Siri

The Turing test is one of the oldest ideas for imagining machine intelligence. Dreamed-up by computing legend Alan Turing, the idea is genius in its simplicity — if the average person can’t distinguish a particular machine from a real person through conversation, then that machine is said to possess thought. Each year, chat bots are Continue Reading →

When it comes to aiding someone who is emotionally driven to kill him or herself, the right response can literally be a matter of life and death. In order to help those in crisis, Apple has updated Siri’s search response system to field suicide-related requests with an approach designed to drive users to seek help Continue Reading →

It’s getting dangerous just to walk and text at the same time much less do so behind the wheel of a car. But with Siri being just slightly less helpful than HAL, how are you supposed to surf the web and simultaneously travel safely? All you have to do is ask. Become a Dictator: With Continue Reading →

Apple has updated an earlier lawsuit filed against Samsung with claims that the Galaxy S4 and its Google Now feature violate two Apple patents covering functions of its own virtual personal assistant, Siri. Florian Mueller of FOSS Patents relayed news of the updated complaint on Wednesday, and he noted that two of the patents — Continue Reading →

Apple is working on tightly integrating iOS 7 apps such as Siri and Apple Maps into car consoles, according to a report by 9 to 5 Mac. Taking the concept of Siri Eyes Free for cars a step further, the next version of Apple’s mobile operating system might be able to provide a voice-activated navigation Continue Reading →

It’s no secret that Apple hangs onto your Siri data for some length of time (as does other companies with search data and the like), but it hasn’t been clear exactly how long it keeps that data sitting on its servers. Wired has now cleared that up somewhat, though, hearing from Apple spokesperson Trudy Muller Continue Reading →

When Siri arrived on the iPhone 4S it seemed like a magic piece of software. The future had arrived. But it wasn’t alone. True Knowledge, a British startup with a natural language search engine developed in university labs, had been working out what to do next. Siri was the ‘boom’ moment. They licensed Nuance’s voice Continue Reading →

Apple and Yahoo are believed to be discussing a closer partnership for the iPhone, iPad and Siri that would open up more of Yahoo’s data, such as sports and news, The Wall Street Journal reports. While sources told the paper that the deal wasn’t imminent, they did note that talks were taking place. Apple’s iOS Continue Reading →

Siri will soon be a feature on Mac computers, if a job posting on Apple’s website is to be believed. A position entitled “Siri UI Engineer” calls for someone with experience with Unix, and specifically with OS X. The posting has since been removed (searching for “Siri” in Apple’s database does call up various other Continue Reading →

The world got its first inkling of the quick wit that would make Apple’s Siri an icon during a packed press conference held before an auditorium of tech elite. “Who are you?” an Apple executive asked the assistant. “I am a humble personal assistant,” Siri answered to appreciative laughter. More like humbled personal assistant. That Continue Reading →