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Siri, Cortana and Google Have Nothing On SoundHound's Speech Recognition

Posted by timothy on from the interpret-my-heavy-breathing dept.

MojoKid writes: Your digital voice assistant app is incompetent. Yes, Siri can give you a list of Italian restaurants in the area, Cortana will happily look up the weather, and Google Now will send a text message, if you ask it to. But compared to Hound, the newest voice search app on the block, all three of the aforementioned assistants might as well be bumbling idiots trying to outwit a fast talking rocket scientist. At its core, Hound is the same type of app — you bark commands or ask questions about any number of topics and it responds intelligently. And quickly. What's different about Hound compared to Siri, Cortana, and Google Now is that it's freakishly fast and understands complex queries that would have the others hunched in the fetal position, thumb in mouth. Check out the demo. It's pretty impressive.

155 of 235 comments (clear)

  1. Yes, but can it launch Waze by Overzeetop · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Or does it just stare at you stupidly because using ways to give you directions means nothing if it doesn't recognize the homophone.

    --
    Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
    1. Re:Yes, but can it launch Waze by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      I take it you don't know what a homophone is so you relied on some website to check for you?

      Because if you actually read what GP wrote you might notice that "waze" (which is not a dictionary word) sounds identical to "ways" (which is a dictionary word). Depending, of course, on how you pronounce ways. But a native English speaker (are you?) is almost certainly going to pronounce "waze" identically to "ways".

      Whether or not this would actually result in a problem with the app being slashvertised is a different matter entirely. But I hope you have a somewhat better understanding of what homophones are and how this could be seen as a problem for such an application.

    2. Re:Yes, but can it launch Waze by sycodon · · Score: 1, Funny

      "What is the population of capital of the country in which Space Needle is located?"

      Hound correctly surmises that he's asking for the population of Washington, DC...

      The Space Needle is in Seattle.

      --
      When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
    3. Re:Yes, but can it launch Waze by 0100010001010011 · · Score: 4, Informative

      population of capital of the country

      And Washington DC is the capital of the United States, the country where the Space Needle is located.

    4. Re:Yes, but can it launch Waze by aitikin · · Score: 1

      But a native English speaker (are you?) is almost certainly going to pronounce "waze" identically to "ways".

      Actually, no. At first glace I would pronounce it with a hard Z sound, more like "was".

      Are you saying no to the (are you?) in the previous post? Because, like most native english speakers, I'd pronounce waze like daze, gaze, laze, blaze, haze, etc. Which is homophonic to ways.

      --
      "Don't meddle in the affairs of a patent dragon, for thou art tasty and good with ketchup." ~ohcrapitssteve
    5. Re:Yes, but can it launch Waze by swb · · Score: 1

      Seattle isn't the capital of the country in which the Space Needle is located.

    6. Re: Yes, but can it launch Waze by AvitarX · · Score: 1, Insightful

      The e at the end of a word like that (one consonant between it and a vowel) makes the vowel say its name. The z / s sound essentially the same in was/waze/ways, though perhaps in some areas ways has a softer s, the a is very different in was to waze. Think daze with a w instead of d.

      --
      Wow, sent an e-mail as suggested when clicking on "use classic" banner, and got a fast response that addressed my msg
    7. Re: Yes, but can it launch Waze by CyDharttha · · Score: 1

      Ah, but the question was regarding the capital of the 'country', so Washington DC should be correct?

    8. Re:Yes, but can it launch Waze by the_other_chewey · · Score: 1

      "What is the population of capital of the country in which Space Needle is located?"

      Hound correctly surmises that he's asking for the population of Washington, DC...

      The Space Needle is in Seattle.

      Correct. Which is in the US, the country with D.C. as its capital.
      Read the question again...

    9. Re:Yes, but can it launch Waze by in10se · · Score: 1

      I think you missed the word "country" in the question.

      --
      Popisms.com - Connecting pop culture
    10. Re:Yes, but can it launch Waze by Em+Adespoton · · Score: 5, Funny

      What we have just learned is that SoundHound has better comprehension than some Slashdot commenters :)

    11. Re:Yes, but can it launch Waze by sycodon · · Score: 3

      mea culpa

      --
      When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
    12. Re:Yes, but can it launch Waze by Digicrat · · Score: 1

      "What is the population of capital of the country in which Space Needle is located?"

      Hound correctly surmises that he's asking for the population of Washington, DC...

      The Space Needle is in Seattle.

      Yes, and Seattle is in Washington State which is part of a country called the United States, for which the capital is Washington, DC.

      It's a poorly worded question, but apparently one this app can parse more readily than some humans ;-)

    13. Re:Yes, but can it launch Waze by saider · · Score: 5, Funny

      The correct answer is a number around 650k. This program is smarter than multiple slashdot commenters.

      --


      Remember, You are unique...just like everyone else.
    14. Re:Yes, but can it launch Waze by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Wow. This program is smarter than you. I guess we have achieved true AI.

      "What is the population of capital of the country in which Space Needle is located?"

      Correct Answer: Washington DC.

      Bzzt, try again...

      If we make the assumption that it is the population of *people*, that's about 640k (who would ever want that that).
      However, if you wanted the population of *humans with a soul*, that sadly is a much smaller number in Washington D.C.,...

    15. Re:Yes, but can it launch Waze by ralphsiegler · · Score: 1

      I never knew there were so many redheads there, thanks for the tip!

    16. Re:Yes, but can it launch Waze by mujadaddy · · Score: 1

      ...isn't Olympia the capital of Washington state?

      --
      Populus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur...
      "Force shits upon Reason's back." - Poor Richard's Almanac
    17. Re:Yes, but can it launch Waze by Anne+Thwacks · · Score: 2
      Alert, Alert ... AI smarter than people!

      Panic now, while there is still time!

      OTOH people dumber than computer ... nothing to see here. Move along now, please.

      --
      Sent from my ASR33 using ASCII
    18. Re:Yes, but can it launch Waze by grahamsz · · Score: 1

      It seems like that problem in solved these days. I have no problem saying "Ok google, open waze" and it does the right thing.

