Apple's Beats brand in April unveiled the Powerbeats Pro, a redesigned wire-free version of its popular fitness-oriented Powerbeats earbuds.
Apple's Greg Joswiak on Siri: We Deliver a Personalized Experience Without Treating You as a Product
Ahead of the launch of iOS 11, Apple VP of marketing Greg Joswiak sat down with several publications to talk about Siri, the personal assistant built into all major Apple devices. His interview with Wired was published last week, and today, Fast Company published its interview, in which Joswiak talks Siri and privacy, among other topics.
It's been long believed that Apple's Siri development has been hindered by the company's deep commitment to privacy, but according to Joswiak, privacy, respect for user data, and an intelligent AI can co-exist.
"I think it's a false narrative," he told Fast Company. "We're able to deliver a very personalized experience... without treating you as a product that keeps your information and sells it to the highest bidder. That's just not the way we operate."
Much of Apple's Siri functionality is done on-device, rather than in the cloud like other services. In Apple's 2017 software updates, that's shifting slightly with the company planning to allow Siri to communicate across devices to learn more about users. Still, many things, like Siri's ability to find photos with a specific photo or date are powered on-device.
"We leave out identifiers to avoid tying utterances to specific users so we can do a lot of machine learning and a lot of things in the cloud without having to know that it came from [the user]," said Joswiak.
Alongside Joswiak, Apple's Craig Federighi, senior vice president of software weighed in on Siri's future in an email to Fast Company. "Siri is no longer just a voice assistant," he said. "Siri on-device intelligence is streamlining everyday interactions with our devices."
He went on to say that with iOS 11, macOS High Sierra, tvOS 11, and watchOS 4, users will "experience even more Siri functionality." He went on to say that in the "years to come," Siri functionality will be "ever more integral" to the core user experience on all of the company's platforms, from Mac to iPhone to Apple TV.
Federighi and Joswiak's full Siri interview, which provides more insight into the inner workings of Siri and Apple's commitment to privacy, can be read over at Fast Company.
It's been long believed that Apple's Siri development has been hindered by the company's deep commitment to privacy, but according to Joswiak, privacy, respect for user data, and an intelligent AI can co-exist.
"I think it's a false narrative," he told Fast Company. "We're able to deliver a very personalized experience... without treating you as a product that keeps your information and sells it to the highest bidder. That's just not the way we operate."
Much of Apple's Siri functionality is done on-device, rather than in the cloud like other services. In Apple's 2017 software updates, that's shifting slightly with the company planning to allow Siri to communicate across devices to learn more about users. Still, many things, like Siri's ability to find photos with a specific photo or date are powered on-device.
"Your device is incredibly powerful, and it's even more powerful with each generation," Joswiak said. "And with our focus on privacy, we're able to really take advantage of exploiting that power with things like machine learning on your device to create an incredible experience without having to compromise your data."Apple does use the cloud to answer requests and to train Siri, but it strips all user identifiable data. All Siri requests are stripped of user ID and supplied with a random request ID, with the request then encrypted and sent to the cloud. Apple stores six months of voice recordings to allow its voice recognition engine to get a better understanding of users. A second copy of recordings can be stored for up to two years, also with the aim of improving Siri.
"We leave out identifiers to avoid tying utterances to specific users so we can do a lot of machine learning and a lot of things in the cloud without having to know that it came from [the user]," said Joswiak.
Alongside Joswiak, Apple's Craig Federighi, senior vice president of software weighed in on Siri's future in an email to Fast Company. "Siri is no longer just a voice assistant," he said. "Siri on-device intelligence is streamlining everyday interactions with our devices."
He went on to say that with iOS 11, macOS High Sierra, tvOS 11, and watchOS 4, users will "experience even more Siri functionality." He went on to say that in the "years to come," Siri functionality will be "ever more integral" to the core user experience on all of the company's platforms, from Mac to iPhone to Apple TV.
Federighi and Joswiak's full Siri interview, which provides more insight into the inner workings of Siri and Apple's commitment to privacy, can be read over at Fast Company.
Tag: Siri Guide
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25 months ago
Apple's commitment to privacy is unparalleled and appreciated. If Siri development takes a little longer because they truly don't want our information getting out, then I'm okay with that.
