Siri之父回应批评

    智能语音助手Siri之父对摸不着使用窍门的用户有话说：Siri灵着呢。

    本周一晚上，Siri之父达格•吉特劳斯在克雷恩公司（Crain）于芝加哥举办的科技对话（Tech Talk）问答环节中说：“有些人说Siri不好用，我完全不同意这种观点。”他对主持人汤姆•瑞恩（他也是Threadless公司的CEO，这家公司主要生产T恤衫）说：“一款产品如果在正确使用的情况下不能在90%的情况下保持正常，根本就没人会发布这款产品。”

    吉特劳斯并不否认Siri存在问题。去年10月苹果（Apple）发布了最新款的iPhone 4S智能手机，其中最大的亮点功能就是人机交互语音控制系统“Siri”。不过，它让许多用户失望了。人们最经常报怨的是它的应答太慢，而且语音识别能力太差。Siri在发布时罕见地被苹果打上了“测试版”的标签，这说明Siri还处在研发阶段。另外，据一位曾经的苹果内部人士告诉《财富》杂志（Fortune），苹果公司的许多员工“都对Siri感到尴尬。如果乔布斯还活着，Siri一定会让他疯掉。”

    自然，吉特劳斯在谈话中进行了回击。他对瑞思说：“使用中偶尔也会出现一些连接问题。当然，肯定有些时候它的应答时间太长了。但是这是个非常复杂的问题，他们正在非常努力地修复它，使它变得完美。我想你会发现，随着时间的推移，它会变得越来越好。”

    吉特劳斯用了“他们”而并非“我们”，是因为他现在已经不再为苹果工作了。吉特劳斯最早曾在摩托罗拉（Motorola）供职，2007年，他参与成立了Siri的母公司。2010年4月，苹果以约2亿美元的价格收购了这家公司。后来吉特劳斯搬到了位于库比蒂诺的苹果总部，不过在一年半后辞职，也就是大约在Siri被集成到iPhone 4S的时候。经历了四年的马不停蹄地研发工作之后，他搬回到老家芝加哥郊区，花更多的时间陪伴家人，创作科幻小说，同时策划更多的创意。他指出自己与苹果是和平分手的。

    但对于批评Siri的人，他就不那么友善了。瑞恩念了一段Siri用户发给克雷恩公司的留言，他说当Siri有效地工作的时候，他还是很喜欢Siri的。只是“有的时候它处理得比较正确，有时却错得彻头彻尾。”吉特劳斯怒不可遏地说：“它不是完美无缺的。”瑞恩只好开玩笑地说：“别把气撒在读信的人身上啊，我只是在把这些问题念出来而已。”作为Siri的发明者，他个人很难在感情上接受这些批评，这也无可厚非。吉特劳斯有一半挪威血统，他说“Siri”这个词在北欧指的是“引导你走向胜利的一个美丽女性”。他甚至想给他的第一个女儿起名叫“Siri”，不料他第一胎生了个男孩。

    The guy who invented Siri has a message for users who can't get the hang of the Apple's virtual personal assistant: She works just fine.

    Dag Kittlaus was speaking at a Crain's Tech Talk Q&A session in Chicago Monday night. "I completely disagree with people who say it doesn't work very well," he told moderator Tom Ryan, CEO of hip t-shirt maker Threadless. "You don't launch a product that isn't into the 90th percentile of working if you're using it properly."

    Kittlaus doesn't deny that Siri has her issues. What Apple (AAPL) touted as the marquee feature of the new iPhone 4S last October, has let many users down. Common complaints have included slow responses and poor speech recognition. Apple launched Siri with a rare Beta label, a tacit admission of work in progress. What's more, one former Apple insider recently told Fortune, that company employees "are embarrassed by Siri. Steve would have lost his mind over Siri."

    Naturally, Kittlaus pushed back during his talk. "You run into some connectivity issues occasionally," Kittlaus told Ryan. "And of course, there are definitely moments where it takes a little bit too long, but it's a very complex problem that they're working very hard at fixing and making it perfect, and I think you'll see it get better and better over time."

    Kittlaus says "they're" instead of "we're" because he no longer works for Apple. In 2007, the former Motorola (MMI) executive helped launch the startup that gave birth to Siri. In April 2010, Apple bought the firm for an estimated $200 million. Kittlaus moved to company headquarters in Cupertino but quit about a year and a half later, around the time Siri was integrated into the iPhone 4S. After four years of nonstop development, he moved back to the Chicago suburbs where he grew up to spend more time with his family, work on a science fiction novel and cook up more ideas. He noted that his split with Apple was amicable.

    But to Siri bashers, he's not as cordial. Ryan read a comment sent to Crain's by a user who said he enjoyed Siri -- when it worked. "Sometimes it gets it right," he read. "Sometimes it flat-out misses." Kittlaus bristled and answered, "It's not perfect," which prompted Ryan to joke, "Don't shoot the messenger. I'm just reading these questions."

    It may be hard to blame Siri's inventor for taking criticism personally. Kittlaus is half Norwegian and says that Siri means "beautiful woman who leads you to victory" in his Nordic tongue. In fact, he wanted to name his first daughter Siri but a son came first.