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Android chief not interested in turning Android devices into personal assistants

Wednesday, October 19, 2011 · 3:08 pm · 44 Comments

“Andy Rubin thinks there is a lot of potential for phones to be more useful companions, but says he is not interested in turning Android devices into personal assistants,” Ina Fried reports for AllThingsD.

“‘I don’t believe that your phone should be an assistant,’ the Android chief said in an interview on Wednesday just after appearing on stage at AsiaD,” Fried reports. “[Rubin added], ‘Your phone is a tool for communicating. You shouldn’t be communicating with the phone; you should be communicating with somebody on the other side of the phone.’”

MacDailyNews Take: “He is not interested in turning Android devices into personal assistants” because he can’t. He doesn’t have the technology in place to do so. Hopefully, Apple has patented the hell out of Siri (not that patents seem to matter much to Google’s Android team so far).

Read more in the full article here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader "Rainy Day" for the heads up.]

Categories: News

Tags: AI, android, Intellectual Property, intelligent assistant, iPhone 4S, patents, personal assistant, Siri

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Comment Feed

44 Comments

1 2 Next »

Tattedgeek

Wednesday, October 19, 2011 - 3:11 pm · Reply

Just pissed he didn’t think of it first.
- el Tritoma
  
  Wednesday, October 19, 2011 - 6:02 pm · Reply
  
  i think where the problem lies, is that rubin (what happens if the letter ‘b’ is not there?) is still thinking of it as a phone. if that is all it is, then he is probably right. but smart phones are not really phones anymore. we don’t have a name for them yet, but apple has managed to get around the intellectual problem of thinking of them as just phones. apple has realized they can create a device that fits in your pocket with all this processing power – now what can be done with this – who cares what the name is? and apple got to this point, collectively, a while ago while google has let themselves get fenced in by just the meaning of a word.
- John Smith
  
  Wednesday, October 19, 2011 - 6:04 pm · Reply
  
  Obviously this is just a weak attempt by Rubin to emulate Steve Jobs’ knack for deflecting questions about what he & Apple were working on by stating the exact opposite.
  
  Obviously Rubin believes that smartphones have a purpose other than just to “be communicating with somebody on the other side of the phone.” Otherwise what’s the point of Android?
  
  You can be sure that he and Google are working on intelligent agents because they realize it’s the future of search. The big question is how they can do it in a way that jives with Google’s business model of delivering targeted ads.
  
  Android Sufferer to phone: “Call my girlfriend.”
  Android: “Calling Sally, mobile… But first, I want to tell you about a great therapist that can help you work through the fight you had with her last night…”
  - Philanthropist
    
    Thursday, October 20, 2011 - 1:20 am · Reply
    
    Google Assistant (their names are so boring) will be the marquee feature of the 2012 Nexus Phone. Or maybe 2013. Nine women can’t make a baby in a month.
plastikm

Wednesday, October 19, 2011 - 3:12 pm · Reply

Please bookmark this so we can go back and find this once Google adds this feature.
Cyrus

Wednesday, October 19, 2011 - 3:12 pm · Reply

What a stone age moron! I guess Mr. Android chief should not endorse apps to make mobile phones more useful! This guy needs to crawl back under the rock he came from. Steve Jobs would probably chuckle and turn in his grave.
plastikm

Wednesday, October 19, 2011 - 3:16 pm · Reply

Please book mark this so we can go back and find this once Google puts this feature on their phones.
- plastikm
  
  Wednesday, October 19, 2011 - 3:18 pm · Reply
  
  Posted twice. Damn it!
- _Bill_
  
  Wednesday, October 19, 2011 - 3:38 pm · Reply
  
  “Iris Is (Sort Of) Siri For Android”
  
  http://techcrunch.com/2011/10/17/iris-is-sort-of-siri-for-android/
  
  We’ll see; I wonder where they get the processing power…
  - LordRobin
    
    Friday, October 21, 2011 - 1:08 pm · Reply
    
    Not really. Reading the article, it looks like this thing does a really good job of parsing natural language questions and finding you the answer. But I saw no evidence that “Iris” is conversational, or that it can respond to vague statements like “I’m hungry” or “Call Bob”.
    
    ——RM
G4Dualie

Wednesday, October 19, 2011 - 3:18 pm · Reply

You shouldn’t be communicating with the phone; you should be communicating with somebody on the other side of the phone.”

See how clever he is? Sidestepping any notion that Android is a personal assistant.

Real men don’t need assistance.

The question is, how does Rubin communicate with his own phone? He doesn’t, it’s still too complicated, even for its creator.

“You shouldn’t be communicating with the phone”.

WHY?
Jag

Wednesday, October 19, 2011 - 3:18 pm · Reply

SIRI is so useful I would not have a phone now without one. Just to give a very simple example setting alarm is now telling SIR ” Set alarm for XX time” that is it, it is done. Sending email, text and others is now very easy.
With Apple working on more advanced features it is only a matter of time this gets better down the road.
- yow
  
  Wednesday, October 19, 2011 - 5:21 pm · Reply
  
  exactly
Jubei

Wednesday, October 19, 2011 - 3:23 pm · Reply

I bet his cloners are already trying to figure out how to copy it. When released it will be called “stupid” or “suemee”.
- KenC
  
  Wednesday, October 19, 2011 - 6:55 pm · Reply
  
  Yeah, “sosumi” would be typical.
62sparkplug

Wednesday, October 19, 2011 - 3:24 pm · Reply

Of course, Google doesn’t want your mobile phone to be your personal assistant, it would seriously cut into their online ads!