25 months ago
Much of Apple's Siri functionality is done on-device, rather than in the cloud like other services.
How come it can’t do even basic commands without an internet connection?
25 months ago
Ahead of the launch of iOS 11, Apple VP of marketing Greg Joswiak sat down with several publications to talk about Siri,
When you have to send out your execs to spin things, you're in trouble.
Good stuff speaks for itself.
"I think it's a false narrative," he told Fast Company. "We're able to deliver a very personalized experience... without treating you as a product that keeps your information and sells it to the highest bidder. That's just not the way we operate."
Very clever. Tell a truth, but not the whole truth, and throw in some innuendo.
Because Google doesn't sell our info to the highest bidder either.
Just like Apple does with iAds, Google sells anonymous ad slots. They would never sell our personalized data, because then it becomes useless. That's why they keep it secret.
In return for the money they make selling such anonymous slots, Google gives us great services. In return for the money Apple makes selling such anonymous slots PLUS high profit hardware... ??
"We leave out identifiers to avoid tying utterances to specific users so we can do a lot of machine learning and a lot of things in the cloud without having to know that it came from [the user]," said Joswiak.
Yes, you can try, but the resulting difference in PERSONALIZED ability is plain to everyone. For a good PERSONAL assistant, it always makes far more sense to learn about each specific person. Especially context.
Btw, anyone can turn off Google's voice storage and delete it, using your Google dashboard any time you want. I tried it once as an experiment, and my recognition was immediately worse for a few weeks while Google's servers relearned me. It was not fun, and I'm not going to do it again.
25 months ago
And yes the competitor does sell your data and I'm glad that Apple doesn't.
If you mean Google, then no, they don't sell personal data.
However, both Apple and Google collect and use personal data to sell ad slots. Apple even bragged about it in their documentation to sell iAds to advertisers:
25 months ago
Oh good Lord.... the Apple salesman are really out in force today...
It's like the really annoying door to door sales, an spewing their rubbish...
Thankfully for the consumer and unfortunately for Apple their are some fantastic alternatives to Siri that live in 'the real world', and actually work as you expect them to..
And as for the STUPID comment about selling your data.. well maybe not but Apple are MUCH MORE THEN HAPPY to rake a 30% cut from those, freemium, apps that fill up its store who are only too happy to sell your data....
http://toucharcade.com/2015/09/16/we-own-you-confessions-of-a-free-to-play-producer/
I'm used to Apple being stuffed up arrogant so and so's.. but they don't need to be deliberately naive hypocrites too...
It's like the really annoying door to door sales, an spewing their rubbish...
Thankfully for the consumer and unfortunately for Apple their are some fantastic alternatives to Siri that live in 'the real world', and actually work as you expect them to..
And as for the STUPID comment about selling your data.. well maybe not but Apple are MUCH MORE THEN HAPPY to rake a 30% cut from those, freemium, apps that fill up its store who are only too happy to sell your data....
http://toucharcade.com/2015/09/16/we-own-you-confessions-of-a-free-to-play-producer/
I'm used to Apple being stuffed up arrogant so and so's.. but they don't need to be deliberately naive hypocrites too...
25 months ago
That's just the way we operate.
Although - they will accept Google's money and make it the primary search engine on their device.
In other words - quite a spin.
Although - they will accept Google's money and make it the primary search engine on their device.
In other words - quite a spin.
25 months ago
People can't understand what it means Apple's care for privacy.
What do you think it means?
The only reason I would prefer that my associated info not be stored, is if I'm doing something that will result in a government request for my stored data.
But if I were up to such things, then I would not be using any internet (OR PHONE!) services whatsoever. Apple and Google are the least of my worries, because at least they have lawyers who will review the request, and they have plenty of reasons to keep our data private.
There are a lot of other data collectors who are more than happy to sell our personal data.
People really focus on the wrong parties. Of course, that's Apple's intention when they make such public speeches.
25 months ago
Apple's commitment to privacy is unparalleled and appreciated. If Siri development takes a little longer because they truly don't want our information getting out, then I'm okay with that.
Ummm, in what way are those two things mutually exclusive?
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