

Siri bought by Apple - cwilson
http://scobleizer.com/2010/04/28/breaking-news-siri-bought-by-apple/

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jonknee
I deleted Siri off my phone a couple of days ago (had it since launch). I used
it a few times with fairly poor results and ended up finding Google a whole
lot more useful. Maybe I was using it wrong or had unrealistic expectations.

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hubb
i hadn't heard of the app until this post, so i looked it up. the demo video
is impressive and (the ending) is pretty funny.

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpjpVAB06O4>

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stcredzero
So is "the API web" that Robert is referring to the new, more practical take
on "the semantic web?" The hazy parts of the semantic web being replaced with
programmers writing apps to piece together information from APIs, of course.

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look_lookatme
This was my first thought when I realized Siri is like an agent in semweb-
speak.

Does anyone know of any Google acquisitions in this space? Aardvark comes to
mind, but it wasn't an autonomous system... perhaps their NLP work was state
of the art?

Any other startups working on this kind of stuff?

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marc44
Back in October, SIRI's execs admitted that they had problems handling access
to more than 6 APIs at one time due to "cross talk" problems with the NLP. So,
they face what we all do with NLP when an "agent" has to handle too much.

The value here is in applying SIRI to very small one-off Apps to make them
more intelligent.

Yes, other startups are definitely working in this space -- and, it's
important to note that SIRI is only a licensed technology, not a proprietary
technology, whereas other companies have wholly owned IP. If you search for AI
and AI, mobile, Interactive Conversation, Mobile and Retail to mobile, you'll
probably find the Others working in this area.

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dave1619
Apple is probably wanting the semantic analysis technology behind Siri, which
is supposedly pretty amazing. The natural language processing is probably
something they're interested in too. They will probably integrate Siri's
functions into the iPhone to expand into a personal assistant-like function.
For example, they can add a "speak" button to the search page of the iPhone,
and have users search through their phone (contacts, etc) or ask the iPhone a
question, "What movies are playing around me?" They need this functionality to
compete with Android, especially with the new Android versions having voice
search and integrated turn-by-turn. I can see Apple developing their own voice
recognition technology and not using Nuance. I think Apple can do a better job
than them. And it makes sense for Apple to integrate turn-by-turn directions
somehow, just to compete with Android. They could allow Google to provide
turn-by-turn on the iPhone, but I don't think they want iPhone users that
dependent on Google. So many iPhone users are already using Google for mail,
calendar, contacts, RSS reader, etc. Apple needs to find a way to pull people
away from reliance on Google and be more connected with their services.

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CoryMathews
I'm a bit confused about why they purchased Siri.

I don't see anything truly groundbreaking about the app(I'm not saying its a
bad app (I have never used it)). Nothing that apple would see worth buying at
least.

As noted by paulgb siri uses Nuance
([http://www.nuance.com/naturallyspeaking/products/editions/pr...](http://www.nuance.com/naturallyspeaking/products/editions/preferred.asp))
for speech recognition so they must not be buying it for better speech
recognition. (assuming this statement is correct)

Siri does not seem to have anything that Apple could not have just reproduced.
Apple could have paid a fraction (assuming the $200mil this author estimates)
to write the app and then just banned siri from the app store as reproducing
existing features..

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troystribling
Siri is based on natural language processing technology developed by the DARPA
CALO AI Project
[http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/semantic_stealth_startu...](http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/semantic_stealth_startup_siric.php),
<http://caloproject.sri.com/about/>. There is more to it than speech
recognition. I have used it and it has acceptable performance in recognizing
simple tasks verbally.

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cwilson
Looks like Apple wants to improve voice control on the iPhone!

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paulgb
Siri seems to be using Nuance (<http://www.nuance.com/>) for speech
recognition, so Apple doesn't seem to have bought any of the actual speech
recognition technology.

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edster
Siri uses Nuance, but loads it with it's own vocabulary. But you are correct,
Apple would not acquire Siri for this reason.

I think the real reason is the ip in this area and the natural language
processing built into the server.

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cwilson
Is this the first app-related acquisition by Apple?

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ugh
It will be interesting to see whether this is about the app (i.e. implementing
similar functionality somewhere in the iPhone OS or even offering it as a
extra download) or about the technology (i.e. improving voice control). I bet
it’s rather more the last thing.

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cwilson
It's definitely one of the following three and/or all of them:

1\. The app itself 2\. Technology 3\. Talent

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hockeybias
Astute! :)

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matthavener
This plus the leaked facebook integration makes me think Apple's going to try
to branch out from its walled-garden semantic database (mobileme, mail.app,
etc integration) and into a more open integration of popular services
(facebook, yelp, gmail, opentable, etc).

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bond
That's a really great app. Congrats to the team.

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hockeybias
I wonder if this means the end to Siri apps on Android?

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acangiano
I don't see Apple allowing an Android release of such an innovative product.

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vaksel
I looked on Google finance and there is no news about this:

<http://www.google.com/finance?q=siri>

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cwilson
Techcrunch just posted about it as well:
[http://techcrunch.com/2010/04/28/apple-buys-virtual-
personal...](http://techcrunch.com/2010/04/28/apple-buys-virtual-personal-
assistant-startup-siri/)

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vaksel
oh I see....this is Siri...not Sirius Radio...my bad

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vinhboy
LOL... Apple buy Sirius Radio.. now that would be hilarious...

