Anyone notice siri no longer recognizes common foreign idoms anymore? Either in TTS or Ask Siri… The only concrete example I have is recognizing “Croque Monsieur” since my love for hot ham sandwiches has spanned the ages… but I feel like there’s something more nefarious at work here.

It feels like used to be able to ask for a info about random foreign words and it would at least trigger a web search for something phonetically similar, which would often get me the translation I was after. But lately* the TTS engine is militantly transforming everything into English. Obviously this is more subtle and open to other interpretations, but for example I just asked her what “hikikomori” were which got interpreted as “Hickam Morty,” with top hits for the show Rick and Morty.

    • sramder@lemmy.worldOP
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      4 months ago

      I did ponder the possibility of my mics just getting worn out, but clarity is still excellent in audio recording and generally for TTS or questions in straight English. I suspect Apple tweaked the model to exclude some of the phrases I had grown accustomed to using because they were being falsely recognized.

  • acosmichippo@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    it would never even occur to me to ask Siri about such things. I’m surprised it ever worked for you.

    • sramder@lemmy.worldOP
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      4 months ago

      Blame that bit in Mr. Robot where the FBI agent asked Alexa when the universe was going to end. I’m always curious what a system is capable of…

  • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    Are you noticing this on multiple devices or just one? I know I start to have dictation trouble when my iPhone microphones get too loaded with debris. A clean dry toothbrush will get it clean without too much effort.

    • sramder@lemmy.worldOP
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      4 months ago

      Same behavior on my iPad. Although I can’t rule out the mics on my phone going south, it soaks up a lot more abuse than iPad Siri.

  • ChrisG@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    All of the digital assistants appear to be degrading to me. I suspect directing consumers to paid ‘AI’ versions which allegedly work, are the corporate plan.

  • cholesterol@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    She does seem to have more trouble interpreting some of my requests. To my frustration Siri will show me a correct transcription of what I said and then still ask for confirmation. Or even worse she’ll ask me to repeat the entire request after producing a correct transcription. This happens a lot when using HomeKit.

    • sramder@lemmy.worldOP
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      4 months ago

      Huh… that sounds a proper bug. I don’t really do anything advanced with HomeKit, just my Hue lights.

      I wasn’t having the problem you described, but I did get a few odd glitches after the last update. She would sometimes complain that a light couldn’t be found. Turned out to be an extra space at the end of the names of some bulbs… very hard to see in most UIs, it wasn’t until I just idly renamed one in the Hue app that I realized what had happened.