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Siri ( ) is a
virtual assistant An intelligent virtual assistant (IVA) or intelligent personal assistant (IPA) is a software agent that can perform tasks or services for an individual based on commands or questions. The term "chatbot" is sometimes used to refer to virtual ...
that is part of
Apple Inc. Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, United States. Apple is the largest technology company by revenue (totaling in 2021) and, as of June 2022, is the world's biggest company ...
's
iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also includes ...
,
iPadOS iPadOS is a mobile operating system developed by Apple Inc. for its iPad line of tablet computers. It is a rebranded variant of iOS, the operating system used by Apple's iPhones, renamed to reflect the diverging features of the two product l ...
,
watchOS watchOS is the operating system of the Apple Watch, developed by Apple Inc. It is based on iOS, the operating system used by the iPhone, and has many similar features. It was released on April 24, 2015, along with the Apple Watch, the only dev ...
,
macOS macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and lapt ...
,
tvOS tvOS (formerly known as Apple TV Software) is an operating system developed by Apple Inc. for the Apple TV, a digital media player. In the first-generation Apple TV, Apple TV Software was based on Mac OS X. Starting with the second-generation ...
, and
audioOS The HomePod is a smart speaker developed by Apple Inc. The HomePod was designed to work with the Apple Music subscription service. The HomePod was announced on June 5, 2017, at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference. Its launch was later del ...
operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also in ...
s. It uses voice queries, gesture based control, focus-tracking and a
natural-language user interface Natural-language user interface (LUI or NLUI) is a type of computer human interface where linguistic phenomena such as verbs, phrases and clauses act as UI controls for creating, selecting and modifying data in software applications. In interface d ...
to answer questions, make recommendations, and perform actions by delegating requests to a set of
Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...
services. With continued use, it adapts to users' individual language usages, searches and preferences, returning individualized results. Siri is a spin-off from a project developed by the
SRI International SRI International (SRI) is an American nonprofit scientific research institute and organization headquartered in Menlo Park, California. The trustees of Stanford University established SRI in 1946 as a center of innovation to support economic d ...
Artificial Intelligence Center. Its
speech recognition Speech recognition is an interdisciplinary subfield of computer science and computational linguistics that develops methodologies and technologies that enable the recognition and translation of spoken language into text by computers with the m ...
engine was provided by
Nuance Communications Nuance Communications, Inc. is an American multinational computer software technology corporation, headquartered in Burlington, Massachusetts, that markets speech recognition and artificial intelligence software. Nuance merged with its compe ...
, and it uses advanced
machine learning Machine learning (ML) is a field of inquiry devoted to understanding and building methods that 'learn', that is, methods that leverage data to improve performance on some set of tasks. It is seen as a part of artificial intelligence. Machine ...
technologies to function. Its original American, British and Australian
voice actors Voice acting is the art of performing voice-overs to present a character or provide information to an audience. Performers are called voice actors/actresses, voice artists, dubbing artists, voice talent, voice-over artists, or voice-over talent ...
recorded their respective voices around 2005, unaware of the recordings' eventual usage. Siri was released as an app for iOS in February 2010. Two months later, Apple acquired it and integrated into
iPhone 4S The iPhone 4S (originally styled as iPhone 4 S, retroactively stylized with a lowercase 's' as iPhone 4s as of September 2013) is a smartphone that was designed and marketed by Apple Inc. It is the List of iOS devices, fifth generation o ...
at its release on 4 October, 2011, removing the separate app from the iOS
App Store An App Store (or app marketplace) is a type of digital distribution platform for computer software called applications, often in a mobile context. Apps provide a specific set of functions which, by definition, do not include the running of the co ...
. Siri has since been an integral part of Apple's products, having been adapted into other hardware devices including newer iPhone models,
iPad The iPad is a brand of iOS and iPadOS-based tablet computers that are developed by Apple Inc. The iPad was conceived before the related iPhone but the iPhone was developed and released first. Speculation about the development, operating s ...
,
iPod Touch The iPod Touch (stylized as iPod touch) is a discontinued line of iOS-based mobile devices designed and marketed by Apple Inc. with a touchscreen-controlled user interface. As with other iPod models, the iPod Touch can be used as a music pl ...
, Mac,
AirPods AirPods are wireless Bluetooth earbuds designed by Apple Inc. They were first announced on September 7, 2016, alongside the iPhone 7. Within two years, they became Apple's most popular accessory. The most recent model, AirPods (3rd generation ...
,
Apple TV An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple fruit tree, trees are agriculture, cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, wh ...
, and
HomePod The HomePod is a smart speaker developed by Apple Inc. The HomePod was designed to work with the Apple Music subscription service. The HomePod was announced on June 5, 2017, at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference. Its launch was later del ...
. Siri supports a wide range of user commands, including performing phone actions, checking basic information, scheduling events and reminders, handling device settings, searching the Internet, navigating areas, finding information on entertainment, and is able to engage with iOS-integrated apps. With the release of
iOS 10 iOS 10 is the iOS version history, tenth major release of the iOS mobile operating system developed by Apple Inc., being the successor to iOS 9. It was announced at the company's Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, Worldwide Developers Conf ...
in 2016, Apple opened up limited third-party access to Siri, including third-party messaging apps, as well as payments,
ride-sharing Carpooling (also car-sharing, ride-sharing and lift-sharing) is the sharing of Automobile, car journeys so that more than one person travels in a car, and prevents the need for others to have to drive to a location themselves. By having more ...
, and Internet calling apps. With the release of
iOS 11 iOS 11 is the iOS version history, eleventh major release of the iOS mobile operating system developed by Apple Inc., being the successor to iOS 10. It was announced at the company's Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, Worldwide Developers C ...
, Apple updated Siri's voice and added support for follow-up questions, language translation, and additional third-party actions. Siri's original release on
iPhone 4S The iPhone 4S (originally styled as iPhone 4 S, retroactively stylized with a lowercase 's' as iPhone 4s as of September 2013) is a smartphone that was designed and marketed by Apple Inc. It is the List of iOS devices, fifth generation o ...
in 2011 received mixed reviews. It received praise for its voice recognition and contextual knowledge of user information, including calendar appointments, but was criticized for requiring stiff user commands and having a lack of flexibility. It was also criticized for lacking information on certain nearby places, and for its inability to understand certain English accents. In 2016 and 2017, a number of media reports said that Siri lacked innovation, particularly against new competing voice assistants. The reports concerned Siri's limited set of features, "bad" voice recognition, and undeveloped service integrations as causing trouble for Apple in the field of
artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech re ...
and cloud-based services; the basis for the complaints reportedly due to stifled development, as caused by Apple's prioritization of user
privacy Privacy (, ) is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves, and thereby express themselves selectively. The domain of privacy partially overlaps with security, which can include the concepts of a ...
and executive power struggles within the company. Its launch was also overshadowed by the death of
Steve Jobs Steven Paul Jobs (February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011) was an American entrepreneur, industrial designer, media proprietor, and investor. He was the co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Apple; the chairman and majority shareholder of Pixar; a ...
, which occurred one day after the launch.


