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Amazon did exactly this with Alexa skills and it hasn’t exactly been a booming success. Turns out that all of the things you listed as examples are stuff that m

Amazon did exactly this with Alexa skills and it hasn’t exactly been a booming success. Turns out that all of the things you listed as examples are stuff that most consumers don’t actually want or will use. “AI as a chat bot” has always been cool and fun in sci-fi movies, but it’s the least imaginative real world use for it. We need to move past it. > $ Siri 'List the files in this folder' Why in the world would I ever use this instead of just ‘ls’?

bastawhiz 12d ago
The problem with Alexa is that by the time it appeared anywhere other than Echo devices, it was already deeply enshittified. Siri is in your pocket, on your wrist, and in your ears. Alexa was stuck on your kitchen counter asking you if you wanted to try Amazon Music.
- mhurron 12d ago
  > Siri is in your pocket, on your wrist, and in your ears and more often than not isn't reliable unless you have a midwestern US accent. Siri wasn't good. It still isn't good. Apple hasn't delivered on its promises with it and that's why it's being replaced with Gemini.
jnsie 12d ago
Alexa's big issue for me was that you had to remember very specific commands and unless you remembered the exact syntax you were out of luck. I genuinely think if the AI had been better and had been able to interpret commands better, skills would have been infinitely more useful.
d675 12d ago
distribution. MacBooks are everywhere and already used by devs
ryandrake 12d ago
> Turns out that all of the things you listed as examples are stuff that most consumers don’t actually want or will use. I've never understood this obsession with trying to invent the talking ship computer from Star Trek TNG. The purpose of the talking computer in the series was not to be a "cool 24th century technology advancement". It was a plot device to keep the story going and explain things to the audience. Having a voice conversation with a computer is terrible, imprecise, plodding UX. It's not a good interface, it's not a good invention, it's not good technology. Yet $billions are being spent to try to invent it.
- jarjoura 12d ago
  I exclusively use Siri to start timers and alarms. The UX for voice for some actions can actually be the best UX for something.
  - SnowingXIV 11d ago
    This might be my only use for it. I use it exactly twice a day for bloom and steep for French press. But it does that quite well.
- sholladay 12d ago
  Disagree. The TNG computer was used via voice input when it was efficient to do so, which is exactly how it should be. There were plenty of computer consoles, laptops, and tricorders/phone-like devices that were also used, especially with certain types of tasks. The crew could technically fly the ship and fire weapons via voice commands, but that only happened occasionally, in situations where it made sense. Also, when Picard wants to record himself playing a musical instrument, saying “Computer, begin recording” is simply convenient. It serves no purpose to the story or explaining anything to the audience. It’s just a tool. One that I would very much like to have. The best example I can think of in favor of what you are saying, where the computer does kind of serve the story and helps the audience, is the episode where Doctor Crusher gets stuck in the warp bubble and she has a lot of conversations with the computer about what is happening. But even then, she is out of her element, needs a lot of help from the computer, and it seems more convenient to do so via voice than anything else. She still travels to different areas of the ship to carry out actions, even though she probably doesn’t have to in case. The computer is clearly at its best for simple actions and answering questions, even if it can do more. The characters understand that and use the technology accordingly.
  - dosisking 12d ago
    The TOS computer was better, it had a better computer-like voice.
    - 11d ago
jarjoura 12d ago
Amazon and I guess Siri's original design was completely undiscoverable. Both had limited vocabulary and actions you could take. I had to learn from others what I could even ask the devices. Also both were audio only and for things like, "turn on the lights" that required talking to cheap 3rd party devices that barely stay connected, it was frustrating. Instead of quickly iterating to find how to take voice to the next level, both projects quickly locked in on whatever that was and became too costly to pivot.
bryanrasmussen 12d ago
Granny: "cobolcomesback, what's that command I have to write in this black box thingee to list all the files in this folder" cobolcomesback: "ls, granny" Granny: "it said No such file or directory" cobolcomesback: "no, that's... just write ls, granny. Granny: "I wrote ls granny it said no such file or directory." cobolcomesback: "just.. from now on... just write Siri 'list all files in this directory', granny" Granny: "I wrote siri list all files in this directory granny and it told me all the files and then it also asked me who's granny and I told it and it said nice to meet you" cobolcomesback: "SIGH"
ActorNightly 12d ago
> Turns out that all of the things you listed as examples are stuff that most consumers don’t actually want or will use. The thing that nobody really realized is that setup is a big factor that isn't worth to a lot of people. For example, to turn off lights with Alexa, you have to do a whole bunch of setup that involves installing special lights, installing app, connecting the app to Alexa. Even though relatively this is simple, its just not worth the effort to a lot of people. Amazon or Apple could easily overcome this by offering Alexa or Siri connected devices as incentive to builders building houses or apartments. That way, when you plug in Alexa in your new apartment, it can auto detect everything it can control including lights, thermostat appliances, e.t.c.
sizzle 12d ago
I think you have the wrong conclusion with Alexa’s skills and ecosystem, as a prior heavily bought-in Alexa user myself. It did feel like magic in the beginning and was a quality of life improvement if you automated repetitive task of daily life e.g. auto light/thermostat activation. I never needed it to add stuff to my Amazon shopping cart or interpret things I said as voice shopping asks, which was a terrible UX. There were so many other daily frustrations and Alexa skills that were half baked and random frequently resetting or going offline. Another frustration was Alexa failing to recognize the magic incantation to activate a simple action in the day to day when skills had overlapping utterances. I actually wished Siri had better HomeKit IoT products so I could switch over, but I just gave up out of death by a thousand cuts wearing me down over the years and do everything manually now. Privacy and surveillance was also a huge tipping point to make me bin all my Alexa devices. I digress…
- vablings 12d ago
  The problem is with Alexa itself, it fucking sucks to use and is very annoying with advertisements and such
KetoManx64 11d ago
> “AI as a chat bot” has always been cool and fun in sci-fi movies, but it’s the least imaginative real world use for it. Most consumers don't understand the possibilities of this technology. They have been trained their whole lives, starting with K-12 government school that they work within the boxes they are given, that they do what they are told to at work and stay within the box, that Windows computer is a box they work within and cannot really change, that the iPhone they have has limits that they cannot go outside of, the apps they use, etc, etc. The concept of "I use this app daily and I love it but these things bother me, so I'm going to ask Claude to find the source code, and build in the features and then push the new app to my phone" is something that doesn't even cross people's minds of 95% of the population. It's currently a niche thing that's being taken advantage of by tech nerds that live in the space, but it will slowly trickle down to more of the population over the next decade.
- anonreplier 9d ago
  Wow, how smart of you to come up with this

