“Apple is about to become a much less significant consumer electronics business,” Jon Markman writes for Forbes. “Apple is in the midst of being blindsided itself by cloud-based, artificially intelligent assistants. They’re the future and the rest of the technology world has been ramping up for a while, building out data centers, open-sourcing software tools and perfecting consumer facing software. Amazon has Alexa, Microsoft has Cortana, Facebook has M, startup Viv Labs has Viv and Google has Assistant.”
“Siri still doesn’t live in the cloud. By design she lives on the device and has never risen above being more than a feature on a platform. Apple executives, especially Tim Cook argue that’s a good thing because it protects privacy,” Markman writes. “Siri will never be capable of answering complex questions or using context, and conversations are completely out of the question. So she compensates for her lack of understanding with trademark snark. While it’s cute in a sophomoric sort of way, it’s probably not a longer-term winning strategy. After all, you don’t hire assistants because they’re snarky. At some point they have to be able to do the job.”
MacDailyNews Take: Markman’s assertions simply do not mesh with reality:
“Google Assistant, for example, skims all of your Google services for ways to help you track appointments, parcels, flights and hotel bookings, sports scores, stock prices, traffic on your morning commute and more,” Markman writes. “It builds a briefing page only accessible by you that lives on all of your devices across platforms.”
MacDailyNews Take: Correction: It builds a briefing page only accessible by you and Alphabet Inc. (unless and until they get hacked, of course.)
“By most accounts the next paradigm shift is artificial intelligence and voice. Apple is not built to compete in that new paradigm,” Markman writes. “See you on the other side. GOOG and AMZN remain among the best bets for the AI generation, with Facebook not far behind.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Just getting this one in the database for future reference.
SEE ALSO:
macOS Sierra: The essential guide to using Siri on your Mac – June 24, 2016
Apple’s cutting-edge ‘differential privacy’ is opt-in – June 24, 2016
Conversing with Apple’s Siri in macOS Sierra already feels almost natural – June 22, 2016
Apple’s cutting-edge ‘differential privacy’ offers unique option for technology users – June 20, 2016
Apple’s use of cutting-edge tech will peek at user habits without violating privacy – June 16, 2016
Apple’s Siri digital assistant made Cortana look bad at WWDC – June 14, 2016
Apple unveils iOS 10, the mother of all iOS releases – June 13, 2016
Apple previews major update with macOS Sierra – June 13, 2016
Ask the man on the street what Alexa or Cortana are and they wouldn’t have a clue. They possibly wouldn’t know what Siri is, but the point is that if Apple are so far behind why have none of the others options got any sort of traction. Amazon claim success but where are the numbers, and more relevantly the profits?
Would not have a clue, or could not care less. The latter I am afraid. Technology just isn’t that big of a deal for the masses. The masses are far more ignorant today because there is too much to be knowledgeable about.
Ask Markham the same question and you’ll find that he doesn’t know either. SIRI prior to Apple’s acquisition of VocalIQ, which, interestingly, wasn’t mentioned in Markham’s examples of AI engines.
VocalIQ leapfrogs all competing commercial AI engines on the market today, including startup Viv Labs, who are former Apple employees acquired when Apple bought SIRI. Viv is better than SIRI PRE-VOCALIQ.
Read more about VocalIQ and how it compares to Google Now and Microsoft’s Cortana at http://www.techinsider.io/how-apples-vocaliq-ai-works-2016-5
““Siri still doesn’t live in the cloud. By design she lives on the device”
That’s not true. You need to have an Internet connection to use Siri. If you try to use Siri when your iOS device is not connected to the Internet, you’ll get an error message that says “Siri not available | Connect to the Internet”.
Yes glad someone else saw that one this guy clearly needs his assistant to do a little research. It wasn’t long ago that we had similar critics claiming that siri was behind because it didn’t exist on the device like some others now it seems its behind because of the opposite. I think we can see who is behind in giving any rational critique on the matter without any assistance whatsoever.