Development

Siri is a
spin-out A corporate spin-off, also known as a spin-out, or starburst or hive-off, is a type of corporate action where a company "splits off" a section as a separate business or creates a second incarnation, even if the first is still active. Characte ...
from the
SRI International SRI International (SRI) is an American nonprofit scientific research institute and organization headquartered in Menlo Park, California. The trustees of Stanford University established SRI in 1946 as a center of innovation to support economic d ...
Artificial Intelligence Center, and is an offshoot of the US
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is a research and development agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military. Originally known as the Adv ...
's (DARPA)-funded
CALO Calo, Caló, or Calò may refer to: * Caló language, the language of the Iberian Romani ** Iberian Kale (''calé''): *** Romani people in Spain, more frequently called ''gitanos'' *** Romani people in Portugal, more frequently called ''ciganos' ...
project.
SRI International SRI International (SRI) is an American nonprofit scientific research institute and organization headquartered in Menlo Park, California. The trustees of Stanford University established SRI in 1946 as a center of innovation to support economic d ...
used the
NABC Framework NABC is an initialism that may refer to any of the following: *North American Bridge Championships, North American contract bridge tournaments *National Association of Basketball Coaches, an American trade association of men's college basketball co ...
to define the value proposition for Siri. It was co-founded by Dag Kittlaus,
Tom Gruber Thomas Robert Gruber (born 1959) is an American computer scientist, inventor, and entrepreneur with a focus on systems for knowledge sharing and collective intelligence. He did foundational work in ontology engineering and is well known for his ...
, and
UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...
alumnus
Adam Cheyer Adam Cheyer (born c. 1966) is a co-founder of Siri Inc. and formerly a director of engineering in the iPhone group at Apple. Early life and education Cheyer attended Sharon High School, in Sharon, Massachusetts. After graduating in 1984, Cheyer ...
. Kittlaus named Siri after a co-worker in
Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...
; the name is a short form of the name
Sigrid Sigrid is a Scandinavian given name for women from Old Norse ''Sigríðr'', composed of the elements ''sigr'' "victory" and ''fríðr'' "beautiful". Common short forms include Siri, Sigga, Sig, and Sigi. An Estonian and Finnish variant is Siiri ...
, from
Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and t ...
''Sigríðr'', composed of the elements ''sigr'' "victory" and ''fríðr'' "beautiful". Siri's
speech recognition Speech recognition is an interdisciplinary subfield of computer science and computational linguistics that develops methodologies and technologies that enable the recognition and translation of spoken language into text by computers with the m ...
engine was provided by
Nuance Communications Nuance Communications, Inc. is an American multinational computer software technology corporation, headquartered in Burlington, Massachusetts, that markets speech recognition and artificial intelligence software. Nuance merged with its compe ...
, a speech technology company. Neither Apple nor Nuance acknowledged this for years, until Nuance CEO Paul Ricci confirmed it at a 2011 technology conference. The speech recognition system uses sophisticated
machine learning Machine learning (ML) is a field of inquiry devoted to understanding and building methods that 'learn', that is, methods that leverage data to improve performance on some set of tasks. It is seen as a part of artificial intelligence. Machine ...
techniques, including
convolutional neural network In deep learning, a convolutional neural network (CNN, or ConvNet) is a class of artificial neural network (ANN), most commonly applied to analyze visual imagery. CNNs are also known as Shift Invariant or Space Invariant Artificial Neural Netwo ...
s and
long short-term memory Long short-term memory (LSTM) is an artificial neural network used in the fields of artificial intelligence and deep learning. Unlike standard feedforward neural networks, LSTM has feedback connections. Such a recurrent neural network (RNN) ca ...
. The initial Siri prototype was implemented using the Active platform, a joint project between the Artificial Intelligence Center of
SRI International SRI International (SRI) is an American nonprofit scientific research institute and organization headquartered in Menlo Park, California. The trustees of Stanford University established SRI in 1946 as a center of innovation to support economic d ...
and the Vrai Group at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. The Active platform was the focus of a Ph.D. thesis led by
Didier Guzzoni Didier Guzzoni (born 1970 in Geneva) is a Switzerland, Swiss computer scientist and senior software engineer with the Apple Inc., Apple's Siri team. He was a founding member and chief scientist at the start-up company Siri Inc. that was later a ...
, who joined Siri as its chief scientist. Siri was acquired by
Apple Inc. Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, United States. Apple is the largest technology company by revenue (totaling in 2021) and, as of June 2022, is the world's biggest company ...
in April 2010 under the direction of
Steve Jobs Steven Paul Jobs (February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011) was an American entrepreneur, industrial designer, media proprietor, and investor. He was the co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Apple; the chairman and majority shareholder of Pixar; a ...
. Apple's first notion of a digital personal assistant appeared in a 1987 concept video,
Knowledge Navigator The Knowledge Navigator is a concept described by former Apple Computer CEO John Sculley in his 1987 book, ''Odyssey: Pepsi to Apple''. It describes a device that can access a large networked database of hypertext information, and use software ...
.


