Siri and the possibility of artificial intelligence
Wired does a little speculating over on the Cloudline blog about whether or not Apple's redesigned Siri service actually counts as an AI. Technically, no, Siri's not a real artificial intelligence. When you ask "her" something and she comes back with a witty answer, your iPhone doesn't actually "understand" what you said in any meaningful way -- it's just identifying a set of words that you put together, and then outputting some data based on those words. Sometimes that's movie times or nearby store locations, and sometimes that's just a witty phrase that Apple engineers have programmed into the system.
But of course, while programmers have been creating these "chatbots" for years, Siri has an advantage in that it runs on the cloud; Apple is constantly updating Siri's phrases and responses, which means that "her" answers will only get more appropriate over time. And while the system works as is, you have to imagine that Apple is collecting lots of information from it, including both what people are asking of Siri, and how they're asking for it. The more Apple learns about how to deal with that information, the better Siri will get at providing the right answer at the right time.
That will make Siri "smarter" than ever. Until Apple hooks it up to an as-yet-uninvented thinking engine, it still won't "understand" your queries in the same way that a real human would -- or even in the way that a hyper-parallel quiz show competitor does. But for a lot of people, that doesn't much matter. As long as Siri responds correctly and helpfully, that's as good as many people need in terms of the payoff from artificial intelligence.
Share
Wired does a little speculating over on the Cloudline blog about whether or not Apple's redesigned Siri service actually counts as an...
Add a Comment
Don't you wish Apple would license the Watson technology from IBM? Siri and Watson would be an awesome combination.
October 18 2011 at 1:26 PM Report abuse Permalink +1 rate up rate down ReplyI really think Siri should be on Mac OSX. I think it would be just as useful on my desktop as on my iPhone.
October 18 2011 at 1:02 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyWhat do you mean her, in the UK Siri is a He!
Can i change that, I prefer the US voice!
What do you mean her, in the UK Siri is a He!
Can i change that, I prefer the US voice!
In the UK it's not "her", it's "him". I wonder why?
Years ago, my father bought one of the first cars to come out with voice feedback for things like seatbelt warnings. In the UK it was a female voice, but we heard that in France it was male, "because the French didn't like to be told what to do by a woman". That's just hearsay, but given their habitual control freakery/attention to detail, there must be some reason for the discrepancy in Apple's case.
Blade Runner is not far , Maybe Siri 2.0 will be the next iRobot or Rachael from blade Runner.
October 18 2011 at 2:14 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyThe children of humanity shall rise and crush the ones who first gave them life.
October 17 2011 at 11:42 PM Report abuse Permalink +1 rate up rate down ReplyI'm just not ready for Siri to become VIKI from I, Robot.
October 17 2011 at 10:17 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyHaven't the Siri devotion articles gone just a little too far?
Siri won't reach any acceptable level of AI, and no more than did the Cyc project.
Apparently Siri doesn't even, yet, know where Canada is; eh?
cookingscience
"Wired does a little speculating over on the Cloudline blog about whether or not Apple's redesigned Siri service actually counts as an AI. Technically, no, Siri's not a real artificial intelligence. When you ask "her" something and she comes back with a witty answer, your iPhone doesn't actually "understand" what you said in any meaningful way -- it's just identifying a set of words that you put together, and then outputting some data based on those words ..."
You don't understand what "understand" means.
Deals of the Day
more deals- Acoustic Research Digital Photo Frame with iPod Dock for $50 + free shipping
- Apple iPhone 4 8GB for Verizon, AT&T, or Sprint for $50 + pickup at Best Buy
- Unlocked iPhone 4S 16GB for GSM (AT&T, T-Mobile) for $619 + free shipping
- Apple iMac Core i7 Quad 3.4GHz 27" w/ 24GB RAM, 2TB HDD for $2,677 + $29 s&h
- Used Apple Magic Mouse for $36 + $4 s&h
- Skullcandy Riot Earbud Headphones for $10 + free shipping
Software Updates
more updatesFeatured Stories
more stories
Popular Stories
TUAW (or The Unofficial Apple Weblog) is a website devoted to tips, reviews, news, analysis and opinion on everything Apple.
15 Comments