1 00:00:04,400 --> 00:00:07,800 Speaker 1: Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 2 00:00:12,240 --> 00:00:15,040 Speaker 1: Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 3 00:00:15,200 --> 00:00:18,080 Speaker 1: Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio 4 00:00:18,120 --> 00:00:20,920 Speaker 1: and I love all things tech, and today we are 5 00:00:21,000 --> 00:00:27,760 Speaker 1: continuing our exploration of Apple's Virtual Assistant SIRIE, which originally 6 00:00:27,840 --> 00:00:31,840 Speaker 1: debuted as an official Apple feature on October four, two 7 00:00:31,840 --> 00:00:36,520 Speaker 1: th eleven. If you haven't listened to the previous episode, 8 00:00:36,560 --> 00:00:39,080 Speaker 1: I recommend you do that, as I covered a lot 9 00:00:39,120 --> 00:00:41,760 Speaker 1: of the backstory to SIRI, as well as some of 10 00:00:41,760 --> 00:00:45,640 Speaker 1: the technical challenges engineers faced as they built on the 11 00:00:45,720 --> 00:00:48,960 Speaker 1: underlying technologies that you know makes SIRIE a possibility in 12 00:00:49,000 --> 00:00:53,160 Speaker 1: the first place. However, I will do a super quick 13 00:00:53,240 --> 00:00:57,320 Speaker 1: summary of the important points just in case. So SIRIE 14 00:00:57,400 --> 00:01:00,880 Speaker 1: really started off as an offshoot of a Department of 15 00:01:00,960 --> 00:01:05,520 Speaker 1: Defense funded project to create a virtual assistant that military 16 00:01:05,560 --> 00:01:09,759 Speaker 1: commanders would be able to rely upon. S r I International, 17 00:01:10,120 --> 00:01:15,959 Speaker 1: a nonprofit scientific research organization, landed the contract and ultimately 18 00:01:16,000 --> 00:01:19,800 Speaker 1: would spin off a company called SIRI s I r 19 00:01:19,920 --> 00:01:23,840 Speaker 1: I that would explore how to take a subset of 20 00:01:23,880 --> 00:01:27,679 Speaker 1: the technologies that were developed for this Department of Defense 21 00:01:27,720 --> 00:01:31,200 Speaker 1: project and then use it in the consumer market with 22 00:01:31,360 --> 00:01:34,559 Speaker 1: an eye on mobile devices. Now, that was in two 23 00:01:34,560 --> 00:01:38,600 Speaker 1: thousand seven, just as consumer smartphones were becoming a thing, 24 00:01:38,680 --> 00:01:43,080 Speaker 1: primarily with of course, the Apple iPhone. By the company 25 00:01:43,120 --> 00:01:45,959 Speaker 1: had a working app that they submitted to the Apple 26 00:01:46,040 --> 00:01:50,600 Speaker 1: App Store, and a few weeks later, Apple CEO Steve 27 00:01:50,760 --> 00:01:55,200 Speaker 1: Jobs called up Dog Kittlause, the head of Sirie, to 28 00:01:55,440 --> 00:01:59,680 Speaker 1: talk about the app and ultimately to make an acquisition offer, 29 00:02:00,280 --> 00:02:04,600 Speaker 1: which the company ultimately accepted. A year later, and one 30 00:02:04,720 --> 00:02:08,959 Speaker 1: day before Steve Jobs's death, Apple would unveil Siri as 31 00:02:09,000 --> 00:02:12,440 Speaker 1: an Apple product, though as we know, the bulk of 32 00:02:12,480 --> 00:02:16,080 Speaker 1: the work on Siri had been done elsewhere. Now that's 33 00:02:16,120 --> 00:02:21,200 Speaker 1: the super fast summary of the actually really interesting backstory 34 00:02:21,320 --> 00:02:24,280 Speaker 1: on Sirie. You can listen to the previous episode to 35 00:02:24,360 --> 00:02:26,840 Speaker 1: get the full thing. But we've got a few other 36 00:02:26,880 --> 00:02:29,480 Speaker 1: things to clear up before we can continue down the 37 00:02:29,560 --> 00:02:35,240 Speaker 1: path of series development. As I mentioned in the previous episode, Sirie, 38 00:02:35,400 --> 00:02:40,720 Speaker 1: the company before Apple's acquisition, had arranged a deal with 39 00:02:40,919 --> 00:02:44,920 Speaker 1: the cell phone carrier company Verizon, and the deal was 40 00:02:45,000 --> 00:02:48,239 Speaker 1: that Siri was going to create an Android app version 41 00:02:48,440 --> 00:02:52,320 Speaker 1: of its service that would be a flagship feature on 42 00:02:52,480 --> 00:02:56,040 Speaker 1: Verizon Android phones. And this is a good time to 43 00:02:56,080 --> 00:02:59,760 Speaker 1: point out one of the major differences between Apple and Android. 