“The first time Alex Acero saw Her, he watched it like a normal person. The second time, he didn’t watch the movie at all,” David Pierce writes for Wired. “Acero, the Apple executive in charge of the tech behind Siri, sat there with his eyes closed, listening to how Scarlett Johansson voiced her artificially intelligent character Samantha. He paid attention to how she talked to Theodore Twombly, played by Joaquin Phoenix, and how Twombly talked back. Acero was trying to discern what about Samantha could make someone fall in love without ever seeing her.”
“When I ask Acero what he learned about why the voice worked so well, he laughs because the answer is so obvious,” Pierce writes. “‘It is natural!’ he says. ‘It was not robotic!’ This hardly counts as a revelation for Acero. Mostly, it confirmed that his team at Apple has spent the last few years on the right project: making Siri sound more human.”
“This fall, when iOS 11 hits millions of iPhones and iPads around the world, the new software will give Siri a new voice,” Pierce writes. “you’ll notice the difference. Siri now takes more pauses in sentences, elongates syllables right before a pause, and the speech lilts up and down as it speaks. The words sound more fluid and Siri speaks more languages, too. It’s nicer to listen to, and to talk to… Acero and his team think they’ve taken a giant leap forward. And they believe firmly that if they can make Siri sound less like a robot and more like someone you know and trust, they can make Siri great even when it fails. And that, in these early days of AI and voice technology, might be the best-case scenario.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Siri in iOS 11 is better in every way over iOS 10’s version:
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SEE ALSO:
Why I’m expecting big things for Apple’s Siri – September 5, 2017
I prefer robotics. New Siri sounds like the waitress at a chili parlor.
misdirecting massive efforts (resources) to sound more human is very misguided mr cook, glad you’re not commander of nuclear submarine, people talk in explicit deep terms, shortcuts to ensure operational accuracy and eliminate doubt in complex communication and interactions. give us clear instructions rather than trying to be dave in 2001.
Making Siri understand context is WAY more important to me than having her sound human. I rarely use her because she can rarely answer my questions.
I like smart girls that communicate well. Right now Siri is neither and the new Siri’s sounds like a so-so upgrade in re: to smarts. I guess she missed summer school (again).
apple can’t make automator natural language, nor spelling and grammar suggestions, work very well, yet they think they can make siri human??
apple going down rabbit hole with natural language interaction with siri, hare-brained if you ask me
The contextual / grammatical comprehension of text-to-voice systems (which is what we’re actually talking about here) remains primitive. As I often point out, the lack of full understanding of English grammar is an excellent indication that we still have NOT created ‘artificial intelligence’. We simply have increasingly sophisticated ‘expert systems’ that still need a lot more expertise.
Can’t say that I’m impressed by that video.
As long as Siri continues to suck I couldn’t care less what it sounds like…
Tim, Chris: please see Steve’s comment. Now that Eddy’s not in charge of Siri, the shroud’s covering will reveal the important reality. Please figure out the form vs function thing.
*shroud’s removal…
Eddy, I know, I know it’s Th, but please tap the keg.
I like smart girls that communicate well. Right now Siri is neither and the new Siri’s sounds like a so-so upgrade in re: to smarts. I guess she missed summer school (again).
Absolutely agree with you.. Siri is, by far, the worst. Alexa and Cortana both surpass by a long shot..
They should make Siri sound like Scarlett Johansson. That would be a big improvement!
Do we really want a seductive (affectionate) computer?
I don’t give a damn about “more human” just make Siri better she sure sucks today