Stumbling Siri needs to smarten up
Siri, we need to talk. You’re embarrassing yourself.
You were the Neil Armstrong of voice assistants. When you arrived on the iPhone in 2011, Alexa wasn’t a glimmer in Amazon’s eye. Google’s Assistant didn’t get a voice until 2016. But what did you do with that lead? You languished as the butt of jokes while 6-yearolds all over fell in love with Alexa. Last week, you finally arrived on a product all your own called the HomePod – and you’re not nearly as sharp as either Google or Alexa. ‘‘Hey Siri, put an appointment on my calendar,’’ I asked. No can do.
‘‘Make a phone call.’’ Can’t do that on the US$350 (NZ$475) HomePod, either. ‘‘Send a message saying ‘When are you getting here?’’’ Siri’s message read: ‘‘When are you gay.’’ This would be a laughing matter (actually, the non sequiturs are sometimes hilarious) if we weren’t talking about the most powerful tech company in the world bumbling its way into the next big thing in consumer tech.
The HomePod was Apple’s chance to reintroduce Siri and win back some fans. And Siri stumbled out of the gate. All talking artificial intelligences are works in progress, and I haven’t given up on Siri yet. The Assistant in the Google Home and Alexa in Amazon Echo can also, at times, be clueless.
How far behind is Siri? There are actually some numbers on that: A new study from investment firm Loup Ventures found Siri on the HomePod could correctly answer just 52 per cent of 782 standardised questions. Google’s Home speaker got 81 per cent right, and Amazon’s Echo got 64 per cent.
The HomePod is the first major product where Siri is the primary interface, so I expected HomePod Siri to be the best Siri.
But no: Apple dropped capabilities Siri has on other devices. HomePod Siri can’t send emails, place calls or hail an Uber, even though Siri can on the iPhone. The HomePod can’t pass maps or pictures or other information to your iPhone or iPad.
Another mystery: iPhone Siri has the ability to understand only my voice, so others can’t activate it from across the room. But HomePod Siri treats everyone the same, causing potential privacy issues if someone else asks to listen to the HomePod owner’s messages. What happened?
I’m not saying any of this tech is easy. Apple has been improving Siri behind the scenes, but perhaps Apple couldn’t get features finished in time for the HomePod’s launch, which was already delayed once. Apple’s premium price and reputation for quality also raises the stakes: Even when Siri is 90 per cent of the way there, we only remember the 10 per cent it gets wrong.
So Apple restricted the scope of the HomePod’s intelligence, at least for now.
But I take hope in this: Loup, which has been running its tests since 2014, says despite the HomePod’s last-place finish, Siri’s intelligence on the iPhonehas improved markedly in the past year. In January it raised its grade from a D+ to a C, beating out Alexa (but not Google Assistant).
And Apple put a fast A8 chip in the HomePod – the same brain as in the iPhone 6 – making it potentially more powerful than the Amazon Echo and Google Home.
Apple missed this moment to get us to think different about Siri, but clearly it has more up its sleeve. –