4 ms·

This never seems to be a popular opinion on hn, but this is the ultimate Rube Goldberg machine: A complex ai built by a billion dollar company, an enormous amou

This never seems to be a popular opinion on hn, but this is the ultimate Rube Goldberg machine: A complex ai built by a billion dollar company, an enormous amount of man hours, only so that switching a light switch because slower, and less deterministic. I'm certainly not suggesting that there are no valid uses for ML/AI, but digital assistants seem to be an enormous waste.

nsriv 6y ago
I'm a fan of Google Assistant's usefulness and I generally agree with this. The Assistant craze seems more justified when you consider that companies like Google and Amazon are using it as a way to build datasets. It's a strategic reserve of data to build other things from (i.e. Google Duplex) and it doesn't matter at their scale if there isn't a vision yet, if a competitor is stockpiling transcribable voice data, they need to keep up.
- atat7024 6y ago
  > The Assistant craze seems more justified when you consider that companies like Google and Amazon are using it as a way to build datasets. Basically every new goddamn trend that is allowed to occur is about how datasets can be compiled from such marketed options. That's why we don't have first-class convergence devices yet. It'd likely blend our home and mobile usage profiles too much.
6gvONxR4sf7o 6y ago
Speech recognition goes way beyond digital assistants. Plain old transcription is super useful, especially in terms of accessibility. I was voice coding for a while because of RSI and even as immature as the tech is, it saved my ass.
- neartheplain 6y ago
  What systems did you use for voice coding? I may need to use them soon for similar reasons.
  - 6gvONxR4sf7o 6y ago
    I tried a few. Caster and talon were the best. I’d recommend talon with dragon as it’s speech engine, but apparently talon has a new built in speech engine which people like, so maybe try that engine first to save money.
    - neartheplain 6y ago
      Thanks! I’ll try them both out.
dntrkv 6y ago
Ignoring the fact that the research isn't only used one for one purpose, a proper assistant is hugely valuable to me. Simple things like: "Remind me to X tomorrow at 9am" "Add Y to the shopping list" "Remind me to do Z when I get home" This is the only way I do reminders now and it's great. It's especially useful while driving, or when I'm in bed nearly asleep and remember something, I can just tell Siri without having to get up and use my phone. And as far as smart home controls, being able to say "Siri, turn all the lights on" or "Siri, turn the heater on" without having to stop what I'm doing and walk around the house flicking switches is really nice. Assistants provide a very noticeable QoL improvement for me in many aspects. I think that's more than most other products on the market can say. And that's not even touching on the lives saved from not having to use your phone while driving.
- everdrive 6y ago
  I'm still not very impressed by this, as it can be totally accomplished by a pad of paper and a pen. I'm believe the most valid use of AI/ML is to perform tasks that people either cannot currently do, or cannot easily do. For example, ai-based up-scaling of old video game pre-renders. It's not really feasible for a person to do this well, unless you simply rebuild everything with a team of artists. And you could argue that up-scaling images for a video game is trivial, since all video games are trivial. But, the point is that the task at hand requires the help of a computer, whereas a to-do list, or using a light switch does not.
  - what_ever 6y ago
    Let's see the situations when you are setting those reminders - 1. In bed, all ready to fall asleep, you get up to get your notebook from your desk to add the reminder to your notebook. 2. Cooking with hands all messy, you wash your hands, dry them, go to your desk to add the reminder to your notebook. 3. Driving at 40mph, so you pull over in a parking lot, take out your notebook from your bag and add the reminder. Yeah, I will take telling Google assistant to do this instead.
    - everdrive 6y ago
dalbasal 6y ago
> this is the ultimate Rube Goldberg machine Salty, but I think I agree. It seems that with AI/ML, choosing/defining your problem well is hugely important. Text to speech, even computer generated natural language is a definite enough task that engineers (and machines) have the feedback to make progress.
Firehawke 6y ago
I'm not a full data point to work from, but I've got neuropathy and nerve damage. Side effects include severe short term memory problems (I can forget some things as quickly as 10 seconds, as frustrating as that is..) and sometimes motor control issues. For me, speech recognition and assistants, along with software like Todoist, are able to keep me far more functional than I would be otherwise.