Siri is on the device and connects to Apple servers to draw answers from vast databases of stock answers. It also performs searches. Cloud-based software and software on a device that connects to the Internet are different animals.
I thought for a moment that you were an artificial intelligence but clearly you don’t make the 1st grade in that regard Im afraid.
Swallow and then come back to reality.
I’m sorry. I do not know what you mean by
“Apple is about to become a much less significant consumer electronics business,” Jon Markman writes for Forbes. “Apple is in the midst of being blindsided itself by cloud-based, artificially intelligent assistants. They’re the future and the rest of the technology world has been ramping up for a while, building out data centers, open-sourcing software tools and perfecting consumer facing software. Amazon has Alexa, Microsoft has Cortana, Facebook has M, startup Viv Labs has Viv and Google has Assistant.”
Would you like me to search for it?
This might get 3d place award for the most stupid story of the week, after Pelosi and the government inventing the iPhone, and the Florida man who invented the iPhone.
Sophmoric writers need to go back to school.
“Sophmoric writers need to go back to school.”, and/pr denied a platform as provided by the internet.
This is the same stuff he has been writing for awhile – Amazon and Google will win over Apple by AI. But he is likely shorting AAPL as a motivation, and he is willing to intentionally make factual errors (aka lies) like Siri not being in the cloud.
I just step over his stories like I would step over crap on the sidewalk.
Apple has not been ignoring on AI and more importantly they’ve concentrated on private AI Who would you trust with health care related AI – Apple or google ? And when the government starts passing privacy laws who will already be ahead of the game. I see Apple doing to AI what they did with multi touch. Before Apple you needed a $50,000 Microsoft table. Google needs a server farm to preform image recognition. Apple is doing both on a cell phone.
Stupid One Note Joe From Doofus, MO strikes again! Why do they keep letting you out of the mental ward??
“One Note Goofball Joe is the worst thing that ever happened to MDN,” you mean.
The worst thing about MDN is that there is no requirement for posters to know anything about what they write.
Just posting hate and vitriol should be an automatic “Comment subject to moderation” notice, or so you would think. I must admit idiots like this do bring out the worst in me. I don’t like suffering fools like this.
Ironic then that every other one of your own posts is spewing vitriol as you shadow box against imaginary trolls. Bottom line is that if someone doesn’t agree with you, then you think they should be banned. That’s not how free speech works, buddy. Moderate your own forum if you want to be speech cop.
I was waiting for another soul to stab out at me. The vitriol from yours truly only is directed at other clueless posters with an assholic disposition. Your comments are disingenuous and specious. I disagree, free speech doesn’t include yelling “FIRE!” in a crowded theater. It you can’t differentiate between an intelligent post and one derived from unreasoning hate and pointlessly vindictive that’s YOUR problem. Moderate yourself Bunkie.
Apple will answer these clueless so-called writers with a sound and thunderous boom. And as usual they will never apologize for their abject stupidity and lack of vision. Not to mention hubris. Someone needs to take away from these guys the ability to write and post with any level of authority. They don’t even have the courtesy (or CYA sense) of admitting Apple might still have something up their sleeve.
Click bait. Poorly researched and hasn’t a clue what Apple is really working on.
I think you would want the A.I. on the device and behind your firewall. A cloud-based A.I. (which really means it resides within a data center somewhere in the world), connected to the Internet, with access to all of your devices, and access to all of your personal digitized information would seem to be the juiciest new target for cyber criminals. Seems that it would just be a matter of time before criminals can hack into your devices, steel information, or spy, maybe even take control of the A.I. to misdirect or misinform the user. For security reasons, I would never use a cloud-based A.I. I like Apple’s strategy of having Siri on the device.
Apple have always played the long game. They were not the first to market with the MP3 player but they sure as hell redefined it. The world before the iPhone was riddled with chicklet keyboards and tiny screens—now every smartphone pays tribute to Apple’s redefinition of the phone.
Sometimes, they do things that initially make no sense: when Apple bought PA Semiconductor and Intrinsity, no one could figure out why they would invest in chip design houses. The result: the A-series processors. Apple did not invent the GUI, the MP3 player or the smartphone, but they sure as hell created the paradigm and metaphors in consumer electronics technology that we all now take for granted in the modern world.
