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Google AI Hardware

Google Assistant and Google Home: Amazon Echo, But From Google (arstechnica.com) 80

Posted by msmash from the smart-gadgets dept.
At its developer conference I/O, Google on Wednesday unveiled Google Home, a small round gadget with microphones and speakers that listens and responds to your questions and commands. As you may have guessed, Google Home will compete with Amazon Echo. The company also announced Assistant. Ars Technica reports: Google's conversational assistant is in the same vein as Cortana and Siri, Google Assistant. Google Assistant will be on phones and wearables too, and Google says that it will be better at picking out the context of what you're doing than any of the competitors. As an example, when standing near Cloud Gate, better known as The Bean, in Chicago, you can ask Google Assistant "Who designed this?" Based on your location alone, Assistant will understand that you're probably referring to the large shiny sculpture in front of you, and answer "Anish Kapoor."The Google Home will be available for purchase later this year. CNET has more details.
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Google Assistant and Google Home: Amazon Echo, But From Google More

Google Assistant and Google Home: Amazon Echo, But From Google

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    • There is no way that the petabytes of information needed for this device to operate will be stored locally, so yes, your requests will be transmitted back to a server farm. Echo works the same way.

      Other questions:

      1. Will it include a Z-Wave hub, or will it require an 3rd party bridge like the Echo?
      2. Will there be an API? If it is hacker friendly, that would be really slick.

      • 2. Will there be an API? If it is hacker friendly, that would be really slick.

        Google currently says there'll be no API - everything has to come from Google.

      • There is no way that the petabytes of information needed for this device to operate will be stored locally, so yes, your requests will be transmitted back to a server farm. Echo works the same way.

        Your "requests"... LOL... more like everything anyone says within earshot.

        • Your "requests"... LOL... more like everything anyone says within earshot.

          The Amazon Echo does not do that. You can use a network analyser to see for yourself. It is very unlikely that Google would do that either, since it would be a PR disaster, as well as illegal (at least in America and the EU). Voice recognition is done locally, and only actual queries are transmitted to the servers.

          There are enough real problems to be cynical about, so you don't need to be so outraged about imaginary stuff. Or maybe I am being over cynical about cynicism.

          • The Amazon Echo does not do that. You can use a network analyser to see for yourself. It is very unlikely that Google would do that either, since it would be a PR disaster, as well as illegal (at least in America and the EU). Voice recognition is done locally, and only actual queries are transmitted to the servers.

            Voices are uploaded to amazon where they are translated to text and for good measure recordings of everything you've said are stored indefinitely on Amazon servers.

            But your right as long as you don't say anything that causes Echo to think you've said the magic word everything isn't recorded.

          • You can use a network analyser to see for yourself.

            How? Correlation using time alone is useless. It can store up a few hours of conversations and then send it back only when you trigger the 'hello command'. People will see a spike on the network analyzer and assume that it sends voices only when given a command.

          • The Amazon Echo also doesn't have a microphone off button, the Google Home device they showed has this button on the back side of the device.

            I loved how in the C-Net video the woman was slamming Google about privacy while comparing the device to the Amazon Echo, which is always on and listening. It is entirely possible that she totally missed the mute button on it as she said there were no buttons on the device.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by sosume ( 680416 )

            I wouldn't count on that. Many smart TV manufacturers have confessed to always listening in the living room [hackread.com] and nothing has been done about it so far.

    • Re:what about telemetry? (Score:5, Funny)

      by houstonbofh ( 602064 ) on Wednesday May 18, 2016 @01:39PM (#52136937)
      Finally, I can have the same functionality as the Amazon product but now all my conversations in the real world can go into the Google datamine too! Not having all of my personal data in one place was a real concern!
      • To be fair, Amazon relays a certain subset of Echo requests to Google, so... yeah, now it'll all be in one place.

  • Aaaaaaaand... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 18, 2016 @01:10PM (#52136697)
    And now It's canceled.

  • Google did an April Fool's joke a few years ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

  • "As an example, when standing near Cloud Gate, better known as The Bean, in Chicago, you can ask Google Assistant "Who designed this?" Based on your location alone, Assistant will understand that you're probably referring to the large shiny sculpture in front of you, and answer "Anish Kapoor.""