nsriv 6y ago

I'm a fan of Google Assistant's usefulness and I generally agree with this. The Assistant craze seems more justified when you consider that companies like Google and Amazon are using it as a way to build datasets. It's a strategic reserve of data to build other things from (i.e. Google Duplex) and it doesn't matter at their scale if there isn't a vision yet, if a competitor is stockpiling transcribable voice data, they need to keep up.

atat7024 6y ago
> The Assistant craze seems more justified when you consider that companies like Google and Amazon are using it as a way to build datasets. Basically every new goddamn trend that is allowed to occur is about how datasets can be compiled from such marketed options. That's why we don't have first-class convergence devices yet. It'd likely blend our home and mobile usage profiles too much.

6gvONxR4sf7o 6y ago

Speech recognition goes way beyond digital assistants. Plain old transcription is super useful, especially in terms of accessibility. I was voice coding for a while because of RSI and even as immature as the tech is, it saved my ass.

neartheplain 6y ago
What systems did you use for voice coding? I may need to use them soon for similar reasons.
- 6gvONxR4sf7o 6y ago
  I tried a few. Caster and talon were the best. I’d recommend talon with dragon as it’s speech engine, but apparently talon has a new built in speech engine which people like, so maybe try that engine first to save money.
  - neartheplain 6y ago
    Thanks! I’ll try them both out.

dntrkv 6y ago

Ignoring the fact that the research isn't only used one for one purpose, a proper assistant is hugely valuable to me. Simple things like: "Remind me to X tomorrow at 9am" "Add Y to the shopping list" "Remind me to do Z when I get home" This is the only way I do reminders now and it's great. It's especially useful while driving, or when I'm in bed nearly asleep and remember something, I can just tell Siri without having to get up and use my phone. And as far as smart home controls, being able to say "Siri, turn all the lights on" or "Siri, turn the heater on" without having to stop what I'm doing and walk around the house flicking switches is really nice. Assistants provide a very noticeable QoL improvement for me in many aspects. I think that's more than most other products on the market can say. And that's not even touching on the lives saved from not having to use your phone while driving.

everdrive 6y ago
I'm still not very impressed by this, as it can be totally accomplished by a pad of paper and a pen. I'm believe the most valid use of AI/ML is to perform tasks that people either cannot currently do, or cannot easily do. For example, ai-based up-scaling of old video game pre-renders. It's not really feasible for a person to do this well, unless you simply rebuild everything with a team of artists. And you could argue that up-scaling images for a video game is trivial, since all video games are trivial. But, the point is that the task at hand requires the help of a computer, whereas a to-do list, or using a light switch does not.
- what_ever 6y ago
  Let's see the situations when you are setting those reminders - 1. In bed, all ready to fall asleep, you get up to get your notebook from your desk to add the reminder to your notebook. 2. Cooking with hands all messy, you wash your hands, dry them, go to your desk to add the reminder to your notebook. 3. Driving at 40mph, so you pull over in a parking lot, take out your notebook from your bag and add the reminder. Yeah, I will take telling Google assistant to do this instead.
  - everdrive 6y ago

dalbasal 6y ago

> this is the ultimate Rube Goldberg machine Salty, but I think I agree. It seems that with AI/ML, choosing/defining your problem well is hugely important. Text to speech, even computer generated natural language is a definite enough task that engineers (and machines) have the feedback to make progress.

Firehawke 6y ago

I'm not a full data point to work from, but I've got neuropathy and nerve damage. Side effects include severe short term memory problems (I can forget some things as quickly as 10 seconds, as frustrating as that is..) and sometimes motor control issues. For me, speech recognition and assistants, along with software like Todoist, are able to keep me far more functional than I would be otherwise.