″…and it does so without me ever telling her where I work or how late I have to be there which is both cool and freaky
I use Siri fairly regularly: voice dictation in the car and for any command that Siri is designed to do well at that would otherwise take 3-5 steps… Setting timers, alarms, and reminders, looking up a Yelp review or business info, movie times, weather for a city that I haven’t stored in various weather apps, basic calculations and informational requests that Google and Alpha excel at, and so on… Speed, accuracy, and quality of results have increased massively. I would wholeheartedly recommend that those who aren’t using it should give it a try when appropriate. It may only be 2-5 times a week but it’s actually a joy when I do so now as it works 99.9% of the time and is much quicker than other methods.
zzzz – What? Did someone ask a question about a product that is interesting? No? I’m going back to sleep.
I use Siri all the time. I didn’t realize how much I use it until I went on vacation last week to a “foreign” country where I purposely didn’t have cell nor internet service. My iPhone became just an alarm clock and nothing more as we purposely picked a place that didn’t even have wifi. (Yes, I checked, about a dozen times that week)
What do I use Siri for? A ***WHOLE*** lot more than I thought and a ***LOT*** more often.
* Scheduling/rescheduling/canceling work and private meetings/appointments
* Telling Siri to read my meeting notes for the day back to me while I’m sitting at stop lights
* Asking for my ETA in Apple Maps while I’m driving/flying to my next meeting.
* Tweeting people my boss/co-workers on my status when I’m driving between sites (they like to be kept up to date – I’d rather not have to do that but they depend on me for making decisions)
* Asking about the weather (Do I need an umbrella in Seattle?)
* Reading and responding to emails
* Reading and responding to texts
* Reading and responding to Facebook posts (I’m rarely on Facebook but one of my nephews *only* communicates to anyone through Facebook. Meaning he doesn’t even use email anymore.
* Reading Twitter Posts and ReTweeting or responding to them.
* For calculations that I can’t do in my head (she’s VERY good at understanding verbal equations and giving accurate answers)
* Placing phone calls to people and phone numbers (including phone numbers with “words” inside of them like “555-for-help”.
* Me verbally asking what movies are playing in X city and what time they are playing (I have lots of questions while I’m driving and I don’t want to take my eyes off the road and the car mirrors).
* Starting a timer when I’m at my “Pharmacy” after I’m told my prescription will be ready in X number of minutes.
* Making dinner reservations
* Current currency conversions
* Creating reminders
* Where is the nearest X store for X?
* Play X Podcast
* Play X song/album or songs with X number of stars.
* It took awhile to get punctuation right but I actually write first drafts of a lot of letters using Siri which I then clean up in Pages, more for style than content.
What *don’t* I use Siri for? That list is getting shorter every day.
Siri *IS* my personal assistant. I use her all … the … time … and I had very serious withdrawals and slapped my forehead so many times during our week on vacation that my wife was sure I was going to have a permanent bruise because of it.
Siri started out very pathetic just like Apple Maps and several other Apple programs/services. But it has turned into a very serious PA that would really screw up my day if Siri stopped working.
Am I interested in Cortana? I’d give that a Zero out of 10.
So… Proving the point that Electronic PA’s are a niche thing.
“Am I interested in Cortana? I’d give that a Zero out of 10”
…and yet you responed in this topic with a whole list of things that Cortana could do just as well or better than Siri and somehow wrote “10-0”
You sir, make no sense
The idea of voice interaction with your computer has been a staple of sci-fi – the Enterprise, HAL, Mother, Gerty, Jarvis – and these are the first steps in that direction. I wish complex voice interaction would get here faster.
fantasies good in scifi not always work out in reality. voice communication with computers was primarily a way for actors to… act, nothing more.
http://www.osnews.com/thread?523521
i don’t see anything in the arc of the technology that would lead me to believe decent voice interaction with you computer will be unattainable
reality is way more than technology aspects, also social ones for example. consider that for human-to-human communication we largely went “back” to text (SMS)