Voices

The original American voice of Siri was recorded in July 2005 by Susan Bennett, who was unaware it would eventually be used for the voice assistant. A report from ''
The Verge ''The Verge'' is an American technology news website operated by Vox Media, publishing news, feature stories, guidebooks, product reviews, consumer electronics news, and podcasts. The website launched on November 1, 2011, and uses Vox Media' ...
'' in September 2013 about voice actors, their work, and machine learning developments, hinted that Allison Dufty was the voice behind Siri, but this was disproven when Dufty wrote on her website that she was "absolutely, positively ''not'' the voice of Siri." Citing growing pressure, Bennett revealed her role as Siri in October, and her claim was confirmed by Ed Primeau, an American audio forensics expert. Apple has never acknowledged it. The original British male voice was provided by
Jon Briggs Jon Briggs (born 24 January 1965) is an English television, radio presenter and narrator. He is best known for his voice-over work, and particularly as the British voice used by Apple Inc.'s Siri virtual assistant software. Career Briggs's vo ...
, a former technology journalist and for 12 years narrated for the hit
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
quiz show
The Weakest Link ''Weakest Link'' (also known as ''The Weakest Link'') is a television game show which The Weakest Link (British game show), first appeared in the United Kingdom on BBC Two on 14 August 2000 and originally ended on 31 March 2012 when its host ...
. After discovering he was Siri's voice by watching television, he first spoke about the role in November 2011. He acknowledged that the voice work was done "five or six years ago", and that he didn't know how the recordings would be used. The original Australian voice was provided by
Karen Jacobsen Karen Elisabeth Jacobsen is an Australian born and New York based entertainer, singer, motivational speaker, voiceover artist and songwriter. Early life and career Born in Mackay, Queensland, Mackay, Queensland, Australia and writing songs from ...
, a
voice-over Voice-over (also known as off-camera or off-stage commentary) is a production technique where a voice—that is not part of the narrative (non-Diegetic#Film sound and music, diegetic)—is used in a radio, television production, filmmaking, th ...
artist known in Australia as the ''
GPS The Global Positioning System (GPS), originally Navstar GPS, is a Radionavigation-satellite service, satellite-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Space Force. It is one of t ...
girl''. In an interview between all three voice actors and ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'', Briggs said that "the original system was recorded for a US company called Scansoft, who were then bought by Nuance. Apple simply licensed it." For
iOS 11 iOS 11 is the iOS version history, eleventh major release of the iOS mobile operating system developed by Apple Inc., being the successor to iOS 10. It was announced at the company's Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, Worldwide Developers C ...
, Apple auditioned hundreds of candidates to find new female voices, then recorded several hours of speech, including different personalities and expressions, to build a new
text-to-speech Speech synthesis is the artificial production of human speech. A computer system used for this purpose is called a speech synthesizer, and can be implemented in software or hardware products. A text-to-speech (TTS) system converts normal languag ...
voice based on
deep learning Deep learning (also known as deep structured learning) is part of a broader family of machine learning methods based on artificial neural networks with representation learning. Learning can be supervised, semi-supervised or unsupervised. De ...
technology. In February 2022, Apple added Quinn, its first gender-neutral voice as a fifth user option, to the iOS 15.4 developer release.


Integration

Siri released as a stand-alone application for the
iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also includes ...
operating system in February 2010, and at the time, the developers were also intending to release Siri for Android and
BlackBerry The blackberry is an edible fruit produced by many species in the genus ''Rubus'' in the family Rosaceae, hybrids among these species within the subgenus ''Rubus'', and hybrids between the subgenera ''Rubus'' and ''Idaeobatus''. The taxonomy of ...