44 00:03:00,360 --> 00:03:03,960 Speaker 1: Apple only allows iOS, you know, the operating system of 45 00:03:04,000 --> 00:03:06,720 Speaker 1: the iPhone and the iPad and stuff like that. They 46 00:03:06,720 --> 00:03:10,079 Speaker 1: only allow that to run on Apple products. So if 47 00:03:10,120 --> 00:03:14,440 Speaker 1: you want an iPhone or something running the iPhone operating system, 48 00:03:14,639 --> 00:03:17,119 Speaker 1: you have to go through Apple. I mean, you could 49 00:03:17,520 --> 00:03:21,000 Speaker 1: try to make some other device run iOS on top 50 00:03:21,080 --> 00:03:23,480 Speaker 1: of that device, but my point is that if you 51 00:03:23,480 --> 00:03:25,600 Speaker 1: want the real thing, you have to go to Apple. 52 00:03:25,639 --> 00:03:29,840 Speaker 1: There's nowhere else to go. Google when a totally different route. 53 00:03:29,960 --> 00:03:33,560 Speaker 1: They built out Android, and they made it available for 54 00:03:33,600 --> 00:03:37,440 Speaker 1: installation on all different types of handsets from different companies, 55 00:03:37,920 --> 00:03:40,600 Speaker 1: and so you had a lot of flavors of Android. 56 00:03:40,800 --> 00:03:43,560 Speaker 1: And I'm not just referring to the fact that Google 57 00:03:43,960 --> 00:03:48,280 Speaker 1: uses dessert names for various versions of Android. What I 58 00:03:48,280 --> 00:03:52,120 Speaker 1: actually mean is that you could find one handset manufacturer 59 00:03:52,520 --> 00:03:56,800 Speaker 1: that would preinstall a certain suite of apps on their phones, 60 00:03:57,360 --> 00:04:00,200 Speaker 1: or a cell phone service provider like Verizon might do 61 00:04:00,320 --> 00:04:03,400 Speaker 1: the same thing. So while you could shop around with 62 00:04:03,480 --> 00:04:07,400 Speaker 1: different handsets and providers for an Android phone, the versions 63 00:04:07,480 --> 00:04:10,600 Speaker 1: might look a little different and have different flagship apps 64 00:04:10,840 --> 00:04:14,480 Speaker 1: on the home page. In some cases, you might come 65 00:04:14,520 --> 00:04:17,680 Speaker 1: across a lot of bloatwear. Now those are apps that 66 00:04:17,720 --> 00:04:21,240 Speaker 1: you don't really want or maybe you never even use them, 67 00:04:21,240 --> 00:04:25,760 Speaker 1: but they're pre installed and sometimes they're impossible to remove 68 00:04:25,839 --> 00:04:30,880 Speaker 1: from the phone without going to some pretty big effort. Anyway, 69 00:04:31,040 --> 00:04:34,440 Speaker 1: Verizon wanted Sirie to be an intrinsic app on the 70 00:04:34,520 --> 00:04:40,480 Speaker 1: Android smartphones moving forward, essentially making siri uh an Android 71 00:04:40,520 --> 00:04:42,800 Speaker 1: feature the way it would turn out to be an 72 00:04:42,800 --> 00:04:47,479 Speaker 1: iPhone feature. So Verizon and Sirie began making arrangements in 73 00:04:47,480 --> 00:04:51,320 Speaker 1: the fall of two thousand nine, but Verizon did not 74 00:04:52,120 --> 00:04:56,039 Speaker 1: actually acquire Sirie the company. If it had, our story 75 00:04:56,080 --> 00:05:00,279 Speaker 1: would be very different. Verizon reportedly planned to make Srie 76 00:05:00,360 --> 00:05:03,800 Speaker 1: exclusive to Android, but the companies were doing this through 77 00:05:03,839 --> 00:05:08,440 Speaker 1: a planned partnership, and during the meanwhile, there just was 78 00:05:08,480 --> 00:05:12,279 Speaker 1: no exclusivity in place, so