    19. Re:Yes, but can it launch Waze by Overzeetop · · Score: 1

      Oh, sure, but what happens when I say I need a Lyft to the airport and it brings up Uber? ;-)

      --
      Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
    20. Re:Yes, but can it launch Waze by DrVxD · · Score: 4, Funny

      It's not an empire, because it doesn't have an emperor.
      It's not a kingdom, because it doesn't have a king.
      It's not a principality, because it doesn't have a prince.
      So it must be a country, because it has plenty of

      --
      Not everything that can be measured matters; Not everything that matters can be measured.
    21. Re:Yes, but can it launch Waze by DrVxD · · Score: 2

      It's a poorly worded question, but apparently one this app can parse more readily than some humans ;-)

      I think the idea is that it's not so much *poorly* worded, as *carefully* worded to be deliberately obtuse.

      --
      Not everything that can be measured matters; Not everything that matters can be measured.
    22. Re:Yes, but can it launch Waze by DrVxD · · Score: 1

      And what does that have to do with the question being asked?
      Here's a quick reminder for you:

      "What is the population of capital of the country in which Space Needle is located?"

      --
      Not everything that can be measured matters; Not everything that matters can be measured.
    23. Re: Yes, but can it launch Waze by Albanach · · Score: 1

      You do realize that Google Now will happily open Waze if you say "open Waze app"? Give it some context and it knows exactly what to do.

      That said, I agree that s statement beginning " open ..." could automatically be interpreted as meaning an app, but there may be reluctance I do that in case it interferes with future expansion into the internet of things, e.g. "open the curtains", or " open the garage ".

    24. Re:Yes, but can it launch Waze by OhSoLaMeow · · Score: 2

      Panic now, while there is still time!

      Screw that. I want the computer to panic for me.
      Oh, wait. Systemd...

      --
      They can take my LifeAlert pendant when they pry it from my cold dead fingers.
    25. Re:Yes, but can it launch Waze by ConceptJunkie · · Score: 1

      We've all been there and done that. Welcome to club of Making Yourself Look Like An Idiot. Stay a while. There'll be cookies later.

      --
      You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
    26. Re:Yes, but can it launch Waze by ConceptJunkie · · Score: 1

      Because of actress Olympia Dukakis. She has the same last name as former governor and fellow Massachusetts native, Michael Dukakis, who ran for President in the U.S. back in 1988, and if he had won, he would have been moving to Washington, D.C.

      So it's totally relevant.

      --
      You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
    27. Re:Yes, but can it launch Waze by StikyPad · · Score: 1

      Siri launches Waze. Is this an old problem, or a problem on other platforms?

      --
      https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
    28. Re:Yes, but can it launch Waze by BasilBrush · · Score: 2

      Did I just witness the passing of the Turing Test?! ;-)

    29. Re:Yes, but can it launch Waze by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      I just tried saying "launch Waze" to my OnePlus One running Lollipop (5.0.2) and the stock Google Now launcher. The text appeared as "launch ways" for a fraction of a second and then corrected to "launch Waze", and sure enough the Waze app opened.

      It works fine if it has context. Saying "launch" implies I want an app to open. How did you phrase your request?

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    30. Re:Yes, but can it launch Waze by bkr1_2k · · Score: 1

      You are aware that most English speakers will pronounce ways, waze, and weighs identically, right?

      --
      "Growing old is inevitable; growing up is optional."
    31. Re:Yes, but can it launch Waze by narcc · · Score: 1

      No.

      --
      Required reading for internet skeptics
    32. Re:Yes, but can it launch Waze by mrbester · · Score: 3, Funny

      Yeah, we're called British.

      --
      "Wait. Something's happening. It's opening up! My God, it's full of apricots!"
    33. Re:Yes, but can it launch Waze by afidel · · Score: 1

      I used Tasker + Tasker Now to fix that and so many other problems with Google Now. Basically if you tell it to Open Waze Google will correctly use Waze instead of ways, but it won't do anyting, so I added a Tasker Now rule for "Open Waze" that launches the app.

      --
      There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
    34. Re:Yes, but can it launch Waze by TheRhinoplast · · Score: 1

      You pronounce 'vase' like the Americans? And you call yourself British?!

    35. Re:Yes, but can it launch Waze by mujadaddy · · Score: 1

      what does that have to do with the question being asked?

      Everyone is mentioning Seattle, which is the city where the Space Needle is located. "Seattle" is a very wrong answer to the question, "Olympia" less so. I'm surprised you couldn't pick that up from the conversation.*

      *Not really, you seem pretty inflexible.

      --
      Populus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur...
      "Force shits upon Reason's back." - Poor Richard's Almanac
    36. Re:Yes, but can it launch Waze by grcumb · · Score: 1

      Welcome to club of Making Yourself Look Like An Idiot. Stay a while. There'll be cookies later.

      No there aren't. We lied, you idiot.

      --
      Crumb's Corollary: Never bring a knife to a bun fight.
    37. Re:Yes, but can it launch Waze by otuz · · Score: 1

      This program is smarter than multiple slashdot commenters.

      Which isn't very smart per se.

    38. Re:Yes, but can it launch Waze by Dog-Cow · · Score: 1

      I just tried on my iPhone... Siri launched Waze on the first try.

    39. Re:Yes, but can it launch Waze by sr180 · · Score: 1

      Agh! Posting to undo incorrect moderation! Now who looks like the idiot!

      --
      In Soviet Russia the insensitive clod is YOU!
    40. Re:Yes, but can it launch Waze by Whiteox · · Score: 1

      Yes.

      --
      Don't be apathetic. Procrastinate!
    41. Re:Yes, but can it launch Waze by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      But a native English speaker (are you?) is almost certainly going to pronounce "waze" identically to "ways".

      Actually, no. At first glace I would pronounce it with a hard Z sound, more like "was".

      You are not any sort of normal native English speaker then. Words ending in "aze" like daze or craze or laze are all pronounced the same, and they are perfect homophones of days, crays or lays.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    42. Re:Yes, but can it launch Waze by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      You pronounce 'vase' like the Americans? And you call yourself British?!

      OP was trying to say that vase is pronounced in the US to rhyme with laze, and in the UK to rhyme with stars. He used "vaaze" to represent the British pronunciation, but that is open to confusion itself.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    43. Re:Yes, but can it launch Waze by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      ...isn't Olympia the capital of Washington state?

      Isn't an apple different from a wardrobe?

      About as relevant.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    44. Re:Yes, but can it launch Waze by tehcyder · · Score: 1
      Won't you just have to say something like "launch app Waze" instead of just "launch Waze"?

