Re:Amazon staff laid off as tech giants cut costs, according...
by pm90 on Wednesday November 16, 2022 @11:12AM
(#33625508)
Voice still has a lot of potential, especially with the advances in AI that we've been seeing recently. A robust voice-controlled interface would be immensely useful to consumers. I think the investment in Alexa voice is well worth it compared to whatever meta is doing atm.
Re:Amazon staff laid off as tech giants cut costs, according...
by foobiekr on Wednesday November 16, 2022 @01:14PM
(#33627796)
Voice as an interface sucks for almost everything where choices exist. As a purely serial communications method you are forced to wait for enumerated choices.
As a primary interface voice was very widely used in the 80s and 90s in the form of IVRs and the industry was immediately destroyed by web browsers as fast as was possible. Nothing makes people angrier than having to go through a phone menu system and that’s just an organized version of your more general voice interface.
“Alexa set a timer” defines the kinds of interactions that are sensible to do with voice and it is very, very narrow.
It was never, ever going to be big.
Contrast that to VR, which is in a much earlier stage of its technology and adoption cycle: Meta has a strong technology advantage, currently has the best overall platform and _if_ VR becomes the next big computing platform, Meta is in a strong position to capture a significant proportion of market share. It's a big if! but at least there's still a chance.