Discussion - Smart Assistants, How Smart are They?

[Sir Topham Hatt]

https://www.neowin.net/news/amazon-thinks-some-of-its-customers-are-getting-bored-their-echo-devices/

 

I remembered this article the other day as I've realised that smart assistants just aren't smart enough, which I'd guess as the reason why people use them for turning lamps on and off and checking the weather.

 

The simple fact is, you can't talk to an assistant and get them to do what you want like you could a human.

 

I currently work a rota, which involes earlies and lates.

I need an alarm set for 4:40am on days I work earlies, and no alarm if I work lates.  But any assistant is too dumb to set that up.

 

Just like you can't tell a smart speaker / assistant to "set a reminder to go to the supermarket every 3rd wednesday of the month unless there are five wednesdays in the month, in which case, every second wednesday, at 9am, using Stingray Theme Tune as the sound" - smart speakers just aren't that intelligent enough to understand, and although complicated, it could be understood by a human.

 

If these AIs could understand humans better, I wonder if we'd use them more.

 

It's part of the reason I am always cynical of "smart" whatever because it's simply not smart enough to care too much about.