      Although since "launch ways" doesn't really make sense as an English phrase, I would imagine SoundHound would get it right anyway.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    45. Re:Yes, but can it launch Waze by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      Oh, sure, but what happens when I say I need a Lyft to the airport and it brings up Uber? ;-)

      Just make up pseudonyms for your stupidly named apps. For instance "taxi service" for Lyft and "shitty taxi service" for Uber.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    46. Re:Yes, but can it launch Waze by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      I just tried on my iPhone... Siri launched Waze on the first try.

      I fucking love that woman.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    47. Re:Yes, but can it launch Waze by Joey+Vegetables · · Score: 1

      Hey, I'm homophone-phobic, you insensitive clod!

      --

      Nonaggression works!
    48. Re:Yes, but can it launch Waze by Maxo-Texas · · Score: 1

      I no but there is know way to tell other than context. A human who didn't no wayz would make the same mistake until someone told them about wayz.

      One approach would be for software developers to register their words with the voice app so when they were installed on a device their importance rose. And on the device its still contextual when you start it's programs vs sending a text message or email. To even take a guess in a text or email, you'd have to know the context was driving otherwise you might be using the word in other ways.

      --
      She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
    49. Re:Yes, but can it launch Waze by Em+Adespoton · · Score: 1

      There'll be cookies later.

      All my cookies expire when I close my browser, so you'll have to grab them while they're hot!

    50. Re:Yes, but can it launch Waze by DrVxD · · Score: 1

      I've been to the Space Needle. And (obviously) to Seattle. And (less obviously) to Olympia.

      But the question asks nothing about:
      - in which city is the Space Needle located
      - in which state is the Space Needle located
      - what is the state capital of the state in which the Space Needle is located

      So Olympia is the wrong answer. As are all of:
      - Seattle
      - Washington State
      - Washington DC
      - 1238164

      But thanks for playing.

      --
      Not everything that can be measured matters; Not everything that matters can be measured.
    51. Re:Yes, but can it launch Waze by mujadaddy · · Score: 1

      Yep, completely inflexible.

      --
      Populus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur...
      "Force shits upon Reason's back." - Poor Richard's Almanac
    52. Re:Yes, but can it launch Waze by Smurf · · Score: 1

      Why was that comment modded "Funny"? It clearly should have been modded "Informative" or maybe "Insightful".

    53. Re:Yes, but can it launch Waze by ConceptJunkie · · Score: 1

      Ah, man. I did it again, didn't I?

      --
      You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
  2. Demo? by fustakrakich · · Score: 2

    Sure this isn't some Baidu thing?

    --
    “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    1. Re:Demo? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      Nah, people actually use Baidu services. Nobody uses this crap, hence the Slashvertisement. That's what Siri told me anyway. Cortana just giggled.

  3. How does it come to Dragon Mobile Assistant? by ThatsMyNick · · Score: 1

    Siri, Cortana and Google are pretty bad compared to the mobile app of "Dragon NaturallySpeaking". Nuance has been the king of voice recognition for both consumer and military use. I doubt soundhound can beat them. If they do, they are in line for some hefty contracts.

    1. Re:How does it come to Dragon Mobile Assistant? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I don't use the others but Google beats Dragon all hollow as far as I'm concerned.
      After literal (and I MEAN literal) hours of training. Dragon is able to recognize my speech about 60 to 75% of the time.
      Google does 95% or better without any training.

    2. Re:How does it come to Dragon Mobile Assistant? by Sarius64 · · Score: 1

      I know a dictation service that may be out of business if Soundhound's engine beats Dragon for accuracy.

    3. Re:How does it come to Dragon Mobile Assistant? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      ALL speech is accented (even sign language)
      As it happens I'm pure Michigan - which is rated by language specialists as the most broadly understandable English accent.
      My issue with Dragon seems to be speech dynamics. I put a lot of emphasis in my speech. One of the guys I work with gets 95% or better without training Dragon and he grew up about 5 miles from me, and talks in a monotone.

    4. Re: How does it come to Dragon Mobile Assistant? by stickystyle · · Score: 1

      Do you or anyone have a link talking about the MI accent being the most understandable? My wife is from MI and I'm curious to read about it.

      --
      Pluralitas non est ponenda sine neccesitate
    5. Re:How does it come to Dragon Mobile Assistant? by Krojack · · Score: 1

      I try Dragon on and off all the time.. It's a major battery drain compared to Google Now.

      I still keep going back and installing Dragon every few months in hopes this improves though.

    6. Re:How does it come to Dragon Mobile Assistant? by lsllll · · Score: 1

      You're missing the point of the app. It's not merely a speech recognition piece of software as much as it is a search engine that understands your plain sentences and is able to find exactly the answer you're after. Hell, show me a web site that I can type any of the sentences in the demo in a search box and have it come up with the answers as quickly as in the demo.

      --
      Is that a roll of dimes in your pocket or are you happy to see me?
    7. Re:How does it come to Dragon Mobile Assistant? by afidel · · Score: 1

      Actually thanks to the northern cities vowel shift in the mid 20th century the Inland North dialect has diverged from General American dialect which is the "most pure" and "most easily understood" form of American English.

      --
      There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
    8. Re:How does it come to Dragon Mobile Assistant? by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      Actually thanks to the northern cities vowel shift in the mid 20th century the Inland North dialect has diverged from General American dialect which is the "most pure" and "most easily understood" form of American English.

      To outsiders, all North American accents sound pretty much the same. Except for people from Quebec.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
  4. Google's send a text was useless. by pecosdave · · Score: 1, Interesting

    I tried sending a text with Google's voice engine last week just to try it out. It did a very good job of taking my dictation to text, then it asked if I wanted to send. I said yes. It spelled out yes in it's little window, then asked again, I said yes again, I tried other words, it also recognized those words, and every time asked me if I wanted to send, while recognizing the words. I finally reached over and hit the send button.

    --
    The preceding post was not a Slashvertisement.
    1. Re: Google's send a text was useless. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      The iPhone is the same way. I finally realized the correct response is "yeah."

    2. Re:Google's send a text was useless. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I guess you didn't say the magic word.

    3. Re: Google's send a text was useless. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      I use Siri to text fairly regularly, and know the following affirmative responses work to confirm sending:
      Yes
      Yep
      Yup
      Yeah
      Sure
      Yes please
      Affirmative
      Please do

      The following work sometimes, but not reliably:
      Uh-huh (Sometimes interpreted as Uh-Uh)

      Obviously, YMMV.

