“Apple’s virtual assistant Siri may have its roots in a Pentagon-funded artificial intelligence research project, but algorithms aren’t everything and the Cupertino company is now turning to writers to make Siri smarter,” Tom Simonite reports for MIT Technology Review.
Simonite reports, “A job ad posted by Apple on LinkedIn appeals for: ‘[S]omeone who combines a love for language, wordplay, and conversation with demonstrated experience in bringing creative content to life within an intense technical environment.’ They’ll need ‘experience in writing character-driven dialog,’ a good vocabulary, and ideally knowledge of more than one language. The end result, says the ad, will ‘evolve and enrich Siri… known for ‘her’ wit, cultural knowledge, and zeal to explain things in engaging, funny, and practical ways.'”
Read more in the full article here.
I think they should hire Siri from The Big Bang Theory
Ooops, forgot the link…
They should try to hire multiple people with experience in different cultures, mores, native humor and languages than one size fits all. They can afford it.
How do you know they won’t?
Hoe about just getting Suri to work, that would be a major improvement
Indeed. Google’s voice search has left Siri in its dust and I really hate to admit that.
Ever try to get Siri to open Waze for you? I spent 20 minutes trying to get Waze to open and Siri couldn’t get it even when I tried spelling it. There seemed to be no variation of request that I could her to recognize.
Siri needs a boyfriend ASAP.
How about Sheldon.
MANTI TE’0 ?
In Europe, Siri is male.
Siri needs an injection of human-like AI to transform her from the uptight bitch she is now.
And no, her powers of understanding natural speech hasn’t improved one iota since her launch and she remains at the level of a deaf mute at the moment.
And one more thing, Apple, 4″ screens are so yesterday. Get off your ass and make a phone with 4.5″.
“Get off your ass….”
Such vehemence about such trivia. Always amazing.
Anyway — Personally, I like my compact 4S. I did see one person talking on a giant phone a few weeks ago. Looked pretty silly, in my opinion. Not sure where they were able to put it, once the call was finished. On the other hand, my iPhone fits in almost any pocket in any garment I own.
I am running into the term ‘Embarrassingly large smartphone’ lately to describe the trend toward big ass cell phones with larger screens, specifically in the 5 – 7″ screen size range. Apparently this term is from Brian White of Topeka Capital Markets describing the big ass cell phones at CES this year. He considers them hard to hold.
I can’t help but think of classy Asian ladies halted in the middle of the street trying to hold their big ass cell phone with two hands while talking. Watch out, the traffic light changed…
Get one with wheels on.
Ha Left Nut, your a piece of work aren’t you. That’s why your name is Ballmer isn’t.
He has on and off days. My guess is that it depends upon his adherence to his medication regiment. He’s one of the regulars in any case.
He does appear disquietingly bipolar, doesn’t he.
Please take your anger elsewhere BLN. Terms like ‘bitch’ and ‘ass’ have made you out to be a foul mouthed person likely not to impress anyone.
Speak for your own ass. I don’t want a klunkin’ big brick.
Try the mini, it has a 7.8 in screen. Lol
And everyone used to say how charming Siri was. What gives?
The bloom is off the rose. Sad. But one day, like Douglas MacArthur, she will return, and lay waste to our hearts once again.
It is. But it could be even better. What’s wrong with improvements? Apple never sits on just what they’ve done. They always try to make their owns stuff better BEFORE someone else does.
I hereby nominate Dennis Miller….aka ‘the SnarkMeister’
I’d smash my phone if I heard Dennis Miller on it.
Then how about Roseanne Barr or Joy Behar? Two outstanding women that meet the “wit, cultural knowledge, and zeal to explain things in engaging, funny, and practical ways” requirement if there ever was someone!
How about Sarah Palin for all those conservatives on this site?
You Betcha!
So eMess, would anyone notice…?
Siri is okay. But just okay. I expected more improvement by now. That’s an area in need of attention.
Try robin Williams as mrs doubtfire
Lowell George would be a better choice. But hey that’s just my opinion. Just sayin.
He has little feet.
Robin Williams giving turn-by-turn navigation would be awesome…
It is entirely possible to create and use character voices for text-to-speech. I suspect Apple has avoided that route due to Steve Jobs’ trend toward a conservative theme for OS X. I don’t know what vocabulary choices there may be with Siri in its responses. But I suspect that would be as simple as swapping library files.
There are plenty of modern speakers with fun ‘characters’ who could be asked to contribute. I’d personally enjoy some classic voice imitations such as the Mel Blanc repertoire, May West, Phyllis Diller, Alfred Hitchcock, or John Barrymore as Mr. Potter. Imagine being insulted by a grumbling old bastard every time you consulted Siri.
Ultimately it doesn’t bother me because I don’t like using voice commands, but Siri has never been much good. The voice recognition is sloppy at best, and Google’s is now far better.
Oh, paaaleeeze. Siri needs FUNCTIONS not humor. Football scores, weather and getting unlost is highly limited. If it isn’t more like a Star Trek computer, or at least IBM’s Watson, it’ll be just as lame as adding Facebook to the iMac.
Functions should be as simple as installing an add-on for Siri. Let the 3rd party developers into the fray! You’d end up with ‘Siri Apps’ corresponding to what we expect from the OS X Dashboard.