    More likely it will interpret it as "who designed s", which will take you to a graphic design company in Oklahoma.
  • The thought of Google being so aware of the moment-to-moment context of my life that it can make accurate inferences about what I mean by "this" or "that" makes me want to buy a gun and go live in the woods until I die of something preventable.

  • The FBI, CIA, NSA and other organizations around the world must be thrilled by projects like these.

    Potential snitches everywhere, paid by the public itself!

    • The NSA has basically said as much.

      Michael Rodgers has stated that the Internet of Things is going to give the NSA many new avenues for tracking and monitoring people - that strong encryption doesn't have to be a show-stopper going forward.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Agripa ( 139780 )

        And then if you do *not* have a plethora of Internet of Things devices for them to spy on you, that will be suspicious in itself.

  • I'd rather just pull out my phone and get the answer to my query than walk all the way to the kitchen or whatever room this device resides in. Unless you live in a small apartment I just don't see it being useful.

  • Does anyone actually use this crap? When I got my iPhone I was excited about having Siri, but I have found the app to be virtually useless. The only time it seems to come in handy is when I say something very, very specific, such as, "Set an alarm for 630." Even then, it manages to screw things up. Here's a conversation from a few months ago:
    Me: Siri, set an alarm for 1630.
    Siri: What time do you want me to set the alarm?
    Me: 1630.
    Siri. What time do you want me to set the 1630 alarm?
    Me: (what th-?) 1630!
    S

    • Re:Serious question: (Score:5, Insightful)

      by 93 Escort Wagon ( 326346 ) on Wednesday May 18, 2016 @01:59PM (#52137087)

      So your complaint is Siri doesn't understand that you want to use military time?

      Just for kicks, I pulled out my iPhone and said "Siri, set an alarm for noon" - hey, presto, I have an alarm set for noon. Then I asked Siri to set an alarm for 1:20pm, and that worked too.

      When I tried "set an alarm for sixteen-thirty", it initially didn't work... but that is because my phone isn't on 24-hour time. When I enabled that (Settings -> Date & Time -> 24-Hour Time), that same directive worked perfectly.

      • That's the problem with most AI assistants right now, though. It's too easy to get kicked out of the system. Google is even worse than Siri - anytime it's not sure what your voice command is, it sends you to a chrome window with the term you spoke as the google query. Which is fine occasionally, but most of the time is wrong (because spoken syntax really isn't what google is keyed for), and - most frustratingly - there's no interaction and no way back without starting an entirely new query. And that's an is

      • I have mixed results. For example, I start cooking some eggs. I say "set an alarm in 10 minutes for eggs". It usually (but not always) gets the 10 minutes right. It's about 50/50 on the "eggs" label. I think I tried military time once and it didn't work (didn't think about setting the phone to 24H), but it does well with AM & PM.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by mspohr ( 589790 )

          Are egg minutes different than regular minutes?

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by c ( 8461 )

            I think it's about being in the habit of associating a label with a timer so when you have more than one going at a time you can differentiate between them.

            • I think it's about being in the habit of associating a label with a timer so when you have more than one going at a time you can differentiate between them.

              Yup!

          • Are egg minutes different than regular minutes?

            Yes.

            Egg minutes go like this: [time goes by] "Human, your eggs are ready."

            Regular minutes are like this: [time goes by] "Human, uh .. something. Don't forget .. uh .. remember to .. um. So, would you like to buy something? And I was just wondering: do you like terrorism? Oh! Oh! I remember now! Human, do you know anything that might be of interest to Chinese industry?"

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        So your complaint is..

        Although it is somewhat of a complaint, I really think he's actually asking a question: does anyone use this crap?

        I tend to think of all of these products as bad ideas on the face of it; ask me what I'd pay for an excellent first-rate implementation of the idea, and my response is zero cents. But then somehow you end up with something (probably a phone) with it anyway, in spite of not wanting it, and you try it out, and it performs badly and seems like it's a bad implementation of a b

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by wcrowe ( 94389 )

          Thank you. I think that is an excellent point. Sometimes, even if you DO want the feature; even if the feature works fine; you decide it's not something you really want. That does happen with technology. An example, for me, would be Facetime. When we first got iPhones, my daughter and I used to Facetime frequently, but it didn't take long before we decided there wasn't much point in it, and now we just talk on the phone the traditional way, except for those few occasions when we want to show each other

        • Although it is somewhat of a complaint, I really think he's actually asking a question: does anyone use this crap?