devices. Two months later, Apple acquired Siri. On October 4, 2011, Apple introduced the
iPhone 4S The iPhone 4S (originally styled as iPhone 4 S, retroactively stylized with a lowercase 's' as iPhone 4s as of September 2013) is a smartphone that was designed and marketed by Apple Inc. It is the List of iOS devices, fifth generation o ...
with a
beta version A software release life cycle is the sum of the stages of development and maturity for a piece of computer software ranging from its initial development to its eventual release, and including updated versions of the released version to help impro ...
of Siri. After the announcement, Apple removed the existing standalone Siri app from
App Store An App Store (or app marketplace) is a type of digital distribution platform for computer software called applications, often in a mobile context. Apps provide a specific set of functions which, by definition, do not include the running of the co ...
. ''
TechCrunch TechCrunch is an American online newspaper focusing on high tech and startup companies. It was founded in June 2005 by Archimedes Ventures, led by partners Michael Arrington and Keith Teare. In 2010, AOL acquired the company for approximately ...
'' wrote that, though the Siri app supports
iPhone 4 The iPhone 4 is a smartphone that was designed and marketed by Apple Inc. It is the fourth generation of the iPhone lineup, succeeding the iPhone 3GS and preceding the 4S. Following a number of notable leaks, the iPhone 4 was first unvei ...
, its removal from App Store might also have had a financial aspect for the company, in providing an incentive for customers to upgrade devices. Third-party developer Steven Troughton-Smith, however, managed to
port A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Ham ...
Siri to iPhone 4, though without being able to communicate with Apple's servers. A few days later, Troughton-Smith, working with an anonymous person nicknamed "Chpwn", managed to fully hack Siri, enabling its full functionalities on iPhone 4 and
iPod Touch The iPod Touch (stylized as iPod touch) is a discontinued line of iOS-based mobile devices designed and marketed by Apple Inc. with a touchscreen-controlled user interface. As with other iPod models, the iPod Touch can be used as a music pl ...
devices. Additionally, developers were also able to successfully create and distribute legal ports of Siri to any device capable of running
iOS 5 iOS 5 is the fifth major release of the iOS mobile operating system developed by Apple Inc., being the successor to iOS 4. It was announced at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference on June 6, 2011, and was released on October 12, 201 ...
, though a
proxy server In computer networking, a proxy server is a server application that acts as an intermediary between a client requesting a resource and the server providing that resource. Instead of connecting directly to a server that can fulfill a request ...
was required for Apple server interaction. Over the years, Apple has expanded the line of officially supported products, including newer iPhone models, as well as
iPad The iPad is a brand of iOS and iPadOS-based tablet computers that are developed by Apple Inc. The iPad was conceived before the related iPhone but the iPhone was developed and released first. Speculation about the development, operating s ...
support in June 2012, iPod Touch support in September 2012,
Apple TV An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple fruit tree, trees are agriculture, cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, wh ...
support, and the stand-alone
Siri Remote The Siri Remote (known as the Apple TV Remote in regions where Siri is not supported) is a remote control released by Apple with the Siri-capable fourth generation and later Apple TV. The Siri Remote is the successor to the original Apple Remot ...
, in September 2015, Mac and
AirPods AirPods are wireless Bluetooth earbuds designed by Apple Inc. They were first announced on September 7, 2016, alongside the iPhone 7. Within two years, they became Apple's most popular accessory. The most recent model, AirPods (3rd generation ...
support in September 2016, and
HomePod The HomePod is a smart speaker developed by Apple Inc. The HomePod was designed to work with the Apple Music subscription service. The HomePod was announced on June 5, 2017, at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference. Its launch was later del ...
support in February 2018.


