The next threat to free software: Siri?

[Nadav Har'El]

Hi,

When I heard Apple's announcements yesterday, the thing that worried me most
is "Siri", their new voice interface - which allows users to give their machine
voice commands in free language, and have responses spoken back to them.

It's still too early to tell whether Siri is the best thing since sliced
bread, or maybe it's the worst UI since Microsoft Bob; But it definitely
has the potential to be closer to the former, not the latter. What worries
me is that the free software world does not have a response prepared for Siri.
Or at least not one that I'm aware of - Is anyone aware of free software
that is capable of something more than robotic speech synthesis? And any
sort of speech understanding? Even if just in English?

I'm afraid that if Siri becomes an important feature for consumers, then
Android phones and tablets, as well as desktops running Linux, will be missing
this feature. I don't want to see individual handset makers (e.g., Samsung,
Motorola, etc.) developing this feature because that would mean that only
some of the Android handsets will have it, and desktop Linux would not have
it at all.... Maybe Google will develop this for the benefit of everyone,
but then again, maybe one day Google will grow tired of not doing Evil, and
will stop doing the dirty work for other companies for free?

Some might remember that this is actually not the first time I mention
this worry. Six years ago, long before Siri (and a couple of years before
iPhone was released), I voiced exactly the same concern when I talked about
the next hurdles for Hebrew in free software:

	http://linmagazine.co.il/node/view/9973

(see the last section there)

Nadav.

-- 
Nadav Har'El                        |                  Wednesday, Oct 5 2011, 
nyh at math.technion.ac.il             |-----------------------------------------
Phone +972-523-790466, ICQ 13349191 |I don't eat snails. I prefer fast food.
http://nadav.harel.org.il           |