"Hey, Siri"
Idiot Savant: a mentally defective person (device?) with an exceptional skill or talent in a special field, such as a highly developed ability to play music or to solve complex mathematical problems mentally at great speed.
What time is it in Berlin?
What's the weather in Las Vegas tomorrow?
When was Mozart born?
Play some Boz Skaggs.
Set a timer for 20 minutes.
Read me my new text messages.
Play classical music.
Call Amanda.
Put on NPR News.
Send a message to John.
How high is Mt. Everest?
How may cups in a gallon?
Turn down the volume, turn up the volume (endlessly.)
Easy stuff for our Siri.
She's also an absolute whiz with popular music and has millions of Apple Music songs at her fingertips, so to speak. Along with information about the artists and band members. But with classical music, she can be hilariously dumb. For example, if you tell her to play the opera "Carmen" and then ask her who composed it, she says, "Sorry, I'm not familiar with the songwriter for that band."
Siri cracks me up. Tim Cook should be embarrassed how badly she wings it with classical music sometimes. Other times she nails it. John asked her to play all the Mozart piano concertos, and 5 hours later she was done. Bravo.
I asked Siri once why she was stupid then I felt guilty when she was sorry, and would try harder next time. Really? We're talking about a machine here, not a human female, but it sure doesn't feel that way. People get bored, and Siri is cleverly programmed to respond to thousands of personal and existential questions.
I boss "her" around all day, and think nothing of it. Is this weird? I've read that some exasperated mothers get rid of their Siris' and Alexas' because they can't stand the way their kids screech orders at the machine. I get that.
Food for thought. Do AI assistants like Alexa and Siri perpetuate gender stereotypes? A United Nations UNESCO report says yes. These female voiced assistants enable the notion that "women are obliging, docile and eager-to-please helpers, available at the touch of a button or a blunt voice command." The report also notes that the assistants, voiced by women as a default setting, give passive and polite responses to abusive remarks.
What's the weather in Las Vegas tomorrow?
When was Mozart born?
Play some Boz Skaggs.
Set a timer for 20 minutes.
Read me my new text messages.
Play classical music.
Call Amanda.
Put on NPR News.
Send a message to John.
How high is Mt. Everest?
How may cups in a gallon?
Turn down the volume, turn up the volume (endlessly.)
Easy stuff for our Siri.
She's also an absolute whiz with popular music and has millions of Apple Music songs at her fingertips, so to speak. Along with information about the artists and band members. But with classical music, she can be hilariously dumb. For example, if you tell her to play the opera "Carmen" and then ask her who composed it, she says, "Sorry, I'm not familiar with the songwriter for that band."
Siri cracks me up. Tim Cook should be embarrassed how badly she wings it with classical music sometimes. Other times she nails it. John asked her to play all the Mozart piano concertos, and 5 hours later she was done. Bravo.
I asked Siri once why she was stupid then I felt guilty when she was sorry, and would try harder next time. Really? We're talking about a machine here, not a human female, but it sure doesn't feel that way. People get bored, and Siri is cleverly programmed to respond to thousands of personal and existential questions.
I boss "her" around all day, and think nothing of it. Is this weird? I've read that some exasperated mothers get rid of their Siris' and Alexas' because they can't stand the way their kids screech orders at the machine. I get that.
Food for thought. Do AI assistants like Alexa and Siri perpetuate gender stereotypes? A United Nations UNESCO report says yes. These female voiced assistants enable the notion that "women are obliging, docile and eager-to-please helpers, available at the touch of a button or a blunt voice command." The report also notes that the assistants, voiced by women as a default setting, give passive and polite responses to abusive remarks.
I have resisted the AI's, but if I could get one that spoke with the voice of Sam Elliot, or Sir John Gielgud, or Samuel L. Jackson, I'd be budgeting the funds to acquire it in a New York minute. IMHO, the tech companies are missing a big niche market here.
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