“Hey Siri” can be inadvertently activated by other wake words including “A city,” “Hey Jerry,” and more, reveal researchers from Germany’s Ruhr-Universität Bochum and the Bochum Max Planck Institute.
Siri’s far from the only voice assistant with a weakness when it comes to false triggers, however. The study compiled a list of over 1,000 words that can accidentally activate different A.I. assistants.
Thanks to Amazon’s Echo devices, Alexa is probably the AI assistant most likely to come up in a conversation. But Siri is still the most popular virtual assistant of them all.
According to a new report by Futuresource Consulting, Siri currently leads the virtual assistant pack with a 35% global marketshare. Google Assistant follows behind with 9% of the marketshare, while Alexa makes up just 4% of AI assistants.
Microsoft has confirmed plans to kill off Cortana — but only on mobile in only eight countries.
A new support article confirms that the Cortana app will disappear on January 31. You will still see it in Windows 10, and Microsoft says it will be more deeply integrated into Office 365.
Apple may have been late to the smart speaker game but its HomePod is showing signs it could one day outperform them all.
But only if Apple gives Siri the power.
In Loup Ventures annual smart speaker comparisons, Google Assistant understood all 800 questions and answered nearly 88 percent of them correctly. In its first Loup Ventures test, the HomePod with Siri at the helm misunderstood just three questions and managed to answer correctly nearly 75 percent of its queries.
If Siri seems to be of greater service to you lately, an annual IQ test comparing virtual assistants shows its definitely getting smarter.
Loup Ventures annually peppers the various digital assistants with five categories of questions and when it comes to accuracy and comprehension of a user’s question, Google Assistant remains the best. Siri, however, is right behind Google while Amazon’s Alex and Cortana lags behind in that order.
Microsoft is working to bring Cortana to its Outlook app for iOS. The virtual assistant will give users the ability to listen to their emails, which will be particularly useful in situations where you need to be hands-free.
Apple has been pretty outspoken about marketing HomePod as a high-end speaker that just happens to have Siri, as opposed to a smart speaker built around its AI assistant, like the Google Home or Amazon Alexa.
A new study published by Loup Ventures suggests one reason why: Because Siri is seriously lagging behind its rivals in terms of its functionality and ability to answer questions.
Microsoft Cortana is now available on iPad. The smart assistant comes with all the features you’ve been enjoying on iPhone since July, combined with an interface that’s optimized for massive iPad screens. It also promises a much faster experience.
Microsoft is bringing its Edge web browser to iPhone.
Windows users will feel right at home with its design, which looks as close as possible to that of Edge on the desktop. They will also enjoy the ability to send websites to their desktop when they want to view them on a larger screen.
Bixby, Samsung’s latest competitor to Siri, will finally find its voice in the U.S. next month.
A leaked internal email reveals Bixby Voice will make its official debut before the end of August. Until now, the feature has only been available in Samsung’s home country of South Korea.
