Siri

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For other uses, see Siri (disambiguation).
Siri
Siri interface.jpg
Siri in use
Original author(s) SRI International
Developer(s) Apple Inc.
Initial release October 4, 2011; 5 years ago (2011-10-04)
Written in Objective-C
Swift
Operating system iOS, watchOS, tvOS, macOS
Platform iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Apple Watch, Apple TV, Mac
Available in Arabic,[1] Chinese, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Norwegian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish
Type Intelligent personal assistant
License Proprietary
Website www.apple.com/ios/siri/

Siri (pronounced /ˈsɪəri/) is a computer program that works as an intelligent personal assistant and knowledge navigator, part of Apple Inc.'s iOS, watchOS, macOS, and tvOS operating systems. The feature uses a natural language user interface to answer questions, make recommendations, and perform actions by delegating requests to a set of Web services. The software, both in its original version and as an iOS feature, adapts to the user's individual language usage and individual searches (preferences) with continuing use, and returns results that are individualized. Siri was originally introduced as an iOS application available in the App Store by Siri Inc., which was acquired by Apple on April 28, 2010. Siri, Inc. had announced that their software would be available for BlackBerry and for phones running Android, but all development efforts for non-Apple platforms were cancelled after the acquisition by Apple.[2] There are several accent and gender combinations for the voice of Siri.

Siri has been an integral part of iOS since iOS 5[3] and was introduced as a feature of the iPhone 4S on October 14, 2011.[4] Dictation powered by Siri was added to the third generation iPad with the release of iOS 5.1.1 in May 2012; full Siri support was added with iOS 6. Siri has been included on all mobile Apple hardware manufactured during or after October 2012.[5][6]

Siri is also integrated into Apple Watch's watchOS, where the feature can be activated by holding down the Digital Crown or by saying "Hey, Siri." Siri is additionally integrated into Apple TV's tvOS, where the feature can be activated using a button on the included Siri Remote.

Since 2014 Siri has been available in some cars via CarPlay, a system that enables the vehicle audio system to be a display and controller for an iPhone. It is available on all iPhones from iPhone 5 with at least iOS 7.1.

Siri was added to the Macintosh with the release of macOS Sierra on September 20, 2016.[7]

On October 8, 2016, Bloomberg reported that Apple was moving Siri, along with other Apple services, to a new system codenamed Pie. Pie gives Apple more control over the system, thus enabling potentially faster and more reliable services.[8]

iPhone application[edit]

Siri was first launched as an application available on Apple's App Store in the United States by Siri, Inc.[9] It integrated with services such as OpenTable,[10] Google Maps,[11] MovieTickets and TaxiMagic.[12] 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.[13] Siri was acquired by Apple on April 28, 2010, and the original application ceased to function on October 14, 2011.[9]

A key feature both of the research and development behind the original Siri, Inc. application,[14] 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.[15][16]

iOS integration[edit]

On October 4, 2011, Apple introduced the iPhone 4S with their implementation of a beta version of Siri.[17] 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.[16] Currently, Siri supports English (United States, Canada, Australia, United Kingdom, Singapore), French (France, Switzerland), German (Germany, 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.[18][19] 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.[20]

In October 2011, independent developers stated that they had ported Siri into the other iOS devices.[21][22] 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.[23] 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.[24]

In later January 2012, independent developers successfully created and distributed a legal port of Siri to older devices via Cydia.[25] 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.[26] 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.[27]

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,

Siri Remote

On September 12, 2012, Apple announced that Siri would also be on the iPhone 5[28] and the iPod Touch (fifth generation).[29]

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.[30]

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.[31][32][33] 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[edit]

Siri is a spin-out from the SRI International Artificial Intelligence Center, and is an offshoot of the DARPA-funded CALO project.[34][35] Siri was co-founded by SRI's Dag Kittlaus (CEO) and Adam Cheyer (VP Engineering) and by Tom Gruber (CTO).[14]

Siri's primary technical areas focus on a Conversational Interface, Personal Context Awareness, and Service Delegation.[36]

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).[37] The speech recognition systems makes use of sophisticated Machine Learning techniques like Convolutional Neural Networks and Long short-term memory.[38][39]

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.[41]

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.[42] 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[edit]

The original American voice (named Samantha in OS X) was provided by Susan Bennett in July 2005,[43] the same person that voiced Tillie the All-Time Teller. Reports that the voice was provided by Allison Dufty were incorrect,[44] which was proved by Ed Primeau, an American audio and video forensics expert.[43]

