
Apple Job Posting Seeks Creative Individual To Breathe More Life Into Siri - 6thSigma
http://techcrunch.com/2013/01/17/apple-job-posting-seeks-creative-individual-to-breathe-more-life-into-siri/
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clicks
So here's been my experience with Siri since getting the iPhone 4S:

\- Try all sorts of stupid things, like you would when you're chatting with an
AI bot online for amusement

\- Once or twice try to ask the weather, or some other trivial information
that you're not sure how you could elsehow get more quickly

\- Become frustrated with inaccuracy, and high chance of the information
you're looking for being unavailable

\- Not use Siri again, and eventually forget about it

Very, very interestingly, I _did_ start using the Google Now app... which
works more responsively, and gives tremendously better results (in my
estimation). If I'm not in a public space and don't care about looking like an
overzealous geek trying to talk to my phone, I use the Google app and ask very
basic information.

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ceejayoz
I find it very useful for just two things: texting while driving and setting
alarms & reminders.

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jonknee
Alarms and reminders are the only thing I use Siri for, but I have stopped
using it most of the time because it's not reliable.

I set alarms to remind me when I need to feed the parking meter so I often say
something like "In two hours remind me to pay for parking". About 25% of the
time Siri will get it right on the first try. It's pathetic. Usually it's a
problem voice recognition problem ("I don't understand into hours"), but I
have also had alarms not go off (apparently she didn't hear the confirmation).

I tested Google's voice recognition for the same types of queries and it nails
it. In real time. If Apple ever allows users to decide what apps they want to
use Google is poised to destroy Siri.

Now I just open Clock and set a timer manually. It's a little slower, but it
works 100% of the time.

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swohns
Any insight into what sort of work culture Apple has now?

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crb
Actual job description: "Siri Writer/Editor", at
[https://jobs.apple.com/us/search?job=25650673&openJobId=...](https://jobs.apple.com/us/search?job=25650673&openJobId=25650673&board_id=32301#&openJobId=25650673).

Erik Wolpaw, anyone?

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yock
Off topic: I hadn't heard that name, so I googled it and read his Wikipedia
article. Upon reaching the end, I found the most bizarre "List of..." article
I've ever seen, and that's saying something for Wikipedia.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_diagnosed_with_u...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_diagnosed_with_ulcerative_colitis)

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seanMeverett
Sounds like a storyboard artist who worked on the Ice Age movies.

Or a concept artist who's done work for Disney, Konami, and Warner Brothers.

Humanizing technology must go further than simply a name and a voice.

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jinushaun
After using Google Maps on iOS with its soothing friendly speaker, I wouldn't
mind a new voice actor for Siri. It's downright painful compared to GMaps'.

~~~
Apocryphon
But her voice is iconic now, not unlike the voice of GLaDOS.

~~~
roc
It could be tweaked without losing its recognizability. A new approach to
better model the rhythm and pitch of conversational English could do wonders
with the same exact voice. To say nothing of helping Siri _generate_
conversational English.

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sandymcmurray
Is Steve Meretzky available? <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Meretzky>

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rogerchucker
Umm.. how about opening up Siri to the app developers? I think that will
improve its utility. Oh and they could hire a few more top notch distributed
systems guys to figure out how to handle server load better for the massive
amount of real time natural language processing...

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outside1234
Err, how about making it work first? (Perhaps they can outsource that to
Google too and put the nice voice on top.)

~~~
orionblastar
Just copy Dragon

[https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dragon-
dictation/id341446764...](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dragon-
dictation/id341446764?mt=8)

<https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dragon-go!/id442975871?mt=8>

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erichocean
I'm surprised Apple hasn't bought them already.

Tim Cook needs to start spending money to address Apple's weaknesses – they
don't have the talent internally, and no one with the talent wants to work
there...

