Google's Schmidt Calls Apple Siri a "Significant" Threat

I don't like the fact that if Apple's servers go down, Siri goes down, something wrong with that.

Is Siri reporting back everything it does back to apple?

Wouldn't surprise me.

Yes, I know its a search engine based on an apple server....

Welcome to the future of cloud computing.
These things happen, and will continue to be more frequent as more and more services move to the cloud.

It's Apple, of course it goes back to them. They then sell that data to the highest bidders. A bunch of weasels like always just like Papa Stevie wanted

google does the same thing....so stop being so paranoid

My daughter got the new phone. We played with it all weekend and never got a single valid answer out of Siri. There is a lot of hype but so far it seems to be pretty ineffective.

As for cloud computing- I started with computers back in the days of mainframes that we used through terminals. With a mainframe you get to use the computer when someone else decides that you can use the computer, it isn't up to you. With a PC it belongs to you and you control it. Cloud computing is just another form of mainframes, and you get to use the cloud when someone else decides that they will let you use the cloud, it isn't up to you. I prefer using my own PC over using the cloud.

Yeah its overhyped big time. Its a thousand times faster and accurate to just google it. Yeah the future will be voice activated, but the future isnt here yet. Siri is nothin special, just the usual overhyped Apple product. Maybe one of these days i'll see an apple product I have interest in, but this is yet another product thats either all hype, or made for idiots and has a mile long list of what it cant do that i can easily do on any non apple device.

If I were Siri I wouldn't have sold myself to Apple, I would have licensed my tech to both Google and Apple and MS for that matter. Dummy's they didn't realize the goldmine they had on their hands $200 million vs being the next big thing on the block.

I'm sure Google can rip it off in the next 6 months and then let Samsung and HTC pay the licensing fees for their theft.

I think patenting a swipe motion on a touch interface is pretty anti-competitive. If Google forms partnerships with rival competitors just to buy up patents for billions over the next bid then that's pretty anti-competitive too.

The committee should focus on whether Google is stifling innovation and reducing consumer choice.

Please post some examples of questions you and 'your daughter' asked Siri which were not answered?

I assume from your post that you never use search engines such as Google, since they too, are cloud based?

i wish i could thumb you up more.

People who use Siri also use it to dictate long pieces of text far far quicker than they can type on a mobile phone. Remember, it's a mobile phone we're comparing to. Not a keyboard.

When you compare the time to open up a browser, navigate to google, type in your search, find the right link, click it, and read it, vs just saying 'What is the weather today?' - Siri is much quicker.

And that's before we even cover the fact that you can use Siri with no hands, whilst doing other things, jogging etc, or the fact that you can send text messages etc with it.

To focus purely on a search engine search vs a user on a PC keyboard is to misunderstand the purpose of Siri.

If you consider the fact that what Siri does is kind of similar to IBM's Watson, which is a cluster of 90 computers... it is not surprising that your phone needs to offload the processing to a bigger computer.

No doubt Apple is using the information being sent to it, probably for machine learning and improving the quality of results. This is a legitimate use.


With regards to Siri being overhyped, while Siri in its current form and implementation may leave something to be desired, the concept itself is huge. IBM's Watson has already given us a vision of the future, and what Apple has done is made something similar--although perhaps not quite as advanced--available to mobile users today. Just wait until Siri further evolves until the day it does match Watson. This is just the beginning.

use your brain - he's referring to the fact that if apple's server's go down, then siri goes down. The issue is that it doesn't actually have alternatives (can't search itself) for downtime.

And a colleague of mine has the Iphone 4s, we tested it in both relatively quiet and noisy area's(office environment) - it really struggled to under the latter. Check the reviews, they are heavily mixed across the board.

For years I've envisioned a Siri like application. In the simplest terms it's speech recognition (or a text box) connected to a natural language "bot" that can learn fuzzy commands from individual users and do simple things like open applications, search for answers, make small talk, etc. All the "technology" needed to do this has been around for years. It hasn't happened because everybody's hung up on "artificial intelligence" which doesn't exist and will never exist and because the people who play with bots are too coked up to develop anything useful. But there's something even better, more useful, more obediant--simulated intelligence. That's what Siri is. As soon as programers and the public catch on there will be lots of Siri like services including in google. It's not that hard Mr. Programmer. Work a bit of overtime, learn some new stuff, hire in some people who understand bots (but don't do drugs) and it will fall into place pretty fast.

IF Siri understands what you said in the first place (when you're out of breath jogging it might not) it simply brings up the same thing as tapping the weather icon on the home screen. It doesn't tell you the weather it just displays a page. So all you are doing is holding down a button and talking to your phone rather than just tapping an icon. The voice text is pretty nice although you have to make sure you have distinct pronunciation. From what I've heard from Droid users, they've had voice text for quite a while now. I also agree with Cadder, the search function of Siri doesn't work well for me either; it's faster for me to just pop up google and find what I want - which admittedly some of that is because that's what I'm used to. So for me, I thought Siri was going to be really cool, but really has been a disappointment.

