Microsoft's Satya Nadella Shown Up By Confused Cortana Assistant 201
An anonymous reader writes: Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was a little embarrassed at a Salesforce conference today when he tested the company's personal virtual assistant during a presentation. Slightly fluffing the question 'Show me my most at-risk opportunities', Nadella was dismayed to find Cortana offering him a Bing page with the search term 'Show me to buy milk at this opportunity'. Two further efforts to discover the exposure of his shares failed to achieve their aim, and eventually the CEO of Microsoft gave up. The fact that he stumbled over his first attempt at the question seemed to floor Cortana, which uses the 'Einstein' AI engine, and which has been more praised for its accurate speech recognition than its ability to understand what an array of interpreted words actually mean.
Cant see why this is a problem. (Score:4, Interesting)
He asked a basically nonsense question. If i ask "why is a fish?" and cortana doesn't understand, is this news?
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When he tried again, twice, without messing up the question it still failed to understand the question.
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I don't understand the question either.
Thank you! Come again!! (Score:2)
Thank you!! Come again.....!!
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The question makes perfect sense. First, the context a Sales Force conference. For the unenlightened, Sales Force is a Customer Relations Software (CRM) platform that larger sales departments will use to track what they call opportunities which is basically leads for potential sales. So when Satya asked Cortana to show him the most at-risk opportunities he was asking Cortana to show him contacts or companies that he was at risk of losing.
Re:Cant see why this is a problem. (Score:5, Funny)
Don't make silly! His Indian English is desiring no correction.
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Eastern Indian people are incapable of pronouncing the letter "t". That's why you'll always hear them say something like "thirdeen" instead of "thirteen".
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which eerily connects them to people from Franken [wikipedia.org].
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That's hardly nonsense. I understood it with no problem and I'll bet you did too really, so it's not far fetched to expect an actual AI to understand it. If not understood, an intelligent response would have been "What kind of opportunities?" or perhaps "Show how?", seeking clarification. Instead, it simply went wandering down its search paths until it couldn't continue and then spat out whatever.
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Still makes 0 sense to me. I would respond "could you ask the question a different way", as it doesn't even parse.
Plz help URGENT kind guru's (Score:2)
Are you saying that if you were having one doubt about the needful you'd revert the same?
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I think even some sales people would get it, given time.
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So was he referring to stocks available for purchase that had a high volatility? Potential vendors to his business that offered low prices but uncertain delivery schedules? Opportunities to score a blow job from a hot chick that may or may not tell his wife?
Context, dammit.
It had context based on the accounts and opportunities entered into the CRM software Cortana was integrated with. I really don't see why this is hard for people to understand.
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Maybe they don't understand why Nardella would ask a question that hasn't been rehearsed thousands of time to ensure it would work? ...it's called "preparation".
This. He forgot the first rule of Demos: If it can fuck up, it will.
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What does "CRM" mean? This all sounds like management bafflegab, not English. Voice recognition is hard enough in one language.
Of course, if some effort was made to integrate Cortana with some specific product, then understanding the opaque technical jargon associated with that product seems reasonable, but let's not pretend this isn't opaque technical jargon.
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Customer Relations Management. Sales departments use it to track customers as well as leads and opportunities for new sales/customers.
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You only understood it because you already had context. Without context, it's a ridiculously vague question.
Sure, the next step would be to carry on a conversation to clarify details but it's not there yet. IT'S NOT AN AI!
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You only understood it because you already had context. Without context, it's a ridiculously vague question.
Sure, the next step would be to carry on a conversation to clarify details but it's not there yet. IT'S NOT AN AI!
And luckily Cortana also had context because she was integrated with Salesforce for purposes of the demo
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Really? I thought I knew what it meant, then when I got some context it turned out I was right.
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You had context from the start. The first sentence in the article SAID it was a Salesforce conference.
Ironically if you put "most at risk opportunities" without any other context into Google the top result is "jobs most at risk from robots". (clearly this is not one, yet).
The next results (not including the article itself) are HIV-related, or states at risk of disasters. Business or investment opportunities don't even show up unless you specifically add those words.
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I kindly disagree. A truly intelligent response would have been:
"Oh go fuck yourself, you useless corporate drone!"
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Re: Cant see why this is a problem. (Score:5, Funny)
Aah. So you've identified the missing feature in Cortana. It needs to add to its AI engine a list of all junkets and other commercial events, and cross match them with the user's current location. So next time a question is asked, it can process it using the appropriate vocabulary for the occasion.
Later, in an workshop for MBAs:
User: Cortana, tell me how to leverage synergies while focusing on our core competencies in a manner that maximizes shareholder value through enhancing business efficacy?
Cortana: By sitting in your office and formulating massive spreadsheets that don't really do anything other than create impressive charts that you will embed in your PowerPoint slide deck and present at the next stockholders' AGM.
