On 7/7/2013 8:38 AM, Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
All Siri does is recognize a set of stock patterns, just like Eliza.
Step out of that, even slightly, and it reverts to a default, again,
just like Eliza.
Of course, Siri had a much larger set of patterns it recognized, but
with a bit of experimentation you quickly figure out what those stock
patterns are. There's nothing resembling human understanding there.
But that applies to humans, too - they just have a much larger set of patterns
they recognize.
I don't buy that. Humans don't process data like computers do.
But they don't overlap perfectly for all humans. Try to ask your
mailman whether a hash table is better than a singly-linked list for a symbol
table.
A mailman can (will) also do things like pretend to know, make up a plausible
answer, ask clarifying questions, figure it out, etc.
Computers don't, for example, figure it out. They do not reason. Regex is not a
thought process.
