@kewms
Sorry if it felt like my question was thrown at you. It wasn’t.
I was just expressing that I find it to be ironic, fact is that there once was such apps, that perhaps – likely (unless someone has a better explanation) – they disappeared because of what should in all logic not even be an issue to begin with.
Say it is actually the case, it tells a lot about a lot.
I can’t speak for other applications, but Siri still gets pretty wonky if she can’t reach the internet.
And of course many actions do inherently require connecting to a server to perform the action, even if not to interpret the command. From a privacy perspective, allowing a voice assistant to know and send email to your key contacts is not that different from having it record your speech. It’s still handling your personal data in a way that’s outside your control.
What if I told you that I got an Apple Watch mainly to always have a voice recorder with me when I’m outside or can’t use my hands to type for whatever reason? My main apps for these settings are Drafts and Just Press Record. The name of the last one says it all: It does not record all the time but needs one touch. Which can be applied with the tip of the nose just fine, I have done that more than once when I had greasy fingers while I was eating or cooking.
If you told me this, I think I would walk away … far!
To be fair, Siri also gets wonky with full Internet access. Mention my name, random food and a day / time in the same e-mail and it will “find” our imaginary breakfast date.
I’m still not sure if that’s a technical limitation or if it just tries to matchmake people…
But seriously, it’s a prime example of the current generation of stupid smart assistants. That’s where we’ll see the biggest impact of LLM over the next months.
The impressive part of ChatGPT & Co. isn’t so much the answers it gives, it’s the questions it “understands”. If you know what I mean. That’s based on a different approach, not a result of more Internet or less privacy.
Whenever Apple introduces new “AI” / machine learning features these days, they will inevitably point out how all of this is going to happen on your device only. Yeah, marketing, sure. But still. There’s no technical need to “phone home”.
I get your point, though.