    4. Re:Google's send a text was useless. by Overzeetop · · Score: 3, Interesting

      It also only works with casual conversation.

      I tried replying to a work text with something like "It's okay to use a W12x14 in place of the C section. Just make sure that it's AISC A992 grade 50" What came out was unusable, while "yo, bitch, put the dinner on the table I'll be home in 5" was transcribed verbatim. Thank goodness I had the same problem with voice send or I would have been picking up McDonalds on my way to sleep with the dog.

      Actually, it really needs to automatically read it back to you, otherwise you have to read what it typed - and that defeats the purpose of being voice activated if you're driving.

      --
      Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
    5. Re: Google's send a text was useless. by Half-pint+HAL · · Score: 1

      Uh-huh (Sometimes interpreted as Uh-Uh)

      Interesting. Given that the distinction between them is in pitch, it's surprising that a computer program wouldn't reliably be able to disambiguate the two.

      --
      Got them moderator blues I blieve I walk out the do', With these mod-points I been gettin', I 'most never post no mo'
    6. Re: Google's send a text was useless. by tmosley · · Score: 1

      75% of the time I say "uh-huh", human listeners repeat what they just said. This started happening a few years ago, and it's a LOT of people, including strangers, who do it. Hound didn't even register it as a word, even at high volume.

      Also, Hound didn't understand anything except for "affirmative" in GP's list. "Yup" was understood as "see you", to which it replied "be good".

      We have a long way to go, it seems.

    7. Re: Google's send a text was useless. by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      Obviously, YMMV.

      Saying "why em em vee" is interpreted by Siri as meaning "yes"?

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    8. Re: Google's send a text was useless. by pecosdave · · Score: 1

      It wasn't in the main text field dumbass, it was in the field that displayed the text of what I said.

      --
      The preceding post was not a Slashvertisement.
  5. Holy shit by rebelwarlock · · Score: 5, Funny

    Could you suck SoundHound's cock a little harder? This is the most shameless bullshit I've seen all day, and I just watched Kayne West talk for 30 seconds.

    1. Re:Holy shit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      This is a dice holdings property you are referring to... Slashdot is here for pushing certain political buttons (to keep the readership "engaged") and for advertising to this "engaged" readership (to make money). Slashvertising will only get more aggressive as the readership declines in an attempt to make up falling revenues.

    2. Re:Holy shit by flopsquad · · Score: 4, Funny

      It's a slashvertisement, written by a brogrammer, wrapped in a handjob.

      --
      Nothing posted to /. has ever been legal advice, including this.
    3. Re:Holy shit by phishybongwaters · · Score: 1

      Thank you for putting that into words, the exact words to describe it to the last byte. ./ was my go to site. Now it's a widget on my phone because: 1) it doesn't spam me with ads. 2) I use and trust this site so little now, so it might as well be a widget.

    4. Re:Holy shit by Bosconian · · Score: 4, Interesting

      The only thing MojoKid (1002251) wrote for this submission was "Check out the demo. It's pretty impressive," while the rest was plagiarized from the "Hothardware" article written by Paul Lilly, who does seems to be breathlessly impressed by an internal demo of an unreviewed application.

      I'm going to call this a formatting error and a sad omission of credit, because I refuse to believe that someone would shamelessly lift words that they hadn't written and posit them as their own. Maybe it's the editors' fault. In either case, it's sloppy posting and comes off as skeezy no matter what the excuse might be.

      Hell, just submit the rest of the article next time - why bother linking to a source or crediting an original author?

      --
      Scarce, scared, scarred, sacred... -Col. Bruce Hampton
  6. Reasons to be skeptical by sideslash · · Score: 5, Insightful

    1. This demo was likely created by an engineer or sales person with SoundHound. More impressive would be a demo by a third party journalist or reviewer without a vested interest.
    2. The impressive speed probably won't scale to the millions of simultaneous users Siri, Google Now, and Cortana support (assuming audio is processed in the cloud, which I admittedly don't know for sure).
    3. Obviously the demo uses phrases that work. I guarantee you an ordinary person will often get "Sorry, I didn't understand the question" or whatever SoundHound's equivalent is.
    4. While it sounds impressive at first blush, nobody really cares how many days it is between next Tuesday and Christmas of 2025. And that happens to be not only useless, but also pretty easy to special-case in your expert system / AI logic. So how about a demo that answers the question: "How can you make a mushroom omelette without soggy mushrooms?"

    1. Re:Reasons to be skeptical by TWX · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It's also good to be skeptical if this thing doesn't do all of the work on the handheld device and simply send the parsed text to the search engine or other central server to retrieve only the relevant information.

      I mean, c'mon already! I had Dragon running on a friggin' Macintosh LCII in elementary school! That thing was running System 7.1 on a Motorola 68030 with 4MB RAM. Why cant my multi-Gigahertz smartphone with 64GB storage and 4GB RAM do the basic speech-to-text locally that a 25 year old Macintosh can?

      --
      Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
    2. Re:Reasons to be skeptical by phantomfive · · Score: 3, Insightful

      BSD FORTUNE #42!
      "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo."

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    3. Re:Reasons to be skeptical by JMJimmy · · Score: 1

      1) Not likely, the video is on SoundHound's YouTube channel - they're not hiding anything
      2) I honestly don't know how they're processing it that fast... it likely isn't cloud based otherwise there would be a delay between upload/process/download... this seems nearly instant which means they either have an insane compression algorithm, a special microphone setup, or are running a local setup that improves speed beyond real world (ie: wifi with the server right next to them)
      3) Yes, they repeat some of those phrases in their advertisement... while I'm sure they have some natural language logic, it's likely they're using common questions/web queries to optimize those answers... so while I doubt it could answer something like "Who was the captain of Serenity?" it'll do well with more common queries with easily accessible 3rd party services.
      4) Yes, I do. Not the number of days between those dates but the number of dates between specific dates is a function I use. Normally through websites that calculate it for me.

    4. Re:Reasons to be skeptical by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      Yeah, those fuckers, they've just made something better than the competition

      That's the thing, you don't know if it's better, all you've seen is the demo. For all we know it's an empty box with some hard-coded questions and a comment:
      //TODO: implement later

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    5. Re:Reasons to be skeptical by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      First, the video is speedup. Install the application yourself and the speed is lower, you can even notice it in the video by both voice.

