1) The anthromorphization of Siri as "she" really bugs me. It's software. It's not your assistant, your chat buddy, or your pet. It's an amped-up ALICE. This anthromorphization ascribes attributes that don't exist in the software like sentience and actual intelligence. It contributes to point 2, wherein:
2) If you're underwhelmed that Siri isn't perfect, it's because you were sold perfect - Apple has some of the best marketers on the planet, and they sold you a science fiction dream and then you were disappointed when you didn't get it. The long and short of it is that Siri isn't a learning, adaptive AI - it's a voice control system with a short-term history and some clever responses baked in. It's a very good voice control system, and the developers have done a great job of giving the appearance of a personality, but it's basically an evolved Speak-N-Say.
If you stop expecting Siri to be a Star Trek shipboard AI that can understand the intent in your every query and return information to you instantly in perfectly-inflected English, you'll be a lot happier (though probably a bit less impressed) with it.
It's reasonable to expect if you expect Siri to be intuitive or adaptive. The problem is that it isn't, because it's a preprogrammed list of contextual responses, and the user is always going to have a longer list of things they want to do than the programmer anticipated. There's always going to be some degree of disappointment there as long as Siri is marketed as a thinking, intelligent assistant.
A pretty fundamental example that underwhelmed was "what time is it?" (I'm in Australia). Siri responded with "Sorry, I don't know the time in 123 StreetImOn Street". This is doubly "amusing", as if I ask "where I am" Siri will tell me maps aren't supported outside the US. Long story short, to find out where I am I need to ask for the time.
1) The anthromorphization of Siri as "she" really bugs me. It's software. It's not your assistant, your chat buddy, or your pet. It's an amped-up ALICE. This anthromorphization ascribes attributes that don't exist in the software like sentience and actual intelligence. It contributes to point 2, wherein:
2) If you're underwhelmed that Siri isn't perfect, it's because you were sold perfect - Apple has some of the best marketers on the planet, and they sold you a science fiction dream and then you were disappointed when you didn't get it. The long and short of it is that Siri isn't a learning, adaptive AI - it's a voice control system with a short-term history and some clever responses baked in. It's a very good voice control system, and the developers have done a great job of giving the appearance of a personality, but it's basically an evolved Speak-N-Say.
If you stop expecting Siri to be a Star Trek shipboard AI that can understand the intent in your every query and return information to you instantly in perfectly-inflected English, you'll be a lot happier (though probably a bit less impressed) with it.