Microsofts CEO calls Alexa and Siri dumb but ChatGPT isn't much smarter

Date:
Tue, 07 Mar 2023 13:23:31 +0000

Description:
Microsofts CEO calls Alexa and Siri dumb but hes wrong about ChatGPT being the answer.

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In an interview with the Financial Times a few weeks ago, Microsofts CEO
Satya Nadella dismissed voice assistants, such as Alexa and Siri, as dumb as
a rock.

This might seem a little rich coming from the CEO of a company that launched (and then abandoned) the unloved Cortana voice assistant, but I actually agree. However, unlike Nadella, I'm not so sure that the new wave of AI chatbots are where the future really lies - or at least not yet.

Sure, they appear to be smarter than the first bunch of voice assistants, including Amazon's Alexa, Apple's Siri and Google's (less charmingly named) Assistant, but that's not saying a lot. I was initially really impressed with these assistants, particularly Alexa, to the extent that I put aside my misgivings about how much information Amazon already collected about me, and filled my home with Echo devices of all shapes and sizes.

That all seems a long time ago now, though. Despite all the promise those voice-activated digital assistants had when they launched, I can't help but feel theyve turned into little more than hands-free light switches and timers for when Im cooking. They even made me temporarily forget how to use a real light switch . Seriously.

Thats it. I dont even use Alexa to play music any more. Partly because none
of the Echo devices I have come with remotely decent speakers, and also because Alexa seems to have developed a strange habit where when I ask for a song to be played, it more often than not chooses a random alternative take
or live version, rather than the studio version I was after. All very frustrating, especially if you're a Bob Dylan fan.

Even as a light switch, Ive found it increasingly unreliable. I now often
have to repeat myself several times before Alexa understands my request and complies. Thats if Im lucky. Sometimes it listens, then just does nothing.

Its become more of an inconvenience and annoyance the exact opposite of what these virtual assistants were supposed to be. To be fair to Nadella, he told the Financial Times that Whether its Cortana or Alexa or Google Assistant or Siri, all these just dont work. We had a product that was supposed to be the new front-end to a lot of [information] that didnt work.

Were not alone in getting disillusioned with voice assistants. As the Financial Times reports , Adam Cheyer, co-creator of Apple's Siri, says that the previous capabilities have just been too awkward No one knows what they can do or cant do. They dont know what they can say or cant say.

It also seems like the companies behind the voice assistants are losing interest. Not only did Microsoft unceremoniously dump Cortana after years of trying to get Windows 10 and Windows 11 users to embrace (or at least tolerate) it, Amazon has cut a large number of jobs recently , and there are reports that the teams involved with Alexa and Echo devices have been particularly hard hit. Two wrongs dont make a right

It may be easy to suggest that Nadellas dismissal of voice assistants is down to sour grapes, as Microsofts Cortana was the least popular out of the big four which also includes Alexa, Google Assistant, and Siri (sorry, Samsung, but no one likes Bixby either) but I certainly agree with him. The shine has worn off.

However, its increasingly looking like Microsoft thinks that artificial intelligence chatbots, most noticeably ChatGPT , could solve these problems and its here where Im going to have to disagree, at least for now.

Microsoft is a big investor in ChatGPT and OpenAI, the company behind it, but when it announced it was bringing the power of ChatGPT to its Bing search engine , it managed something rare: it got people excited about Bing.

Suddenly, people were keen to try out a browser which had for so long been neglected in favor of Google. This surge in interest, plus widespread
coverage in the press, has deepened Microsofts love affair with ChatGPT.

Having an AI bot that can converse with humans in a life-like way, and use huge amounts of stored data in its own libraries and on the internet to
answer questions, seems like the natural evolution of voice assistants.

And, one day it might be. However, the technology has so far not lived up to expectations. People using ChatGPT or the version included in Bing have found the chatbot can give incorrect information, and it can also behave strangely, especially if you challenge it when it replies with the wrong answer. A similar issue emerged with Googles rival Bard AI , which returned an
incorrect answer to a question during the launch event . This quickly became quite embarrassing for Microsoft and Google, and it proved to a lot of us
that AI bots are not quite ready for the limelight.

Cant live up to the hype, sometimes unreliable and even a bit frustrating? That certainly sounds familiar, so if Microsoft and other companies dont want history repeating, theyd do well to think twice before rushing to implement
AI bots in voice assistants.



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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/news/microsofts-ceo-calls-alexa-and-siri-dumb-but-ch atgpt-isnt-much-smarter


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