bastawhiz 12d ago

The problem with Alexa is that by the time it appeared anywhere other than Echo devices, it was already deeply enshittified. Siri is in your pocket, on your wrist, and in your ears. Alexa was stuck on your kitchen counter asking you if you wanted to try Amazon Music.

mhurron 12d ago
> Siri is in your pocket, on your wrist, and in your ears and more often than not isn't reliable unless you have a midwestern US accent. Siri wasn't good. It still isn't good. Apple hasn't delivered on its promises with it and that's why it's being replaced with Gemini.

jnsie 12d ago

Alexa's big issue for me was that you had to remember very specific commands and unless you remembered the exact syntax you were out of luck. I genuinely think if the AI had been better and had been able to interpret commands better, skills would have been infinitely more useful.

d675 12d ago

distribution. MacBooks are everywhere and already used by devs

ryandrake 12d ago

> Turns out that all of the things you listed as examples are stuff that most consumers don’t actually want or will use. I've never understood this obsession with trying to invent the talking ship computer from Star Trek TNG. The purpose of the talking computer in the series was not to be a "cool 24th century technology advancement". It was a plot device to keep the story going and explain things to the audience. Having a voice conversation with a computer is terrible, imprecise, plodding UX. It's not a good interface, it's not a good invention, it's not good technology. Yet $billions are being spent to try to invent it.

