“A new report about Apple Inc.’s voice-recognition software Siri concludes what many users have been saying for a while: It doesn’t work all that well,” Adam Satariano reports for Bloomberg.
“Of 1,600 common searches, the speech technology accurately resolved the request 62 percent of the time on a loud street and 68 percent in a quieter setting, according to a report released today by Piper Jaffray Cos., the Minneapolis-based investment bank,” Satariano reports. “The report graded the technology ‘D’ for accuracy, while predicting it will improve as more features are added. ‘You’re playing the lottery when you’re using Siri,’ said Gene Munster, the Piper Jaffray analyst who conducted the study. ‘They have a plan to be more competitive, but it’s going to take a couple of years.'”
MacDailyNews Take: Siri is a beta and it is currently severely overtaxed, according to whispers we’ve heard. “Siri, what do you need?” Siri: “More data centers, please!”
Satariano reports, “Munster said that while Siri is good at comprehending what a user is saying and will accurately repeat the question, it struggles turning those words into a correct answer. For instance, Siri will repeat old answers when a user is trying to ask a new question. The technology also struggles when trying to use speech commands to find directions, Munster said. In Piper Jaffray’s tests, Siri was able to accurately decipher what a user was saying 83 percent of the time on the street and 89 percent in an area with low noise. ‘Apple right now gets a ‘B’ in comprehension and a ‘D’ in accuracy,” Munster said. ‘There’s a big difference between comprehension and her actually doing what you want her to do.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Siri users, what letter grades would you give to Siri (queries, not dictation, which gets an “A-” in our grade book) for comprehension and accuracy?
Also, do you think Siri was better at launch than she is now or vice versa?
Note: Siri is slated to get improvements with the release of iOS 6 this fall. APple previews Siri’s upcoming new abilities here.
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Apple files motion to dismiss Siri lawsuits – May 16, 2012
Apple hit with second class-action lawsuit over Siri intelligent personal assistant – March 30, 2012
Apple files Siri trademarks, faces lawsuit alleging ‘misleading’ Siri ads – March 21, 2012