They might not bat a thousand, but only a churlish person would not acknowledge their immense influence on modern consumer tech. As someone who was worked with computers since the early 70s, I know my life and work to date has been immeasurably improved by the Wizards of Cupertino.
YMMV.
=:~)
The research of,
Jon Markman: “Alexa, find Siri in the cloud.”
Alexa:”No clouds are named Siri. Did you mean Cirrus?”
Markman:”Cortana, is Siri in the cloud?”
Cortana:”I can find no airline or flight called Siri.”
With research like this what other conclusion could Jon come to? /s 🖖😀⌚️
You offer nothing here except insults you fucking idiot. Get lost for good! MDN should be taken to task for letting this same Bozo come on here with his Apple/Tim Cook hate diatribe and post the same thing over and over. In the old days you would have been tarred & feathered by now.
Hey waitaminute maybe “One Note Joe” is actually MDN trying to get post bait?
Brexit is the theme of this and other articles trying to trash Apple inc. this week, to drive the stock lower!
Why?
Because hedge funds, who have had a rough year with Oil and then to cap it all, Brexit last week, where they piled into what they thought was a “remain’ certainty!!
It could be we’re in for another WAVE 🏄 of market manipulation. The Brexit HySTeRiA 🙀🙀 was a wonderful opportunity for the WallNut Street wolves to shear the sheeple. The herd stampeded to dump stocks, blasting their prices through the floor, where the wolves grabbed them up for cheap, laughed and laughed! Witness the incredible rebound of the stock markets, especially the FTSE! 😝😝😝
Hungry for more sheeple shearing, maybe this little ripple of a dumbass article presages the next wave of abuse.
For fucksake MDN, have SOME kind of minimal standard.
E.g. the pathetic loser, One Note Doofus Joe, should not be allowed to post the same crap hundreds of times.
Markman needs to educate himsrlf a bit more before writing !
I have no idea what Jon Markman who writes for Forbes is talking about. His premise is wrong right at the start, seeing as Siri has ALWAYS used the cloud for querying questions. Apparently, he didn’t bother to read any Siri specs. What tripped him up is the fact that Siri does not keep user-associated data in the cloud, thank bloody gawd! I have to wonder if this blundering tech journalist is somehow attempting to convince us that SURVEILLANCE by companies is a good thing. I hope not!
Jon Markman who writes for Forbes also didn’t bother to watch or read up on the WWDC 2016 keynote or any of the classes/presentations thereafter. This further serves to blow is dumbass article out of the water. From evidence of this POS article, he’s just another lazy ass ignorant journalist, creatures who are so outrageously common in the modern era. Where’s my Dumbass Blunder Blaster? 💥💥💥🔫
Jon Markman will soon suffer from main toe poisoning, caused by foot-in-mouth disease. 🖖😀⌚️
over and over again old time regular MDN post commentators show they know more than ‘tech’ writers.
I always read comments when I want a broader view of an article.
So true but one needs to be somewhat in the know oneself in order to distinguish between the wheat and the chaff in these comments. Newcomers might be baffled by “longtime Mac users” totally trashing Apple for doing all the wrong things. MDN almost needs a TROLL label to separate legitimate complaints from fake ones. For example I’ve followed the discussions here for years yet still get blindsided by someone I supposed was an Apple stalwart but turned out to be just another guy with a personal political agenda, like getting a spam phone call or some crap in the mailbox. OK, I suppose that’s what one must expect in an unmoderated, ad-driven forum run by laissez-faire investors. The world turns on trade, which derives from business, which relies on advertising, which annoys the heck out of everyone, but which actually works. What a system.
You’re a troll!
Each of us has been accused of that, but no parental-basement-dwelling for us! — we’re content with our midwest grafitti-decorated culverts and highway overpasses. The only true American philosophers are its hobo outcasts. Pass that pint bottle, if you please. 😝