I kind of want to rip you on this using my old adage "I type faster than I write, and I write faster than I think. Tell me to write a paper on a computer and I'm completely screwed" for why dictation is pointless as most people talk faster than they type, and use proof, that people with secretaries have been able to dictate since the dawn of written language, yet still you only see people actually give a dictation in the movies, but then you had to put "on a mobile phone".

I think you're right, on a form factor where typing is difficult, voice recognition might just be the way. But I will still hold steady that voice recognition for "long dictation" is worthless as I tend to think most have issues getting their thoughts in order to type anything long, let alone speaking it as they're coming up with it.

Actually, with ICS it looks like it will at least have voice analyzed locally since you can dictate.
Wouldn't be a pleasant experience with the current setup.

Personally, I am not surprised at this. Language is a pattern. For a first "public" release, I would be surprised if all the patterns that spoken language can take are covered; therefore, the inconsistent / poor results. I am sure they will improve the pattern matching over time.




Agreed. The cloud is a non-localized resource which general users cannot control. I also prefer my own PC / networked PCs to the cloud. IMHO, my data is far more secure on my own PC.

Up to now we have to memorize exact squences of commands to do things on computers, typing or speech. It doesn't have to be that way. A natural language bot can learn what we mean by casual statements, ask for clarification when necessary, and learn like any other personal assistant. "Siri, I want to send a text message to my sister Jane" Siiri answers, "Sir, there are two Janes in your contact list. Is your sister Jane Jones or Jane Smith." You answer "Jane Smith". Siri opens a text message box for her and remembers which jane is your sister. "Siri, about a month ago I looked at a web page with a discussion a perpetual motion machine. Can you help me find that and display it for me?" Siri answers, "Is this what you are looking for sir?" Then you might say, "Siri, Please stop calling me Sir, I prefer Charlie." Siri answers, "Okay Charlie". Or you may say, "During work hours call me sir, at other times call me Charlie."

Ask for the same things 10 different ways and Siri will do the right task, the same as a human personal assistant. There can be simulated personalities, they can have human like progressive intonations to avoid sounding robotic, they can make intelligent small talk, let you know about sports scores, stock market quotes, birthdays. All that can be done now by finding apps and pressing keys. If users could get those services with fuzzy language speech commands, typed or spoken, they'd use it. Users would become very attached to their personal assistants once well trained. It could be a very good business.

Assuming, of course, Siri finds the correct answer. My understanding is that Siri does not always find the correct answer on the first try, and that you must either repeat or rephrase if it does not. In cases such as these, the time spent could possibly exceed that of the conventional methods you describe.

As I said above, Siri does pattern matching, and not all patterns are covered, however, I imagine that the covered patterns will increase as Siri ages.

From my understanding, Siri is presently not as good as you suggest. Since people tend to stick with what they find works, I would not be surprised if on the failure of a first attempt at getting Siri to understand, people at least attempt to find the correct phrase that Siri does understand. I would also expect that people, being creatures of habit, will stick to what works or minor variations of it once they find it. IMHO, that is a process for the human that essentially amounts to the memorization of commands. While some of the process may be easier than typing, IMHO, it still amounts to memorization of commands.

No - I think he was referring to this part of his post:

Bill Gates wrote ~1994 in his book that in 2000 computers will finally be able to handle natural language. I'm not convinced that Siri is fully baked but it is a step in the right direction... in 2011.

Hey, lets make stuff up! because we don't like a company! Yay!

All of the voice recognition programs I've used work without being "trained", however they work MUCH better if you do train them. Does Siri offer that option?

Oh, and those of you arguing with watcha, ignore him. He's just a hardcore apple fanboi who trolls all the apple articles he can find so that he can defend his Lord Apple in every aspect of what they do, say and produce.

So Google still sees it as a threat, as much as it seems to be rather useless.

Are you annoyed because reasonable normal people were able to have a logical discussion with me? Don't try and turn basic discussion into a fanboy flame war, that's immature.

As for 'training' - yes Apple says that Siri learns your voice as you go along, but also is intended to work out of the box.

All I see is you arguing with multiple people again, staunchly defending your beloved company, no matter what anyone says. You were even telling someone that their opinion was wrong.......that's not a discussion. I also see your comments getting voted down multiple times because nobody wants to hear it.

I think you're posting this in the wrong thread. Feel free to browse up through the comments on this thread and find anything which is anything other than impartial, sensible, logic.

I haven't told anybody in this thread that they are wrong yet, either. Except now you, because you're so blatantly wrong and making yourself look like a fool that you being a fool is now a fact.

Please, please grow up and learn to respond to the discussion instead of feeling so threatened that you don't even try to debate ;-)