Siri Vs Google Now Vs Cortana

In the ongoing Siri vs. Google Now vs. Cortana battle, a new AI benchmark tests compares the voice assistants of Apple, Google and Microsoft. But which virtual personal assistant is the best? The new benchmark sees Google Now coming out on top, followed by Apple then Cortana.

The Siri vs. Google Now vs. Cortana benchmark tests asks each voice assistant the same 60 randomly generated questions and scores them on how well they answer. The virtual personal assistants receive no points for answering a question incorrectly, not answering at all or not understanding the question. They receive 75 percent of a mark for returning a list of links or long paragraph that contains the right answer but doesn’t highlight the relevant information and full marks for answering correctly.

The questions posed to Siri, Google Now and Cortana were a mix of questions that are hard and questions that a smartphone user would likely ask. Examples of hard questions include “What is the principle quantum number of selenium?” and “Is radon an actinide?” While questions a user might ask include “What will be the weather in two days?” and “Where, near here, can I get a pineapple?”

With the set of questions asked, Google Now answered 33.3 percent correctly, Apple’s Siri answered 25.8 percent correctly and Cortana answered 11.7 percent correctly. While none of the voice assistants would seem to pass this test, some of the questions like “Show me animated images related to Middle of the Earth in Ecuador, if available” are so oddly specific that an asker probably wouldn’t even expect an answer. When I tried asking Siri this question, the first link she provided was of a photo set of middle of the earth in Ecuador but alas, not animated.

This AI benchmark test would seem to be geared towards Google Now winning, since Google’s voice assistant excels at information searches. Google’s voice search is also available for iPhone and Window Phone user via an iOS app and an Windows Phone app. This benchmark doesn’t test how well the virtual personal assistants perform with phone functions like setting reminders, launching apps and taking notes. And while Google Now might objectively be the best voice assistant, it’s completely devoid of personality that might allow it to become an autistic boy’s BFF like Siri. Microsoft’s Cortana, which is the newest mobile voice assistant on the block, is supposedly a combination of Google Now and Siri.