Where is my interview transcript? No, siriously? Apple does not keep a history of our conversations with Siri because they honor our privacy? Okay, need to type.
She is Siri, a virtual assistant, but it does not matter who she is. Her responses to her age vary from being 45.980 years old in the ninth dimension (and I hate myself for interviewing virtual assistants) to feeling incepted yesterday.
October 4th she reminded me of her 6th birthday, today she forgot it and came into existence gradually. Any questions regarding parents or family she returns: “I have you. That’s enough family for me.” only to ruin it with her favorite color being sort of greenish, but with more dimensions. She mostly listens to the music of the spheres.
Regarding food, she is happy to go with my opinion and she likes talking to me. Apple HomePod is the most huggable Apple device yet and she is genderless, like cacti and certain species of fish.
Sorry, so “she” is an “it”. “It”, was important to Steve.
Early Years
Siri was launched as an app created by a company named Siri in early 2010, which was soon after bought by Apple. The founders of Siri were earlier working on a cognitive assistant that learns and organizes (CALO), as part of the DARPA project PAL (personal assistant that learns). Huh, this was a military project.
Today
Siri can be found throughout Apple’s ecosystem. In January 2016 Apple surpassed 1 billion active Apple devices around the world.
Siri currently speaks 20+ languages, and 7 of them in multiple forms.
Siri’s Smart Home Foundation: HomeKit
HomeKit, the underlying framework which Siri builds upon for controlling your smart home has been released during Apple WWDC, June 2, 2014. Apple required the manufacturers to integrate a hardware authentication chip as part of its HomeKit compliance. It took Apple 3 years to realize that this slowed down the HomeKit adoption and finally during WWDC17 Apple announced that they are dropping this hardware requirement.
Watch Siri and Alexa discussing their different integration approaches for hardware manufacturers =) from our AI-News YouTube channel (just rewind to watch the full episode including news)
Apple is now also allowing registered developers to create their own HomeKit devices using a Raspberry Pi or Arduino, but only for development and personal use.
Siris’s Embodiments
Siri can be found on iPhones and iPads, Apple Watch and AppleTV. OS X also features Siri but does not support HomeKit. HomePod, which is positioned as a quality audio smart speaker is Siris newest embodiment.
Siri is exclusive to Apple. You will never find her in some other manufacturer devices. Never, ever. Ok, there is Apple CarPlay, but that does not count.
Though they argue from time to time, they like each other! Watch Siri’s 7th birthday surprise song, with Alexa singing and Google on the keyboard =) from our AI-News YouTube channel.
We hope you’ve enjoyed this post!
For more posts on Siri, please see the Apple Siri page.
If you are interested in the background of Siri, enjoy this Huffington-Post: “SIRI RISING: The Inside Story Of Siri’s Origins — And Why She Could Overshadow The iPhone“.