          I actually sorta agree with your sentiment, in that for most things I think voice input (even if it's well implemented) is less efficient than typing or pressing buttons. But there are a few use cases where I find it handy - mainly involving setting timers or simple calendar reminders/appointments.

          I try to avoid this as much as possible, but I've also used Siri to read and/or respond to text messages when driving. Most of the time that works well; but, when it doesn't, it's a HUGE distraction because you ha

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by wcrowe ( 94389 )

        No. I am not stupid. My phone is set to military time, and always has been from the day I bought it.

      • So your complaint is Siri doesn't understand that you want to use military time?

        Just for kicks, I pulled out my iPhone and said "Siri, set an alarm for noon" - hey, presto, I have an alarm set for noon. Then I asked Siri to set an alarm for 1:20pm, and that worked too.

        When I tried "set an alarm for sixteen-thirty", it initially didn't work... but that is because my phone isn't on 24-hour time. When I enabled that (Settings -> Date & Time -> 24-Hour Time), that same directive worked perfectly.

        You shouldn't have to that. Siri should have been able to make the proper adjustments. For example, I just tried this with Google Now, I said "okay Google set alarm for 2030" and Google Now responded with setting alarm for 8:30 pm. Siri should have been able to do something similar when you tried to setting the alarm using 24 hour format.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by GNious ( 953874 )

        So your complaint is Siri doesn't understand that you want to use military time?

        Why you call it "military time"? Pretty sure a 24 hr clock is default for most western civilians and civil governments.

        Disclaimer: I've only been to little over half of those western countries, and only the larger ones, so there may be significant groups using a 12 hr clock, and I only know the 4 most-common languages in the west, and a couple of minor ones.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by wcrowe ( 94389 )

          Because I'm American and the 24hr clock is not the default here. In the U.S. people often refer to 24hr time as "military time", because that is virtually the only place in the U.S. where it is regularly used.

    • Yeah, When I picked up a Windows Phone and it got updated to have Cortana I was excited. Then I played with it and it was boring after five minutes and never really used it again. Now my phone is updated to Windows Phone 10 and Cortana doesn't even work anymore. I haven't missed it one bit. Then there is Cortana in Windows 10 which is infuriating. You type "Control Panel" and nothing is found. So you delete Panel just leaving "Control" and nothing is found. Then you start deleting one letter at a time from

    • My Droid Turbo came with Motorola's own "voice assistant" feature. Like you, I was excited to try it out. You could even set custom activation phrasing so you could use a term you wouldn't use unless you wanted the phone to answer. I set it to "Droid Activate." All I needed to do was say "Droid Activate, find x", it would run a search for X, and beep with the answer. (It's definitely not as full featured as Siri, Cortana, or Google's assistant.) The problem was that the system seemed oversensitive to

    • Me: Siri, set an alarm for 1630

      Of course it didn't understand. You were trying to do something impossible.
      It's 2016 now, you know.

  • Got home and did my standard "Alexa news" (Amazon's Echo command to give you the latest news) to heard what the news was. When it got to the tech info the headline was "Google shows its desperation to get into new markets with its new home assistant."

  • I've just flashed cyanogen without gapps, bought an account on .fastmail and am searching with duckduckgo. I don't know where any of this is going but I will do without googles wonderful services (and they are top notch) before I allow this instance of this abomination of a business model to take a further role in my day to day. I'm also building android and learning the source code because we tech people need to hurdle this learning curve so that we can be of service to our friends and family when in 10

    • Oh but credit where it's due. Thank you, Google for the nexus phones, and for providing the vendor binaries for download (hope that lasts, but wouldn't bet on it)

  • People who don't have phones with digital assistants and never want to leave their house? Really who is this for?

  • Google voice search is already better than Cortana or Siri. Sure, Siri has more personality and has a sense of humor. Cortana can't even boast that. But if you want to find out something, Google voice search is much better at answering many kinds of questions, and at understanding context. The same questions put to Cortana or Siri just return a list of search results.

    Maybe I'm different from other Slashdot readers, but I'm looking forward to using Google Assistant, at least on my phone. No, I won't go

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