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People (rightfully) pointing out that Siri sucks compared to competitors should realize that Apple is making a very serious tradeoff in favor of privacy. It's

People (rightfully) pointing out that Siri sucks compared to competitors should realize that Apple is making a very serious tradeoff in favor of privacy. It's a huge handicap when you're only allowed to train models on device using just one user's data, or only allowed to use various complicated privacy preserving training methods (I'm not talking about taking a user's data, removing the obviously identifying fields and sending it to the server, which does not really preserve privacy except for simple statistics). There's no way Apple can train the same super complicated deep learning models that Google uses, for example, when Apple can't just gobble up all their users' data. And all of the "provably" private methods for training models incur significant accuracy penalties. So it's a little rich that users on HN will complain about Siri on one hand, and on the other hand complain about losing privacy. In the end I think this is a fatal mistake for Apple: people love to complain about privacy, but time and time again reveal through their purchasing choices that they don't actually care, especially when there's usability tradeoffs. Apple would be better off vacuuming up all their users' data if they don't want to be crushed by Google/Amazon.

wand3r 9y ago
Of the 3 companies, Apple is likely the most privacy centric. However, they have a fuck ton of private data. You raise an interesting point; it may explain some percentage of why Siri is worse. Although, it has been in use longer and is still pretty shit. Apple sends a lot of telemetry and search data. Also, I find it baffling anyone would want to put an internet connected always on mic in their house no matter who makes it. Insane.
- adpirz 9y ago
  How much worse is it than an internet connected always on mic on your person at all times, which also tracks your every move to boot?
tinus_hn 9y ago
Also anything that Siri can do, you allow Apple to do. Because ultimately it's Apple that is sending the response commands back to your computer or phone.
marak830 9y ago
As someone who isn't a fan of apples closed garden, I agree with your comment. While I would like to see a model where they all share data to train better assistants, I know that will never happen. Ontop of all that my side project works on voice recognition and trying to figure out what users want, damn it's frustrating not being able to grok at times, but I haven't quite gotten to the point where I'll take all user input, and put it through ml. (Lack of uses haha, go figure).

wand3r 9y ago

Of the 3 companies, Apple is likely the most privacy centric. However, they have a fuck ton of private data. You raise an interesting point; it may explain some percentage of why Siri is worse. Although, it has been in use longer and is still pretty shit. Apple sends a lot of telemetry and search data. Also, I find it baffling anyone would want to put an internet connected always on mic in their house no matter who makes it. Insane.

adpirz 9y ago
How much worse is it than an internet connected always on mic on your person at all times, which also tracks your every move to boot?

tinus_hn 9y ago

Also anything that Siri can do, you allow Apple to do. Because ultimately it's Apple that is sending the response commands back to your computer or phone.

marak830 9y ago

As someone who isn't a fan of apples closed garden, I agree with your comment. While I would like to see a model where they all share data to train better assistants, I know that will never happen. Ontop of all that my side project works on voice recognition and trying to figure out what users want, damn it's frustrating not being able to grok at times, but I haven't quite gotten to the point where I'll take all user input, and put it through ml. (Lack of uses haha, go figure).