Siri is iPhone’s artificial intelligence digital assistant who, every now and then, also doubles as a sociopath with questionable humor. Nowadays, the digital assistant is virtually synonymous with Apple, as it is used on iPhones, Apple Watches, iPads, iPod Touchs, Apple TVs, and Macs. Curiously (depending on your perspective), it doesn’t exist outside the Apple ecosystem. With that in mind, here are two potential trivia questions for you. First – did you know that there was life for Siri before Apple? Secondly, did you know that Siri was actually older than the iPhone 5 it was first introduced on, and that it used to run on other platforms, too?
This article is a brief history of Siri, how it came to life and how it transformed into one of the biggest, most popular artificial intelligence digital assistants today. It will answer the question: how old is Siri?
The History Of Siri Before Apple
Today’s civilization recognizes two major time epochs – BC (Before Christ), and AD (anno Domini). Knowing the importance of Apple in the life of Siri, we will use a similar approach: BA (Before Apple), and AA (anno Apple). Let us start in the chronologically correct order.
Siri was conceived in the minds and hearts of two people: Dag Kittlaus and Harry Saddler. Kittlaus was the co-founder and chief executive of the company with the same name – Siri Inc. Saddler, on the other hand, was the company’s design expert. A total of 24 people built the software.
The company itself was a spin-off from SRI International Artificial Intelligence Center, built as a part of the CALO project, funded by DARPA. DARPA, or Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, is a US government agency that builds advanced technology for the US military.
According to Crunchbase, both the company’s foundation and the software’s conception happened in the same year – 2007. Thus, it is safe to say that Siri, in one form or another, is now ten years old. However, the public didn’t get a taste of it before 2010, so you might hear some people saying this was, in fact, the year Siri was born. For speech recognition, Siri Inc. worked with Nuance Communications, but it was not before 2013 that the two companies admitted to working together.
How Siri Got Its Name
There is an interesting story about how the digital assistant got its name. In Old Norse, it apparently means “beautiful woman who leads you to victory”. If Norse mythology seems like an odd source for Siri’s name-giving, there is one more thing you need to know. The company’s co-founder, Dag Kittlaus is in part of Norwegian origin. Additionally, in Swahili, Siri means “secret”, which is rather a cool hint if you know that Siri Inc’s first domain name was www.stealth-company.com. It is also reverse of Iris, a software system that was built as part of the CALO project, from which Siri spun out. And finally, it is really close to SRI, the research institute that ran CALO. So many bases for a name. Who knew?
However, the truth is really anti-climactic. The start-up just wanted a name that was not that common, that was easy to remember and pronounce, short to type and which had a free domain name to purchase. Thus – the company settled for the name Siri. If you ask us, we kinda like the Norse part better.
Siri’s Original Purpose
Considering the DARPA angle, Siri probably started out as a military program. Its primary focus was on the conversational interface, personal context awareness and service delegation. During the BA years, it was capable of pulling information from roughly 40 services, including Google, Yahoo, MovieTickets, and Rotten Tomatoes, to name a few. It only had one voice, spoke only English, and could even curse at you. It could book you a restaurant table, or buy you a pair of movie tickets. And most importantly, you could get it for operating systems other than Apple.
Anno Apple
Then, things changed on April 28, 2010 when Siri was bought out by the Silicon Valley titan. Apple acquired Siri Inc. for $200 million, according to sources. The Cupertino company, who was at the time getting ready to release its fifth iPhone, was toying with the idea of artificial intelligence digital assistant for 25 years. It had already seen what Siri was capable because, if you remember, the software was already ‘alive and kicking’ on iOS.
After the acquisition, the artificial intelligence digital assistant went through a serious overhaul. It lost some of its features. Being available on other platforms or being able to curse went out the window. However, it got a lot in return. For example, it became available on a wide range of languages, and its capabilities significantly improved. One of the bigger features that immediately had a significant impact was dictation.
It is only in Anno Apple that Siri really started to shine and showed the world that conversational interfaces and AI-powered digital assistants were the future. And not just of mobile, but of computing in general. It was only a matter of time before Apple integrated Siri with operating systems other than iOS, but still in its ecosystem: watchOS, tvOS, MacOS, Car Play. Language-wise, it is now available in Arabic, Danish, Hebrew, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Mandarin, Russian and Turkish, among others. Its integration with other services has also expanded rapidly.
And another thing – it pioneered the whole AI assistant movement we have today. Siri has prompted other technology giants to start doing the same. Microsoft demonstrated its own AI-powered digital assistant Cortana, in April 2013. Google’s was announced in 2016. Samsung’s AI concierge Bixby launched this year, when the South Korean giants released the Galaxy S8.
Obviously, Apple is not just going to let others spoil the party, it is constantly working on improving the Siri experience. When iOS 10 was introduced in September 2016, Siri got a significant facelift. It allowed users to control a lot more apps, to send messages with third-party apps, or to search YouTube on AppleTV. It eased multitasking on the Mac, allowed users to control smart home devices, and change the station, or turn on and off the air conditioning in the car.
How Old Is Siri?
So, how old is Siri? Either 10, or 7, depending on your perspective.
It is safe to say that AI-powered digital assistants are the future of computing. Thanks to constant advancements, conversational interface is natural, intuitive and fast. Artificial intelligence helps us get through a busy day, and with many different programs competing for our attention, the quality of service will only improve with time. For this, we have Siri much to thank for. It lead the way and its success helped shape the AI scene we have today. Because of Siri, it is only a matter of time before we all end up like Tony Stark’s Ironman. And frankly, that is not a bad thing at all.