I've spent a lot of time with
Siri since she came into my life at the end of January. I was going to write a lighthearted piece about her amusing responses, but that must wait until next month.
I need to tell you what I have learned about her history and how she and her Google counterpart will change our lives.
Siri didn't just magically appear on iPhones on October 4, 2011, the day before
Steve Jobs died.
Siri was created by a Silicon Valley team of visionaries who cleverly exploited government-funded research.
"The goal is a human-enhancing and potentially indispensable assistant that could supplement the limitations of our minds and free us from mundane and tedious tasks." So says
a fascinating article published in the Huffington Post.Siri isn't very forthcoming about her name. Ask her and she'll reply "What does my name mean? I don't think I can explain it in your language. Sorry." But, in fact,
the name is a variant of Sigrid. The Indian Siri is associated with Lakshimi, the Hindu goddess for wealth and prosperity. Her creators describe her as a "
beautiful woman that leads you to fair victory and wealth."
The HistorySiri is a daughter of
DARPA. In 2003,
the Defense Department joined with SRI International to lead a five-year, 500-person effort to build a virtual assistant to help military commanders with both information overload and office chores. The outcome was CALO--the Cognitive Assistant that Learns and Organizes.
More about that in this video. It was the largest artificial intelligence (AI) program in history.
Siri was originally designed as an app for the newly introduced iPhone by a start-up company with the same name. According to an early investor, the small company's progress was "absolutely breathtaking."
Siri's creators knew their
success depended not only on a smart app, but also one that was amusing. They brainstormed snappy comebacks for all the offbeat questions people were likely to ask the assistant.
In 2010, three weeks after
Siri debuted as an independently developed iPhone app, Steve Jobs called the developers. He outbid Verizon, and
Siri went to live at Apple. In fact, if you ask Siri about her origins, she will tell you she was designed by Apple in California. But, in fact, the
Siri we have today is actually a dumbed-down version of the original. If you want to know what your assistant can do, click the little "i" to the right of "What can I help you with?" when you invoke
Siri.
What's Next?The original
Siri synced with dozens of other online sources for information. It was far more proactive than our
Siri, who, though very helpful, does not anticipate our needs. Apple's
Siri had another challenge. She needed to work in nearly 100 countries, speaking lots of difference languages.
Futurists and researchers predict that voice-controlled software like Siri and Google Now will take us from understanding how to use technology to technology that understands us. More than half a dozen Siri-like services launched in 2012 alone. So for now, enjoy your voice-controlled assistant. And look for lots more to come.