I switched to Samsung in part because Siri was so bad. Now if they had this skull as the official Siri logo, that would be a start. That looks great.
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Should Apple Kill Siri and Start Over?
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I don't really care whether they "start over" or just totally overhaul it, keep the name, don't keep the name. I just want to stop doing this [profanity warning]:
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Like many of my MR pals said: yes, Apple should start from scratch and give this AI assistant a new name. Although I don’t think they will, as the name Siri is already pretty iconic.
I don’t hate Siri. But there is one Apple product I hate — Shortcuts. It’s unreliable, way too difficult for most people, and way underpowered compared to AppleScript for advanced users.
Heh. I’m well aware that I’m in an extreme minority, but I purposely updated my mini 12 to a 13 mini because I love the form factor and know its going to be years before an *appropriately* sized iPhone will come around again 😉
I feel like I might be one of the few people who genuinely likes Siri... it's pretty good for anything that doesn't require a web search. 😅
I’m guessing that Apple is losing billions of dollars a year on Siri development and potential customers. If Apple could make a rock solid Siri it would be huge!
I'm reasonably knowledgeable about how Siri and modern AI work. I have worked in the field for a long time, I studied AI in grad school way back in the 1980s and have kept up with the technology.
I don't say this to brag, but to make a point: I can talk to Siri and "she" never makes a mistake or mis interprets and the response is usually very fast.
Why? Because I know how the internal processing works and can speak so as to eliminate ambiguity and not require context. I can also pick works that are easy for Siri to interpret. I have been writing code for more than 40 years. "Code" is basically adapting your thinking into a kind of language the computer software can easily process. After 40 years it becomes second nature. I don't speak English to Siri, I speak "Sirian" to Siri. It works.
So what I am saying is that the present Siri is very useful to someone with the relevant skills. But the converse is also true "Siri is not so useful to someone without the relevant skills." I watch many people who try to use Siri and talk to it as if it were actually intelligent and understood English. These are the users who are frustrated.
It is not an age thing, I know someone over 80 who has about zero computer skills but has learned to talk in simple three word sentences. But he still gets tripped up because he thinks Siri can remember context and he has not figured out the set of hard-coded keywords that always work. Further, he has not figured out what Siri can process on-device and what has to be sent off to the cloud. On-device is faster.
I can do all of this but most people can't
Should Apple start over? No. A lot of what Siri does works well. The LAST thing we want is for Siri to become GPTchat where we can ask it for a short biography of George Washington's granddaughter "Kate". The chat program will be happy to do what you ask. But we know GW never had children. LLM and generative AI in general is good at "making up facts". We would prefer that Siri looks up facts and is able to cite references
Yes, Siri needs an overhaul, maybe a re-write but MUCH of Sir can be reused particularly the back-end that does searches and interfaces with the local OS and the front end that does acoustic processing. The text to voice system is not bad either.
I don't say this to brag, but to make a point: I can talk to Siri and "she" never makes a mistake or mis interprets and the response is usually very fast.
Why? Because I know how the internal processing works and can speak so as to eliminate ambiguity and not require context. I can also pick works that are easy for Siri to interpret. I have been writing code for more than 40 years. "Code" is basically adapting your thinking into a kind of language the computer software can easily process. After 40 years it becomes second nature. I don't speak English to Siri, I speak "Sirian" to Siri. It works.
So what I am saying is that the present Siri is very useful to someone with the relevant skills. But the converse is also true "Siri is not so useful to someone without the relevant skills." I watch many people who try to use Siri and talk to it as if it were actually intelligent and understood English. These are the users who are frustrated.
It is not an age thing, I know someone over 80 who has about zero computer skills but has learned to talk in simple three word sentences. But he still gets tripped up because he thinks Siri can remember context and he has not figured out the set of hard-coded keywords that always work. Further, he has not figured out what Siri can process on-device and what has to be sent off to the cloud. On-device is faster.