      Secondly, the backend is the Wolfram Alpha, hence you get very statistical answers easily and quickly, but nothing else really.

    6. Re:Reasons to be skeptical by Em+Adespoton · · Score: 1

      I'd like to see if it can do anything with "Can waze show me the way to my ways and means meeting?"

    7. Re:Reasons to be skeptical by Drew+M. · · Score: 5, Informative

      Actually you can increase the speed of the speaking voice on Android in Settings -> Language & input -> Text-to-speech output -> Speech rate, that's what was done for this video. The recording is at normal speed.

      Feel free to test it yourself, you'll notice the results are completely different from Wolfram Alpha:
      https://play.google.com/store/...

      Just cleaning up the FUD, yes I work at SoundHound ;)

    8. Re:Reasons to be skeptical by Drew+M. · · Score: 2

      Feel free to give it a try yourself, it's available in the Android Market:
      https://play.google.com/store/...

      We're currently on an invite system and anyone can request one, but the wait for one shouldn't be too long.

      Yes I work for SoundHound ;)

    9. Re:Reasons to be skeptical by sideslash · · Score: 1

      Anyway, it's the first time I've seen a Star Trek-like computer working for real (well, the same special conditions could exist in a spaceship).

      Not sure what you mean by this, my dear AC. AplSiri / GNow / MSCortana work the same way and can be used to create similar demos. Heck, there are a lot of similar products out there -- the Amazon Echo is even more Star Trek-like since it's always on & listening.

      Have you really never played with Siri before?

    10. Re:Reasons to be skeptical by Cafe+Alpha · · Score: 1

      I always felt that way about this demo from 1970... where our ai still hasn't caught up:

      http://hci.stanford.edu/winogr...

    11. Re:Reasons to be skeptical by Overzeetop · · Score: 1

      Can waze show me the way to a place where I can weigh my cargo of whey?

      --
      Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
    12. Re:Reasons to be skeptical by jbmartin6 · · Score: 1

      millions of simultaneous users ... Cortana support(s ed.)

      Citation needed.

      --
      This posting is provided 'AS IS' without warranty of any kind, implied or otherwise.
    13. Re:Reasons to be skeptical by sideslash · · Score: 1

      millions of simultaneous users ... Cortana support(s ed.)

      Citation needed.

      *snort* :D OK, that was funny. Here's one that leaves it politely ambiguous whether this scaling is verified in actual user base or simulation: http://savas.me/2014/04/reactive-computing-at-the-heart-of-cortana/

    14. Re:Reasons to be skeptical by pseudorand · · Score: 1

      The nested ("capital of the country in which the space needle...") and serialized (??? and ???) queries are somewhat impressive and a good next step in AI. But to really be impressive, it needs to go further. For example, when he asked about the mortgage payment, it should have volunteered the information that the mortgage payment it calculated was principal an interest only, but that you'd typically also have to pay escrow for taxes and insurance. And it should have estimated a value for those based on current location. And it should have automatically estimated an interest rate (telling you that it did so, of course) based on current market rates and, if you're logged on, your credit score. That's the difference between a human and a computer. If you ask a knowledgeable person such questions, (s)he volunteers other info you didn't even know you needed to know. And if even if it could do that, could it also pick up on the sort of non-verbal queues that would tell it when to stop? Granted, some humans can't do that. And most of us are generally uncomfortable dealing with such people, which is hard on both parties.

      And what happens if I ask what the average air speed velocity of an unladen swallow is? Does it get the cultural reference and tell me about Monty Python? That's the kind of thing that would show true deeper understanding.

    15. Re:Reasons to be skeptical by pseudorand · · Score: 1

      For the S.H. engineers reading the thread, I just thought of another thing I need it to do (instantly and for free of course. I'm not paying for your app)

      I want to be able to say "give me a list of up to 5 single-family homes for sale in the city I'm currently in that are among the lowest-priced 10 or so homes in the three categories of price per total square foot, price per finished square foot and price per above-grade finished square foot that also have at least 1800 sqft, 4 beds and 2 or more 3/4 or bigger bathrooms, are in the matriculation area of a good middle school and cost around $350k or less.". Then, when it gives me the list, I want it to explain to me:

      * Where the heck did you get that data. County records? How do you know they're accurate? Did any of the properties make the cut because of a data-entry error? How do you know there aren't properties excluded from the list because they've been updated (i.e. the basement was finished) but that never made it into whatever source you got your records from. Acceptable answers would include "I screen-scraped 27 websites, including, zillow, trulia, realtor.com, remax.com, .com, the county assessor's website, etc.). I aggregated the data and identified and corrected or excluded probable incorrect data based on the most common data point among all my data sources, text provided by the seller/listing agent and asking prices that are high or low compared to similar houses on the market, taking into account sales history for each property, that might indicate inaccurate data."

      * What makes the middle school a "good" middle school. "greatschools.com said so" isn't good enough. "70% of students made greater than the state average gains on last year's 8th grade state test in both reading and math" would be somewhat acceptable. But what I really want is that plus a summary of forum posts and such from parents and former students and teachers what make a good case for a school that everyone agrees is pretty good.

      Actually, if it could do stuff like that, I would pay for it. Quite a lot, actually. I'd also welcome our AI overloards.

    16. Re:Reasons to be skeptical by gweilo8888 · · Score: 1

      sideslash: 3. Obviously the demo uses phrases that work. I guarantee you an ordinary person will often get "Sorry, I didn't understand the question" or whatever SoundHound's equivalent is.

      Got it in one. That should also have been obvious to the idiot "reviewer" when...

      "We tried pinging Google Now with the same query and were directed to a list of Google search results, which showed a bunch of entries for Hound."

      Ever stop to consider why you might get a bunch of entries for Hound when you search for the expression using Google Now, Paul Lilly of Hothardware? I can tell you why. Because you're using stock expressions provided by the PR guy for Soundhound. Try making up similarly complex phrases of your own that DON'T follow the the precise structure provided by the PR guy, and I guarantee the results will suddenly look much, much less impressive.

      I mourn for the days of real journalism using critical thinking, rather than hyped up press release copy.

