Siri: A Cloud Based Digital Assistant for the iPhone

Siri is a new generation virtual, digital assistant that is meant to act just like a human assistant.  It understands what you say, accomplishes tasks for you and gets better at understanding what you want as you spend more time with it.   

Initially available as an iPhone application, Siri can make reservations at restaurants, find movie times, provide weather forecasts and accomplish other relatively simple tasks.  Siri uses speech recognition software, so you have the option to speak or type commands.

Siri is a new product with limited capabilities.  The Siri website explains:

"Siri is young and, like a child taking its first steps, may be awkward at times. Siri may occasionally misunderstand things you ask it to do even within its range of understanding.

Nonetheless, Siri will improve quickly by getting to know you better and understanding a broader set of tasks. In fact, right now, Siri’s learning how to handle reminders, flights stats and reference questions. Our vision is that, over time, you’ll trust Siri to manage many personal details in your life - from recommending a wine you might enjoy to managing your to do list."

The major difference between Siri and previous generations of digital assistants is that Siri resides in the cloud.  Prior generations of digital assistants depended on a single user to learn from. 

This means Siri learns from everyone using the software.  For example, if another user of Siri teaches it (her?) to accomplish a task, Siri can then perform that task for all users.  The more users Siri has, the better she will get.  And the more you use Siri, the better she will understand what you want.

Cloud storage and processing is creating an exploding number of applications that analyze and create new insights and value from large data sets.  This is part of a trend we call "the rise of machines," which includes sensors and smart objects, automation tools, analytical software and robotics.  The cloud connects these devices, collects, collates and synthesizes their data, and amplifies their abilities and impact. 

It sounds Borg like, but there is no Jeri Ryan and no evil intent (at least on the part of the machines). 

Comments

[Erica Douglass]

Please don't personalize Siri...especially as a female. The company itself has been careful to avoid that.

[Eric]

Brilliant, though a trifle frightening.

[steve]

Erica: Since the company intentionally gave the product a female name (no doubt to humanize it), I don't agree they are avoiding the personalization or feminization of Siri.

They could of easily picked a gender neutral name for the product (like Chris) or a non-human name. Wildfire, for example, was the product name of a earlier digital assistant.

I suspect they are not stressing this in their marketing due to concern about potential backlash.

They also probably assume others, like me, will personalize Siri for them.