Apple’s Siri has gotten a lot more accurate over the past 9 months

“We recently tested four smart speakers by asking Alexa, Siri, Google Assistant, and Cortana 800 questions each,” Gene Munster and Will Thompson write for Loup Ventures. “Google Assistant was able to answer 88% of them correctly vs. Siri at 75%, Alexa at 73%, and Cortana at 63%. Last year, Google Assistant was able to answer 81% correctly vs. Siri (Feb-18) at 52%, Alexa at 64%, and Cortana at 56%.”
“We separate digital assistants on your smartphone from smart speakers because, while the underlying tech is similar, the use cases and user experience differ greatly,” Munster and Thompson write. “Google Home continued its outperformance, answering 86% correctly and understanding all 800 questions. The HomePod correctly answered 75% and only misunderstood 3, the Echo correctly answered 73% and misunderstood 8 questions, and Cortana correctly answered 63% and misunderstood just 5 questions.”
“Note that nearly every misunderstood question involved a proper noun, often the name of a local town or restaurant. Both the voice recognition and natural language processing of digital assistants across the board has improved to the point where, within reason, they will understand everything you say to them,” Munster and Thompson write. “Google Home has the edge in four out of the five categories [Local, Commerce, Navigation, and Information] but falls short of Siri in the Command category. HomePod’s lead in this category may come from the fact that the HomePod will pass on full SiriKit requests like those regarding messaging, lists, and basically anything other than music to the iOS device paired to the speaker. Siri on iPhone has deep integration with email, calendar, messaging, and other areas of focus in our Command category. Our question set also contains a fair amount of music-related queries, which HomePod specializes in.”

 
“Over a 12-month period, Google Home improved by 7 percentage points, Echo by 9 points, Siri (9-month) by 22 points, and Cortana by 7 points in terms of questions answered correctly,” Munster and Thompson write. “We continue to be impressed with the speed at which this technology is making meaningful improvement.”
Much more in the full article – recommended – here.
MacDailyNews Take: Anytime anyone claims Siri’s not that bright, tell them they’re lucky they never dealt with Microsoft’s Cortana.
SEE ALSO:
AI guru John Giannandrea named to Apple’s executive team – December 20, 2018
Former Apple employees on Eddy Cue: Siri and Eddy were ‘a bad fit’ – September 5, 2018
Apple’s Siri improved by 11 percentage points in correct answers over the last 15 months – July 25, 2018
Apple combines machine learning and Siri teams under John Giannandrea – July 10, 2018
Apple’s ‘personal assistant activation’ patent application hints at improved Siri – May 10, 2018
iOS 11.4 will allow Siri to recognize AirPlay commands – May 3, 2018
iPhone X owners are extremely satisfied with basically everything except Siri – April 20, 2018
Apple’s Siri, HomePod and the voice assistant showdown – April 6, 2018
Apple’s A.I. efforts get shot of adrenaline with Giannandrea coup – April 6, 2018
A.I. defector gives Apple access to Google’s secrets – April 6, 2018
Gene Munster: Poaching AI chief John Giannandrea from Google a win for Apple – April 5, 2018
Apple hires Google’s A.I. chief to improve Siri – April 4, 2018