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.[45][46]

The original Australian voice, Karen, was voiced by Karen Jacobsen, an Australian-born and New York-based entertainer, singer, voiceover artist, and songwriter.[47][48] Jacobsen is the Australian voice in GPS navigation devices for Garmin, Mio, Navman, and TomTom.[49]

Reception[edit]

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.[50]

Writing in The Guardian, journalist Charlie Brooker considered Siri's personality to be unpleasantly servile, but found that the software worked "annoyingly well".[51] 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.[52]

Siri has not been well received by some English speakers with distinctive accents, including Scottish[53] and Americans from Boston or the South.[54][55] 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."[56]

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.[57][58] 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.[59]

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.[60]

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.[61] 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]".[62]

Supported languages[edit]

Language Region iOS version[63]
Arabic[1] Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia 9.2 onwards
United Arab Emirates United Arab Emirates 9.2 onwards
Chinese (Cantonese) China China 10.0.1 onwards
Hong Kong Hong Kong 6.0 onwards
Chinese (Mandarin) China China 6.0 onwards
Taiwan Taiwan 6.0 onwards
Danish Denmark Denmark 8.3 onwards
Dutch Belgium Belgium 9.0 onwards
Netherlands Netherlands 8.3 onwards
English Australia Australia 5.0 onwards
Canada Canada 6.0 onwards
India India 8.3 onwards
Republic of Ireland Ireland 10.0.1 onwards
New Zealand New Zealand 8.3 onwards
Singapore Singapore 8.2 onwards
South Africa South Africa 10.0.1 onwards
United Kingdom United Kingdom 5.0 onwards
United States United States 5.0 onwards
Finnish Finland Finland 9.3 onwards
French Belgium Belgium 9.0 onwards
Canada Canada 6.0 onwards
France France 5.0 onwards
Switzerland Switzerland 6.0 onwards
German Austria Austria 9.0 onwards
Germany Germany 5.0 onwards
Switzerland Switzerland 6.0 onwards
Hebrew Israel Israel 9.3 onwards
Italian Italy Italy 6.0 onwards
Switzerland Switzerland 6.0 onwards
Japanese Japan Japan 5.1 onwards
Korean South Korea South Korea 6.0 onwards
Malay Malaysia Malaysia 9.3 onwards
Norwegian (Bokmål) Norway Norway 9.0 onwards
Portuguese Brazil Brazil 8.3 onwards
Russian Russia Russia 8.3 onwards
Spanish Chile Chile 10.0.1 onwards
Mexico Mexico 6.0 onwards
Spain Spain 6.0 onwards
United States United States 6.0 onwards
Swedish Sweden Sweden 8.3 onwards
Thai Thailand Thailand 8.3 onwards
Turkish Turkey Turkey 8.3 onwards

International versions[edit]

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.[64]

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.

In popular culture[edit]