jarjoura 12d ago
I exclusively use Siri to start timers and alarms. The UX for voice for some actions can actually be the best UX for something.
- SnowingXIV 11d ago
  This might be my only use for it. I use it exactly twice a day for bloom and steep for French press. But it does that quite well.
sholladay 12d ago
Disagree. The TNG computer was used via voice input when it was efficient to do so, which is exactly how it should be. There were plenty of computer consoles, laptops, and tricorders/phone-like devices that were also used, especially with certain types of tasks. The crew could technically fly the ship and fire weapons via voice commands, but that only happened occasionally, in situations where it made sense. Also, when Picard wants to record himself playing a musical instrument, saying “Computer, begin recording” is simply convenient. It serves no purpose to the story or explaining anything to the audience. It’s just a tool. One that I would very much like to have. The best example I can think of in favor of what you are saying, where the computer does kind of serve the story and helps the audience, is the episode where Doctor Crusher gets stuck in the warp bubble and she has a lot of conversations with the computer about what is happening. But even then, she is out of her element, needs a lot of help from the computer, and it seems more convenient to do so via voice than anything else. She still travels to different areas of the ship to carry out actions, even though she probably doesn’t have to in case. The computer is clearly at its best for simple actions and answering questions, even if it can do more. The characters understand that and use the technology accordingly.
- dosisking 12d ago
  The TOS computer was better, it had a better computer-like voice.
  - 11d ago

jarjoura 12d ago

Amazon and I guess Siri's original design was completely undiscoverable. Both had limited vocabulary and actions you could take. I had to learn from others what I could even ask the devices. Also both were audio only and for things like, "turn on the lights" that required talking to cheap 3rd party devices that barely stay connected, it was frustrating. Instead of quickly iterating to find how to take voice to the next level, both projects quickly locked in on whatever that was and became too costly to pivot.

bryanrasmussen 12d ago

Granny: "cobolcomesback, what's that command I have to write in this black box thingee to list all the files in this folder" cobolcomesback: "ls, granny" Granny: "it said No such file or directory" cobolcomesback: "no, that's... just write ls, granny. Granny: "I wrote ls granny it said no such file or directory." cobolcomesback: "just.. from now on... just write Siri 'list all files in this directory', granny" Granny: "I wrote siri list all files in this directory granny and it told me all the files and then it also asked me who's granny and I told it and it said nice to meet you" cobolcomesback: "SIGH"

ActorNightly 12d ago

> Turns out that all of the things you listed as examples are stuff that most consumers don’t actually want or will use. The thing that nobody really realized is that setup is a big factor that isn't worth to a lot of people. For example, to turn off lights with Alexa, you have to do a whole bunch of setup that involves installing special lights, installing app, connecting the app to Alexa. Even though relatively this is simple, its just not worth the effort to a lot of people. Amazon or Apple could easily overcome this by offering Alexa or Siri connected devices as incentive to builders building houses or apartments. That way, when you plug in Alexa in your new apartment, it can auto detect everything it can control including lights, thermostat appliances, e.t.c.

sizzle 12d ago

I think you have the wrong conclusion with Alexa’s skills and ecosystem, as a prior heavily bought-in Alexa user myself. It did feel like magic in the beginning and was a quality of life improvement if you automated repetitive task of daily life e.g. auto light/thermostat activation. I never needed it to add stuff to my Amazon shopping cart or interpret things I said as voice shopping asks, which was a terrible UX. There were so many other daily frustrations and Alexa skills that were half baked and random frequently resetting or going offline. Another frustration was Alexa failing to recognize the magic incantation to activate a simple action in the day to day when skills had overlapping utterances. I actually wished Siri had better HomeKit IoT products so I could switch over, but I just gave up out of death by a thousand cuts wearing me down over the years and do everything manually now. Privacy and surveillance was also a huge tipping point to make me bin all my Alexa devices. I digress…

vablings 12d ago
The problem is with Alexa itself, it fucking sucks to use and is very annoying with advertisements and such

KetoManx64 11d ago

> “AI as a chat bot” has always been cool and fun in sci-fi movies, but it’s the least imaginative real world use for it. Most consumers don't understand the possibilities of this technology. They have been trained their whole lives, starting with K-12 government school that they work within the boxes they are given, that they do what they are told to at work and stay within the box, that Windows computer is a box they work within and cannot really change, that the iPhone they have has limits that they cannot go outside of, the apps they use, etc, etc. The concept of "I use this app daily and I love it but these things bother me, so I'm going to ask Claude to find the source code, and build in the features and then push the new app to my phone" is something that doesn't even cross people's minds of 95% of the population. It's currently a niche thing that's being taken advantage of by tech nerds that live in the space, but it will slowly trickle down to more of the population over the next decade.

anonreplier 9d ago
Wow, how smart of you to come up with this