Features and options

Apple offers a wide range of voice commands to interact with Siri, including, but not limited to: * Phone and text actions, such as "Call Sarah", "Read my new messages", "Set the timer for 10 minutes", and "Send email to mom" * Check basic information, including "What's the weather like today?" and "How many dollars are in a euro?" * Find basic facts, including "How many people live in France?" and "How tall is Mount Everest?". Siri usually uses Wikipedia to answer. * Schedule events and reminders, including "Schedule a meeting" and "Remind me to..." * Handle device settings, such as "Take a picture", "Turn off
Wi-Fi Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols, based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by radio wave ...
", and "Increase the brightness" * Search the Internet, including "Define...", "Find pictures of...", and "Search
Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
for..." * Navigation, including "Take me home", "What's traffic like on the way home?", and "Find driving directions to..." * Translate words and phrases from English to a few languages, such as "How do I say where is the nearest hotel in French?" * Entertainment, such as "What basketball games are on today?", "What are some movies playing near me?", and "What's the synopsis of...?" * Engage with iOS-integrated apps, including "Pause
Apple Music Apple Music is a music, audio and video streaming service developed by Apple Inc. Users select music to stream to their device on-demand, or they can listen to existing playlists. The service also includes the Internet radio stations Apple M ...
" and "Like this song" * Handle payments through Apple Pay, such as "Apple Pay 25 dollars to Mike for concert tickets" or "Send 41 dollars to Ivana." Siri also offers numerous pre-programmed responses to amusing questions. Such questions include "What is the meaning of life?" to which Siri may reply "All evidence to date suggests it's chocolate"; "Why am I here?", to which it may reply "I don't know. Frankly, I've wondered that myself"; and "Will you marry me?", to which it may respond with "My End User Licensing Agreement does not cover marriage. My apologies." Initially limited to female voices, Apple announced in June 2013 that Siri would feature a gender option, adding a male voice counterpart. In September 2014, Apple added the ability for users to speak "Hey Siri" to enable the assistant without the requirement of physically handling the device. In September 2015, the "Hey Siri" feature was updated to include individualized voice recognition, a presumed effort to prevent non-owner activation. With the announcement of
iOS 10 iOS 10 is the iOS version history, tenth major release of the iOS mobile operating system developed by Apple Inc., being the successor to iOS 9. It was announced at the company's Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, Worldwide Developers Conf ...
in June 2016, Apple opened up limited third-party developer access to Siri through a dedicated
application programming interface An application programming interface (API) is a way for two or more computer programs to communicate with each other. It is a type of software interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standard that describes how t ...
(API). The API restricts usage of Siri to engaging with third-party messaging apps, payment apps, ride-sharing apps, and Internet calling apps. In
iOS 11 iOS 11 is the iOS version history, eleventh major release of the iOS mobile operating system developed by Apple Inc., being the successor to iOS 10. It was announced at the company's Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, Worldwide Developers C ...
, Siri is able to handle follow-up questions, supports language translation, and opens up to more third-party actions, including task management. Additionally, users are able to type to Siri, and a new, privacy-minded "on-device learning" technique improves Siri's suggestions by privately analyzing personal usage of different iOS applications.


