4 ms·

Right, but Alexa probably has custom handling for these types of common queries

MR4D 4y ago
I guess I should have been clearer... There are tons of common queries about the future. Being able to handle them should be built into the AI to know that if something hasn't happened, to give other relevant details. (and yes, I agree with your Alexa speculation)
titzer 4y ago
TBH I've wondered from the very beginning how far they would get just hardcoding the top 1000 questions people ask instead of whatever crappy ML it debuted with. These things are getting better, but I was always shocked how they could ship such an obviously unfinished, broken prototype that got basics so wrong because it avoided doing something "manually". It always struck me as so deeply unserious as to be untrustworthy.
- MR4D 4y ago
  Your comment makes me wonder - what would happen if they did that every day? And then, perhaps, trained an AI on those responses, updating it every day. I wonder if they could train it to learn that some things (e.g. weather) change frequently, and figure stuff out from there. It's well above my skill level to be sure, but would be interesting to see something like that (sort of a curated model, as opposed to zero-based training).
  - amelius 4y ago
    GPT can use tools. Weather forecasts could be one of those tools. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34734696 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34734696
- astrange 4y ago
  Didn't original Alexa do that? It needed very specific word ordering because of it.
vidarh 4y ago
Alexa at least used to just do trivial textual pattern matching hardly any more advanced than a 1980's text adventure for custom skills, and it seemed hardly more advanced than that for the built in stuff. Been a long time since I looked at it, so maybe that has changed but you can get far with very little since most users will quickly learn the right "incantations" and avoid using complex language they know the device won't handle.

MR4D 4y ago

I guess I should have been clearer... There are tons of common queries about the future. Being able to handle them should be built into the AI to know that if something hasn't happened, to give other relevant details. (and yes, I agree with your Alexa speculation)

titzer 4y ago

TBH I've wondered from the very beginning how far they would get just hardcoding the top 1000 questions people ask instead of whatever crappy ML it debuted with. These things are getting better, but I was always shocked how they could ship such an obviously unfinished, broken prototype that got basics so wrong because it avoided doing something "manually". It always struck me as so deeply unserious as to be untrustworthy.

MR4D 4y ago
Your comment makes me wonder - what would happen if they did that every day? And then, perhaps, trained an AI on those responses, updating it every day. I wonder if they could train it to learn that some things (e.g. weather) change frequently, and figure stuff out from there. It's well above my skill level to be sure, but would be interesting to see something like that (sort of a curated model, as opposed to zero-based training).
- amelius 4y ago
  GPT can use tools. Weather forecasts could be one of those tools. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34734696 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34734696
astrange 4y ago
Didn't original Alexa do that? It needed very specific word ordering because of it.

vidarh 4y ago

Alexa at least used to just do trivial textual pattern matching hardly any more advanced than a 1980's text adventure for custom skills, and it seemed hardly more advanced than that for the built in stuff. Been a long time since I looked at it, so maybe that has changed but you can get far with very little since most users will quickly learn the right "incantations" and avoid using complex language they know the device won't handle.