Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ Alexa, Siri, and Google Don’t Understand a Word You Say

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

OK, the headline in this story is very obviously true, but stay with me for a moment. Part way through Josh Hendrickson asserts, "you get a failure message such as 'I'm sorry, but I don't know that.' It's little more than sleight of hand magic to trick you into thinking it understands." Yes, quite so. But how would you be fooled into thinking it understands? Well, you aren't fooled, really. But you go along with it because it feels right to do it. But now, how do you know you aren't doing that with people, too? What if people don't 'really' understand each other - what if what we call 'understanding' is really me projecting understanding on you, and you projecting understanding on me? This is what I think actually happens. Which means we need to reframe statements like "machines don't understand".

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

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Last Updated: Dec 22, 2024 05:37 a.m.

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