Reception

Siri received mixed reviews during its beta release as an integrated part of iPhone 4S in October 2011. MG Siegler of ''
TechCrunch TechCrunch is an American online newspaper focusing on high tech and startup companies. It was founded in June 2005 by Archimedes Ventures, led by partners Michael Arrington and Keith Teare. In 2010, AOL acquired the company for approximately ...
'' wrote that Siri was "great," praising the potential for Siri after losing the beta tag:
The amount of times Siri hasn't been able to understand and execute my request is astonishingly low.... Just imagine what will happen when Apple partners with other services to expand Siri further. And imagine when they have an API that any developer can use. This really could alter the mobile landscape.
Writing for ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'',
David Pogue David Welch Pogue (born March 9, 1963) is an American technology and science writer and TV presenter. He is an Emmy-winning correspondent for ''CBS News Sunday Morning'' and author of the "Crowdwise" column in ''The New York Times'' Smarter Livi ...
also praised Siri's language understanding and ability to understand context:
iri IRI or I.R.I. refers to: Businesses and organizations * Iringa Airport, an airport in Tanzania serving Iringa and the surrounding Iringa Region by IATA airport code * India Rejuvenation Initiative, an Indian anti-corruption organization forme ...
thinks for a few seconds, displays a beautifully formatted response and speaks in a calm female voice.... It's mind-blowing how inexact your utterances can be. Siri understands everything from, 'What's the weather going to be like in Tucson this weekend?' to 'Will I need an umbrella tonight?'... Once, I tried saying, 'Make an appointment with Patrick for Thursday at 3.' Siri responded, 'Note that you already have an all-day appointment about "Boston Trip" for this Thursday. Shall I schedule this anyway?' Unbelievable.
Jacqui Cheng of ''
Ars Technica ''Ars Technica'' is a website covering news and opinions in technology, science, politics, and society, created by Ken Fisher and Jon Stokes in 1998. It publishes news, reviews, and guides on issues such as computer hardware and software, sci ...
'' wrote that Apple's claims of what Siri could do were bold, and the early demos "even bolder":
Though Siri shows real potential, these kinds of high expectations are bound to be disappointed.... Apple makes clear that the product is still in beta—an appropriate label, in our opinion.
While praising its ability to "decipher our casual language" and deliver "very specific and accurate result," sometimes even providing additional information, Cheng noted and criticized its restrictions, particularly when the language moved away from "stiffer commands" into more human interactions. One example included the phrase "Send a text to Jason, Clint, Sam, and Lee saying we're having dinner at Silver Cloud," which Siri interpreted as sending a message to Jason only, containing the text "Clint Sam and Lee saying we're having dinner at Silver Cloud." She also noted a lack of proper editability, as saying "Edit message to say: We're at Silver Cloud and you should come find us," generated "Clint Sam and Lee saying we're having dinner at Silver Cloud to say we're at Silver Cloud and you should come find us."
Google Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...
's executive chairman and former chief,
Eric Schmidt Eric Emerson Schmidt (born April 27, 1955) is an American businessman and software engineer known for being the CEO of Google from 2001 to 2011, executive chairman of Google from 2011 to 2015, executive chairman of Alphabet Inc. from 2015 to 20 ...
, conceded that Siri could pose a competitive threat to the company's core search business. Siri was criticized by pro-abortion rights organizations, including the
American Civil Liberties Union The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1920 "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States". T ...
(ACLU) and
NARAL Pro-Choice America NARAL Pro-Choice America, commonly known as simply NARAL ( ), is a non-profit 501(c)(4) organization in the United States that engages in lobbying, political action, and advocacy efforts to oppose restrictions on abortion, to expand access to ...
, after users found that Siri could not provide information about the location of birth control or abortion providers nearby, sometimes directing users to crisis pregnancy centers instead. Natalie Kerris, a spokeswoman for Apple, told ''The New York Times'':
Our customers want to use Siri to find out all types of information, and while it can find a lot, it doesn't always find what you want.... These are not intentional omissions meant to offend anyone. It simply means that as we bring Siri from beta to a final product, we find places where we can do better, and we will in the coming weeks.
In January 2016, ''
Fast Company ''Fast Company'' is a monthly American business magazine published in print and online that focuses on technology, business, and design. It publishes six print issues per year. History ''Fast Company'' was launched in November 1995 by Alan Web ...
'' reported that, in then-recent months, Siri had begun to confuse the word "abortion" with "
adoption Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting of another, usually a child, from that person's biological or legal parent or parents. Legal adoptions permanently transfer all rights and responsibilities, along with filiation, from ...
", citing "health experts" who stated that the situation had "gotten worse." However, at the time of ''Fast Company''s report, the situation had changed slightly, with Siri offering "a more comprehensive list of
Planned Parenthood The Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc. (PPFA), or simply Planned Parenthood, is a nonprofit organization that provides reproductive health care in the United States and globally. It is a tax-exempt corporation under Internal Reve ...
facilities", although "Adoption clinics continue to pop up, but near the bottom of the list." Siri has also not been well received by some English speakers with distinctive accents, including Scottish and Americans from
Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
or the
South South is one of the cardinal directions or Points of the compass, compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Pro ...
. In March 2012, Frank M. Fazio filed a class action lawsuit against Apple on behalf of the people who bought iPhone 4S and felt misled about the capabilities of Siri, alleging its failing to function as depicted in Apple's Siri commercials. Fazio filed the lawsuit in California and claimed that the iPhone 4S was merely a "more expensive iPhone 4" 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.


