Google Hires Joke Writers From Pixar and The Onion To Make Assistant More Personable (cnet.com) 38
One of the biggest announcements made at Google I/O earlier this year and at Google's hardware launch event this past week was Google Home, an always-listening wireless speaker that features the Google Assistant. The Google Assistant is similar to Amazon Echo's voice assistant named Alexa, as it can deliver search results, sports scores, calendar information, and a whole lot more. But in an effort to make the Assistant more personable to better compete with Siri, Alexa, and Cortana, Google has decided to hire joke writers from Pixar and The Onion. An anonymous reader quotes CNET: According to a Wall Street Journal report, comedy and joke writers from Pixar movies and the Onion are already working on making Google's upcoming Assistant AI voice service feel more loose and vibrant. The development of compelling voice AI will need to start drawing from deeper, more entertaining wells, especially as these home hubs try to have conversations all day long. Current voice AI like Apple's Siri and Amazon's Alexa on the Echo try to engage with personality, and they even tell jokes (usually, bad ones). But, as these services aim to be entirely voice-based, like the upcoming Google Home hub, they'll need to feel more alive and less canned. Google Home debuts this November, and the upcoming Google Pixel phone, arriving in stores and online on October 20, is the first Google product featuring the new Assistant voice service.
Reality outstrips satire, yet again (Score:2)
And Google laughs all the way to the bank.
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The headline does sound like an Onion article. But its getting harder and harder to distinguish reality from The Onion.
Come November 9, I may have to seriously consider the possibility that I am living inside a Matrix-y simulation inside an Onion article of an advanced civilisation.
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The idea that anyone actually planning anything is discussing actual plans in the living room.
We have an Echo. It's a nice device and we're looking for a version 2 be it from Google or Apple. Almost all of our lights are on Z-wave with a few Hues mixed in.
I've always assumed the NSA was always listening so they can go ahead and listen to dinner plans. It takes nothing to unplug it. Step into another room.
Do you think the planners of the American Revolution walked around town mixing war and dinner plans wher
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I've always assumed the NSA was always listening so they can go ahead and listen to dinner plans. It takes nothing to unplug it. Step into another room.
NSA Operative 1: After 2 days they people at #42 have switched off their echo.
NSA Operative 2: Quick: scan the last 5 minutes of conversation.
NSA Operative 1: key words: plot fertiliser garden mole.
NSA Operative 2: Oh, they are worried about a spy, plotting to make a fertiliser bomb.
NSA Operative 1: Better send in the SWAT team to check them out.
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Facebook doesn't listen through your phone's mic -- except when it does (Jun 6, 2016)
http://www.computerworld.com/a... [computerworld.com]
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http://www.bbc.com/news/techno... [bbc.com]
Google looks to patent tech that listens to calls to promote ads (23 March 2012)
https://www.cnet.com/au/news/g... [cnet.com]
Is nothing off limits? Now Google plans to spy on background noise in your phone calls to bombard you with tailored adverts (23 March
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Re: Notice (Score:2)
maybe they should personify a paperclip. (Score:3, Funny)
maybe they should personify a paperclip.
commentsubjectsaredumb (Score:3)
Sure, it can backfire if you half-ass it, but apparently they're serious enough to spend a little money. Whether the hires are well-chosen is left as an exercise for the flamewars.
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"I'll be here until Google cans this thing, try the veal."
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So are more appealing response system to draw the user or is that the person to be used, into more openly responding to the system. For the system to be effective it must analyse the used (lets not call them the user any more), for effective response, the more accurate the analysis, the more the used can be drawn into being used by the system. This enables the alphabet company to work more effectively with the alphabet agencies in order to properly control and motivate the targeted individual or more accur
Jar Jar Binks (Score:1)
When i think of a big entertainment company using focus groups to make its character "more loose and vibrant" i think of Jar Jar Binks.
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Humor setting .... (Score:2)
Assistant: "Confirmed. Self destruct sequence in T minus 10, 9..."
"Let's make that sixty percent."
Assistant: "Sixty percent, confirmed. Knock knock."
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You make a good point... why are they hiring writers from the Onion when there are thousands of good writers in Hollywood or the video game industry?
The Onion specializes in brutal, bitingly dry satire. Not so great at witty banter and DIALOG. Pretty sure if I ask an "AI" assistant a question I'd prefer a useful, relevant, and personable answer, not a monologue about the banality of middle America.
I want my personal assistant's bon mots to be whoever wrote the filler dialog to The Wire, Archer, Baldur's G
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They may be completely useless, but easter eggs make excellent first impressions. You shouldn't necessarily need joke writers for it, though. Easiest way to figure out what to say in response to the user is to simply field test the crap out of it and google any curious-sounding repeated question
These systems need a mood engine (Score:1)
Uninterested in a personal relationship (Score:4, Insightful)
with my appliances. That's for some of the people I know, not any machines.
I don't want it cracking jokes some marketer thinks I should hear - I have TV for that.
I don't want it cooing soothing burbles if the "AI" figures I'm not feeling up to snuff. I have friends for that.
I don't want it trying to carry on a faux conversation with me. I get enough of that crap in the real world.
In short, if I at all want a voice interactive machine, I want it to listen to what I command, interpret said command correctly, execute it correctly and then, if warranted, respond with the results.
Re:Uninterested in a personal relationship (Score:4, Interesting)
Exactly this. I currently prefer google voice over siri because it's more accurate but also because it doesn't try to be clever.
It annoys the crap out of me when I ask siri a question like 'Can you do XYZ?" and it replies with "Who me?".
A simple "NO" or "I don't understand the question" would be much preferred.
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Loose and vibrant (Score:3)
already working on making Google's upcoming Assistant AI voice service feel more loose and vibrant
That sounds like they're making a completely different kind of "assistant."
Don't need jokes. (Score:2)
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Let's just hope for the best:
https://tech.slashdot.org/stor... [slashdot.org]
Just the facts, ma'am (Score:3)
I don't want a joke unless I specifically as for it. Case in point: last year I was driving from AZ to CA on I-8 and my speedometer cable broke so I couldn't tell how fast I was going. I thought, "My phone has GPS which can give me my speed so I'll ask Siri." "Hey, Siri, how fast am I going?" She responded, "I've been wondering that for a while." Great, thanks for nothing, smartass.