5 ms·

Apple enters the generative AI race

16 points by geox 2y ago

oldpersonintx 2y ago
[dead]
jjtheblunt 2y ago
Bologna clickbait title. “Analysts expect a total update to Siri and an agreement with OpenAI or Google to integrate chatbots into the iPhone.”
- nicce 2y ago
  Why? Neither OpenAI or Google provide good models that can be run locally on phones which is Apple’s advantage.
  - vineyardmike 2y ago
    They’re going to be cloud models. Also Google’s Gemma:2b could totally run on an iPhone. But Apple has their LLM research, and MSFT and others built good local models. Apple will offer local LLM APIs, which Siri and Apple-provided products will rely on a cloud service, as it had.
  - jjtheblunt 2y ago
    I said clickbait title : the title uses a present tense indicative mood verb, i.e., factual, then immediately in the first sentence switches to subjunctive "alternate possible future reality" mood. it's total clickbait to announce something factual that is only a possible future.
ryankrage77 2y ago
This article trash-talks Siri a lot, but I use Siri much more than generative AI tools. It can set times, alarms, play music, tell me the weather, control smart home accessories, etc. chatGPT can't do any of that stuff. And since it's just a voice interface for existing systems, it either works or it doesn't - no making stuff up. And if you want a bit of whimsy, it has a selection of jokes and stories.
- Rinzler89 2y ago
  > no making stuff up "Hey, turn on Sucky-Chan"[my robovac] "Sorry, I couldn't find a device called Study-Jam"
  - lttlrck 2y ago
    I would give up and rename my vacuum the first time that happened.
  - ryankrage77 2y ago
    That's an example of it not working. The feedback clearly indicates that it failed & why, then you can try again. I fear with an LLM voice assistant it will constantly hallucinate 'success' responses.
    - loloquwowndueo 2y ago
      Nah - sometimes after 5 attempts and Siri misunderstanding me every single time (not native speaker - Google for Siri being discriminatory against non native accents) I just give up and do the thing by hand. Siri saying “I booked your appointment for 3 am” when I said “5 pm” is also a hallucinatory success response - no LLM needed.
      - al_borland 2y ago
        I don't think they are actively discriminating. Non-native accents are generally harder to understand, even for people. This is more or less true depending on the what kind of accent it is and how heavy it is. I'm sure if a voice assistant was developed in Japan and I tried to speak Japanese to it with my American accent, I would have a really hard time. I wouldn't view this as discrimination, I'd view it as my Japanese being hard to understand. I have issues with Siri trying to set a timer for 50 minutes. It always thinks I say 15. This isn't a hallucination, it's a misunderstanding, as the two words sounds very similar. Humans can also make this mistake and generally will ask for clarification if the number doesn't make sense in context. The typical way to clear this up with a human is by saying "five zero", which is what I started doing with Siri and it works. To be fair, 15 is a much more normal and common timer length than 50.
m3kw9 2y ago
Not sure how using openAI means they are entering the race.
- amelius 2y ago
  It's more like they are betting on a horse that's in the race.
dan-allen 2y ago
I’m not sure what to expect. Apple is better than average at finding good applications of technology for regular people. On the other hand, Apple is below average in integrating network functionality (iCloud’s many early problems, frequent performance issues with Music and the App Store). Finally, they had a huge lead with Siri but never settled on a path for growing it. I’m hopeful they’ll do some really interesting stuff here. I also wouldn’t be surprised if they miss the mark.
- lttlrck 2y ago
  Did they have a lead? It seemed like they were behind google assistant from the get go.
  - alwaysbeconsing 2y ago
    Siri original release came four or five years before Google assistant.
noodlesUK 2y ago
I don’t know the stats because they’re obviously private, but I’d suspect that 10x more people use Siri than chatGPT and Gemini every day. I would much rather that they focus on improving Siri’s voice recognition and increasing the number of actions it can take, rather than trying to make it a general purpose talking computer. I use Siri all the time to set reminders and alarms, to control devices, and to change buried settings like auto brightness etc. What I care about is responsiveness/latency and accuracy, not having the thing pass the Turing test.
- kylebenzle 2y ago
  Google phones now have the option to use the old or new assistant. The new version breaks almost every usecase for assistant.
  - htrp 2y ago
    Hand tuned dialogflow pipelines vs generalized transformers
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
mmh0000 2y ago
I really hope this is true. Siri is so annoying to use. Frequently, I say, "Siri, turn off Alex's Bedroom," to which it responds, "Did you mean Alex's Bedroom?" Or I ask it to play some song, and it picks something totally random, which is not what I said. Or I tell it to turn on the living room lights, and it turns on all the lights. In many ways, I've given up on using Siri for anything more than setting timers because nothing else works reliably. It will be hard to retrain myself actually to use it when they fix it.

