Microsoft also killing Cortana on Xbox One

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odditory

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Microsoft revealed this week that it will remove Cortana from Xbox One and will evolve how voice commands work on the console.

“We are moving away from on-console experiences to cloud-based assistant experiences,” Microsoft’s Bradley Rossetti revealed. “This means you can no longer talk to Cortana via your headset. However, you can use the Xbox Skill for Cortana via the Cortana app on iOS, Android, and Windows or via Harmon Kardon Invoke speaker to power your Xbox One, adjust volume, launch games and apps, capture screenshots, and more —just as you can do with Alexa-enabled devices today.”
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Microsoft began scaling back its support for Cortana in its core consumer platforms last year, and it specifically started adding support for third-party personal digital assistants like Amazon Alexa to both Windows and Xbox. With this change, Cortana will be no more integrated with Xbox than Alexa is, and I assume that, given recent changes in Windows 10, that will happen on the PC desktop as well.

https://www.thurrott.com/xbox/xbox-one/211035/microsoft-is-kicking-cortana-off-xbox-one-too
 
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Dude, this is not news at all, they have been deprecating Cortana for years and was essentially dead, anyways. Besides, it is was always more convenient to say "XBox Play" then, "Hey Cortana, Play".

Essentially, the XBox commands are all there and still work the same as always.
 
ManofGod said:
Dude, this is not news at all, they have been deprecating Cortana for years and was essentially dead, anyways. Besides, it is was always more convenient to say "XBox Play" then, "Hey Cortana, Play".

Essentially, the XBox commands are all there and still work the same as always.
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It's news to me.

I mean, if this is the case, how come I still can't uninstall the damned thing? I can disable and hide it in the registry, but that is not the same thing.

When are they going tomlear that people don't like shit forced on them?

No operating system, either mobile or desktop should have any preinstalled apps at all. At the very least if they do, allow them to be removed, and not just in a "hide them, but they are still installed and get installed every time you create a new account", I mean "physically removed from drive".

I still get pissed off every single time I stumble across the Xbox app in my Windows install. O don't want that shit and it irritates me to no end that it is there.
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
If this is the case, how come I still can't uninstall the damned thing? I can disable and hide it in the registry, but that is not the same thing.
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Don't enable Cortana and it will not be used. (1903 build has it separated from search.) However, this is about the XBox Cortana, not Windows 10.
 
ManofGod said:
Don't enable Cortana and it will not be used. (1903 build has it separated from search.) However, this is about the XBox Cortana, not Windows 10.
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I took the below to mean we were discussing Windows as well:

odditory said:
Microsoft began scaling back its support for Cortana in its core consumer platforms last year, and it specifically started adding support for third-party personal digital assistants like Amazon Alexa to both Windows and Xbox. With this change, Cortana will be no more integrated with Xbox than Alexa is, and I assume that, given recent changes in Windows 10, that will happen on the PC desktop as well.
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Personally I don't want any AI or any digital assistant on any platform or product I use, desktop, mobile or anywhere else.
 
ManofGod said:
Don't enable Cortana and it will not be used. (1903 build has it separated from search.) However, this is about the XBox Cortana, not Windows 10.
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I am on 1903 and I have it running despite the fact I've never used it once.

I
 
This is preemptive on Microsoft’s part probably to avoid a lawsuit from the EU about how it being integrated into the OS is anti-competitive or a violation on data privacy or something like that. With how many of the “features” in windows 10 are implemented it is relatively easy to have these parts stripped out.
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
Personally I don't want any AI or any digital assistant on any platform or product I use, desktop, mobile or anywhere else.
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Oh, I do. I'd quite enjoy having a digital assistant on my phone and PC. However, what we do have is absolutely nothing like what I want. First of all, it needs to be wholly self contained. I want absolutely no phoning home. I don't want the processing to be done on someone else's servers and then sent back to me. I don't want a list or log of anything I've used it for to be sent to anyone unless I explicitly specify it. I want full control over what it can and can't do.

I've always loved the idea of something like this as long as the control of it was in my hands. I don't expect it would be anything I would constantly use but the occasional convenience would be wonderful.
 
