4 ms·

An actual assistant would have a lot of context. Do I know that you're going to travel to London, UK for a break next week and therefore I would naturally assum

An actual assistant would have a lot of context. Do I know that you're going to travel to London, UK for a break next week and therefore I would naturally assume that you are interesting in the time there. However, are you planning to visit your parents in London, Canada this weekend? Then an assistant who would still answer with the time of London, UK would maybe also not be the smartest? So really context is everything and making broad statements that if an assistant was to answer with anything but London, UK should get fired is something that someone would say, who IMHO should get fired. shrug Also, IMHO, if someone doesn't know that machines don't have human context and therefore doesn't know to ask their digital assistant "What is the time in London, UK" when they want to know the time in London, UK, then maybe they should get fired from their tech job. shrug

fireattack 6y ago
But if none of these contexts you mentioned exist (which is the case here), what would an actual assistant answer?
- dustinmoris 6y ago
  There was minimal context, location data from the watch. Maybe even the fact that there's a pandemic and he ain't gonna go to London, UK, but possibly Canada. However you spin it, someone will find a reason to find the answer "stupid", so the only one who is really stupid is the person who fails to ask a concrete question if they expect a concrete answer.
- astrobe_ 6y ago
  If your company is located in Paris, Texas and you are in New York, ready to embark for a business to Paris, France and that you ask your assistant over the phone, out of the blue, "what is the temperature in Paris?" they would probably ask "which one?".
nixpulvis 6y ago
ha! I was wondering how hard it'd be to find someone making an appeal to "context". While you're not exactly wrong, you are. Parsing meaning is something humans are surprisingly good at, and trained for. I think the most damning part is how, at the bottom, he list a handful of other "smart" assistants which correctly list London UK's time... for now. But, his point about consistency and slowness is exactly why I never use these shitty voice assistants. If I'm going to be interacting with some pedantic robot, I generally want to be able to edit the text of my request. TLDR; voice assistants suck.
- dustinmoris 6y ago
  > he list a handful of other "smart" assistants which correctly list London UK's time... It's only correct if that is what you secretly asked for. If I have never travelled to Europe and I am planning a trip to London, Canada then in my subjective world I would kind of be disappointed when my digital assistant told me the time of London, UK. That person would have equally zero understanding, like "WTF SIRI, why would I want to know some city somewhere I don't even know where it is located on the map when you (know) that I often go and visit Canada. Gosh you stupid idiot assistant!"
  - netsharc 6y ago
    A London, Ontarian would probably expect/accept the confusion. Because if he's travelled and met international people and they asked where he's from, he would've specified ", Ontario", otherwise they would've all assumed he hails from where Sherlock Holmes lived.
qayxc 6y ago
In the absence of context, the best answer is London, UK. You actually need to imagine additional context to make any other answer plausible. If you hear the sound of hooves clip-clopping nearby, you think horses, not zebras.
- irishsultan 6y ago
  In the absence of context there is no best answer. You need context to know why London, UK is much more likely to be the right London "without additional context".
  - simondw 6y ago
    Sure, but maybe a reasonable default context would be "a human currently living on Earth is asking the question."
  - empath75 6y ago
    The context is being an ordinary human being in the world. I think a significant chunk of people _in_ Ontario would expect the one in England.
  - Sharlin 6y ago
    In game-theoretic terms, London, England is the Schelling point [1] of the set of places named London on Earth. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Focal_point_(game_theory) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Focal_point_(game_theory)
  - qayxc 6y ago
    > In the absence of context there is no best answer. sigh why do people always feel the need to redefine words? By any definition of the word, "best" is correct term to use here. Here's a few definitions of the word "best", please and in all honesty, tell me why the use is wrong given the following: • best: "In the most excellent or most suitable manner; with most advantage or success: as, he who runs best gets the prize; the best-behaved boy in the school; the best-cultivated fields." • best: "In or to the highest degree; to the fullest extent; most fully: as, those who know him best speak highly of him; those best informed say so; the best-abused man in town." • best: "Of the highest quality, excellence, or standing: said of both persons and things in regard to mental, moral, or physical qualities, whether inherent or acquired: as, the best writers and speakers; the best families; the best judgment; the best years of one's life; a house built of the best materials." So if there is a finite set of possible answers and a set of criteria that establish a metric to turn this set into an ordered set, there is by definition a non-empty set of best answers. The context-free metric for ranking cities is global relevance: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_city https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_city And now please look at the number 1 spot of this list. Thanks for reading.
MachineGunPablo 6y ago
Ouch
mattlondon 6y ago
Isn't half the point of these digital assistants that they do have the context? I've got no idea about Siri, but the android one ties into your Google account to get your calendar and mail so it can get context about up coming travel etc.
- dustinmoris 6y ago
  See my answer below, there was context and still there is no right/wrong answer. If you expect a specific answer, ask a specific question. If you fail to do so, then maybe that is the stupid thing which happened?