  • A subplot in "The Beta Test Initiation", the January 26, 2012 episode of the American TV series The Big Bang Theory depicted Raj Koothrapali developing a romantic relationship with the Siri interface on his new iPhone. The closing scene of the episode depicted a dream sequence in which Raj meets the real-life "voice of Siri", played by Becky O'Donohue. However, he finds that he cannot speak to her due to his selective mutism.
  • Siri received an honorary degree in Humanity from the University of Florida during President W. Kent Fuchs's inaugural graduation speeches given during the Spring 2015 commencement ceremonies held in Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.[65]
  • In the 2015 film Ant-Man, during Darren Cross and Scott Lang's fight inside a helicopter, Cross screams that he will "disintegrate" Lang, and the Siri on his iPhone responds to this by playing "Plainsong", the first track from the album Disintegration by The Cure.
  • In the 2017 film The Lego Batman Movie, Siri is the credited voice of the Batcomputer used by Batman throughout the film.[66]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b Gurman, Mike (November 6, 2015). "iOS 9.2 to bring Arabic support to Siri following UAE store openings". 9to5 Mac. Retrieved December 20, 2015. 
  2. ^ Hay, Timothy (February 5, 2010). "Siri Inc. Launches 'Do Engine' Application For iPhone". Dow Jones Newswire. Retrieved October 9, 2011. 
  3. ^ "Apple Launches iPhone 4S, iOS 5 & iCloud". Apple. October 4, 2011. Retrieved June 12, 2013. 
  4. ^ Murph, Darren (October 4, 2011). "iPhone 4S hands-on!". Engadget. Retrieved October 9, 2011. 
  5. ^ "iOS: About Siri". Apple Support. Apple Inc. Retrieved April 6, 2014. 
  6. ^ "Apple — iPad — Compare iPad models.". Apple, Inc. Retrieved April 6, 2014. 
  7. ^ https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/macos-sierra/id1127487414?mt=12&ls=1
  8. ^ "Apple Said to Plan Improved Cloud Services by Unifying Teams". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2016-10-08. 
  9. ^ a b Scoble, Robert (April 28, 2010). "Breaking News: Siri bought by Apple". Retrieved February 5, 2016. 
  10. ^ "Siri Personal Assistant: A Voice App That Lets You Speak to OpenTable". OpenTable. February 19, 2010. Retrieved December 23, 2011. 
  11. ^ "Siri for iPhone is like the proverbial Genie in a bottle". TUAW. February 5, 2010. Retrieved December 23, 2011. 
  12. ^ "Siri iPhone App Uses Speech-Recognition Technology To Organize Your Social Life". Gizmodo. February 5, 2010. Retrieved December 23, 2011. 
  13. ^ "Siri: Your Personal Assistant for the Mobile Web". ReadWriteWeb. February 4, 2010. Retrieved December 23, 2011. 
  14. ^ a b Bianca Bosker, 2013, "Siri Rising: The Inside Story Of Siri's Origins (And Why She Could Overshadow The iPhone)," in The Huffington Post (online), January 22, 2013 (updated January 24, 2013), see [1], accessed November 2, 2014.
  15. ^ Michael deAgonia, 2011, "After a month, Siri finds her voice," in ComputerWorld (online), November 24, 2011, see [2], accessed November 2, 2014.
  16. ^ a b "Apple - iOS - Siri". Apple. Retrieved September 18, 2014. 
  17. ^ Richmond, Shane; Barnett, Emma; Williams, Christopher (May 31, 2011). "Apple iPhone 4S event: as it happened". London: Telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved October 5, 2012. 
  18. ^ Viticci, Federico (September 27, 2011). "Apple Officially Unveils Siri Voice Assistant - Supports English, French and German". Macstories.net. Retrieved October 5, 2011. 
  19. ^ Viticci, Federico (October 14, 2011). "There Are Some Siri Limitations Outside The US". Macstories.net. Retrieved October 16, 2011. 
  20. ^ Sullivan, Danny (October 4, 2011). "With New Siri Promised For iPhone 4S, Apple Pulls Existing Siri From App Store". Retrieved June 19, 2012. 
  21. ^ Gurman, Mark (October 14, 2011). "Siri voice command system ported from iPhone 4S to iPhone 4 (video)". 9to5Mac.com. Retrieved October 31, 2011. 
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  23. ^ "Un hacker irlandais prétend porter Siri sur iPhone 4". lemondeinformatique.fr. October 18, 2011. Retrieved October 23, 2011. Cependant, aucune des vidéos, celle de Steve Troughton-Smith ou celle de 9-to-5 Mac, ne montre Siri en action ou ne présente un utilisateur essayant d'interagir avec les commandes vocales de Siri (However, neither video shows Siri in action or does a user attempting to interact with voice commands Siri) 
  24. ^ Mark Gurman. "Siri hacked to fully run on the iPhone 4 and iPod touch, iPhone 4S vs iPhone 4 Siri showdown video (interview) — 9to5Mac — Apple Intelligence". 9to5Mac. Retrieved October 31, 2011. 
