Take the survey and help us decide what to do with Faithlife Assistant.
help us decide what to do with Faithlife Assistant
It would be unfair of me to take this survey because I have NEVER used that part of the software.
But THANK YOU for asking!
Thanks, Steve. You're welcome to use it and then take the survey. Some parts of the survey are still relevant even if you haven't used it. You can skip any questions that don't apply. Thanks!
Just took the survey. Hope it helps.
Maybe you could give us a hint as to what it is / does so that we do not just answer the relevant parts?
It answers questions - voice or typed. It could:
think Siri or Alexa for Logos/Verbum
But it's not quite there yet.
Yes. It's more like a prototype than a fully functioning feature right now. If you know how to use it, it works pretty well. But there are plenty of places where you hit a brick wall.
Here are some things to try to get a feel for how it works:
BTW, when the focus moves away from Faithlife Assistant, you can jump it back by using Ctrl + Tab (on Windows and Mac).
Hmmm. Impressive. Never tried most of those.
I should retake the survey...
I do think the search field should be at the top and not hidden at the bottom.
There's a longer list here: https://wiki.logos.com/Faithlife_Assistant_Commands.
Maybe it’s just me, but I haven’t seen a button or anything in the home page that has this “feature” visible and ready for you to ask questions. Maybe many of us have not used it because we don’t even know it’s there. Or maybe it’s because I have my settings set to Spanish since I teach in Spanish most of the time; so I don’t know if the feature is hidden because it’s not available in Spanish.
Thanks!
DAL
A serious and heart-felt plea, Phil. Don't kill Faithlife Assistant regardless of the results of the survey. There is one task that it is uniquely equiped to fulfill regardless of whether any other functions are retained. In the forums, there are questions about what data is e.g. "syntactic force", why something is/is not coded as a parable, what the attributes for a label are/mean ... Currently, to get the answer we must:
Compare that to the following workflow:
Please ... this would encourage people to actually learn what the data means which improves the questions they ask of the text, improves the quality of their interpretation, and encourages them to learn more tools because they will know what they are looking at (or be able to find out quickly). So please, don't kill Faithlife Assistant. Make it more useful -- even if for this limited function.
Compare that to the following workflow: Open Faithlife Assistant if it is not already open. Ask the assistant for a definition e.g. "syntactic force"
I see what you are saying MJ but I can't work out how to make the Assistant answer this question.
Am I missing something or were you asking for this type of increased functionality?
Maybe it’s just me, but I haven’t seen a button or anything in the home page that has this “feature” visible and ready for you to ask questions.
There isn't a button for it - it is a Tool in the Tools Menu
I am losing my eyesight and I am investing time and money into multiple types of AI in hopes that technology will stay ahead of my sight loss.
I have heard of Faithlife Assistant, and poked around, and at some point got distracted before I found anything useful to me.
I need training. The people that use AI most have a REASON to use it beyond thinking of it is a toy, and that very same reason can make LEARNING how to use it more difficult. Please train us to use it before thinking about giving up on it!
I am a heavy user of Alexa, Bixby, and Google in that order. I have used Cortana and Portal, but have not found them that useful, and maybe that is just because I have not been trained enough. I don't have any Apple products, so don't have the option to use Siri. Right now, I have more sight that money, and as that changes, I will probably be forced to invest in Apple products.
Projects like this can be a drain on developer resources. The software that works the best has often been triaged and stripped of the bells and whistles. It does what it does well, and that is all it does.
If Faithlife offers an assistant and trains me to use it and it does something useful for the vision impaired, I assume that I will become more and more dependent on it and on Faithlife products.
May the Lord guide you in this important decision.
were you asking for this type of increased functionality?
Yes, it would be new ... it is also something I would have done very early on had I been the analyst. The current commands are nice for hands off use but aren't truly value added commands.
A serious and heart-felt plea, Phil. Don't kill Faithlife Assistant regardless of the results of the survey.
I say kill it ... FL Marketing. Take Bob's book, forget 'compassion', etc and the Christian'y stuff (that's for church, not business).
For a multimillion dollar investment, that has literally Eternity (yes, upper-case) in its sites (location), how can it be more badly marketed? Then, surveys mean kill-it in Logosian. Well, ok!
What really bugs me (beyond average insects), is the huge amount of personal talent that goes into the product, and yawns in Marketing. OK, yes, Accordance Marketing is worse, but they don't have bragging rights to Logos.
Maybe it’s just me, but I haven’t seen a button or anything in the home page that has this “feature” visible and ready for you to ask questions. There isn't a button for it - it is a Tool in the Tools Menu
So it’s hidden. I haven’t really used it but I’m willing to try it a couple of days before I take the survey.
Faithlife Assistant is a conversational AI bot that allows you to perform many tasks in Logos using natural language.
Note: Faithlife Assistant requires an active internet connection, and is currently available with a Faithlife Connect subscription.
From somewhere on the FL site but Google did not tell me where Google found this.
Who was Mephibosheth? What was Urim and Thummim?
Only if it understands country-boy better than Alexa.
