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I agree that the UX is pretty bad now. But Potentially, a system could monitor your on screen behavior and educate you unobtrusively when you do something that

I agree that the UX is pretty bad now. But Potentially, a system could monitor your on screen behavior and educate you unobtrusively when you do something that might have been easier by voice. Theoretically, the device could monitor your location and background noise to understand if voice commands are reasonable at that time.

wcarron 10y ago
I want to see voice assistants become actually useful and usable in the coming years, and agree that massive data-vacuuming like "monitoring background noise" is probably the fastest way to pump enough data through ML and AI techniques to push them forward, but that feels unnervingly intrusive. I avoid these devices for the privacy concerns and also the generally poor security of IoT devices. I hate to sound like a luddite, but i really abhor these devices and how hard the tech companies are trying to foist them upon us as "the next big thing".
- rileymat2 10y ago
  I am not proposing sucking in all the data, I mean an awareness of its environment so it knows when voice is appropriate. For instance if it can detect me driving in my car (due to speed) with no passengers (noise it has heard) maybe it can understand it should use voice.
  - r00fus 10y ago
    You do realize that in order for the assistant to know you're in a car, and that you're "at speed" it would likely need access to your location information, right? Aggregated over time (even if only when the assistant is "on" - ie, the iOS "while using" setting), that's a pattern of your movements. Either Apple/Google/etc and granulize the permissions such that things like "boolean: user is in vehicle at speed" are addressable separately (possible but unlikely) or such knowledge comes with a cost - the app knows where you are and have been. Same applies doubly for "noise it has heard". Consequently my decision is: no assistant, thankyouverymuch.
  - wcarron 10y ago
    Ok, so how exactly would assistants do that? They'd need to take environmental inputs such as GPS data to determine if you were travelling in a car. It would need to have consistent access to your microphone and speakers so that it could gather and compute info relating to your environment (noise levels, voice recognition, etc). Combine that with the fact that most phones already track your location fairly precisely. There exists almost zero incentive for Google/Fb/Apple/Amazon/MSFT to NOT collect and aggregate massive amounts of user data. How will it learn to compare all these different environments? ML obviously; which pretty much entails leveraging the consumer data to provide a better product. The cost of usable, voice-driven assistants is giving up a vast trove of personal data and abandoning the concept of privacy completely, just so I can order some paper towels from an Internet of Shit connected device instead of walking three blocks to a store. Your position is akin to a Louis CK joke(not offense meant): "Oh boy! I hope he doesn't do what he's going to do!"
caseysoftware 10y ago
I start from the firm belief that "technology X will never be worse than it is now." Whether you're considering voice interfaces, connection speeds, machine learning, web development, phone battery life, or whatever.. things are trending towards the better. Sometimes it's steady improvement, other times it's punctuated. Either way, the floor on what we can considering is always increasing.
- nitrogen 10y ago
  This is rather debatable when it comes to human-machine interfaces. UI goes through phases of improvement followed by radical degredation due misguided, cargo-culted redesigns. Take cars as an example. In my car I can adjust the airflow and temperature with a button and a knob, but in newer models a touchscreen or voice command is required that takes quite a bit longer.
- EliRivers 10y ago
  I start from the firm belief that "technology X will never be worse than it is now." While not quite what you meant, Firefox is frequently bloody awful now and it used to be quite usable :)
  - caseysoftware 10y ago
    Mozilla as an org is off the tracks and has been for a long time.
- ryandrake 10y ago
  Counter-examples: Privacy (almost always getting worse), security (no clear trend, but it would be hard to argue it's consistently getting better), usability / discoverable interfaces (debatable)
  - caseysoftware 10y ago
    Privacy, I'll agree with. I think security is getting better but what we see now are the consequences of years of poor decisions. It's the post-Christmas credit card bill.

wcarron 10y ago

I want to see voice assistants become actually useful and usable in the coming years, and agree that massive data-vacuuming like "monitoring background noise" is probably the fastest way to pump enough data through ML and AI techniques to push them forward, but that feels unnervingly intrusive. I avoid these devices for the privacy concerns and also the generally poor security of IoT devices. I hate to sound like a luddite, but i really abhor these devices and how hard the tech companies are trying to foist them upon us as "the next big thing".

rileymat2 10y ago
I am not proposing sucking in all the data, I mean an awareness of its environment so it knows when voice is appropriate. For instance if it can detect me driving in my car (due to speed) with no passengers (noise it has heard) maybe it can understand it should use voice.
- r00fus 10y ago
  You do realize that in order for the assistant to know you're in a car, and that you're "at speed" it would likely need access to your location information, right? Aggregated over time (even if only when the assistant is "on" - ie, the iOS "while using" setting), that's a pattern of your movements. Either Apple/Google/etc and granulize the permissions such that things like "boolean: user is in vehicle at speed" are addressable separately (possible but unlikely) or such knowledge comes with a cost - the app knows where you are and have been. Same applies doubly for "noise it has heard". Consequently my decision is: no assistant, thankyouverymuch.
- wcarron 10y ago
  Ok, so how exactly would assistants do that? They'd need to take environmental inputs such as GPS data to determine if you were travelling in a car. It would need to have consistent access to your microphone and speakers so that it could gather and compute info relating to your environment (noise levels, voice recognition, etc). Combine that with the fact that most phones already track your location fairly precisely. There exists almost zero incentive for Google/Fb/Apple/Amazon/MSFT to NOT collect and aggregate massive amounts of user data. How will it learn to compare all these different environments? ML obviously; which pretty much entails leveraging the consumer data to provide a better product. The cost of usable, voice-driven assistants is giving up a vast trove of personal data and abandoning the concept of privacy completely, just so I can order some paper towels from an Internet of Shit connected device instead of walking three blocks to a store. Your position is akin to a Louis CK joke(not offense meant): "Oh boy! I hope he doesn't do what he's going to do!"

caseysoftware 10y ago

I start from the firm belief that "technology X will never be worse than it is now." Whether you're considering voice interfaces, connection speeds, machine learning, web development, phone battery life, or whatever.. things are trending towards the better. Sometimes it's steady improvement, other times it's punctuated. Either way, the floor on what we can considering is always increasing.

nitrogen 10y ago
This is rather debatable when it comes to human-machine interfaces. UI goes through phases of improvement followed by radical degredation due misguided, cargo-culted redesigns. Take cars as an example. In my car I can adjust the airflow and temperature with a button and a knob, but in newer models a touchscreen or voice command is required that takes quite a bit longer.
EliRivers 10y ago
I start from the firm belief that "technology X will never be worse than it is now." While not quite what you meant, Firefox is frequently bloody awful now and it used to be quite usable :)
- caseysoftware 10y ago
  Mozilla as an org is off the tracks and has been for a long time.
ryandrake 10y ago
Counter-examples: Privacy (almost always getting worse), security (no clear trend, but it would be hard to argue it's consistently getting better), usability / discoverable interfaces (debatable)
- caseysoftware 10y ago
  Privacy, I'll agree with. I think security is getting better but what we see now are the consequences of years of poor decisions. It's the post-Christmas credit card bill.