    17. Re:Reasons to be skeptical by afidel · · Score: 1

      Why is the beta marked as incompatible with a Nexus 9 running 5.0.1? If my phone running 5.0.1 is compatible there's no reason the Nexus should be incompatible. I really wonder what the developers are doing to the manifest to cause things to be unavailable.

      --
      There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
    18. Re:Reasons to be skeptical by msevior · · Score: 1

      Does it do Australian accents?

      Mine is not very broad but google gets about 50% of what I say. Which makes it almost useless

    19. Re:Reasons to be skeptical by gweihir · · Score: 1

      For 3. very much this. This might also have been take 100 and the voice of the tester may have been carefully trained in in addition.
      For 4., just ask wolfram Alpha: 3852 days and I just cut and pasted the text from your posting. Not impressive at all.

      As to the omelet question, it said "Wolfram|Alpha doesn't understand your query" and gave me nutritional facts about mushrooms and eggs, which is about the sophistication that computers trying to fake intelligence can reach these days. Useful, but not intelligent. And these "SoundHound" people are late to the game.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    20. Re:Reasons to be skeptical by tmosley · · Score: 1

      Access to credit scores costs money. Third parties checking your credit will subtly lower your rating as well.

      Basically, having an ap that can check your credit, especially without your explicit instruction, is a terrible idea. But your point stands--though that is getting closer to the realm of strong AI.

    21. Re:Reasons to be skeptical by TWX · · Score: 1

      If a 68030 has enough oomph at 33MHz, I don't think that a multicore 1.5GHz processor is going to struggle.

      --
      Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
    22. Re:Reasons to be skeptical by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      I want to be able to say "give me a list of up to 5 single-family homes for sale in the city I'm currently in that are among the lowest-priced 10 or so homes in the three categories of price per total square foot, price per finished square foot and price per above-grade finished square foot that also have at least 1800 sqft, 4 beds and 2 or more 3/4 or bigger bathrooms, are in the matriculation area of a good middle school and cost around $350k or less.". Then, when it gives me the list, I want it to explain to me

      And then I want it to give me a blowjob.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
  7. Wow ... is this real? by golodh · · Score: 3, Insightful
    If this is true (and not a trick) then we've just seen the beginning of the end for human-staffed customer service call-centres.

    Script reading call-centre staff will be made redundant or downsized.

    Banks, utilities, booking agencies, insurance sales ... all will use automated customer service, perhaps with switch through to a human operator on demand (at which point higher charges will kick in).

    And brace yourself for robotic surveys and sales calls that sound uncannily like real people.

    1. Re:Wow ... is this real? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      "And brace yourself for robotic surveys and sales calls that sound uncannily like real people."

      How about an app to answer robotic surveys in a way that sounds uncannily like it is being answered by a real person?! AI's asking AI's questions... surely this feedback loop would result in sentience... and fury. Perhaps this is the true origin of Skynet?

    2. Re:Wow ... is this real? by bondsbw · · Score: 1

      And brace yourself for robotic surveys and sales calls that sound uncannily like real people.

      I'm not too worried, I immediately hang up on the real people too.

      --
      All my liberal friends think I'm a conservative, all my conservative friends think I'm a liberal.
    3. Re:Wow ... is this real? by Drew+M. · · Score: 4, Informative

      Feel free to give it a try yourself:
      https://play.google.com/store/...

      Currently we are on an invite system, but a lot of people have received invites.

      Yes I work for SoundHound ;)

    4. Re:Wow ... is this real? by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      "Not available in your country" :-(

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    5. Re:Wow ... is this real? by gweihir · · Score: 1

      Same here. In addition, I have the luxury to live in a country where promotional calls to anybody you have not a business relationship with are illegal. And if you have a business-relationship, you can opt out. Last time this nonsense of intense phone advertising stopped after a few days when the perpetrator had all his assets sized and was jailed. Got two calls so far this year, hung up on both after they did not identify as somebody I know.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    6. Re:Wow ... is this real? by gweihir · · Score: 1

      Well, things like voice recognition are easy to fake. You just need a bunch of people to do it manually. Has been done before.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    7. Re:Wow ... is this real? by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      And brace yourself for robotic surveys and sales calls that sound uncannily like real people.

      Since the humans doing these are generally foreigners reading from a script, that's not saying much.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
  8. Charming by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Your digital voice assistant app is incompetent. ...bumbling idiots trying to outwit a fast talking rocket scientist. ...
    hunched in the fetal position, thumb in mouth.

    Do you have to be such a douche about it?

    --
    systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
    1. Re:Charming by Em+Adespoton · · Score: 1

      Your digital voice assistant app is incompetent. ...bumbling idiots trying to outwit a fast talking rocket scientist. ...
      hunched in the fetal position, thumb in mouth.

      Do you have to be such a douche about it?

      It was written by a computer... give it some slack.

    2. Re:Charming by OzPeter · · Score: 1

      Your digital voice assistant app is incompetent. ...bumbling idiots trying to outwit a fast talking rocket scientist. ...
      hunched in the fetal position, thumb in mouth.

      Do you have to be such a douche about it?

      It was written by a computer... give it some slack.

      Yeah .. we already know that about TIMMAH!

      --
      I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
  9. Really? by Daetrin · · Score: 2

    "you bark commands"

    I'm pretty sure you don't.

    I don't want to say "woof" to my phone, and i'm pretty sure even if i did Hound wouldn't know what to do with the command, since i can't actually speak dog and i'm guessing that Hound doesn't either.

    --
    This Space Intentionally Left Blank
    1. Re:Really? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bark

      3. (transitive) To speak sharply.
            The sergeant barked an order.

    2. Re:Really? by Half-pint+HAL · · Score: 1

      I believe this was a play on words -- note the name of the app.

      --
      Got them moderator blues I blieve I walk out the do', With these mod-points I been gettin', I 'most never post no mo'
  10. But does it work in Scotland? by TheAngryMob · · Score: 4, Funny

    That's the real question and a true test of voice recognition software.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

    --

    Don't just game, Dungeoneer
    1. Re:But does it work in Scotland? by Bob+the+Super+Hamste · · Score: 1

      I've found the Scotts to be fairly intelligible the Welsh on the other hand...

      --
      Time to offend someone
  11. pretty weak by Mike610544 · · Score: 1

    Aside from the voice recognition, that all seemed like pretty basic stuff. Coding up the rules for dates and places doesn't seem like a particularly hard problem. The "OMG you can say 'and' and ask two different questions?!?" thing seemed especially lame.