Re:Cant see why this is a problem. (Score:5, Insightful)
All business related questions from executives tend to be nonsense or gibberish.
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I don’t know why.
Ask me a riddle and I reply:
Cottleston, Cottleston, Cottleston Pie.
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Of course slashcode doesn't like so many caps but here goes anyway:
MELON MELON MELON
+++OUT OF CHEESE ERROR+++
?REDO FROM START
With apologies to the late Terry Pratchett.
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"why is a fish?"
Because one of it's legs is both the same?
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A fish is because of hydrogen, time, gravity and nuclear fusion.
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He asked a basically nonsense question. If i ask "why is a fish?" and cortana doesn't understand, is this news?
That's a perfectly understandable question, and if he had asked it, the proper answer is "Is that the best you can do? Go fuck yourself, Satya".
The Milk Was Most At Risk (Score:5, Informative)
Re:The Milk Was Most At Risk (Score:5, Interesting)
This isn't the first time faulty speech recognition has embarrassed Microsoft during a live demo. Anyone remember the last time this happened [youtube.com]?
To be fair to Cortana, how exactly do you respond to "Show me my most at-risk opportunities"? What does that even mean? Who talks like that?
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Anyone with a sales background would understand that. I would want to know which sales opportunities were most likely to go wrong / get beaten. However that isn't a straight forward question to answer and not one I expect a computer to answer. Is it based on time frames, competitors, ability to supply, some other unknown variable, who knows.
Re:The Milk Was Most At Risk (Score:5, Informative)
Well if you're in Salesforce, when you are working with a sales person, they open what is called an "Opportunity". It's a document used to track the progress of a potential sale through the pipeline.
If I was a sales guy, I might have a customer who has just decided to order the 1 TB storage upgrade to Application X, which the customer already owns. The sales rep opens a new opportunity for the prospective purchase, links the existing customer information to it and tracks that through to the end.
Someone like a CEO would run their own reports based on how all of the company's opportunities look on a regular basis, especially deals which are at-risk of not closing, so this all makes sense in context. Generally your sales forecasting is provided by creating reports based on your opportunities and the tracking information within. A percentage is assigned to an opportunity to show how far it has gone, with 100% being Closed Won.
tl;dr, it's a sales opportunity tracking ticket in Salesforce. Which is probably why he was using that lingo at a Salesforce conference. Presumably Cortana would have had access to his Salesforce accounts somehow. Or, more likely, a fake account with humorous "at-risk" customers like Apple and Google or something.
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And this is reason #7 why people dislike marketing. "Opportunity" = 5 syllables. "Potential sale" = 4 syllables. Just use the shorter and more descriptive term. As a bonus it'll save you from ever having to type sentences like "It's a document used to track the progress of a potential sale through the pipel
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It's not that bad. But think of it this way, this is a sales and marketing tool, so they're really just torturing themselves.
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Why computers will probably undergo the Singularity before they become useful personal assistants
My phone is much better at remembering phone numbers and grocery items than I am, it's already quite useful as a personal assistant.
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A simple list, even one in electronic form, is not really a personal assistant, is it? I think the term "personal assistant" implies the ability to actively do things for you, like answer questions, collecting information, etc.
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"What's the address of Alfred?"
"Bugger. Tell me Sharon's phone number"
"Mail my dance competition team for me"
Yeah, that simple list of people and their details is answering questions and letting me do useful stuff with the information.
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It can even remind you of an appointment, and even remind you with plenty of time to get there.
In Android, it will parse the location in calendar events and suggest when to leave with current traffic to get to the meeting/location in time for the appointment.
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Props, though (Score:3, Interesting)
Props for attempting voice recognition in a live demo. Most people don't even trust a network connection for a demo.
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What did the question even mean? (Score:5, Insightful)
Seriously, "show me my most at-risk opportunities"? Show me your what now? I'm pretty sure I'm human, and I'm pretty sure I speak English and have a fair knowledge of "stuff", but I honestly have no idea what this sentence means. Opportunities that are at risk? Does that mean a chance to win a free lunch that is ending soon?
If someone said "show me my most at-risk opportunities" too me I would probably consider that I'd misheard and look for near-fit sentences that made sense too. At the very least I'd ask them to repeat themselves to confirm that they were, in fact, speaking gibberish.
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I'd recommend not shelling out the $2K for dreamforce. It's probably not for you...
Re:What did the question even mean? (Score:5, Insightful)
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From the video, it seems there was a list of specific opportunities and some numbers related to them.
Re:What did the question even mean? (Score:5, Informative)
Cortana finds gibberish double-talk incomprehensible - just like the rest of us!
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Hilariously I just did an "Ok Google" and read this gibberish to it.
