Siri

iPhone application

Siri was first launched as an application available on Apple's App Store in the United States by Siri, Inc. 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 14, 2011.

A key feature both of the research and development behind the original Siri, Inc. application, and behind its function as an iOS application, is its artificial intelligence programming aimed to allow it to adapt to the user's individual language usage and individual searches (preferences) with continuing use, with return of results that are therefore individualized.

iOS integration

On October 4, 2011, Apple introduced the iPhone 4S with their implementation of a beta version 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 Apple Maps. Currently, Siri supports English (United States, Canada, Australia, United Kingdom, Singapore), French (France, Switzerland), German (Germany, Austria, Switzerland), Japanese, Italian (Italy, Switzerland), Spanish (Mexico, Spain, United States), Mandarin (China, Taiwan), Korean, and Cantonese. On launch, Siri had limited functionality outside the United States and Canada. However, Apple, with the release of iOS 6, added the missing functionality to other countries. Siri also replaces 'Voice Control' on previous versions of iOS, which could only perform basic tasks such as play music, make calls and open apps.

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.

In October 2011, independent developers stated that they had ported Siri into the other iOS devices. However, some news sites suggested 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 have not been able to port the application with full functionality. However, new reports from January 2012 suggested that independent developers had succeeded in porting Siri to earlier iPhone models, the iPod Touch, and iPad. i4Siri.com, a United States-based team, demonstrated Siri working as intended on the iPhone 4, iPod Touch, and iPad, communicating without the Apple servers.

In later January 2012, independent developers successfully created and distributed a legal port of Siri to older devices via Cydia. The port, however, requires authorization keys from another iPhone 4S, which can be exploited in the form of a proxy server, or by transferring the Siri authorization file from an iPhone 4S. Due to this requirement, developers have bypassed Apple's Siri server completely by creating their own backend using APIs from services such as Google and Wolfram Alpha.

On June 11, 2012, at Apple's WWDC conference, Apple announced that Siri would be available on the iPad (third generation) beginning in late 2012 with the release of iOS 6. Also on June 11, 2012, at Apple's WWDC conference, Apple announced updates for Siri coming in iOS 6 (which launched in fall 2012.) These new features include: opening apps, telling sports scores and other sports related information, checking movie times, finding restaurants and also ordering reservations. Siri can also tell the height of sports players in iOS 6. It also brought some previously US only features, such as Google Maps and Yelp integration,

On September 12, 2012, Apple announced that Siri would also be on the iPhone 5 and the iPod Touch (fifth generation).

On June 13, 2013, Apple announced that Siri would have a gender option, meaning that one can choose if Siri will sound male or female, with the release of iOS 7.

During its September 2015 event, Apple announced that Siri would respond to "Hey Siri" voice activation on an iPhone 6S when the device is not being charged. Siri was also introduced for the new Apple TV platform.

Currently, Siri is included on iPhone 4S and later, 5th generation iPod Touch and later, 3rd generation iPad and later, all iPad Minis, iPad Pro, Apple Watch, and Apple TV.

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 was co-founded by SRI's Dag Kittlaus (CEO) and Adam Cheyer (VP Engineering) and by Tom Gruber (CTO).

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

Siri's speech recognition engine is provided by Nuance Communications, a speech technology company, although this was not officially acknowledged by either Apple or Nuance until AllThingsD Conference (2013). The speech recognition systems makes use of sophisticated Machine Learning techniques like Convolutional Neural Networks and Long short-term memory.

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

The notion of Siri was firmly planted at Apple 25 years ago—though “Knowledge Navigator” video with the voice of the assistant was only a concept prototype.

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, Apple Maps, Yelp! and Wikipedia.

Siri also contains numerous pre-programmed responses to conversational and amusing questions. These are designed to provide an entertainment factor and give Siri human-like qualities. Such answers include '42' in response to 'What is the meaning of life?', in reference to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Voice actors

The original American voice (named Samantha in OS X) was provided by Susan Bennett in July 2005, the same person that voiced Tillie the All-Time Teller. Reports that the voice was provided by Allison Dufty were incorrect, which was proved by Ed Primeau, an American audio and video forensics expert.

The original British male voice, Daniel, was voiced by Jon Briggs, a former technology journalist. The voice was recorded for Scansoft, which had merged with Nuance Communications in October 2005, although involvement of Nuance with Siri was not confirmed until May 2013.

The original Australian voice, Karen, was voiced by Karen Jacobsen, an Australian-born and New York-based entertainer, singer, voiceover artist, and songwriter. Jacobsen is the Australian voice in GPS navigation devices for Garmin, Mio, Navman, and TomTom.

Reception

Siri was met with critical acclaim for its ease of use and practicality, as well as its apparent "personality". However, issues did arise when Siri was used by consumers from areas with distinct accents. 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.

Writing in The Guardian, journalist Charlie Brooker considered Siri's personality to be unpleasantly servile, but found that the software worked "annoyingly well". Siri was criticized by organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) 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 pro-life crisis pregnancy centers instead. Apple responded that this was a glitch which would be fixed in the final version.

Siri has not been well received by some English speakers with distinctive accents, including Scottish and Americans from Boston or the South. Apple's Siri FAQ states 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."

In March 2012, Frank M. Fazio filed a class action lawsuit against Apple on behalf of the people who felt misled about the capabilities of Siri and failing to function as depicted in Apple's Siri commercials. Fazio filed the lawsuit in California and claimed that the iPhone 4S is merely a "more expensive iPhone" if Siri fails to function as advertised. On July 22, 2013 U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken in San Francisco dismissed the suit but said the plaintiffs could amend at a later time. The reason given for dismissal was that plaintiffs did not sufficiently document enough misrepresentations by Apple for the trial to proceed.

In March 2012, the American Civil Liberties Union expressed concern that Siri was sending a large amount of personal voice and user information to Apple, including the first name and nickname of the phone owner and his or her contacts, the owner's relationship with those contacts, personal labels assigned to email accounts, and the names of songs and playlists stored on the phone.

On October 30, 2012, Google released a new Google Search app for iOS, which featured an enhanced Google Voice Search function and aimed to compete with Siri. Google's Voice Search was compared favorably to Siri, with some reviewers preferring it. An Apple fan blog side-by-side comparison said that Google's Voice Search on iOS is "amazingly quick and relevant, and has more depth [than Siri]".

International versions

According to sources from Brazilian site Techguru, Nuance Communications has delivered the final version in Portuguese to Apple. It also announced that the company would be making a deal with the bank Bradesco to provide an application similar to Siri for voice support.

As of iOS 6, Siri has functionality to find local businesses and other location services outside of the United States. In Siri's original release its functionality was limited in most countries, with maps and local search with help only being available within the United States.

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