SmokeRngs said:
Oh, I do. I'd quite enjoy having a digital assistant on my phone and PC. However, what we do have is absolutely nothing like what I want. First of all, it needs to be wholly self contained. I want absolutely no phoning home. I don't want the processing to be done on someone else's servers and then sent back to me. I don't want a list or log of anything I've used it for to be sent to anyone unless I explicitly specify it. I want full control over what it can and can't do.

I've always loved the idea of something like this as long as the control of it was in my hands. I don't expect it would be anything I would constantly use but the occasional convenience would be wonderful.
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Let me introduce you to Mycroft! www.mycroft.ai - They're an open source project building a voice assistant that eventually can have even the server-side processing done on your own (open source, locally hosted) machine. They're even working with Land Rover and other business clients to provide "white box" voice assistants that can be branded with locally hosted servers . They also have the option to split the difference so to speak in that currently, you can run the open source client on your own machine (be that a full PC, a virtualized docker image, a RaspberryPi or similar SBC etc. They're also in the process of developing a second smart-speaker release designed for ease of use), and some degree of processing and whatnot happens on their server, but unless you specifically opt in anything you send over is purged ,not used for training etc... unlike Google, Alexa, Cortana etc.... an everyone else. Of course, users who wish to allow their voice/data to be used to help better Mycroft can opt-in and , should they opt out later, all their assets are removed. Thanks to the project being open source and privacy focused, many voluntarily opt in as it speeds the process of improving project performance and they have greater trust in the company than they would the major alternatives.

There's a good amount of development and users have created lots of features and integrations (ie working with OpenHAB , open source home automation controller software. New voice action features such as recipe-readers etc) and there's other core things in the works down the line, including some "wow factor" features such a user-available voice-package creation (ie from family members to celebrities, read enough data in that the machine learning can understand how they speak, Mycroft can speak in their voice! ). Mycroft is not currently to the level of polish that Alexa / Siri etc.. and other proprietary apps are at this point (it takes a bit more tech ability to set it up vs just installing a simple app), but its coming along nicely and is a much more ethical example of a voice assistant vs the perpetually spying, use-everything-it-hears-for-anything-in-perpetuity data mining way the industry has gone.
 
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RanceJustice said:
Let me introduce you to Mycroft! www.mycroft.ai - They're an open source project building a voice assistant that eventually can have even the server-side processing done on your own (open source, locally hosted) machine. They're even working with Land Rover and other business clients to provide "white box" voice assistants that can be branded with locally hosted servers . They also have the option to split the difference so to speak in that currently, you can run the open source client on your own machine (be that a full PC, a virtualized docker image, a RaspberryPi or similar SBC etc. They're also in the process of developing a second smart-speaker release designed for ease of use), and some degree of processing and whatnot happens on their server, but unless you specifically opt in anything you send over is purged ,not used for training etc... unlike Google, Alexa, Cortana etc.... an everyone else. Of course, users who wish to allow their voice/data to be used to help better Mycroft can opt-in and , should they opt out later, all their assets are removed. Thanks to the project being open source and privacy focused, many voluntarily opt in as it speeds the process of improving project performance and they have greater trust in the company than they would the major alternatives.

There's a good amount of development and users have created lots of features and integrations (ie working with OpenHAB , open source home automation controller software. New voice action features such as recipe-readers etc) and there's other core things in the works down the line, including some "wow factor" features such a user-available voice-package creation (ie from family members to celebrities, read enough data in that the machine learning can understand how they speak, Mycroft can speak in their voice! ). Mycroft is not currently to the level of polish that Alexa / Siri etc.. and other proprietary apps are at this point (it takes a bit more tech ability to set it up vs just installing a simple app), but its coming along nicely and is a much more ethical example of a voice assistant vs the perpetually spying, use-everything-it-hears-for-anything-in-perpetuity data mining way the industry has gone.
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You work on this project?
 
