忘掉Siri，拥抱Eliza——外包的Siri

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    *  忘掉Siri，拥抱Eliza——外包的Siri

Siri是iPhone 4S所配的一款优秀的语音助理软件，是iPhone 4S最受欢迎的功能之一。Siri是如此美妙以致于市场上很快出现了数十款Android Siri模仿应用软件，但没有一款能够做得很像真正的Siri。不过,这种状况可能很快就会完全改变，因为许多软件开发商正在全力以赴地开发功能类似甚至超越Siri的语音处理软件。其中一个努力就是IPSoft公司正在开发的Eliza。

图题：Siri是iPhone 4S的主要卖点之一。但IPSoft公司的Eliza承诺能为企业做得更多。

Siri可以帮你找到最近的泰国菜馆，但Eliza能够解决你的计算机问题。IPSoft公司正在研究一种被称为Eliza的人工智能系统，如同一位虚拟工程师一样，能够时刻帮助用户解决计算机和网络基础设施问题。Eliza已经帮助荷兰国际银行和摩根史丹利公司解决了三分之二的问题。

帮助消费者解决他们的计算机基础设施问题是一个价值250亿美元的产业,但现在这一产业行将发生巨变。IPSoft可能将占据这个产业的绝大部分市场份额，据估计到2017年这一产业将增长到450亿美元。

这对IT行业来说意味着什么？

IPSoft公司的Jeya Kumar认为，印度外包公司将呈非线性增长，但不会继续采用雇佣新员工来获得新的业务。“印度外包公司也许在今后十年内都不会这样做。”Kumar表示。他们所要做的是增加更多的硬件。这个产业不必经历面试、邮寄录取通知然后花费数百万美元进行培训最后才让招录者上岗的复杂又麻烦的过程。

IT产业的幸福与痛苦一下子都烟消云散了。

很难想像印度IT公司不在探索这类解决方案。我认为印度IT产业不再推崇实体店购物和现金支付。也许这是一相情愿，但这个行业可能已经在寻求这类解决方案。

挑战

Eliza面临的挑战与Siri面临的挑战是不同的。Siri是一种消费技术，不管Siri能做什么还是不能做什么都是新闻。不管是能够启动你的汽车还是无法帮你找到一家堕胎诊所，Siri可能会立即受到表扬或批评。Eliza不会遇到类似的尴尬境地。这是因为Eliza运行在后台，调用者不必知道他或她是在对着人还是对着机器讲话。除非IPSoft有意披露细节，否则Eliza将有更多的数据和时间而无需强迫改进自已。

当然，这完全取决于IPSoft Eliza的效率实际有多高。先有Watson，后有Siri，那么Eliza会成为外包的Siri吗？

Forget Siri, Meet Eliza -- the Siri of Outsourcing
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Forget Siri, Meet Eliza -- the Siri of Outsourcing

Siri, the sexy voice assistant that comes with iPhone 4S, is one of the most-desired features of the iPhone 4S. Siri is supposedly so wonderful that there are almost 10 Android Siri wannabes, and none comes close to being the actual Siri. That might soon change, though, because work is in full force from various developers to be Siri and beat Siri. One such effort is Eliza from IPSoft.

Caption: Siri is the one of the main selling points of the iPhone 4S. But IPSoft's Eliza promises to do much more for the enterprise. (AP)

Siri can find you the nearest Thai restaurant. But Eliza can fix your computer problems. IPSoft is working on an artificial intelligence system called Eliza which is a virtual engineer set out to fix computer and network infrastructure problems. Eliza is already fixing two-thirds of the problems for ING and Morgan Stangley.

Yes, the US$ 25 billion industry where people call to get their computer infrastructure problems resolved is all set for a sea change. So much so that IPSoft might keep a lion’s share of this industry, which is estimated to grow to US$ 45 billion by 2017.

What does this mean to IT industry?

Jeya Kumar of IPSoft says Indian outsourcing companies will grow non-linearly, but will not go on a hiring spree to gain new business. ”Indian outsourcing companies won’t think about it probably for another 10 years,” says Kumar. All it needs to do is add more hardware. The industry does not have to go through the complex and tiring process of interviewing people, rolling out offer letters and spending millions of dollars to train them and finally getting them on-board.

The boon of IT and the pain of IT are gone in one fell-swoop.

It’s hard to think that Indian IT companies are not looking at this kind of solution already. I don’t think the Indian IT industry is still looking at body shopping and dollar billing. Maybe it’s wishful thinking, but the industry might already be looking at these kind of solutions.

Challenges

The challenges to Eliza are different from the challenges Siri is facing. Siri is a consumer technology and whatever Siri could do and can’t do is news. Be it starting your car or not being able to find an abortion clinic, Siri can be praised or ridiculed immediately. Eliza doesn’t have to go through the same humiliation. It’s because Eliza runs behind the scenes and the caller doesn’t have to know if he or she is speaking to a human or a machine. Unless IPSoft has a policy to reveal this, Eliza will have more data and time without the pressure to improve itself.

Of course this all depends on how effective IPSoft’s Eliza really is. First there was Watson, and then there was Siri. Could Eliza be the Siri of Outsourcing?