Siri (software)

Siri Beta

Siri on the iPhone 4S
Original author(s)	Siri
Developer(s)	Apple Inc.
Initial release	August 9, 2011 (2011-08-09)
Operating system	iOS
Platform	iPhone 4S
Available in	English, French, German
Type	Intelligent software assistant
License	Proprietary
Website	www.siri.com

Siri (pronounced /ˈsɪri/) is an intelligent software assistant and knowledge navigator functioning as a personal assistant application for iOS. The application uses a natural language user interface to answer questions, make recommendations, and perform actions by delegating requests to a set of web services. Siri claims that the software adapts to the user's individual preferences over time and personalizes results, as well as accomplishing tasks such as finding recommendations for nearby restaurants, or getting directions.

Siri was originally introduced as an iOS application available in the App Store. Siri was acquired by Apple Inc. on April 28, 2010. Siri had announced that their software would be available for BlackBerry and for Android-powered phones, but all development efforts for non-Apple platforms were cancelled after Apple's purchase.

Siri is now an integrated part of iOS 5, and available only on the iPhone 4S, launched on October 4, 2011. Despite this, hackers were able to adapt Siri in previous iPhones. On November 8, 2011, Apple publicly announced that it had no plans to support Siri on any of its older devices.

Founding

Siri was founded in 2007 by Dag Kittlaus (CEO), Adam Cheyer (VP Engineering), and Tom Gruber (CTO/VP Design), together with Norman Winarsky from SRI International's venture group. On October 13, 2008, Siri announced it had raised an $8.5 million Series A financing round, led by Menlo Ventures and Morgenthaler Ventures. In November 2009, Siri raised a $15.5 million Series B financing round from the same investors as in their previous round, but led by Hong-Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing. Dag Kittlaus left his position as CEO of Siri at Apple after the launch of the iPhone 4S.

DARPA involvement

With Siri, Apple is using the results of over 40 years of research funded by DARPA via SRI International’s Artificial Intelligence Center through the Personalized Assistant that Learns Program and Cognitive Agent that Learns and Organizes Program CALO.

This includes the combined work from research teams from Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Massachusetts, the University of Rochester, the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition, Oregon State University, the University of Southern California, and Stanford University. This technology has come a long way with dialog and natural language understanding, machine learning, evidential and probabilistic reasoning, ontology and knowledge representation, planning, reasoning and service delegation.

iPhone Application

Siri was launched first as an application available on Apple's App Store in the US. It integrated with services such as OpenTable, Google Maps, MovieTickets and TaxiMagic. Using voice recognition technology from Nuance and their service partners, users could make reservations at specific restaurants, buy movie tickets or get a cab by dictating instructions in natural language to Siri. Siri was acquired by Apple on April 28, 2010, and the original application ceased to function on October 15, 2011.

iOS integration

Siri is known for the ability to answer a variety of questions

Main article: iPhone 4S#Siri

On October 4, 2011, Apple introduced the iPhone 4S with their implementation of Siri. The new version of Siri is integrated into iOS, and offers conversational interaction with many applications, including reminders, weather, stocks, messaging, email, calendar, contacts, notes, music, clocks, web browser, Wolfram Alpha, and maps. Currently, Siri only supports English (US, UK, Australian), German and French, and has limited functionality outside the US.

The Siri feature on the iPhone 4S

After announcing that Siri is included with the iPhone 4S, Apple removed the existing Siri app (which ran on all iPhone models) from the App Store.

Independent developers claim that they have ported Siri into the iPhone 4. However, some news sites suggest that the videos posted by the developers as "proof" only show the user interface of the Siri software, and not the voice commands, implying that developers haven't been able to port the application with full functionality. However, new reports from January 2012 suggest that independent developers have succeeded in porting Siri into the iPhone 4, iPod Touch, and iPad. Siriport.ru, a Russia based team, have demonstrated Siri working as intended on the iPhone 4, iPod Touch, and iPad, communicating with the Apple servers.

Research and development

Siri is a spin-out from the SRI International Artificial Intelligence Center, and is an offshoot of the DARPA-funded CALO project.

Siri's primary technical areas focus on a Conversational Interface, Personal Context Awareness, and Service Delegation.

Siri's speech recognition engine is thought to be provided by Nuance Communications, a speech technology company, although this has not been officially acknowledged by either Apple or Nuance.

The United Kingdom male voice is called "Daniel" and is voiced by Jon Briggs, a former technology journalist who recorded “Daniel” for Scansoft, who merged with Nuance Communications, a company that works on Siri with Apple.

The original Siri application relied upon a number of partners, including:

• OpenTable, Gayot, CitySearch, BooRah, Yelp, Yahoo Local, ReserveTravel, Localeze for restaurant and business questions and actions;
• Eventful, StubHub, and LiveKick for events and concert information;
• MovieTickets, RottenTomatoes and the New York Times for movie information and reviews;
• Bing Answers, and Wolfram Alpha for factual question answering;
• Bing, Yahoo and Google for web search.

The sources in Apple's implementation of Siri differ from the original iPhone application. It integrates with default iOS functionality, such as contacts, calendars and text messages. It also supports search from Google, Bing, Yahoo, Wolfram Alpha and Wikipedia. Siri also works with Google Maps and Yelp! search in the United States only.

Reception

Siri was met with a very positive reaction for its ease of use and practicality, as well as its apparent "personality". Google’s executive chairman and former chief, Eric Schmidt, has conceded that Siri could pose a "competitive threat" to the company’s core search business. Google generates a large portion of its revenue from clickable ad links returned in the context of searches. The threat comes from the fact that Siri is a non-visual medium, therefore not affording users with the opportunity to be exposed to the clickable ad links. Writing in The Guardian, journalist Charlie Brooker described Siri's tone as "servile" while also noting that it worked "annoyingly well."

However, Siri was criticized by organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union and NARAL Pro-Choice America after users found that it would not provide information about the location of birth control or abortion providers, sometimes directing users to anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers instead. Apple responded that this was a glitch which would be fixed in the final version. It was suggested that abortion providers could not be found in a Siri search because they did not use "abortion" in their descriptions. At the time the controversy arose, Siri would suggest locations to buy illegal drugs, hire a prostitute, or dump a corpse, but not find birth control or abortion services. Apple claims this behaviour is not intentional and it will improve as the product moves from beta to final product.

Siri has not been well received by some English speakers with heavy accents, including Scottish and Americans from Boston or the south. Apple claims, in the Siri FAQ, that "as more people use Siri and it’s exposed to more variations of a language, its overall recognition of dialects and accents will continue to improve, and Siri will work even better."

Despite many functions still requiring the use of the touchscreen, the National Federation of the Blind describes the iPhone as "the only fully accessible handset that a blind person can buy".

See also

• Google Majel
• Iris (software)

External links

• Siri homepage
• Siri vs Iris
• Siri Guidebook: Comprehensive List of Siri Tips, Tricks and How-to Tutorials
• How To Install Siri on iPad