OpenSource said:
You work on this project?
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No, I don't work for the company. Full disclosure I did crowdfund with them for a small sum after following the project for a bit and talking to some of those working on it professionally (ie I should be getting one of the new line of ready-to-go smart speakers when they're released). I happened upon them awhile ago and just liked what they were doing for a more privacy conscious future, potentially building the best open source voice assistant out there and doing it the right way (there is another company making an open source client voice assistant, but there are no plans for user-controlled servers and the data gathering is opt-out... I forget its name off the top of my head).

There's a lot of tech we see in sci-fi that was expected to be developed, from AI voice assistants and self-driving cars to little things like a "smart fridge" that knows when you're low on milk, to really important things like implantable medical technology. These, not to mention many other projects could be of great benefit to individual users and society as a whole, but in the current financial environment with very limited regulations, near limitless data gathering, and horrid monetization policies under the flimsiest of TOS make them exploitative in short and long term alike. While I think that avoiding some of the less flattering portrayals of the future (ie cyberpunk dystopia corporate dominance etc) will require regulatory and legislative changes, it never hurts to try to find and support the companies that are "doing it right" technically and ethically. Mycroft seems to be a good example in this regard
 
RanceJustice said:
Let me introduce you to Mycroft! www.mycroft.ai - They're an open source project building a voice assistant that eventually can have even the server-side processing done on your own (open source, locally hosted) machine. They're even working with Land Rover and other business clients to provide "white box" voice assistants that can be branded with locally hosted servers . They also have the option to split the difference so to speak in that currently, you can run the open source client on your own machine (be that a full PC, a virtualized docker image, a RaspberryPi or similar SBC etc. They're also in the process of developing a second smart-speaker release designed for ease of use), and some degree of processing and whatnot happens on their server, but unless you specifically opt in anything you send over is purged ,not used for training etc... unlike Google, Alexa, Cortana etc.... an everyone else. Of course, users who wish to allow their voice/data to be used to help better Mycroft can opt-in and , should they opt out later, all their assets are removed. Thanks to the project being open source and privacy focused, many voluntarily opt in as it speeds the process of improving project performance and they have greater trust in the company than they would the major alternatives.

There's a good amount of development and users have created lots of features and integrations (ie working with OpenHAB , open source home automation controller software. New voice action features such as recipe-readers etc) and there's other core things in the works down the line, including some "wow factor" features such a user-available voice-package creation (ie from family members to celebrities, read enough data in that the machine learning can understand how they speak, Mycroft can speak in their voice! ). Mycroft is not currently to the level of polish that Alexa / Siri etc.. and other proprietary apps are at this point (it takes a bit more tech ability to set it up vs just installing a simple app), but its coming along nicely and is a much more ethical example of a voice assistant vs the perpetually spying, use-everything-it-hears-for-anything-in-perpetuity data mining way the industry has gone.
Click to expand...


This is Interesting - and shows us what happens then Micro$oft fails - yet again - to deliver a useful product. Microsoft always seems to be in the business of developing products that THEY THINK WE NEED. Cortana is just another failure of theirs, since they decided to bundle it into the O/S. Bad implementation, and most people just perceive it as spying - with NO WAY of removing it ! So, what does M$ do? They totally abandon it. Prolly getting rid of a few developers and maybe a manager (Bad business). But hey, since they overcharge for their products, they can afford it.

I wish Mycroft well, and hope they can withstand any backlash coming out of Redmond!
 
Exercate said:
This is Interesting - and shows us what happens then Micro$oft fails - yet again - to deliver a useful product. Microsoft always seems to be in the business of developing products that THEY THINK WE NEED. Cortana is just another failure of theirs, since they decided to bundle it into the O/S. Bad implementation, and most people just perceive it as spying - with NO WAY of removing it ! So, what does M$ do? They totally abandon it. Prolly getting rid of a few developers and maybe a manager (Bad business). But hey, since they overcharge for their products, they can afford it.

I wish Mycroft well, and hope they can withstand any backlash coming out of Redmond!
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Cortana was a fantastic voice assistant, at one time, when they had a complete ecosystem, including phones. However, Microsoft basically deprecated and killed Cortana, which made it not at all useful. Even their Android version is very poor, and I have tried it in the past.
 
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