Perceived lack of innovation

In June 2016, ''
The Verge ''The Verge'' is an American technology news website operated by Vox Media, publishing news, feature stories, guidebooks, product reviews, consumer electronics news, and podcasts. The website launched on November 1, 2011, and uses Vox Media' ...
''s Sean O'Kane wrote about the then-upcoming major iOS 10 updates, with a headline stating "Siri's big upgrades won't matter if it can't understand its users":
What Apple didn't talk about was solving Siri's biggest, most basic flaws: it's still not very good at voice recognition, and when it gets it right, the results are often clunky. And these problems look even worse when you consider that Apple now has full-fledged competitors in this space:
Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology c ...
's
Alexa Alexa may refer to: Technology *Amazon Alexa, a virtual assistant developed by Amazon * Alexa Internet, a defunct website ranking and traffic analysis service * Arri Alexa, a digital motion picture camera People *Alexa (name), a given name and ...
,
Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...
's Cortana, and Google's Assistant.
Also writing for ''The Verge'',
Walt Mossberg Walter S. Mossberg (born March 27, 1947) is an American technology journalist and moderator. From 1991 through 2013, he was the principal technology columnist for ''The Wall Street Journal''. He also co-founded '' AllThingsD'', ''Recode'' a ...
had previously questioned Apple's efforts in cloud-based services, writing:
...perhaps the biggest disappointment among Apple's cloud-based services is the one it needs most today, right now: Siri. Before Apple bought it, Siri was on the road to being a robust digital assistant that could do many things, and integrate with many services—even though it was being built by a startup with limited funds and people. After Apple bought Siri, the giant company seemed to treat it as a backwater, restricting it to doing only a few, slowly increasing number of tasks, like telling you the weather, sports scores, movie and restaurant listings, and controlling the device's functions. Its unhappy founders have left Apple to build a new AI service called
Viv VIV or Viv may refer to: People * Viv (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Viv., the standard author abbreviation of Domenico Viviani (1772–1840), Italian botanist and naturalist Places * 2558 Viv, a main belt asteroid * ...
. And, on too many occasions, Siri either gets things wrong, doesn't know the answer, or can't verbalize it. Instead, it shows you a web search result, even when you're not in a position to read it.
In October 2016, ''
Bloomberg Bloomberg may refer to: People * Daniel J. Bloomberg (1905–1984), audio engineer * Georgina Bloomberg (born 1983), professional equestrian * Michael Bloomberg (born 1942), American businessman and founder of Bloomberg L.P.; politician and ma ...
'' reported that Apple had plans to unify the teams behind its various cloud-based services, including a single campus and reorganized cloud computing resources aimed at improving the processing of Siri's queries, although another report from ''The Verge'', in June 2017, once again called Siri's voice recognition "bad." In June 2017, ''
The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'' published an extensive report on the lack of innovation with Siri following competitors' advancement in the field of voice assistants. Noting that Apple workers' anxiety levels "went up a notch" on the announcement of Amazon's Alexa, the ''Journal'' wrote: "Today, Apple is playing catch-up in a product category it invented, increasing worries about whether the technology giant has lost some of its innovation edge." The report gave the primary causes being Apple's prioritization of user privacy, including randomly-tagged six-month Siri searches, whereas Google and Amazon keep data until actively discarded by the user, and executive power struggles within Apple. Apple did not comment on the report, while
Eddy Cue Eddy Cue (born Eduardo H. Cue; October 23, 1964) is Apple's senior vice president of Services, reporting to CEO Tim Cook. Cue oversees Apple's numerous content stores including the iTunes Store, the Apple Books Store, and Apple Music, as well ...
said: "Apple often uses generic data rather than user data to train its systems and has the ability to improve Siri's performance for individual users with information kept on their iPhones."