That’s the big problem with uptake of this tool - it’s buried in the Tools menu rather than being visible on the Toolbar. To me if FL truly backed this feature they would have put it on the toolbar and not hidden it in the Toole menu. It’s has the potential to be so much more than a ‘Tool’.
Maybe it’s just me, but I haven’t seen a button or anything in the home page that has this “feature” visible and ready for you to ask questions. There isn't a button for it - it is a Tool in the Tools Menu So it’s hidden. I haven’t really used it but I’m willing to try it a couple of days before I take the survey. DAL
You can drag it to the toolbar---once you're aware of its existence and where to find it, but you knew that already.
If Faithlife put it on the toolbar there would be an uproar from some who value that space for their own priority items [:D]
I agree that Faithlife Assistant would be a value added tool IF fully developed, however, Faithlife doesn't have a consistent track record in this area. I am concerned about,
I am a "print disabled student" which is a combination of "print disabled" and "student" that gives me special access to resources that the general public has no access or must pay to access.This category of people is growing and accustomed to using technology to help them interact with text. This group of students is reaching higher levels of education than in previous generations, so I assume more disabled students will be looking to buy Logos than ever before.
The Baby Boomers are aging and some are being classified as "print disabled". They are granted access to some of the resources developed for the younger "print disabled students" if they pay for that access.
One resource of note is Bookshare. The ebooks can be downloaded and converted to personal books to be used in Logos.
https://www.bookshare.org/cms/bookshare-me
A streamlined process for disabled students to download Bookshare books into Logos and have the AI read the books aloud to the student would be very welcome. The Bookshare library is very large and overlaps with the Logos library. If the process is easy enough, there might be some students that buy fewer books from Logos, even though as personal books, they are missing some of the integration feature of Logos books. This might not be something Logos would want to purse. Or it might be. The publicity and the promise of Logos books being better might mean they profit far more than lose sales.
As a print disabled student, it would be a dream come true to have Bookshare and Logos more integrated, and supported by the Faithlife AI, but if that intergration made Logos developers stretched too thin and Logos/Verbum as a whole suffered, that would not be in my best interest or anyone else's.
The advances in technology are exciting, BUT there are so many unfinished projects in the software I use, and the learning curve to learn all this technology is impossible to manage alongside my regular studies. More is expected of me because of all these new resources, but the reality is that sometimes I still cannot keep up with students with better sight.
May the Lord guide Faithlife in how to move forward in the future. Theory is not reality. All that is exciting is not always useful. Sometimes less is more. The Gospel message is often about keeping it simple.
That’s the big problem with uptake of this tool - it’s buried in the Tools menu rather than being visible on the Toolbar. To me if FL truly backed this feature they would have put it on the toolbar and not hidden it in the Toole menu. It’s has the potential to be so much more than a ‘Tool’. You can drag it to the toolbar---once you're aware of its existence and where to find it, but you knew that already. If Faithlife put it on the toolbar there would be an uproar from some who value that space for their own priority items
If Faithlife put it on the toolbar there would be an uproar from some who value that space for their own priority items
There’s a big Logos logo on the left top corner of the program. Maybe they can make that a hyperlink to Faithlife assistant instead of just taking up space there 👍😁👌
YES!!!
Are there Faithlife AI settings? Can I choose a custom voice? Do I have to click the microphone to speak, or is there a wake word or name?
If this feature is going to be supported, can we have a subforum for it?
Yes one can drag it onto the user short-cut bar but users have to know it’s there, it should be on the tioolbar by default. It’s something FL should want users to know about, the store was available in multiple places in the software yet they still put it in a prominent place on the toolbar until the got a user backlash. If they truly backed FL Assistant and wanted users to embrace it they should have it on the toolbar next to the command box. FL Assistant has the potential to provide Logos a point of difference to competitors but they did not fully back, promote it, and get excited about it when they first launched it.
p.s. Users get upset when FL marketing intrudes on their Bible study, their marketing intrudes in enough other ways and not when FL provides useful features that assist in making the software more useable - useability has been a big bug bear for a vocal group of users and FL missed part of the answer when they buried FL Assistant in a tools menu and failed to give it a bit more post release development.
How to change the default voice
https://community.logos.com/forums/t/186484.aspx
Do I have to click the microphone to speak, or is there a wake word or name?
Hi Kathleen Marie:
As far as i know, (and my use has been limited), you do have to click the mic prior to each voice command, i.e., there's no wake word. If that remains so, FA's use will be quite limited as an accessibility tool. As I have a vision impairment, Alexa devices are very useful to me; she has a very good reading voice for the many eligible Kindle books I own, in addition to her other functions. Her ubiquity in my house (five Dots) is a key to her utility. If Faithlife Assistant could be on standby on my office desktop or my kitchen notebook for impromptu verbal commands, it would be much more useful.
If Faithlife Assistant could be on standby on my office desktop or my kitchen notebook for impromptu verbal commands, it would be much more use
Good point worth a formal suggestion.