16 points by geox 2y ago

[dead]

Bologna clickbait title. “Analysts expect a total update to Siri and an agreement with OpenAI or Google to integrate chatbots into the iPhone.”

nicce 2y ago
Why? Neither OpenAI or Google provide good models that can be run locally on phones which is Apple’s advantage.
- vineyardmike 2y ago
  They’re going to be cloud models. Also Google’s Gemma:2b could totally run on an iPhone. But Apple has their LLM research, and MSFT and others built good local models. Apple will offer local LLM APIs, which Siri and Apple-provided products will rely on a cloud service, as it had.
- jjtheblunt 2y ago
  I said clickbait title : the title uses a present tense indicative mood verb, i.e., factual, then immediately in the first sentence switches to subjunctive "alternate possible future reality" mood. it's total clickbait to announce something factual that is only a possible future.

ryankrage77 2y ago

This article trash-talks Siri a lot, but I use Siri much more than generative AI tools. It can set times, alarms, play music, tell me the weather, control smart home accessories, etc. chatGPT can't do any of that stuff. And since it's just a voice interface for existing systems, it either works or it doesn't - no making stuff up. And if you want a bit of whimsy, it has a selection of jokes and stories.

Rinzler89 2y ago
> no making stuff up "Hey, turn on Sucky-Chan"[my robovac] "Sorry, I couldn't find a device called Study-Jam"
- lttlrck 2y ago
  I would give up and rename my vacuum the first time that happened.
- ryankrage77 2y ago
  That's an example of it not working. The feedback clearly indicates that it failed & why, then you can try again. I fear with an LLM voice assistant it will constantly hallucinate 'success' responses.
  - loloquwowndueo 2y ago
    Nah - sometimes after 5 attempts and Siri misunderstanding me every single time (not native speaker - Google for Siri being discriminatory against non native accents) I just give up and do the thing by hand. Siri saying “I booked your appointment for 3 am” when I said “5 pm” is also a hallucinatory success response - no LLM needed.
    - al_borland 2y ago
      I don't think they are actively discriminating. Non-native accents are generally harder to understand, even for people. This is more or less true depending on the what kind of accent it is and how heavy it is. I'm sure if a voice assistant was developed in Japan and I tried to speak Japanese to it with my American accent, I would have a really hard time. I wouldn't view this as discrimination, I'd view it as my Japanese being hard to understand. I have issues with Siri trying to set a timer for 50 minutes. It always thinks I say 15. This isn't a hallucination, it's a misunderstanding, as the two words sounds very similar. Humans can also make this mistake and generally will ask for clarification if the number doesn't make sense in context. The typical way to clear this up with a human is by saying "five zero", which is what I started doing with Siri and it works. To be fair, 15 is a much more normal and common timer length than 50.

m3kw9 2y ago

Not sure how using openAI means they are entering the race.

amelius 2y ago
It's more like they are betting on a horse that's in the race.

dan-allen 2y ago

I’m not sure what to expect. Apple is better than average at finding good applications of technology for regular people. On the other hand, Apple is below average in integrating network functionality (iCloud’s many early problems, frequent performance issues with Music and the App Store). Finally, they had a huge lead with Siri but never settled on a path for growing it. I’m hopeful they’ll do some really interesting stuff here. I also wouldn’t be surprised if they miss the mark.

lttlrck 2y ago
Did they have a lead? It seemed like they were behind google assistant from the get go.
- alwaysbeconsing 2y ago
  Siri original release came four or five years before Google assistant.

noodlesUK 2y ago

I don’t know the stats because they’re obviously private, but I’d suspect that 10x more people use Siri than chatGPT and Gemini every day. I would much rather that they focus on improving Siri’s voice recognition and increasing the number of actions it can take, rather than trying to make it a general purpose talking computer. I use Siri all the time to set reminders and alarms, to control devices, and to change buried settings like auto brightness etc. What I care about is responsiveness/latency and accuracy, not having the thing pass the Turing test.

kylebenzle 2y ago
Google phones now have the option to use the old or new assistant. The new version breaks almost every usecase for assistant.
- htrp 2y ago
  Hand tuned dialogflow pipelines vs generalized transformers

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

mmh0000 2y ago

I really hope this is true. Siri is so annoying to use. Frequently, I say, "Siri, turn off Alex's Bedroom," to which it responds, "Did you mean Alex's Bedroom?" Or I ask it to play some song, and it picks something totally random, which is not what I said. Or I tell it to turn on the living room lights, and it turns on all the lights. In many ways, I've given up on using Siri for anything more than setting timers because nothing else works reliably. It will be hard to retrain myself actually to use it when they fix it.