Your favorite voice AI assistant

[jyl]

Who has significant experience with a voice AI like Amazon Echo, Apple Siri, Microsoft Cortana, Google Home, etc?

What do you do with them? Most common things you say to them, most frequent uses. How well do they work, what doesn't work well, what does?. What needs to get better? Which is best at understanding natural conversation?

I am only asking about voice interface AI assistants.

[Chocaholic]

Perhaps I'm too old and curmudgeonly but it seems like a solution to a problem that doesn't exist. How hard is it to google something? Do we really need a box that is listening to every uttered word? But that's not what you asked...

[jyl]

Thank you for the helpful answer to my question . . .

I'm trying to find out which has the best voice AI technology.

[stealthn]

Hard question to answer. I would say cortana but you would be better searching for what you could ask each.

[pavulon]

[stevej37]

I've had Alexa...Amazon Echo's set-up for over a year now. It comes with a script to read when new, to recognize your voice. Friends who try to ask q's sometimes won't get a response...but it does awaken when the tv has an actress named Alexa!
It's handy in that you can search for answers for anything without going to your phone or laptop...just say it. Also will play any music from Amazon or your playlists. The sound quality is excellent for its size.
Mine gets used a lot for Jeopardy. Every day there are new answers from that days show that are in the same categories for that day. They must have an agreement with the show. Just say "Alexa start Jeopardy"
Overall, I like it. Is it necessary to me...no. Paid 140...I feel it was well worth it.

[red-beard]

I use the Google Widget with voice recognition on my phone when I'm driving. S-Voice is on my watch, but I rarely use it.

[GH85Carrera]

Voice activation has some limits. Try to ask Siri how far it is to Albuquerque. She flat could not understand my question. She tried to answer with how much two can carry it other silly replies. At the time I was in Arizona on I-40 headed east back home to Oklahoma.

[stomachmonkey]

I find Siri understands me better when I set her to respond as a Brit.

Never really looked into it but it would seem to make sense that developers would account for accents.

A fun game is to create a contact like "Moms Cell"

Siri, call moms cell.

"I can call moms cell, what's the number?"

No, SIRI, call mom.

"I have two numbers for mom, which shall I use?"

The mobile number.

"I think you want me to call moms cell, is that right?"

Yes that is right.

"What is moms cell number?"

**** you SIRI

[stealthn]

Cortana uses a lot more of location awareness, so you can say "remind me to buy some flowers when I am close to a flower shop". Of course you are giving up your privacy doing so...

[red-beard]

Oh, S-Voice, like a lot of the assistants, listens all the time. Often, my watch (Gear S2) will suddenly say "I don't understand what you asked."

The Google app works pretty well. I tested the Albuquerque question and it worked fine, both giving me voice information and opening up clickable links and maps on the phone.

For making calls, usually I'm using FORD Sync which is quite good.

[jyl]

I only have experience with Siri. It has improved greatly in the past couple of years. However, there are problems that should be trivial to code and suggest to me that someone isn't thinking hard enough.

Examples
- Sometimes you'll ask Siri to do something and it will give you a list to choose from. E.g. there are the people named John Smith in your contacts, it isn't sure which to call. You have to tap the screen. Siri doesn't understand "the second one". When you're trying to use Siri as a hands off assistant, this is a problem.
- Siri seems to have different engines which don't necessarily work the same. I can ask it to find "535 North East Holiday St" and it will correctly return 535 NE Holiday St. But then it will refer to that address as "535 Nee Holiday Street" like it no longer knows what "NE" means.
- Any term or name that is uncommon can stump Siri. Ask it to find "535 NE Holladay St" and it will stubbornly return 535 NE Holiday St. There is no way to spell a word that Siri fails to recognize.
- There are many more such problems.
- I've tried hard to use Siri in situations where I can't use fingers on the screen. E.g. riding a bicycle. It fails miserably due to its inability to accept corrections or clarification when it gets stuck, and it's frequent insistence that you stop voice interface and return to finger interface.
- Siri also seems fairly stupid at natural language. Ask it "where is 535 NE Holiday St" and it has no idea what to do and resorts to dumb search. "Okay I found this on the web for where is 535 NE Holiday St".

[LEAKYSEALS951]

I got google home for my wife this Christmas- almost as a gag gift.

To my surprise- She LOVES it.
Uses it constantly.

Things she uses it for:

Setting timers (sometimes simultaneous/multiple) for cooking

"hey google- set 15 minute timer for this"
then, "hey google-set second 1 hour timer for that"
then "hey google- set five minute timer for something else"

Also shopping list. You will hear her state "hey google- add butter to grocery list"

She uses it for playing music on command, checking weather, and we use it during discussions to settle friendly disputes/bets "hey google. what year did George Michael play such and such?"

It is essentially a voice activated google, and is really good at accessing basic internet searches... "hey google, when was the battle of Hastings?" It does well for that.

My five year old daughter has also taken to it as well..
Daughter:"Hey google, play Taylor Swift"
Me :"Hey google- stop music"

I'm sure it can do a lot more, but haven't researched it. Having HAL in the house was a running joke, but now I really don't care. My wife claimed that the amazon product was letting kids make unapproved purchases on the parent's account, and that google didn't have that problem. I am sure HAL is listening in on all our conversations, but I just can't seem to care anymore.

It is probably the most used x-mas gift of the year at our place.

[red-beard]

News anchor sets off Alexa devices around San Diego ordering unwanted dollhouses - CW6 San Diego

I'm trying to find the WSJ video for the girl named Alexa living with Alexa...But the link is broken.

[red-beard]

[red-beard]

Another comparison video - Siri vs. Alexa

[red-beard]

Google home vs. Alexa