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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

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.
Spooky23 2y ago
I agree with you. Siri has its limitations, but also has an truly massive scope of users that are served.
jckahn 2y ago
I can’t upvote this enough. The average person doesn’t wan’t a semibroken digital god (ChatGPT), they want to know the weather (Siri, when it works).
- manmal 2y ago
  But I‘d like Siri to have the comprehension and attention of the semibroken digital god. Knowing everything anyone has ever written might be a nice bonus.
- Rinzler89 2y ago
  Siri already is semi-broken if it can't understand basic names in your phone book or smart devices. Siri being like ChatGPT would be a massive improvement.
RexM 2y ago
I’ve had several experiences where I ask Siri to play X on Spotify, then it says it’s going to play X on Spotify, and then nothing happens. The music never starts playing.
ChrisMarshallNY 2y ago
Those of us “of a certain age,” will get this joke: https://www.joyoftech.com/joyoftech/joyarchives/3080.html https://www.joyoftech.com/joyoftech/joyarchives/3080.html
micwag 2y ago
The article is from a non english speaking country. Siri was (and sometimes still is) really horrendous in some languages, so that might explain the trash talking. For example I had the following happen till 2 years ago: "Siri, turn off the lights" "Do you mean here or in the bed room?" "Here" "Sorry, I can't do that" So you always had to include the room with your command. The most recent bug is Siri pretends to not know some people when calling, but will happily message them.
drivingmenuts 2y ago
I find Siri to be rather useful - I don't use it for complicated tasks, but I use it daily. That's about all I want. If Apple can keep process all that on the device, then great. If they have to ship it off somewhere else to analyze it and quantify it for marketing purposes, then not only no, but Hell No.
wlesieutre 2y ago
https://www.macstories.net/ios/introducing-s-gpt-a-shortcut-to-connect-openais-chatgpt-with-native-features-of-apples-operating-systems/ https://www.macstories.net/ios/introducing-s-gpt-a-shortcut-...
ryandvm 2y ago
A voice recognition based task app is not the same thing as an LLM. They are solving two completely different problems. It's like saying you prefer bike riding instead of grilled cheese sandwiches. Ask Siri to write unit tests for a function you've written or to "please explain the common misunderstanding of the phrase 'blood is thicker than water'" and then get back to me about how much more capable Siri is.

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.

Spooky23 2y ago

I agree with you. Siri has its limitations, but also has an truly massive scope of users that are served.

jckahn 2y ago

I can’t upvote this enough. The average person doesn’t wan’t a semibroken digital god (ChatGPT), they want to know the weather (Siri, when it works).

manmal 2y ago
But I‘d like Siri to have the comprehension and attention of the semibroken digital god. Knowing everything anyone has ever written might be a nice bonus.
Rinzler89 2y ago
Siri already is semi-broken if it can't understand basic names in your phone book or smart devices. Siri being like ChatGPT would be a massive improvement.

RexM 2y ago

I’ve had several experiences where I ask Siri to play X on Spotify, then it says it’s going to play X on Spotify, and then nothing happens. The music never starts playing.

ChrisMarshallNY 2y ago

Those of us “of a certain age,” will get this joke: https://www.joyoftech.com/joyoftech/joyarchives/3080.html https://www.joyoftech.com/joyoftech/joyarchives/3080.html

micwag 2y ago

The article is from a non english speaking country. Siri was (and sometimes still is) really horrendous in some languages, so that might explain the trash talking. For example I had the following happen till 2 years ago: "Siri, turn off the lights" "Do you mean here or in the bed room?" "Here" "Sorry, I can't do that" So you always had to include the room with your command. The most recent bug is Siri pretends to not know some people when calling, but will happily message them.

drivingmenuts 2y ago

I find Siri to be rather useful - I don't use it for complicated tasks, but I use it daily. That's about all I want. If Apple can keep process all that on the device, then great. If they have to ship it off somewhere else to analyze it and quantify it for marketing purposes, then not only no, but Hell No.

wlesieutre 2y ago

https://www.macstories.net/ios/introducing-s-gpt-a-shortcut-to-connect-openais-chatgpt-with-native-features-of-apples-operating-systems/ https://www.macstories.net/ios/introducing-s-gpt-a-shortcut-...

ryandvm 2y ago

A voice recognition based task app is not the same thing as an LLM. They are solving two completely different problems. It's like saying you prefer bike riding instead of grilled cheese sandwiches. Ask Siri to write unit tests for a function you've written or to "please explain the common misunderstanding of the phrase 'blood is thicker than water'" and then get back to me about how much more capable Siri is.