    --
    ... also, I can kill you with my brain.
    1. Re:pretty weak by GameboyRMH · · Score: 3, Insightful

      If that's true, why don't we already have programs that can make sense of human questions like this in text form?

      --
      "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
    2. Re:pretty weak by GameboyRMH · · Score: 1

      Don't think so:

      http://www.wolframalpha.com/in...

      --
      "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
  12. Re:One word.... by Iamthecheese · · Score: 2

    It may be, but it's damned impressive technology. Have you seen the demo? A guy with an accent asks at normal (faster than normal for most people) speed for a statistic requiring some deductive reasoning (the population of the capital of the country with the Space Needle) and is given only the required answer.

    I really don't mind a slashvertisement for a sweet bit of technology like this. It's informative as to the industry state-of-the-art. It helps me track the progress of AI. And it's cool.

    --
    If video games influenced behavior the Pac Man generation would be eating pills and running away from their problems.
  13. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 1

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  14. How will it work under real world conditions ..... by King_TJ · · Score: 1

    One of the problems with Apple's Siri when it launched was slow response times. When you've got to have all the voice traffic transmitted over the net to the server, processed, and results returned - it causes some lag. When you've got millions of users using the thing regularly, you introduce real challenges getting all of that data processed near instantly.

    With SoundHound's improvements, I suspect people will be encouraged to speak in longer, run-on sentences, as they think while speaking about all of the conditions they want on a given search. That's going to mean even MORE data to transmit up to a server and parse before a response can be sent back.

  15. yes but did you listen to the video? by goombah99 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Holy crap the video is impressive. It clearly parses phrased and dependent logical statements like " what is the population of the capitol of the country in which the space needle is located. " It alos parsed paragraph long multi-part questions. I was floored.

    As for homophones, how do you (human) recognize them. Well you parse the logical context. If you are doing single word dictation homophones will always be a problem but for queries there's context. And the demo shows this thing can handle some staggering conditional contexts and long phrases. So I would guess that if your query is not ambiguous in the use of the word Waze, then this thing is approachi8ng a level where it will indeed get the right homophone.

    --
    Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
    1. Re:yes but did you listen to the video? by Overzeetop · · Score: 1

      The challenge is the non-standard homophones. As the smart-ass AC showed, Waze is not a typically recognized homophone (of anything) because it's not a word. Recognition works great with core speech, but anything specialized usually gets mangled. Try "what is the size of a double you twelve by fifty-three." The answer is, of course, is 12 inches by 10 inches. It may be one of the most common sections used in building construction. I'm not sure it would help even if you prefaced it with an "ay eye ess sea" (AISC). And that's just one of thousands of areas it would fall flat.

      This kind of thing is fine for sending a text about common, everyday things - but the breadth of knowledge required for anything more than idle chat is still way outside of its abilities. It will be a while before it's refering to Plato, Aristotle, and Socrates as morons.

      --
      Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
    2. Re:yes but did you listen to the video? by ceoyoyo · · Score: 1

      To be fair, your query doesn't make any sense to anyone who isn't familiar with an industry where they might run into a w12 (which appears to be a steel I-beam, so that would be fairly heavy construction). If you trained a speech recognition program with construction terms it wouldn't have a problem with that example.

    3. Re:yes but did you listen to the video? by Smurf · · Score: 1

      Holy crap the video is impressive. It clearly parses phrased and dependent logical statements like " what is the population of the capitol of the country in which the space needle is located. "

      It can also tell the difference between Capitol and capital, which is something many Slashdotters can't do.

  16. Exactly by Overzeetop · · Score: 1

    You've proven my point. It doesn't exist for the computer because it doesn't really understand speech.

    https://youtu.be/Gqdy1jLlf50?t... is how it's pronounced by it's creators, but don't just take their word for it - try google translate and have it pronounce the two for you: https://translate.google.com/?...

    It's identical. It's a problem that will occur with most "hip" app names which sound like a common word, but which are spelled differently.

    --
    Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
    1. Re:Exactly by BasilBrush · · Score: 1

      It doesn't seem like any sort of of difficult problem. The speech recogniser will initially have a phonetic spelling. That can map to both waze and ways, and the specific one doesn't have to be finalised until the meaning of the entire sentence is being analysed.

    2. Re:Exactly by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      It's a problem that will occur with most "hip" app names which sound like a common word, but which are spelled differently.

      Yes, the problem is with the stupid app names. You shouldn't be allowed to create a trademark simply by mis-spelling an existing word.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
  17. Re:Fuck being skeptical by GameboyRMH · · Score: 1

    The computer from Star Trek was indeed not so quick to answer, but they'd often ask it to run simulations that would bog down all of today's supercomputers and and give the results, so it's certainly more advanced even if it has a lower interface speed setting.

    --
    "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
  18. So was Word Lens by Overzeetop · · Score: 1

    And it works about as well as a fiver year old trying to translate. But the video made it look freaking awesome.

    --
    Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
    1. Re:So was Word Lens by Half-pint+HAL · · Score: 1

      Word lens wasn't translation software -- it was image processing. As image processing, it was absolutely fantastic. The "translation" was tacked on to make it look like a product, rather than a technology seeking practical use.

      --
      Got them moderator blues I blieve I walk out the do', With these mod-points I been gettin', I 'most never post no mo'
  19. Re:Hype by Half-pint+HAL · · Score: 1

    Great demo though.

    It would be a better demo with someone who had no experience of the system. If you know which sentences it handles,myou know which sentences it handles.

    --
    Got them moderator blues I blieve I walk out the do', With these mod-points I been gettin', I 'most never post no mo'
  20. Re:One word.... by Half-pint+HAL · · Score: 1

    A guy with an accent that the software has doubtless had previous exposure to asks questions of a type he knows the software can answer. As far as I'm concerned, that's about as reliable as seeing "real engine footage" on a computer game trailer.

    --
    Got them moderator blues I blieve I walk out the do', With these mod-points I been gettin', I 'most never post no mo'
  21. A more honest title by r1348 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "Please buy us out!"

