Cortana: A question and a complaint

[ajst222]

Just made the switch back to Windows Phone to try out 8.1 and I love it! I got a chance to really play around with Cortana and I love that as well. However, I do have a couple concerns:

In regards to places like home, work, school, etc, how does Cortana know? Do I have to enter that info myself or will she somehow learn?

I also have a small complaint in regards to Cortana reading emails, texts, etc...it appears that she doesn't have the ability to do it. I know you can set Cortana to automatically read your texts while driving or whatever, but I'm talking abut me telling her: "read me my last text/email". Definitely not a biggie right now, but something I would like to see.

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[anony_mouse]

'It', not 'her'. 'It', not 'she'. Please remember that.

 

[ajst222]

'It', not 'her'. 'It', not 'she'. Please remember that.

Wow! Thanks for the help! Your comment was very thoughtful and insightful!

I can call "her" whatever the heck I want. Do you think I don't know it's not a real person?

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[Xellsama]

'It', not 'her'. 'It', not 'she'. Please remember that.

Using "her" and "she" is perfectly fine, the same way sailors would refer to their ships as "her". Not to mention the original character behind the name Cortana is a female AI. On a side note, out of the three platforms, the only one that felt more "it" than a person is Google Now.

 

[Xellsama]

Technically, after days/weeks of usage, if you have exhibited a regular pattern in your schedule, Cortana will learn your home and work location. Alternatively, you could go to her notebook and enter that yourself if you don't want to wait for her to learn. I personally have a quite irregular daily routine between work and after work locations, so I opted to enter it myself.

 

[anon(5445874)]

You set all that in your notebooks. you can give people and places nicknames.

 

[anon(5445874)]

Also, I have had Cortana ask me when I was home, if this was home. probably because I spend lots of time there.

 

[jdandison]

In regards to places like home, work, school, etc, how does Cortana know? Do I have to enter that info myself or will she somehow learn?

After a few days, I went into the Cortana tile and it had a question of 'is this home? You come here frequently' or something similar. I added it, but you can also add those places manually through the notebook. It's pretty awesome, you can obviously have more places than just home and work, and it'll give you estimates on how long to get there. I get a notification in the mornings 'time to leave' due to traffic. I also had a meeting on my calendar for 'Airport' and it reminded me the same way. I think that's pretty sweet. Especially since the meeting was literally the word 'Airport' and nothing else - it managed to deduce that it meant the major airport near by.

 

[anony_mouse]

Not to mention the original character behind the name Cortana is a female AI.

How can you tell the difference between a male AI and a female AI? Please do not say 'the voice'.

 

[anon(5445874)]

How can you tell the difference between a male AI and a female AI? Please do not say 'the voice'.

One of them likes flowers. But then again, these days they might both like flowers.

 

[Xpider_MX]

How can you tell the difference between a male AI and a female AI? Please do not say 'the voice'.

Body? face? voice? way of acting? the person whose brain was copied for making Cortana?

Have you played any Halo game?

EDIT: Male AI:

Spoiler

Female AI's:

Spoiler

 

[anony_mouse]

By playing the actual game, knowing the actual character. Stop making a fool out of yourself. It's almost like you are questioning "how do you know Bruce Wayne is a male, please don't tell me by voice/name".

Someone said it was a 'female AI'. I assume that means 'artificial intelligence' in this context, but please correct me if I'm wrong. I assume you mean this intelligence is somehow female. My question is how can you tell? I hope that is now clear.

Please bear in mind that Apple's Siri can have a male or female voice, depending on user selection. As far as I know (and again, please correct me if I'm wrong), it gives the same answers whichever voice is chosen. So the intelligence is independent from the voice. The Cortana product could also have different voices. If it had a male voice, would you consider it to be a 'male AI'? Or is there more to it than that?

Bruce Wayne is a fictional character. I'm not sure he can help us much in answering this question.

 

[anony_mouse]

One of them likes flowers. But then again, these days they might both like flowers.

Who doesn't like flowers?

 

[ajst222]

Someone said it was a 'female AI'. I assume that means 'artificial intelligence' in this context, but please correct me if I'm wrong. I assume you mean this intelligence is somehow female. My question is how can you tell? I hope that is now clear.

Please bear in mind that Apple's Siri can have a male or female voice, depending on user selection. As far as I know (and again, please correct me if I'm wrong), it gives the same answers whichever voice is chosen. So the intelligence is independent from the voice. The Cortana product could also have different voices. If it had a male voice, would you consider it to be a 'male AI'? Or is there more to it than that?

Bruce Wayne is a fictional character. I'm not sure he can help us much in answering this question.

*mega facepalm* I don't think you really get it...all of your points about different answers for male and female, the fact you can change Siri's voice, and Bruce Wayne not being real make no sense



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[ajst222]

Back on topic though, thanks for pointing me toward Cortana's Notebook! Not sure how I missed it before

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[anony_mouse]

*mega facepalm* I don't think you really get it...all of your points about different answers for male and female, the fact you can change Siri's voice, and Bruce Wayne not being real make no sense



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Maybe indeed I don't get it. When you say 'female AI', do you just mean 'female voice synthesiser' and 'possibly female sounding name'? Or is there more to it than that?

 

[cbreze]

'It', not 'her'. 'It', not 'she'. Please remember that.

Kinda nitpicky isn't it? I mean who cares what you call it,her? Kinda automatic to call "it" her on account of the voice. I find myself calling Cortana "her" all the time. Someone should start a poll. "what do you call Cortana? I'm sticking with "her" probably. Seems more personal than "it".

 

[AndrewNZ]

Maybe indeed I don't get it. When you say 'female AI', do you just mean 'female voice synthesiser' and 'possibly female sounding name'? Or is there more to it than that?

Cortana - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[a5cent]

[WARN]Okay folks, take it down a notch![/WARN]
Yes, Cortana is ultimately just a bunch of zeros and ones. Yes, a machine has no gender. Fine.

Yes, those zeros and ones are configured in such a way as to represent a female persona. Microsoft internally refers to Cortana as "she". Also Fine.

We might as well argue if the ink in a Marvel comic book is male, if it is configured in such a way as to represent a male Spider-Man character. Both sides of this argument are so obvious that it's a shame the pixels on my monitor are being wasted to render the corresponding text. I'm sure both sides are smart enough to understand the opposing side's point. Can we return to more interesting topics now (like the OP's actual questions)?

 

[shloime]

Just made the switch back to Windows Phone to try out 8.1 and I love it! I got a chance to really play around with Cortana and I love that as well. However, I do have a couple concerns:

In regards to places like home, work, school, etc, how does Cortana know? Do I have to enter that info myself or will she somehow learn?

I also have a small complaint in regards to Cortana reading emails, texts, etc...it appears that she doesn't have the ability to do it. I know you can set Cortana to automatically read your texts while driving or whatever, but I'm talking abut me telling her: "read me my last text/email". Definitely not a biggie right now, but something I would like to see.

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i have the same concern : reading emails, websites, texts,etc is a big thing for me