Privacy controversy

In July 2019, a then-anonymous whistleblower and former Apple contractor Thomas le Bonniec said that Siri regularly records some of its users' conversations even when it was not activated. The recordings are sent to Apple contractors grading Siri's responses on a variety of factors. Among other things, the contractors regularly hear private conversations between doctors and patients, business and drug deals, and couples having sex. Apple did not disclose this in its privacy documentation and did not provide a way for its users to opt in or out. In August 2019, Apple apologized, halted the Siri grading program, and said that it plans to resume "later this fall when software updates are released to tsusers". iOS 13.2, released in October 2019, introduced the ability to opt out of the grading program and to delete all the voice recordings that Apple has stored on its servers. In May 2020, Thomas le Bonniec revealed himself as the whistleblower and sent a letter to European data protection regulators, calling on them to investigate Apple's "past and present" use of Siri recordings. He argued that, even though Apple has apologized, it has never faced the consequences for its years-long grading program.


Swearing

The iOS version of Siri ships with a vulgar content filter; however, it is disabled by default and must be enabled by the user manually. Therefore, if Siri can be triggered into cursing, broadcasting discriminatory content, and so on, the actions will most likely be carried out. Over its history, multiple methods and techniques have been used to trigger Siri into swearing. The language-filter is not perfect and can still be bypassed. In 2018, ''
Ars Technica ''Ars Technica'' is a website covering news and opinions in technology, science, politics, and society, created by Ken Fisher and Jon Stokes in 1998. It publishes news, reviews, and guides on issues such as computer hardware and software, sci ...
'' reported a new glitch that could be exploited by a user requesting the definition of "
mother ] A mother is the female parent of a child. A woman may be considered a mother by virtue of having given childbirth, birth, by raising a child who may or may not be her biological offspring, or by supplying her ovum for fertilisation in the cas ...
" be read out loud. Siri would issue a response and ask the user if they would like to hear the next definition; when the user replies with "yes," Siri would mention "mother" as being short for "motherf—ker." This resulted in multiple
YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...
videos featuring the responses and/or how to trigger them. Apple fixed the issue silently, although it is unconfirmed if the videos specifically brought it to their attention. The content is picked up from third-party sources such as the ''
Oxford English Dictionary The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a com ...
'' and not a supplied message from the corporation. It is unknown whether this glitch was exploited with the vulgar content filter enabled.


In popular culture

Siri provided the voice of 'Puter in ''
The Lego Batman Movie ''The Lego Batman Movie'' is a 2017 computer-animated superhero comedy film produced by Warner Animation Group, DC Entertainment, RatPac Entertainment, Lego System A/S, Dan Lin's Lin Pictures, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller's Lord Miller Pro ...
''.


See also

*
List of speech recognition software Speech recognition software is available for many computing platforms, operating systems, use models, and software licenses. Here is a listing of such, grouped in various useful ways. Acoustic models and speech corpus (compilation) The following ...


References


Further reading

* For a detailed article on the history of the organizations and technologies preceding the development of Siri, and their influence upon that application, see 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), accessed November 2, 2014.


External links

*
Siri's supported languages

SiriKit, Siri for developers
* {{Computable knowledge Apple Inc. software Virtual assistants IOS software TvOS software WatchOS software Natural language processing software Computer-related introductions in 2011 2011 software SRI International software Apple Inc. acquisitions 2010 mergers and acquisitions