Do I have to click the microphone to speak, or is there a wake word or name? Hi Kathleen Marie: As far as i know, (and my use has been limited), you do have to click the mic prior to each voice command, i.e., there's no wake word. If that remains so, FA's use will be quite limited as an accessibility tool. As I have a vision impairment, Alexa devices are very useful to me; she has a very good reading voice for the many eligible Kindle books I own, in addition to her other functions. Her ubiquity in my house (five Dots) is a key to her utility. If Faithlife Assistant could be on standby on my office desktop or my kitchen notebook for impromptu verbal commands, it would be much more useful.
Thank you! I am so glad to be able to talk with another vision impaired user of Logos/Verbum.
I have been playing around with the Faithlife AI a bit today and having all sorts of problems. It is spitting back nonsense to the phraseology that I have become accustomed to using with other AI. Maybe I just don't know how to talk to it.
And the voice keeps switching back to David, even though other Bible software that reads text is using the voice that I programmed Window to use. If I reprogram Windows, Verbum uses the voice until my laptop goes to sleep and then reverts back to the default David.
I love Alexa. It takes a lot for me to be willing to give up my privacy, but illness, disability, and age make us dependent on people with agendas that are sometimes at odds with out own, and we need to submit if we want the help.
Wake words are controversial for those with normal vision. For those of us that need assistance to see the icons to click on them, wake-up words are a necessity. The only wake word that works on my phone is Bixby, so I use Bixby as my default AI, when I would prefer Alexa or Google.
I would prefer to see Factbook or passage guide more fully developed. Perhaps a voice command can start a factbook check or passage guide.
To some extent it already does this ... at least I get several items to bring up Factbook
I would prefer to see Factbook or passage guide more fully developed. Perhaps a voice command can start a factbook check or passage guide. To some extent it already does this ... at least I get several items to bring up Factbook
If FA heads in this direction, I can see use for it in the future. If FA is just going to be another Alexa or Siri, then I dont care too much for it. If FA allows me to open an audio file on an android phone while I am driving, then there is a place for it.
I am not against FA. But I would prefer to see many other features such as factbook and passage guide to be developed more.
It takes a lot for me to be willing to give up my privacy, but illness, disability, and age make us dependent on people with agendas that are sometimes at odds with out own, and we need to submit if we want the help.
I, too, share that concern. However, I think of it less as submitting, and more of a trade-off judgment: The highly beneficial use of the devices versus the possible political use of the tedium and ennui of household conversation. [:)]
My suggestion to Faithlife:
Move Faithlife Assistant into the existing Command Box (GO box? Omnibox?). Everything that can be typed into FA (in quasi-"natural" language) should be accepted by the Command Box. And everything that's currently accepted by the Command Box should be (or is already?) accepted by FA by voice.
No extra button needed. FA doesn't need to be (and shouldn't be) a separate "tool". It should be continuously improved and made smarter and smarter.
It should have a "wake word" like Siri and Alexa ("Hey Logos" or "Hey Verbum"... please, not "Hey Faithlife"... too hard to pronounce for some of us).
My two cents.
I would like and use FaithLife assistant, if it could be summoned from outside of the Logos program like “Hey Siri” or “Ok Google” can. For instance, if I am working in Word and could say “Hey Faithlife, copy Ephesians 2:1–8 from the NIV“ and it would just put it on the clipboard. Or, “Hey Faithlife, read Matthew 16:18 from The Bible Knowledge Commentary”. Or, “Hey Faithlife, read today’s devotional on my iPhone”. Or, “Hey Faithlife, open my Bible to Romans chapter 4”. Then Faithlife assistant would be genuinely useful.
It takes a lot for me to be willing to give up my privacy, but illness, disability, and age make us dependent on people with agendas that are sometimes at odds with out own, and we need to submit if we want the help. I, too, share that concern. However, I think of it less as submitting, and more of a trade-off judgment: The highly beneficial use of the devices versus the possible political use of the tedium and ennui of household conversation.
I, too, share that concern. However, I think of it less as submitting, and more of a trade-off judgment: The highly beneficial use of the devices versus the possible political use of the tedium and ennui of household conversation.
Sometimes the biggest threat is who else might gain access to the information. It is so much easier to hack into an account than defend an account. Household conversation holds most of the information that must otherwise be gained from direct "social engineering" attacks.
Sometimes this is more of a concern that other times. In my past, my phone account was accessed and used by someone in an attempt to harm me, and there was so much less information in that account. God is bigger than the bullies, and I just have to keep my trust in Him.
Well, if people don't use the assistant, because they can't 'hey' it, then for sure have an option to turn it off. Quiet Pochi, quiet! Not the everything search!!
Personally, I'd fix the tread-marks from 2008 ... so many to choose from. Maybe take a tread-mark survey.
FA would be a great addition to the mobile app, especially when driving and asking it to read something aloud.
I understand why this would appeal to many users. However, I like the chat aspect where I can look back at the answer to recent questions when I've forgotten an important point.
Wouldn't have to be an either-or proposition.
I see future good from this and hope it improves. One day computers will be lik "Dr. Spoc" and we'll just talk with them and listen and find answers/replies on the screen.
So far, computers processing power has been very slow. But soon...
I think it's coming.
