Google Assistant vs Siri - Who Will Be The Better Assistant

1. Gather all information and make it understandable by computers. (Think IBM's Watson)
2. Create a personalization layer (How users interact with data)
3. Build a mobile, voice-powered productivity engine, which is focused less on finding information and more on getting things done

What Google wants to do is create a a voice assistant that satisfies users quest for knowledge on anything and everything. But isn't that what Siri does?

If you take a look at Apple's website on Siri, you'll see that they have put a list up of the tasks you can ask Siri to do.

• Ask for a reminder.
• Ask to send a text.
• Ask about the weather.
• Ask for information (from Yelp, Wolfram|Alpha, or Wikipedia).
• Ask to set a meeting.
• Ask to send an email.
• Ask for a number.
• Ask to set an alarm.
• Ask for directions.
• Ask about stocks.
• Ask to set the timer.

Now, that seems like a pretty impressive list, but if you look at it in terms of what each of those tasks are actually doing, you would get a list that looks more like this:

• Interact with the calendar.
• Search contacts.
• Read and write messages (text and email).
• Interact with the Maps app and location services.
• Forward search phrases to certain pre-defined data providers (Currently Siri gets 60% of its answers from Google, 20% from Yelp, 14% from WolframAlpha, 4% from Yahoo and 2% from Wikipedia.).

Not as impressive now, eh?

Not only does Siri not do much of the work itself, but Siri also hasen't performed too well in numerous tests. In late June, Piper Jaffray tested Siri's competencies in a 1600 question test (800 in a quite room, 800 on a busy street) and compared them to a Google search. Here are the results.

• Google understands 100% of the questions (not surprisingly, since they are typed in)
• Google replies accurately 86% of the time
• Siri comprehends 83% of queries in noisy conditions, 89% in a quiet room
• Siri answers accurately 62% of the time on the street and 68% in a quiet room.

Based on this data we see that Siri doesn't even compete against Google as far as accurately giving you the answers that users are looking for. So where did Siri miss the mark? Here are some of the questions that were asked and the answers that Siri gave:

When did the movie Cinderella come out? Responded with a movie theater search on Yelp.

What spices are in Lasagna? Responded with a Yelp search with lasagna on the menu.

I want to go to Lake Superior? Responded with directions to the company Lake Superior X-Ray.

So whats the problem with Siri? Siri misunderstands users all the time. Maybe they mumble, or maybe it’s because they are talking to her like they would talk to any human personal assistant. Either way, Siri isn't a human. Siri needs things asked in a particular, concise way that is very easy to understand and withing Siri's guidelines.(See here for a full list of what Siri understands)

We all know Google's biggest strength is its search engine. The complex algorithms, the speed and optimization. It's unbelievable how quick and intelligent Google Search really is. But what does this have to do with a personal assistant? Have you ever heard of Google X Lab? "Google X Lab is a secretive part of Google that experiments with ambitious future technologies. Its purpose is to develop products that have the potential to make a large positive impact on society. The full extent of the research is not public knowledge but it's thought to include projects relating to artificial intelligence and robotics." The key term in this description of Google X (via artificialbrains.com) is artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. The best example we have today of artificial intelligence would be the "bad guys" in video games. They run, hide behind objects, and try to shoot you as they move around an environment. But they aren't truly intelligent. They are programmed to do a handful of objectives and that is what they do. Artificial intelligence is more than that. It's the ability to learn, perceive, plan, be creative, reason and problem solve. This is what Google is working on and most likely developing an early form of this into their personal assistant.

So how does this tie in with Google Assistant? Think about how Siri works. You have to ask Siri a specific type of question, she will then go to one of her 'answer sources' and find the best answer based on the words you spoke. When the user inputs their question correctly Siri does a pretty good job of returning an answer. But when questions get too complex Siri really can't handle them. So what Google is trying to do with their personal assistant is give it the ability to answer questions using complex algorithms similar to Google's search engines. Google search engineer Amit Singhal put it best. He said “I would be able to walk up to a computer, and say, ‘Hey, what is the best time for me to sow seeds in India, given that monsoon was early this year?’ And once we can answer that question (which we can’t today), people will be looking for answers to even more complex questions. These are all genuine information needs. Genuine questions that if we – Google – can answer, our users will become more knowledgeable and they will be more satisfied in their quest for knowledge.” This type of knowledge and power would absolutely give Google the best personal assistant.

Apple stands by Siri though. They admit that Siri has flaws, but back that up by stamping Siri with a beta label. I'm certain that Apple has not given up with Siri, as they have come out and said that they are working on Siri 2.0. But will it be enough to take out the plans Google has for their personal assistant packed with artificial intellegence. Time will tell. This race is just starting up!