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  26. ^ Paul, Grant (December 22, 2011). "Spire Proxy "FAQ"". Retrieved May 6, 2012. 
  27. ^ Benjamin, Jeff (April 21, 2012). "'AssistantServer Installer' brings half baked Siri experience to older iOS devices". iDownloadBlog. Retrieved May 6, 2012. 
  28. ^ Baig, Edward C. (September 18, 2012). "Review: Apple iPhone 5 in front of the smartphone pack". USA Today. Retrieved June 12, 2013. 
  29. ^ Warren, Christina (September 12, 2012). "New iPod Touch Has Siri, Larger Screen". Mashable. Retrieved June 12, 2013. 
  30. ^ "Apple Reveals Siri Will Now Have A Male Voice Option With iOS 7 Release". Ibtimes.com. June 13, 2013. Retrieved July 26, 2014. 
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  33. ^ "Use Siri on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple Support". 
  34. ^ "ACM Transactions on Intelligent Systems and Technology (ACM TIST)"{{inconsistent citations}} 
  35. ^ Berry, Pauline M.; Gervasio, Melinda; Peintner, Bart; Yorke-Smith, Neil (July 2011). "PTIME: Personalized assistance for calendaring". Acm Tist. 2 (4): 1. doi:10.1145/1989734.1989744{{inconsistent citations}} 
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  38. ^ Convolutional Neural Networks for small-footprint keyword spotting
  39. ^ An exclusive inside look at how artificial intelligence and machine learning work at Apple, 30. Juli 2016
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  41. ^ Kontra (2012-06-13). "Spirit of Siri at Apple 25 years ago". Retrieved 2016-06-13. 
  42. ^ Bodell, Matt (September 16, 2013). "35 Funny Things to Ask Siri in iOS 7". Akufu. 
  43. ^ a b Ravitz, Jessica (October 15, 2013). "I'm the original voice of Siri". CNN. Retrieved January 4, 2015. 
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  45. ^ Warman, Matt (November 10, 2011). "The voice behind Siri breaks his silence". London: The Telegraph. Retrieved November 23, 2011. 
  46. ^ Clover, Juli (30 May 2013). "Nuance CEO Confirms Siri Partnership with Apple". MacRumors. Retrieved 10 August 2016. 
  47. ^ "Karen Jacobsen - The GPS Girl". Retrieved August 27, 2012. 
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  49. ^ "Journal Book". Retrieved August 27, 2012. 
  50. ^ Eric Schmidt (November 7, 2011). "Google's Eric Schmidt: Apple's Siri could pose 'threat'". London: Telegraph. Retrieved November 23, 2011. 
  51. ^ Brooker, Charlie (December 1, 2011). "Charlie Brooker: the dark side of our gadget addiction". The Guardian. London. Retrieved December 2, 2011. 
  52. ^ Howard, Greg; Voorhees, Josh (December 1, 2011). "Apple Says Siri's Abortion-Clinic Blind Spot Wasn't Intentional". Slate. 
  53. ^ Chu, Henry (February 3, 2012). "Scottish burr beyond Siri's recognition". The Age. Melbourne. Retrieved February 4, 2012. 
  54. ^ Siri Lost in Translation with Heavy Accents. ABC News. Published October 28, 2011. Retrieved January 6, 2012.
  55. ^ Apple's Siri Dislikes Brits, Southerners. Discovery News. Published December 21, 2011. Retrieved January 6, 2012.
  56. ^ "Apple — Siri — Frequently Asked Questions". Apple. October 4, 2011. Retrieved July 26, 2012. 
  57. ^ Kelly, Meghan (March 16, 2012). "Were Apple's Siri ads 'false and misleading'?". The Washington Post. VentureBeat. Retrieved May 18, 2012. 
  58. ^ Palazzolo, Joe (March 12, 2012). "So Sirious: iPhone User Sues Apple over Voice-Activated Assistant". The Wall Street Journal. Dow Jones & Company. Retrieved May 18, 2012. 
  59. ^ Rebekah Kearn (July 26, 2013). "Disgruntled iPhone 4S Buyers Told to Try Again". Courthouse News Service. Courthouse News Service. Retrieved October 1, 2013. 
  60. ^ Nicole Ozer (March 12, 2012). "Siri Not Just Working for Me, Working Full-Time for Apple, Too". ACLU of Northern California. Retrieved May 23, 2012. 
  61. ^ "Google Search App for iOS Updated with new Voice Search function". Engadget. October 30, 2012. 
  62. ^ "Siri vs Google Voice Search - May the Best Robot Helper Win". TUAW. November 1, 2012. 
  63. ^ "iOS – Feature Availability". Apple. Retrieved September 15, 2016. 
  64. ^ "EXCLUSIVO: Nuance já entregou o Siri em português para a Apple, e está trabalhando em um grande projeto para o Bradesco..." (in Portuguese). Techguru. January 7, 2013. Retrieved January 7, 2013. 
  65. ^ "In his spring commencement address at... - Office of the President at University of Florida - Facebook". facebook.com. 
  66. ^ Rechtshaffen, Michael (February 4, 2017). "'The Lego Batman Movie': Film Review". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved February 9, 2017. 

Further reading[edit]

External links[edit]

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