Submitted by Trillo41 t3_ybdv6j in singularity
Comments
3Quondam6extanT9 t1_itja2tn wrote
Yeah, I thought this way as well. But we've been using Alexa for random actions that become fairly normalized. It's connected to our sound machine, it can turn on lights, it clears out notifications, it's fun for the kids, and it does give us quick info.
It's definitely not a huge part of our lives, but it's now integrated in with some small things that we're fairly happy with it. I think it comes down to what you want to use it for. Someone just keeping it around in hopes that maybe they'll have some interesting discussion with AI is really just buying into a consumer fappening, but if you have actual networking solutions you apply it to then it becomes kind of useful.
NefariousNaz t1_itkcmrx wrote
I use mine on daily basis. Set up reminders for work and personal appointments on the run, multiple lights attached to it and voice activated or put on schedule. Can watch cameras I have set up or drop into other areas of the house to see and talk to others.
My young son cannot call me on the phone but he knows how to voice activate to drop into my office from his room if he needs me.
NefariousNaz t1_itkcmdi wrote
I use mine on daily basis. Set up reminders for work and personal appointments on the run, multiple lights attached to it and voice activated or put on schedule. Can watch cameras I have set up or drop into other areas of the house to see and talk to others.
My young son cannot call me on the phone but he knows how to voice activate to drop into my office from his room if he needs me.
naossoan t1_itjugwb wrote
Totally. I almost never use Google assistant on my phone. It's just not very good for what I do with my phone and almost anything assistant can do, I can do faster myself.
The only time I use it is when I am physically unable to pick up or touch my phone for whatever reason, and when I go to bed and say "hey Google, wake me up at <whatever time>"
(I have a highly irregular morning schedule and don't always need to wake up at the same time)
Upbeat_Nebula_8795 t1_itj5tym wrote
kinda makes me feel like technology wont go anywhere with waste of times like this device. i agree voice assistants have went almost nowhere the past DECADE
ArgentStonecutter t1_itfz6sx wrote
Google's is pretty useful. I bought an Echo Dot and returned it because Alexa was completely useless. Siri is better but it keeps changing and often for the worse.
ziplock9000 t1_itgvtgp wrote
Agreed, Google's is best.
NefariousNaz t1_itit5yp wrote
Why is Google the best?
ziplock9000 t1_itgw1bs wrote
I think voice assistants plateaued about 3 years ago after very rapid initial progress.
was_der_Fall_ist t1_itgx3up wrote
The initial, pre-LLM phase did indeed seem to plateau a few years ago. But now we are beginning to enter the phase in which voice assistance use large language models, and we will see even more rapid progress.
ziplock9000 t1_itgyi3x wrote
What do you see as fruits of that progress?
was_der_Fall_ist t1_ith0o75 wrote
I expect voice assistants to begin to truly understand language, rather than simply having a list of set responses to pre-programmed questions. This will probably be integrated with internet search, so these assistants could help us do complex research. Eventually, I see the goal as a complete natural-language interface for computing, which we will use alongside augmented reality and AI-generated media.
Reasonable-Room-307 t1_itizd86 wrote
Idk why you’re so down on the future of voice assistants. I mean look at the GPT-3 playground, imagine something much better than that but modified for voice command.
ziplock9000 t1_itkzlgf wrote
Eh? I'm not down at all. I just asked someone their personal opinion how they think they will progress in the near term now that we both agreed it had stagnated. Imagine "GPT-3" is a big vague too.
[deleted] t1_iti8fnk wrote
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visarga t1_itkcw8e wrote
Any of the recent LLMs can blow away the commercial voice assistants we have today. But why are voice assistants so primitive? It's probably too expensive to give everyone GPT-3 powers in their speaker, but that should change fast because they have models 50x smaller with comparable quality.
But probably that was not the only reason LLMs are not in voice assistants, I bet they are afraid it will be prompted into saying racist things and make bad PR. Who wants a 'MS Tay' on their hands?
Trillo41 OP t1_itkk9jh wrote
If Microsoft push forward with openAI investment, GPT-3 tech will probably come bundled with Office. Return of clippy 😂
Reasonable-Room-307 t1_itiz0dy wrote
Earlier today I asked Siri to convert 162F to C, and it parsed it as “160 2F to C”. So fucking annoying.
enkae7317 t1_itidjit wrote
Today's voice assistants are just gimicky devices that provide no real value. It is basically you typing shit into google but without the typing. They just read top results from google essentially.
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When voice assistants first released it was very cool and unique for all of about 5 minutes and then almost a decade later, there is barely any progression in that field.