I feel that the virtual assistant's behavior as described in this article--basically a repository of your personal info that can draw connections between them--is what was promised by Google, Microsoft, and Apple when designing Siri/Now/Cortana. That we don't have these already is more indicative of the failure of current-gen VAs to deliver on that promise.

Right now, the most impressive part of these VAs is not their ability to interpret complex queries, it's in the voice recognition. This makes them glorified voice-driven search engines, which has its uses, but doesn't really justify all the hype about them. The whole "personality" thing that Siri and Cortana exhibit feel like an already-dated, cute but unnecessary UI element a la Clippy.

Seriously, do people interact with Siri, Cortana, or Now as something else than voice-activated search engines? I think I stopped using Cortana as an assistant after I got tired of asking her "Tell me a joke."

I'm looking forward to see what kind of things this can do.