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The article is positing a potential future, and you seem to be assuming AI and voice-recognition technologies will never advance beyond today's level of sophist

The article is positing a potential future, and you seem to be assuming AI and voice-recognition technologies will never advance beyond today's level of sophistication. Of course we don't know how much better they will get, and at what rate they may improve, but there's good reasons to think they will get better.

DoreenMichele 9y ago
No, that isn't my point at all. It is positing a future where you casually say something and, voila, like magic, real world things happen. And it isn't explaining why that does not go awry. We can currently order food online. Domino's saves a default order for you so you don't have to fill it out every single time. If you change any details at all, that takes extra time. There is no verification at all in the story. There is no mention of how and why there is no verification, yet the order of food is what was wanted and he isn't cussing about the brand of beer he got. The only way you get exactly what you want with such a short sentence specifying what you want is if you are a creature of habit, go to your usual eatery and someone with a long history of serving you asks "Your usual?" Otherwise, no, saying you want a beer is simply not enough information. Is it in a can? Is it in a bottle? Is it from a tap and served in a tall glass? What brand is it? Was that a regular bottle or a 40 ounce? Etc etc. Even with humans involved, "I want X food and X drink" isn't enough information. The story in no way explains how that somehow is enough info.
- jamesrcole 9y ago
  Why do you assume that future AI couldn't handle this issue in the same way people handle this issue, by things like asking questions to check that it got the intended meaning? If your response to this is "but the article didn't mention anything like that", that article was obviously just outlining a high-level vision. Just because details weren't mentioned in the article doesn't mean they therefore could not possibly be handled in some fashion.

DoreenMichele 9y ago

No, that isn't my point at all. It is positing a future where you casually say something and, voila, like magic, real world things happen. And it isn't explaining why that does not go awry. We can currently order food online. Domino's saves a default order for you so you don't have to fill it out every single time. If you change any details at all, that takes extra time. There is no verification at all in the story. There is no mention of how and why there is no verification, yet the order of food is what was wanted and he isn't cussing about the brand of beer he got. The only way you get exactly what you want with such a short sentence specifying what you want is if you are a creature of habit, go to your usual eatery and someone with a long history of serving you asks "Your usual?" Otherwise, no, saying you want a beer is simply not enough information. Is it in a can? Is it in a bottle? Is it from a tap and served in a tall glass? What brand is it? Was that a regular bottle or a 40 ounce? Etc etc. Even with humans involved, "I want X food and X drink" isn't enough information. The story in no way explains how that somehow is enough info.

jamesrcole 9y ago
Why do you assume that future AI couldn't handle this issue in the same way people handle this issue, by things like asking questions to check that it got the intended meaning? If your response to this is "but the article didn't mention anything like that", that article was obviously just outlining a high-level vision. Just because details weren't mentioned in the article doesn't mean they therefore could not possibly be handled in some fashion.