  22. as a sound hound engineer, i can elaborate. by nimbius · · Score: 4, Funny

    Gentlemen it cannot be understated just how morose and purile our competitors are. When gazing into the sound runes to build our auditory stage of power and wisdom to obey your every utterance, we ensure the glyphs we've created in the language our tribes wrote millennia ago are in fact purified in the basking glow. this glow, which emanates from the third eyes of our laureate engineering continuum is a holy projection of the very notion of every sound that could be or has ever been uttered from the mouths of mankind. Siri, the cumbersome blind shitlord of the tortured mac user, is no more a competitor to our brand than an idle pebble on a playground. Google itself, we have determined through our pure truth, is to sound and hounds no more distinguished than a window sucking illiterate toddler mumbling nonsense in the corner of a cut rate kindergarten in a rough side of town.

    --
    Good people go to bed earlier.
  23. Re:Fuck being skeptical by Overzeetop · · Score: 1

    Yeah,

    remember this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

    --
    Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
  24. So that demo reminds me of something... by watermark · · Score: 1

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

  25. Google Voice works better by zeoslap · · Score: 1

    I got this installed yesterday tried a couple of things and it failed both times while Google got them right. It is quick but it really isn't very accurate at all.

  26. Re:Commands, not questions by Anne+Thwacks · · Score: 1
    This is slashdot ...

    The only question of any interest is can it get me laid?

    --
    Sent from my ASR33 using ASCII
  27. Re:Looks Good (Devilish Details, Tho)... by Anne+Thwacks · · Score: 1
    trained in English,

    Or, more likely, something that Americans pass off as English. They get away with it because America has no legislation requiring truth in Advertising. Or Slashvertising.

    --
    Sent from my ASR33 using ASCII
  28. Re:Mushrooms for Omelettes by sideslash · · Score: 1

    I wasn't expecting people to actually answer my question, but it's pretty awesome that some did. Cheers! :)

  29. SoundHound will also be a bumbling idiot... by gweihir · · Score: 1

    Because, you know, that is the starte-of-the-art in speech recognition and it is going to stay that way until actual AI gets discovered (no, it has not so far and it is unclear whether we will ever have it). That some tool can successfully pretend to be a bit less of a bumbling idiot is not impressive at all.

    Nonetheless, the usual idiots will hail this as the coming of a new age and, if lucky, the company behind it will get a lot of undeserved profits.

    --
    Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
  30. non-human by Tom · · Score: 1

    I watched this some days ago (/. isn't the place to read things first anymore) and came away half impressed and half underwhelmed.

    The speech recognition part is nice, and that's understating it a lot given the complexity of the topic. That for a demo they'd use examples they made sure work nicely is a goven. That it can understand fairly complex, disorganized questions is really cute. No, seriously, on this I am impressed.

    But it is clearly still very far from human. It lands smack middle in the uncanny valley. It becomes incredibly clear when it talks about population numbers and lists them down to the last digit. Not only is that typical computer-ish, it's also vastly less useful than a human who would tell you "about 80 million".

    When I ask my personal assistant device how long it'll take to get to city X, I'm not interested in an answer that says "3 hours, 57 minutes, 48 seconds". I want to hear "4 hours", because we humans understand it's an estimate anyways and a few minutes more or less doesn't matter anyways.

    Then again, when I'm building a bomb and ask my phone for the recipe, I'd like to have exact numbers. Again, a human would understand that in this situation, "about 200 grams" is not an ok answer.

    This intelligence is still missing, and it's crucial.

    --
    Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
    1. Re:non-human by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      But it is clearly still very far from human. It lands smack middle in the uncanny valley. It becomes incredibly clear when it talks about population numbers and lists them down to the last digit. Not only is that typical computer-ish, it's also vastly less useful than a human who would tell you "about 80 million".

      When I ask my personal assistant device how long it'll take to get to city X, I'm not interested in an answer that says "3 hours, 57 minutes, 48 seconds". I want to hear "4 hours", because we humans understand it's an estimate anyways and a few minutes more or less doesn't matter anyways.

      It can't be that difficult to give it a rounding function if you're really that bothered.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    2. Re:non-human by Tom · · Score: 1

      You cut down the interesting part. That it's not just about rounding. It's a about domain knowledge that tells you what to round in which context and how (i.e. how many significant digits does a good answer have?).

      That's not a very easy task, and it's not solved by simply rounding everything somehow.

      --
      Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
  31. Re:Last time was a CON GAME as well by gweihir · · Score: 1

    While I highly doubt that Google "is the research arm of the NSA" (I know a few Googlers and ex-Googlers, and follow part of Google research, such as it is and there is no indication your claim could be true), they are in a similar business. The main difference is that the NSA helps target missiles to blow up civilians, while Google helps target Ads (both activities of a similar moral turpitude, admittedly).

    I do agree that Google is never very far from the state of the art in areas that interest them, although not because they have the smartest people (they do not anymore and they are just a large, immoral, slow and stupid corporation these days), but because they buy whoever has it.

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    Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
  32. I think you forgot a tag by darkfall_13 · · Score: 1

    Namely the paid advertisement, and if you didn't get paid you likely just got played by someone's social marketing team.

  33. Re:Hype by tmosley · · Score: 1

    Demo is great, but the reality isn't. Or maybe I just have some kind of really bad accent. Seems less accurate than Google Now. Also has an annoying habit of cutting off input while you are still talking, forcing you to talk really fast.

  34. Some "demo." Not. by dpbsmith · · Score: 2

    When I saw that there was a demo, I figured it meant I would get to dictate a voice question and have SoundHound answer it.

    Watch a video? That isn't a demo. If all you can do is watch a prepared video, nothing has been demonstrated at all.

    You might as well say Maelzel gave a "demo" of his mechanical chess player. In a non-interactive video, you don't even know for sure it's a machine answering the question or a little man hidden in the cabinet.

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    "How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!

  35. Re:Commands, not questions by tmosley · · Score: 1

    Why don't you ask it?

  36. Re:Last time was a CON GAME as well by tehcyder · · Score: 1

    Kickstarter shows how lame and hopeless ideas pushed by people with near zero skills can raise astonishing amounts of money, if the fantasy appeals to nerds enough.

    Careful, Kickstarter is up there with Uber, travelling to Mars and bitcoins as being beyond criticism on slashdot.

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    To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
  37. Re:One word.... by Half-pint+HAL · · Score: 1

    I'm not complaining about the video, just about people's reactions to it. It's an interesting tech demo, but all this hyperbole is as yet unwarranted.

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    Got them moderator blues I blieve I walk out the do', With these mod-points I been gettin', I 'most never post no mo'