iOS 10 with its 'machine learning' and 'intense API' cannot come soon enough for Siri...

[Ggvfvgbffbf]

Very, very, very simple question...

Why on earth would Siri's super-duper algorithm think I was referring not to our current Head of State and longest reigning monarch but to a century passed historical figure and the date of her death? Fed up with Apple execs waxing lyrical over 'deep neural networks' when the blasted thing can't be relied on for basic questions after 5 years.

 

[Andrew.s]

I got this.

 

[EJ8]

Very, very, very simple question...

Why on earth would Siri's super-duper algorithm think I was referring not to our current Head of State and longest reigning monarch but to a century passed historical figure and the date of her death? Fed up with Apple execs waxing lyrical over 'deep neural networks' when the blasted thing can't be relied on for basic questions after 5 years.

View attachment 650334

I guess you are assuming only one Queen exists in the world?

 

[jgelin]

I got this.

ditto.

 

[lagwagon]

Asks very vague question and doesn't get the result he wants. Not surprised because Siri or any AI assistant can't read minds.

 

[FreeState]

I got this:

 

[KALLT]

I guess you are assuming only one Queen exists in the world?

In the English-speaking part of the world, 'the Queen' is pretty specific. The OP is apparently also from England, which makes it that more obvious.

Asks very vague question and doesn't get the result he wants. Not surprised because Siri or any AI assistant can't read minds.

Excuses, excuses. Siri already fails when it cannot distinguish between past and present tense. When an English user asks about 'the Queen', it should be obvious from the context. Siri is supposed to adapt to the user, not the other way around. Should Siri give you the weather forecast of Botswana when you ask whether you will need an umbrella today?

 

[tarsins]

Hmmm. I got the Queen Victoria one on iOS 9.3.5 so it's not an iOS 10 thing.
I wonder if it matters which country you're in?

 

[Phil A.]

I got the queen Victoria answer too - I'm in the UK

Asking a question in the present tense "how old is the queen" should return an answer about the present tense (i.e the current queen), so I have to agree with the OP that this is poor from Siri

 

[lagwagon]

Excuses, excuses. Siri already fails when it cannot distinguish between past and present tense. When an English user asks about 'the Queen', it should be obvious from the context. Siri is supposed to adapt to the user, not the other way around. Should Siri give you the weather forecast of Botswana when you ask whether you will need an umbrella today?

It's not an excuse. As shown already a couple times by other posters Siri correctly got the right queen when they asked. So obviously with something as vague, it's possible to get varied results.

 

[KALLT]

It's not an excuse. As shown already a couple times by other posters Siri correctly got the right queen when they asked. So obviously with something as vague, it's possible to get varied results.

Hence, Siri just pulls something out of nowhere and shows information on a historic figure? No, it’s an excuse and it demonstrates clearly the fundamental problems of Siri, namely its erratic and lacklustre comprehension and behaviour. It should have noticed the grammatical tense, the user's context (region, language, location, previous queries) as well as the different answers and should have at least responded with a follow-up or list of possible answers. This is something Apple needs to address and it is not the fault of ‘vague questions’. This is a good example of why Siri is still not nearly as good as Google Now and Cortana.