Siri Becomes Smarter and More Human
June 20, 2017
When Apple introduced Siri, it was a shiny, new toy, but the more people used it they realized it was a dumb digital assistant. It is true that Siri can accurately find a place’s location, conduct a Web search, or even call someone in your contact list, but beyond simple tasks “she” cannot do much. TechCrunch reports that Apple realizes there is a flaw in their flagship digital assistant and in order to compete with Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa, and even Windows Cortana they need to upgrade Siri’s capabilities, “Siri Gets Language Translation And A More Human Voice.”
Apple decided that Siri would receive a big overhaul with iOS 11. Not only will Siri sound more human, but also the digital assistant will have a female and male voice, the voice will become clearer ability to answer more complex, and even better, a translation application:
Apple is bringing translation to Siri so that you can ask the voice assistant how do say a certain English phrase in a variety of languages, including, at launch, Chinese, French, German, Italian and Spanish.
Apple has changed their view of Siri. Instead of it being a gimmicky way to communicate with a device, Apple is treating Siri as a general AI that extends a device’s usage. Apple is making the right decision to make these changes. For the translation aspect, Apple should leverage tools like Bitext’s DLAP to improve the accuracy.
Whitney Grace, June 20, 2017
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One Response to “Siri Becomes Smarter and More Human”
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I cringe whenever Siri speaks, usually because I inadvertently pushed her button. I’m not an avid user of apps of any sort, and having to talk to a mechanized voice is unsettling. If the writer thinks his experience was bad, he should try calling the cable company; their long, annoying list of support options requires a voice response, and they look up your account, you have to verify you actually have one, and provide the last four digits of your Social Security no. And, then, if and when you reach the appropriate agent, you have to repeat the same steps just to enable the person on the other line to help you…it’s akin to having to pass security, except without the frisks and pats.