It recognized it perfectly pointed to a slew of articles about Cortana failing publicly.
Hah!
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Doesn't "OK Google" just transcribe what you say into a Google search? I don't personally talk to my phone, I think it is weird to do so, but then I always just picture Scotty talking to the 1980's computer mouse "Hello Computer".
Re:What did the question even mean? (Score:5, Funny)
"show me my most at-risk opportunities"
They must be talking about that hot blonde staff assistant we just hired. The one that all the other guys are going to be making a move on soon.
Re:What did the question even mean? (Score:5, Interesting)
Here it is used in context:
It is business jargon, understood by the kind of people that Microsoft has the best relationship with - mid to upper management.
So what you said was "I have no idea about business. When someone says things that are outside my experience I assume there is no meaning, and all of business is therefore meaningless to me."
There is a certain amount of truth to that, but it's no different from developers talking about DRY and Single Responsibility Principle, and the like. I want my code to be dry? How does it get wet? Does that mean the drought is ending or just beginning?
We have a common language, known as jargon, that makes communication more efficient. As does every industry. If you don't understand it, you can ask an actual question, or you can sound like an anonymously retarded window-licking asshole brained fart sandwich. So kudos for posting anonymously, and wasting 5 peoples' mod points. Because obviously the are just as much fart sandwich, and would have up modded something just as ignorant. Might as well be 5 all in one place.
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> It is business jargon, understood by the kind of people that Microsoft has the best relationship with - mid to upper management.
When it comes to business leaders (rather than, say, the IT department), Microsoft can talk to midlevel management or lower. It is SAP that talks to the business at the C-level.
Microsoft has products that run an employee directory or mail server. SAP, and to a different extent, Salesforce, have products that run the business.
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Re:What did the question even mean? (Score:4, Insightful)
all you are showing is a lack of knowledge of business. anyone that works in sales or business would have no issues understanding the sentence.
And this is why it failed. Cortana isn't working in sales or business.
I just wonder why the fuck the person didn't actually try asking his question some time before the conference to test it out? This is like compiling some code, give a person the *.exe when you never bothered to run it yourself to see if it works. Sure, you think it should work great, but it probably won't. You have to test it first. Or even worse, Nadella is a CEO who actually believes the hype wagon his company spews, and doesn't bother to actually use the products his company makes.
Idiot got what he deserved.
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It's standard sales jargon and so would be well understood at Dreamforce (salesforce's big conference). Leads are people you've met which might want to buy something in the future. If you feel a lead is starting to show meaningful interest then you mark them as an opportunity. Opportunities have sizes (how much can you sell to this person) as well as risk (how likely am I to land this sale).
So "Show me my most at-risk opportunities" makes perfect sense - give me a list of opportunities which have been as
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So "Show me my most at-risk opportunities" makes perfect sense -
The software worked perfectly, the piece of junk he is holding in his hand is his most at-risk opportunity.
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I guess they are allowing other software to tie in to Cortana now. In the same way that Google allows other apps to create Now cards that the user can search by voice, for example. So in Salesforce lingo "opportunities" has some meaning, and the idea is that Cortana can understand this jargon because the Salesforce app tells her about it.
Looks like it needs a bit more work, but it's nice to see that they are working on the ability to handle jargon that humans use if given the right context and a few hints.
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I'm pretty sure I'm human
That's you're problem. This was directed at sales and marketing types.
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I believe the word you're seeking is "jargon".
You know, that stuff you use every fucking day, that makes your professional speech sound like total nonsense to people that don't work in your domain.
Did you take an MBA too or just fail the entrance exam?
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Nice, except that doesn't mean the same thing.
Cortana has been worse than Google for me. (Score:3, Funny)
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
Consequences of laying off Windows QA staff (Score:2, Funny)
Wow, you mean that letting Terry Myerson obliterate the entire Windows QA org in the 2014 Microsoft layoffs might actually have consequences for quality? I'm shocked; absolutely shocked, I tell you.
Hmmm.. (Score:2)
"Dear aunt, let's set so double the killer delete select all"
Show me to buy milk at this opportunity (Score:4, Funny)
What he should have asked... (Score:2, Offtopic)
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AMEN! This is the most cogent response in this entire thread!!!
Not expecting much... (Score:1)
Considering how bad those telephone auto attendant gets me, even with presumably a limited set of word selections to recognize, this simply seems to be very difficult problem to solve for Microsoft or anyone. (I do have a bit of Japanese accent myself.)
The funny thing is, when I actually spoke the phrase "show me my most at-risk opportunities" into Google, it actually got me right second time. (I don't have Windows 10, let alone in English locale, so I can't test it with Cortana.) Albeit, I had to speak ver
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Actually I just thought of the perfect analogy: it's like a modern UI paradigm where rather than have the options set out in nice discoverable menus, folders or similar you have to play "guess the gesture / guess what the cog/robot-head/wavey-icon/band-of-colour-at-bottom-of-screen means" game. And about as much fun.
