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Microsoft shuts down Cortana, Apple should do the same with Siri (9to5mac.com)
submitted 3 years ago by [M, B] to c/technology@lemmy.world
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Microsoft shuts down Cortana, Apple should do the same with Siri::Cortana is Microsoft’s virtual assistant, which was introduced in 2014 back when Windows Phone was still a thing. Similar to...

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[–] 15 points 3 years ago (1 child)

I can only imagine they're shutting it down to replace it with something with different branding, based on an LLM. Microsoft has gone all-in on LLMs and I'm sure they'd love some of that virtual assistant action if they were able to differentiate themselves.

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  • [–] 8 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    Windows copilot . It’s available for testing in canary builds. And it kinda sucks even worse than Cortana did.

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  • [–] 6 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    I have no idea why they're doing this. LLMs are a useful tool in certain areas, but they're by no means ready as the sort of universal assistant tool Microsoft is trying to position them as.

    I use GitHub Copilot to make writing boilerplate code faster and easier, and it works really well for that, but I can't see any other computing tasks I engage in regularly benefiting from an AI assistant trying to get all up in my business.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 years ago

    I get why a lay person would misunderstand the capabilities of LLMs. They sound like a thinking person should sound, so they treat it like it's coming from a thinking person.

    But how are all the (presumably) tech-literate Microsoft employees also confused by this? Anyone paying even a little attention should have seen numerous instances of LLMs confidently asserting "facts" that they pulled out of their asses. They are not the right tool for most of the stuff people use a voice/OS assistant for.

    I have to assume it's the business guys up top hearing the "AI" buzzword and getting horny for capitalism but god damn

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