Alexa, can you have a conversation?

It can listen and respond, but new technology may still miss the nuances of typical speech

Digital assistants like Amazon’s Echo can listen to you. And they can talk back. But that doesn’t mean they can carry on a good conversation.

As the devices that run these assistants become more commonplace — 39 million Americans now own one, according to a recent study — Amazon and competitors like Apple and Google foresee a day when you can chat with their assistants like you would with a friend.

We explored the conversational limits of the leading assistants. After consulting with the companies involved and a few artificial intelligence experts we created tests that show what they can and can’t handle.

Let’s make a list

Because these devices are not yet nimble enough to understand and respond to anything you might say, Amazon, Apple and Google must hone them for particular tasks, like playing a song or building a shopping list. If you stick to these tasks, the devices are pretty good at zeroing on what you want. But even inside these small domains, they can trip up. Listen how. Add these things to my shopping list… AMAZON ECHO: What can I add for you? APPLE HOMEPOD: I added “these things” to the shopping list.

GOOGLE HOME: What do you want to add?

The HomePod showed how difficult it can be for machines to understand natural language. … guacamole, chips, tortillas. AMAZON ECHO: “Guacamole chips tortillas” added to your shopping list. APPLE HOMEPOD: No longer listening. GOOGLE HOME: OK, I’ve added “guacamole” and “chips tortillas” to your shopping list.

The Google and Amazon devices didn’t quite recognize the pause between items as a verbal comma. Although these devices are pretty good at recognizing what you say, they may not completely understand it. Also add olive oil. AMAZON ECHO: I’ve put “olive oil” on your shopping list.

APPLE HOMEPOD: OK, I added “olive oil” to the Reminders.

GOOGLE HOME: Sorry, I’m not sure how to help.

Alexa grasped that we were continuing to add to the shopping list.

When you say something, one system tries to recognize each word and convert it to text. Another system tries to understand the meaning of each word and how it relates to the others. A third system spits out new text that responds to what you’ve said. A fourth converts this response to digital speech.

Resolving ambiguity

Even if you make a rather specific request, it can have multiple meanings. Who won the Giants game last night? AMAZON ECHO: On December 31st, the Giants beat the Redskins 18 to 10. They’ll play on August 9th at 7 p.m. at home against the Browns.

APPLE HOMEPOD: Which Giants? New York Giants, or San Francisco Giants?

GOOGLE HOME: Yesterday, the Giants played the Padres. The final score was 3 to 2, Giants, in zero innings.

There are two professional teams that call themselves the Giants. If someone asks about a Giants game in the summer, you know they’re talking about the San Francisco Giants, who play baseball.

When we asked on Aug. 2, Google Home came to the same conclusion. And the HomePod asked that we identify the team we were talking about.

Alexa guessed that we meant the New York Giants football team, which hadn’t played a game in seven months, but this may have been because we were asking the question in New York.