I can do all of this but most people can't
Should Apple start over? No. A lot of what Siri does works well. The LAST thing we want is for Siri to become GPTchat where we can ask it for a short biography of George Washington's granddaughter "Kate". The chat program will be happy to do what you ask. But we know GW never had children. LLM and generative AI in general is good at "making up facts". We would prefer that Siri looks up facts and is able to cite references
Yes, Siri needs an overhaul, maybe a re-write but MUCH of Sir can be reused particularly the back-end that does searches and interfaces with the local OS and the front end that does acoustic processing. The text to voice system is not bad either.
Unlike (apparently) everyone on the planet, I actually do not have huge issues with Siri and do not think that it should be killed as a brand. Note that my use of Siri is relatively frequent but also grounded in reality of what Siri is, and I am OK with that. I use it to launch music, playlists in Apple Music, send and read received texts, set reminders, ask simple questions on when this or that store closes, start directions when on Bluetooth. I use a few Siri shortcuts. That works fine too.
Most of my use is via BT or maybe CarPlay or on my Apple Watch.
Can Siri be made smarter and better? Certainly. Is it so broken it needs to be killed? Nope. Do people today think Siri should be ChatGPT? I dunno. I never expected that it should.
Personally, I am encouraged with what I read of direction (on-device language models) - which would be more important to me than asking Siri to create a PowerShell script for me.
Most of my use is via BT or maybe CarPlay or on my Apple Watch.
Can Siri be made smarter and better? Certainly. Is it so broken it needs to be killed? Nope. Do people today think Siri should be ChatGPT? I dunno. I never expected that it should.
Personally, I am encouraged with what I read of direction (on-device language models) - which would be more important to me than asking Siri to create a PowerShell script for me.
Absolutlely not.. Siri has never been as bad as most people say, and she's from a time before real AI.
She's got a good name and a good voice. I look forward to her brain transplant with great excitement.
She's got a good name and a good voice. I look forward to her brain transplant with great excitement.
I’ve always hated the name Siri. I wouldn’t mind at all if Apple changed the name.
It's just so bad. I don't know of a worse technical product (outside of the government) that still lives today.
I personally don’t use Siri. My wife does, every day, at work. Hey siri, call John A, call Peter B, …
Hey siri, set a timer, hey siri set a second timer
It does work. I’m curious to know from all the 10 or 100 of million request per day, how many fail?
Some tech takes a while to mature, especially when it’s related to language.
People not pronouncing correctly, accent, talking too fast , background noise …
I’ve used it on few occasion and it works, dictate a response.
My 6 years old grand son has used his grand ma phone to send us a text.
Let’s not exaggerate.
Apple just need to enhance it.
Apple already use AI in their product , and they’re probably going to add more AI in Mail, Page, and other software.
We’re so spoiled. Be patient.
Hey siri, set a timer, hey siri set a second timer
It does work. I’m curious to know from all the 10 or 100 of million request per day, how many fail?
Some tech takes a while to mature, especially when it’s related to language.
People not pronouncing correctly, accent, talking too fast , background noise …
I’ve used it on few occasion and it works, dictate a response.
My 6 years old grand son has used his grand ma phone to send us a text.
Let’s not exaggerate.
Apple just need to enhance it.
Apple already use AI in their product , and they’re probably going to add more AI in Mail, Page, and other software.
We’re so spoiled. Be patient.
At this point I would take consistency with bad responses from Siri. I could work with consistency. No consistency with Siri today an impossible task. My solution, use the App. Consistent, visual, quickly analyze what needs to be done, your fired Siri!
You might not, sure.
Maybe someone with eight rooms in their house and would like music in all of them?
To say you know what others do and do not need is the height of arrogance.
If you have to have specialized skills to talk to a virtual assistant, it's failing.
I keep Siri in a little conceptual box where I only ask limited things of it -- "add milk to the grocery list" or "set a 15 minute timer" -- but if I try anything new, half the time I end up swearing at the thing because it's so infuriatingly dumb.
Wow, you really know everyone's needs, huh?
I have an apartment and have three, in different rooms because I like to have music all over without blasting the volume from one place. Very easy to see how someone in a medium sized house could have 8.
I used to think the Siri criticism was overblown
Then I got an HomePod mini
Then I got an HomePod mini
I dictate notes which frequently use the phrase “a series of…“ and constantly have to deal with Siri suddenly activating and interrupting me. But when you do need it, it never seems to work properly. Arrgh!