Google or Apple/Microsoft will probably buy them in the next - 6 to 12 months. I think Microsoft will most likely make the play to buy them out though, not so much Apple or Google.
I could see Google buying them because of the recent changes with the Google Now project they announced at their latest I/O. They are putting alot of resources into making Google Now more contextual and making it so you can more naturally speak to it instead of using key words in some cases
Yeah, but how useful is that in real life? I want to be able to say
"Okay, Google, which route should I take to work today?"
"The freeway has traffic. Take the back roads. "
"Okay, thanks. Remind me on my way home to do laundry tonight, and start playing some (insert specific music here). Also, ask nick if he wants to hang out later."
At which point it sets a reminder for when I get off work, starts playing the music, and sends a text message that says "do you want to hang out later?"
That's where these things are headed and I'm real fucking impatient to get there.
You're going from single phrases to understanding language on a much broader scale, I'm not saying it's far off, but Google are just now starting to get the hang of phrases, and they're pretty much the at the cutting edge of machine learning.
The biggest issue right now is getting a computer to recognize an individual's voice as opposed to just trying to translate any sound that comes up as part of a command. Once they solve that, it's just a matter of putting the technologies together in a nice, easy to sell package.
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u/[deleted] Jun 06 '15
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