fireattack 6y ago

But if none of these contexts you mentioned exist (which is the case here), what would an actual assistant answer?

dustinmoris 6y ago
There was minimal context, location data from the watch. Maybe even the fact that there's a pandemic and he ain't gonna go to London, UK, but possibly Canada. However you spin it, someone will find a reason to find the answer "stupid", so the only one who is really stupid is the person who fails to ask a concrete question if they expect a concrete answer.
astrobe_ 6y ago
If your company is located in Paris, Texas and you are in New York, ready to embark for a business to Paris, France and that you ask your assistant over the phone, out of the blue, "what is the temperature in Paris?" they would probably ask "which one?".

nixpulvis 6y ago

ha! I was wondering how hard it'd be to find someone making an appeal to "context". While you're not exactly wrong, you are. Parsing meaning is something humans are surprisingly good at, and trained for. I think the most damning part is how, at the bottom, he list a handful of other "smart" assistants which correctly list London UK's time... for now. But, his point about consistency and slowness is exactly why I never use these shitty voice assistants. If I'm going to be interacting with some pedantic robot, I generally want to be able to edit the text of my request. TLDR; voice assistants suck.

dustinmoris 6y ago
> he list a handful of other "smart" assistants which correctly list London UK's time... It's only correct if that is what you secretly asked for. If I have never travelled to Europe and I am planning a trip to London, Canada then in my subjective world I would kind of be disappointed when my digital assistant told me the time of London, UK. That person would have equally zero understanding, like "WTF SIRI, why would I want to know some city somewhere I don't even know where it is located on the map when you (know) that I often go and visit Canada. Gosh you stupid idiot assistant!"
- netsharc 6y ago
  A London, Ontarian would probably expect/accept the confusion. Because if he's travelled and met international people and they asked where he's from, he would've specified ", Ontario", otherwise they would've all assumed he hails from where Sherlock Holmes lived.

qayxc 6y ago

In the absence of context, the best answer is London, UK. You actually need to imagine additional context to make any other answer plausible. If you hear the sound of hooves clip-clopping nearby, you think horses, not zebras.

irishsultan 6y ago
In the absence of context there is no best answer. You need context to know why London, UK is much more likely to be the right London "without additional context".
- simondw 6y ago
  Sure, but maybe a reasonable default context would be "a human currently living on Earth is asking the question."
- empath75 6y ago
  The context is being an ordinary human being in the world. I think a significant chunk of people _in_ Ontario would expect the one in England.
- Sharlin 6y ago
  In game-theoretic terms, London, England is the Schelling point [1] of the set of places named London on Earth. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Focal_point_(game_theory) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Focal_point_(game_theory)
- qayxc 6y ago
  > In the absence of context there is no best answer. sigh why do people always feel the need to redefine words? By any definition of the word, "best" is correct term to use here. Here's a few definitions of the word "best", please and in all honesty, tell me why the use is wrong given the following: • best: "In the most excellent or most suitable manner; with most advantage or success: as, he who runs best gets the prize; the best-behaved boy in the school; the best-cultivated fields." • best: "In or to the highest degree; to the fullest extent; most fully: as, those who know him best speak highly of him; those best informed say so; the best-abused man in town." • best: "Of the highest quality, excellence, or standing: said of both persons and things in regard to mental, moral, or physical qualities, whether inherent or acquired: as, the best writers and speakers; the best families; the best judgment; the best years of one's life; a house built of the best materials." So if there is a finite set of possible answers and a set of criteria that establish a metric to turn this set into an ordered set, there is by definition a non-empty set of best answers. The context-free metric for ranking cities is global relevance: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_city https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_city And now please look at the number 1 spot of this list. Thanks for reading.

MachineGunPablo 6y ago

Ouch

mattlondon 6y ago

Isn't half the point of these digital assistants that they do have the context? I've got no idea about Siri, but the android one ties into your Google account to get your calendar and mail so it can get context about up coming travel etc.

dustinmoris 6y ago
See my answer below, there was context and still there is no right/wrong answer. If you expect a specific answer, ask a specific question. If you fail to do so, then maybe that is the stupid thing which happened?