If you could just ask your phone about a product, status of flights, buy some movie tickets,etc. and not be forced to view all the online ads what do you think would happen to Google’s revenue stream?
- vsp
  
  Wednesday, October 19, 2011 - 4:00 pm · Reply
  
  You hit right on target! Google’s cash cow, ads business, will be slaughtered if nobody wants to click at ads.
- Dave Marsh
  
  Wednesday, October 19, 2011 - 4:03 pm · Reply
  
  Exactly right! This is the first thought that came to mind after reading his comment.
  - Peter Blood
    
    Wednesday, October 19, 2011 - 4:38 pm · Reply
    
    Of course that’s the rationale. Siri = Fewer Ad Dollars. The convenience to consumers though is priceless. That’s why Google should not even be in this cell phone business as they are driving an agenda that is not pro consumer but like driving people cattle toward a corral with ads hanging all over the fences. Not that Apple doesn’t have some smaller agendas but they are not as blatant about it nor is it at the cost of true innovation and convenience.
- 62sparkplug
  
  Wednesday, October 19, 2011 - 6:01 pm · Reply
  
  And, to me, the beauty of this is that Steve Jobs was probably fully aware of this and was all the while thinking: “Go ahead Google, please try and copy this iOS feature and see what happens to your business.”
  
  In chess, it’s called CHECKMATE!
  - ditchdoc68
    
    Thursday, October 20, 2011 - 12:38 am · Reply
    
    1
- occasionalposter1
  
  Wednesday, October 19, 2011 - 9:53 pm · Reply
  
  I am surprised that MDN didn’t comment on this aspect. I don’t think Rubin was truing to deflect anything. He was stating where they get their money from, and it isn’t from the PDA side!
ivid

Wednesday, October 19, 2011 - 3:25 pm · Reply

Its not a phone you Android dullard its a miniature computer which also acts as phone. What an utter moron who can’t see the enormous potential Siri offers to make everyone’s life easier and more efficient.
kangag3

Wednesday, October 19, 2011 - 3:29 pm · Reply

Riiiiiight! And no one will want to buy an iPhone because it doesn’t have a keyboard. This guy must be related to Balmer.
Orange

Wednesday, October 19, 2011 - 3:30 pm · Reply

“You shouldn’t be communicating with the phone”.

OK, so why does Google have Voice Search then?

Moron.
midwestmac

Wednesday, October 19, 2011 - 3:30 pm · Reply

Yes, if I could afford to pay a human personal assistant I certainly would (my workers probably already believe they fill this role to some degree — and they are probably right).

His argument that you should be talking to people and not phones is pretty stupid when you consider that the average person you “talk” to isn’t going to check your schedule for you, send a text for you, or confirm the average of speed of an adult male cheetah.
- Indentured1
  
  Thursday, October 20, 2011 - 10:38 pm · Reply
  
  Or an English or African sparrow! Laden or unburdened…
skylet

Wednesday, October 19, 2011 - 3:33 pm · Reply

pathetic! android is suck! cant compete with apple siri.
MacMan

Wednesday, October 19, 2011 - 3:39 pm · Reply

“[Rubin added], ‘Your phone is a tool for communicating. You shouldn’t be communicating with the phone; you should be communicating with somebody on the other side of the phone.’”
Typical Android blind geek – they never get it. We’re not communicating with the *phone*, we’re using the phone (with Siri) as a tool (and a damn good one) to communicate with *people*.
They just don’t get it – they would never make an ad like the Siri ad that shows a blind person using Siri. They would never conceive it.
Rohan

Wednesday, October 19, 2011 - 3:42 pm · Reply

“You shouldn’t be communicating with the phone”.

Hasn’t anyone told Rubin that when you set an alarm using touch gestures you ARE communicating with your phone? Siri simply lets you increase the bandwidth of that communication.

Sheesh – no wonder he couldn’t cut it at Apple!
Apple1

Wednesday, October 19, 2011 - 3:54 pm · Reply

SIRI is a start towards matching those Hollywood AI Robot in Stark’s garage. It will just get better and better. Google will not do something like this unless it had a build in salesman AI to sell you stuff once every 5min when you are using the Personal assistance function.
SirROM

Wednesday, October 19, 2011 - 3:56 pm · Reply

“Inconceivable!”

“I don’t think communicating means what you think it means.”
- Predrag
  
  Wednesday, October 19, 2011 - 4:56 pm · Reply
  
  “You keep using that word. I don’t think it means what you think it means.”
  
  (an obscure reference, the above).
  - Muad'dib
    
    Wednesday, October 19, 2011 - 9:53 pm · Reply
    
    Still got it. Like the reference in a battle to the death of wits, Rubin would have lost to SJ.
  - Indentured1
    
    Thursday, October 20, 2011 - 10:52 pm · Reply
    
    Obscure? “You rush a miracle man, you get rotten miracles.”
dude mcfarland

Wednesday, October 19, 2011 - 3:56 pm · Reply

I think he’ll change his tune once the mole visits with a new 4s in hand to ‘demo’ for him.
Bizlaw

Wednesday, October 19, 2011 - 4:01 pm · Reply

He’s just saying that now to deflect all the “When will Android get a Siri-like assistant?” bound to come from the media.
alanaudio

Wednesday, October 19, 2011 - 4:08 pm · Reply

“you should be communicating with somebody on the other side of the phone.”

So who do Android phones have voice actions, camera, alarm clock, calendar, notepad, music player, Kindle or even apps ?

Rubins is talking nonsense. They have been wrong footed again and are trying to bluff their way out while frantically working behind the scenes to cobble together something that is good enough so that those who settle for Android will be able to claim ( falsely ) that they have the same functionality as Siri.