Oh, just like Windows 8 then?
Pop goes the hype bubble. (Score:1)
Better add more monkeys.
Not cortana's fault (Score:2, Insightful)
Only a fool would try to do a public demonstration of something he hasn't tried successfully multiple times before.
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No, it is Cortana's fault, because clearly it is intended to understand and is supposed to be ready for prime time.
It was probably tested many, many times in various rooms, maybe a car. But never in the real world, on a stage. And that's where Microsoft keeps fucking up. It works here, and here, why would it not work anywhere else?
The entire point of Microsoft's computing base is that it should work on a desktop, in a living room, in a board room, in a subway, and of course it isn't rated to be on a stag
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No, it is Cortana's fault,
yeah, it's the software's fault
it's not the people who wrote or debugged or tested the software
it's the software
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Nothing is Cortana's fault. Cortana is not a moral agent.
and? (Score:4, Funny)
Bullshit Bingo? (Score:5, Funny)
This sounds familiar... (Score:2)
It's 2006 all over again!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Dear aunt, let's set so double the killer delete s (Score:2)
Dear aunt, let's set so double the killer delete select all!
It worked perfectly (Score:2)
He asked it to show him his most at-risk opportunities, and it showed him that he's risking his job on technology that doesn't work.
Never Ask a Question You Don't Know Answer To (Score:2)
The OJ Simpson Trial: Drama of the Century [cnn.com]: I remember watching the gloves in the courtroom and thinking to myself, "He's not going to ask O.J. to put on the glove." That's too much of a risk. You never ask a question in a courtroom, much less do a demonstration where you don't know what the outcomes is. And it was like a slow motion disaster movie for the prosecution as O.J. milk the moment for all it was worth and pretended to try on those gloves.
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When my son was very young, he taught me never to ask a question if I wasn't prepared for any possible answer.
please explain this to me (Score:2)
1. was this a temporary glitch ?
2. are these CEO's so accustomed to success and trust their subordinates, that they don't feel the need of a private test/rehearsal ?
3. are they completely detached from reality?
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and I'm just sitting here waiting for... (Score:2)
Response from the dev team (Score:2)
Sorry, this version of Cortana can only understand English.
What did you mean to say? (Score:5, Funny)
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Should have rehearsed his demo, or video recorded it.
Life's embarassing moments.
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Naw, this is a classic PEBKAC error (Problem Exists Between Keyboard and Chair).
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Re:heads are going to roll for this... (Score:5, Interesting)
This was a rookie mistake that no CEO should ever make. One NEVER tries a demo for the first time before an important audience.
Steve Ballmer made exactly the same mistake with the surface tablet, it failed him during a demo.
Bill Gates crashed Windows 98 while demoing on live television.
So EVERY Microsoft CEO has made the "rookie mistake that no CEO should ever make"!
Cool!
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Cortana is at least an existing thing. Leaders, rather than corporate drones like Nadella, can pull off stuff like this, even on products which are in development, most at-risk of failing a demo: http://appleinsider.com/articl... [appleinsider.com]
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Very likely it was an issue with the voice recognition understanding his accent, it likely would have required him to run through the demo to pick up the issue.
Also, even in the context of Salesforce, and what an opportunity is, I think that question is poorly worded.
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When the demonstration involves voice recognition, the CEO needs to do the dry runs. Voice recognition software doesn't work the same for everyone.
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Let's make sure the right head rolls... This was a rookie mistake that no CEO should ever make. One NEVER tries a demo for the first time before an important audience. If the CEO isn't willing to do a dry run, then he should either get a product manager who has the time to do it or the board should get a new CEO.
How do you know he didn't do a dry run? He may have fumbled the the buy the milk line, he could have meant "remember the milk" which is an actual company and an actual app. But I bet he tried "Show me my most at-risk opportunities" before the demo and it worked. Or something really close worked and he choked.
Seriously, demos fail all the time for "obvious in hindsight" reasons. But we are not Merlin, so our hindsight comes after the fact. Besides gross incompetence on his part, which is of course possi
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Like humans, if Cortana could switch between (say) domestic and professional modes, and bias towards or away from different vocabulary sets for each context, it'd be good.
no, Cortana will not help you find a girl who will go out with you
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Yea? Well when I was working at Microsoft they wouldn't allow me to attend a funeral, even though I WAS THE ONE THAT DIED! That's why I'm still here posting.
Re:Did he throw a chair? (Score:4, Interesting)
Sorry but all these repeated comments on the same subject, when it's never been mentioned before, sound like astroturfing and agenda building.
Lots of ACs and no named people? Don't trust you. Feels like it's one person trying to push racial division.