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Re:Are Computers Still Getting Faster? [video] on Monday January 11, 2016 @02:54AM (#10879461)
Do you think that you're a typical user?

Do you think that MS/AAPL/GOOG will go out of its way to collect your user data in particular, when it can get millions or billions of people's user data?

Do you think that MS/AAPL/GOOG doesn't have voice recognition for other languages? Did you look it up at all?

Do you think that MS/AAPL/GOOG won't get voice recognition for other languages in "10 years", given how much personally identifying data they can scoop up?

Re:Are Computers Still Getting Faster? [video] on Monday January 11, 2016 @02:20AM (#10879340)
You are so wrong about this. So wrong that I made a HN account for the first time in years just to respond to this. You're not the only one who thinks this, but you were the one who said it, so here you go:

Your phone/computer's speech recognition is done by your phone/computer recording your voice and sending it to Microsoft/Apple/Google, then Microsoft/Apple/Google transcribing it on THEIR computers, storing your data, and sending the transcription back to your phone/computer.

It doesn't require any processing power on your computer, besides the power to record and send your voice.

You seem to think that because you bought a computer, that means that it's going to be your "personal assistant" unconditionally. It's not. It's going to give your voiceprint, location information, and other personally identifying information to MS/AAPL/GOOG. F/OSS might get similar features but they will lag years behind, and will not have the same impact on society that large corporations with datacenters/server farms can have. Eventually, you'll start seeing friendly suggestions and helpful tips, like your traffic schedule (this is already the case).

You'll receive SUGGESTIONS on where to go. Friendly suggestions like, "Did you mean to go to the strip club/bar? How about going to church instead?"

This could amplify inequality. Imagine Microsoft Clippy saying, "Hi, I noticed that you need $350 for crack rocks. May I suggest Honest Achmed's Pawn Shop only 1.2 miles from your trap house? We compared prices of the Internet of Things enabled devices you have on Amazon and we noticed that your 202X Macbook has a resale value of about $350."

You'll eventually be CONTROLLED by some algorithm somewhere.

There's nothing PERSONAL about the assistance they'll provide.