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Apple Job Posting Seeks Creative Individual To Breathe More Life Into Siri

27 points by 6thSigma 14y ago

swohns 14y ago
Any insight into what sort of work culture Apple has now?
seanMeverett 14y ago
Sounds like a storyboard artist who worked on the Ice Age movies. Or a concept artist who's done work for Disney, Konami, and Warner Brothers. Humanizing technology must go further than simply a name and a voice.
- jinushaun 14y ago
  After using Google Maps on iOS with its soothing friendly speaker, I wouldn't mind a new voice actor for Siri. It's downright painful compared to GMaps'.
  - Apocryphon 14y ago
    But her voice is iconic now, not unlike the voice of GLaDOS.
    - roc 14y ago
      It could be tweaked without losing its recognizability. A new approach to better model the rhythm and pitch of conversational English could do wonders with the same exact voice. To say nothing of helping Siri generate conversational English.
rogerchucker 14y ago
Umm.. how about opening up Siri to the app developers? I think that will improve its utility. Oh and they could hire a few more top notch distributed systems guys to figure out how to handle server load better for the massive amount of real time natural language processing...
crb 14y ago
Actual job description: "Siri Writer/Editor", at https://jobs.apple.com/us/search?job=25650673&openJobId=25650673&board_id=32301#&openJobId=25650673 https://jobs.apple.com/us/search?job=25650673&openJobId=.... Erik Wolpaw, anyone?
- digikata 14y ago
  The image that comes to my mind is a golden age advertising copywriter http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copywriting#Copywriters http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copywriting#Copywriters
- yock 14y ago
  Off topic: I hadn't heard that name, so I googled it and read his Wikipedia article. Upon reaching the end, I found the most bizarre "List of..." article I've ever seen, and that's saying something for Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_diagnosed_with_ulcerative_colitis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_diagnosed_with_u...
outside1234 14y ago
Err, how about making it work first? (Perhaps they can outsource that to Google too and put the nice voice on top.)
- orionblastar 14y ago
  Just copy Dragon https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dragon-dictation/id341446764?mt=8 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dragon-dictation/id341446764... https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dragon-go!/id442975871?mt=8 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dragon-go!/id442975871?mt=8
  - erichocean 14y ago
    I'm surprised Apple hasn't bought them already. Tim Cook needs to start spending money to address Apple's weaknesses – they don't have the talent internally, and no one with the talent wants to work there...
clicks 14y ago
So here's been my experience with Siri since getting the iPhone 4S: - Try all sorts of stupid things, like you would when you're chatting with an AI bot online for amusement - Once or twice try to ask the weather, or some other trivial information that you're not sure how you could elsehow get more quickly - Become frustrated with inaccuracy, and high chance of the information you're looking for being unavailable - Not use Siri again, and eventually forget about it Very, very interestingly, I did start using the Google Now app... which works more responsively, and gives tremendously better results (in my estimation). If I'm not in a public space and don't care about looking like an overzealous geek trying to talk to my phone, I use the Google app and ask very basic information.
- ceejayoz 14y ago
  I find it very useful for just two things: texting while driving and setting alarms & reminders.
  - jonknee 14y ago
    Alarms and reminders are the only thing I use Siri for, but I have stopped using it most of the time because it's not reliable. I set alarms to remind me when I need to feed the parking meter so I often say something like "In two hours remind me to pay for parking". About 25% of the time Siri will get it right on the first try. It's pathetic. Usually it's a problem voice recognition problem ("I don't understand into hours"), but I have also had alarms not go off (apparently she didn't hear the confirmation). I tested Google's voice recognition for the same types of queries and it nails it. In real time. If Apple ever allows users to decide what apps they want to use Google is poised to destroy Siri. Now I just open Clock and set a timer manually. It's a little slower, but it works 100% of the time.
sandymcmurray 14y ago
Is Steve Meretzky available? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Meretzky http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Meretzky

27 points by 6thSigma 14y ago

Any insight into what sort of work culture Apple has now?

Sounds like a storyboard artist who worked on the Ice Age movies. Or a concept artist who's done work for Disney, Konami, and Warner Brothers. Humanizing technology must go further than simply a name and a voice.

jinushaun 14y ago
After using Google Maps on iOS with its soothing friendly speaker, I wouldn't mind a new voice actor for Siri. It's downright painful compared to GMaps'.
- Apocryphon 14y ago
  But her voice is iconic now, not unlike the voice of GLaDOS.
  - roc 14y ago
    It could be tweaked without losing its recognizability. A new approach to better model the rhythm and pitch of conversational English could do wonders with the same exact voice. To say nothing of helping Siri generate conversational English.

rogerchucker 14y ago

Umm.. how about opening up Siri to the app developers? I think that will improve its utility. Oh and they could hire a few more top notch distributed systems guys to figure out how to handle server load better for the massive amount of real time natural language processing...

crb 14y ago

Actual job description: "Siri Writer/Editor", at https://jobs.apple.com/us/search?job=25650673&openJobId=25650673&board_id=32301#&openJobId=25650673 https://jobs.apple.com/us/search?job=25650673&openJobId=.... Erik Wolpaw, anyone?

digikata 14y ago
The image that comes to my mind is a golden age advertising copywriter http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copywriting#Copywriters http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copywriting#Copywriters
yock 14y ago
Off topic: I hadn't heard that name, so I googled it and read his Wikipedia article. Upon reaching the end, I found the most bizarre "List of..." article I've ever seen, and that's saying something for Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_diagnosed_with_ulcerative_colitis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_diagnosed_with_u...

outside1234 14y ago

Err, how about making it work first? (Perhaps they can outsource that to Google too and put the nice voice on top.)

orionblastar 14y ago
Just copy Dragon https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dragon-dictation/id341446764?mt=8 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dragon-dictation/id341446764... https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dragon-go!/id442975871?mt=8 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dragon-go!/id442975871?mt=8
- erichocean 14y ago
  I'm surprised Apple hasn't bought them already. Tim Cook needs to start spending money to address Apple's weaknesses – they don't have the talent internally, and no one with the talent wants to work there...

clicks 14y ago

So here's been my experience with Siri since getting the iPhone 4S: - Try all sorts of stupid things, like you would when you're chatting with an AI bot online for amusement - Once or twice try to ask the weather, or some other trivial information that you're not sure how you could elsehow get more quickly - Become frustrated with inaccuracy, and high chance of the information you're looking for being unavailable - Not use Siri again, and eventually forget about it Very, very interestingly, I did start using the Google Now app... which works more responsively, and gives tremendously better results (in my estimation). If I'm not in a public space and don't care about looking like an overzealous geek trying to talk to my phone, I use the Google app and ask very basic information.

ceejayoz 14y ago
I find it very useful for just two things: texting while driving and setting alarms & reminders.
- jonknee 14y ago
  Alarms and reminders are the only thing I use Siri for, but I have stopped using it most of the time because it's not reliable. I set alarms to remind me when I need to feed the parking meter so I often say something like "In two hours remind me to pay for parking". About 25% of the time Siri will get it right on the first try. It's pathetic. Usually it's a problem voice recognition problem ("I don't understand into hours"), but I have also had alarms not go off (apparently she didn't hear the confirmation). I tested Google's voice recognition for the same types of queries and it nails it. In real time. If Apple ever allows users to decide what apps they want to use Google is poised to destroy Siri. Now I just open Clock and set a timer manually. It's a little slower, but it works 100% of the time.

sandymcmurray 14y ago

Is Steve Meretzky available? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Meretzky http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Meretzky