Canonical's Upcoming AI Tool: Talk to Ubuntu Instead of Typing (itsfoss.com)
- Reference: 0184015272
- News link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/26/06/21/0234252/canonicals-upcoming-ai-tool-talk-to-ubuntu-instead-of-typing
- Source link: https://itsfoss.com/news/myna-ai-speech-to-text-tool/
"Speech recognition has become a common feature on modern platforms, and we think it should be a first-class experience on Ubuntu Desktop as well."
[2]More details from the blog It's FOSS :
> For Ubuntu 26.10, the initial version of Myna is expected to be a desktop dictation tool built around GNOME on Wayland with a push-to-talk mechanism gatekeeping when your microphone accepts input. Using it means holding a hotkey, speaking, and letting go. A small activity indicator shows while it is listening, and the transcribed text lands wherever the cursor was sitting when dictation started.
>
> Recognition itself happens inside a sandboxed component called the Canonical Inference Snap, while a Speech Orchestrator manages the session and an Audio Adapter handles whatever the microphone picks up, denoising and chunking it before it ever reaches the model... Speech recognition will happen locally, and an internet connection is not needed once the appropriate model is installed... The audio data won't be sticking around either, being stored in a small in-memory buffer that gets discarded the moment the session ends. Features like dictation into password fields, wake words, continuous listening, voice assistants, voice commands, translation, speaker identification, and automatic language detection are all off the table...
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> You should also know that Canonical is looking for feedback before the specs for Myna are finalized, especially from people who already rely on dictation or assistive tools on Linux.
[1] https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/introducing-myna-speech-to-text-for-ubuntu-desktop/84251
[2] https://itsfoss.com/news/myna-ai-speech-to-text-tool/
Perfect for corporate use (Score:2)
This feature is great in an office that uses small cubicles. Even better for open-plan offices!
But seriously, apart from disabled users who might not be able to use a keyboard, I don't see a use case for this. The reason we use dictation on mobile devices is that they typically have poor keyboards. If you have a good keyboard, you can be far more efficient with it than with voice input.
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How about the script writer sitting in the coffee shop, working on a porn video?
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I have a good keyboard, and on a good day, I can do 60 words a minute. I completely and fundamentally disagree with you. Using a microphone to speak what you want to appear on the screen can be, if you use it correctly, much, much faster than typing it. using a keyboard is great now for certain types of things, but these modern tools recognize things like when you use commas and are pausing, when a sentence ends, and so on. You don't need to actually say the sentence and then say the word period after it to
Relevent (Score:2)
I use Linux on everything. So how relevant is Canonical's announcement for me?
1) I don't use Gnome
2) I don't use Wayland
3) I don't use SNAP
4) I don't use Ubuntu
5) I have no use for desktop dictation since I can type much faster than speaking something, then reading it all again to edit and correct all the mistakes and add all the missing punctuation/etc.
At least they kept it "local" and perhaps some people might find the tool useful. So wake us up when it is a real/native package, can be used on any Linux,
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Must be incredibly relevant. You went out of you way to post how it doesn't affect you.
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> "Must be incredibly relevant. You went out of you way to post how it doesn't affect you."
I am probably not the minority in the views of relevancy and I specifically wrote it could be useful for some people. But, whatever :)
okay... where? (Score:2)
> You should also know that Canonical is looking for feedback before the specs for Myna are finalized, especially from people who already rely on dictation or assistive tools on Linux.
OK, how do we provide this feedback? The article is chock-full of links, but not one for that. It gives strong "get fucked" energy.
Since it's not worth putting out the effort to figure out where to submit some comments they definitely won't give a fuck about anyway: In no way is it a "first class" anything when it's only for GNOME and only in a snap. Let us know when it's ready for prime time so we can test it out and decide if we care. There's a 0% chance I'm going to use GNOME or snap.
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Obviously SLASHDOT modsters have never been 1st-year grad students in a bio-science. Chromic-acid baths are a wonderful way to learn DNA --> RNA --> protein .
This Is Why I Ditched Ubuntu (Score:2)
This is another clear example of Ubuntu reaching for a feature no one asked for while ignoring the core product. Snaps were the last straw for me, but if it weren't, then Myna certainly would be.
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So, "People With Disabilities Don't Exist" then?
My father was recently paralyzed by Guillain-Barré, so I'll let him know, thanks.
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I see what you are saying, but also I'm not sure if I'd say it's a disability, but I certainly find typing stuff out is easier than saying it. Especially as I can edit it before submission, where as what I say is what the AI responds to immediately.
It's a lot like talking on the phone, which I also dislike. Face to face, people can see your expressions and when you look like you are trying to think of what to say or how to rephrase something, they can wait. On the phone, or talking to an AI, that isn't poss
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You don't have to have a disability to use one of these tools. I did start using one because I was typing way, way too much. But it turns out that they're actually extremely useful. So I compose all my emails and do all of my development work with propts using a tool like this. It doesn't need to be bundled with Ubuntu.
They all work essentially the same way. They are using some sort of an API connection into an LLM. But it's not full AI. It's essentially a type of speech recognition, as far as I understand
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Users do want this. Watch the final part of the recent Linus Tech Tips Linux Challenge. Three of them switched to Linux for a month, and they all kept using it afterwards. Previous challenges had them going back to Windows.
The two big things that changed are Proton making games work, and AI making solving Linux problems less painful. They all commented on the reaction they get when asking questions of the Linux community. It's often hostile and unhelpful, telling them that they don't actually want to do wha
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I didn’t like the unattended update service that ran on occasion. Only discovered that because manually running apt generated an error about the database being locked. That’s some Windows shit.
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So I already use a tool like this. It's called Voicy. I use it because I've been writing so many long prompts that I developed relatively severe tendonitis in my left arm. And also I was leaning on my desk so much when typing that I developed bursitis in my elbow. So I got this application, and then I got a microphone, and now I can make very long, large prompts. It has actually sped up the development of a game that I'm working on by an astronomical amount. In fact, I'm using it right now. It's not perfect
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yes yes "i'm old and cranky"