Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak thinks Apple has ruined Siri. Woz revealed that before Apple bought Siri he thought it was “pretty incredible”, but since Apple bought the voice recognition personal assistant it’s “poo-poo”.
Wozniak spoke about Apple to a crowd gathered at a horse rescue farm that he was investing in. During the discussion he revealed that he often speaks to animals and is moved to tears when he watches films in which they suffer.
He is not so happy talking to Siri these days, however. Woz referred to Siri saying: “A lot of people say Siri. I say poo-poo. I was using it to make reservations long before Apple bought it,” he said, according to Times Union.
Woz claimed that before Apple bought Siri the service would return useful results and “that was pretty incredible”. “This was the future: speaking things in normal ways, feeling like you’re talking to a human and how Siri was the greatest program,” Wozniak said.
However, since Apple bought the service it’s gone down hill, Woz indicated with a thumbs-down. He claims that when he asks: “What are the largest lakes in California?” he gets “all these lakefront properties”. “What are the prime numbers greater than 87?” gets “prime rib”.
Wozniak told the crowd: “I’m really disappointed, but it’s still a market for the future. I think voice recognition for all the platforms is going to get better and better and better at putting together complete sentences and phrases. What did a human really mean? Like, if you said ‘Five, I mean six.’ It will understand a backup, the little faults in our speech that humans understand. It will understand that eventually.”
Speaking about the WWDC announcements, Woz said: “People are always going to be disappointed.” But added: “I really like the new MacBook.”
He also said that he is enthusiastic about Apple’s Passbook.
Siri’s creator recently defending the voice recognition assistant, claiming that she “works just fine”. One former Apple employee recently claimed Jobs ‘would have lost his mind over Siri’ and said company employees “are embarrassed by Siri”.
Siri is Apple’s voice-recognition ‘PA’ feature on iPhones, which has come under fire recently in a series of lawsuits that claim Siri doesn’t work as advertised. According to one developer, Apple’s big mistake was marketing Siri as “Magical”.
Siri was tagged as beta when Apple launched the iPhone 4S, and yet the company still picked it as the lead feature in its advertisements for the new phone. Apple’s Tim Cook claimed at D10 that Siri is some people’s ‘best friend’ but it can do much more. It has also been revealed that iOS 6’s launch will see Siri come to iPad.
Author: Karen Haslam, Editor
Macworld editor since 2008, Karen has worked on both sides of the Apple divide, clocking up a number of years at Apple's PR agency prior to joining Macworld two decades ago.
Karen's career highlights include interviewing Apple's Steve Wozniak and discussing Steve Jobs’ legacy on the BBC. Her focus is Mac, but she lives and breathes Apple.