Sirie the company continued to 79 00:05:12,320 --> 00:05:16,040 Speaker 1: develop Sirie the app for the iPhone. The app debut 80 00:05:16,120 --> 00:05:19,919 Speaker 1: a few months after the Verizon deal, and that you 81 00:05:19,960 --> 00:05:22,480 Speaker 1: know was that A couple of weeks later, Steve Jobs 82 00:05:22,480 --> 00:05:25,559 Speaker 1: was calling up kit Loss to talk about bringing SyRI 83 00:05:25,680 --> 00:05:29,880 Speaker 1: on board Apple as an acquisition. And Apple doesn't typically 84 00:05:29,920 --> 00:05:31,960 Speaker 1: acquire that many companies, so this was kind of a 85 00:05:31,960 --> 00:05:35,680 Speaker 1: big deal. That acquisition would take a few months to complete, 86 00:05:35,960 --> 00:05:41,279 Speaker 1: and business journals reported on it around April. The financial 87 00:05:41,320 --> 00:05:45,240 Speaker 1: details of the deal were not made public. Business insider 88 00:05:45,320 --> 00:05:48,320 Speaker 1: analysts estimated that the deal may have fallen somewhere in 89 00:05:48,360 --> 00:05:51,719 Speaker 1: the one hundred to two hundred million dollar range, which 90 00:05:51,760 --> 00:05:55,640 Speaker 1: is a princely sum. Indeed, they based that off the 91 00:05:55,680 --> 00:05:59,480 Speaker 1: fact that Siri had successfully raised twenty four million dollars 92 00:05:59,480 --> 00:06:02,480 Speaker 1: and invest monts up to that point. Now, one of 93 00:06:02,520 --> 00:06:06,880 Speaker 1: the conditions of this acquisition was that Sirie was going 94 00:06:06,920 --> 00:06:10,520 Speaker 1: to be an Apple exclusive feature. It would be baked 95 00:06:10,520 --> 00:06:14,599 Speaker 1: into the basic functionality of iOS moving forward, and a 96 00:06:14,680 --> 00:06:18,479 Speaker 1: consequence of this is that the Verizon deal that Siri 97 00:06:18,600 --> 00:06:22,080 Speaker 1: had made would be null and void and Siri would 98 00:06:22,160 --> 00:06:24,920 Speaker 1: go dark for more than a year as Apple would 99 00:06:24,920 --> 00:06:28,400 Speaker 1: bring the serie team over to Cupertino at Apple HQ 100 00:06:29,240 --> 00:06:31,719 Speaker 1: and then began making some pretty big changes to the 101 00:06:31,760 --> 00:06:35,000 Speaker 1: app in order to integrate it more closely with iOS. 102 00:06:35,839 --> 00:06:39,840 Speaker 1: Not all of those tweaks were additions. For example, the 103 00:06:39,920 --> 00:06:43,719 Speaker 1: original Sirie app, the one that could still make some 104 00:06:43,880 --> 00:06:49,000 Speaker 1: pretty sassy responses to requests, could make restaurant reservations on 105 00:06:49,080 --> 00:06:52,720 Speaker 1: behalf of the user. When Apple would debut Siri as 106 00:06:52,720 --> 00:06:57,680 Speaker 1: an integral iOS feature, it would not have that capability, 107 00:06:57,920 --> 00:07:00,920 Speaker 1: though the service would eventually get the feature back by 108 00:07:01,040 --> 00:07:04,599 Speaker 1: two thousand twelve. My point being that some of the 109 00:07:04,680 --> 00:07:08,880 Speaker 1: changes that Apple was making was to remove functionality from Siri. 110 00:07:09,279 --> 00:07:12,320 Speaker 1: The serie team had worked to secure agreements with various 111 00:07:12,400 --> 00:07:16,960 Speaker 1: other services which allowed Sirie the app to interoperate with 112 00:07:17,080 --> 00:07:21,600 Speaker 1: those services. But those agreements were, you know, with a 113 00:07:21,720 --> 00:07:27,560 Speaker 1: much smaller, nimble and private company, right, Siri was this tiny, entiteam. 114 00:07:27,760 --> 00:07:31,840 Speaker 1: Once Apple entered the picture, all of that changed. Apple 115 00:07:32,000 --> 00:07:36,720 Speaker 1: is Well, let's say that Apple is particular in how 116 00:07:36,760 --> 00:07:40,640 Speaker 1: its technology can interact with stuff that is made by 117 00:07:40,720 --> 00:07:45,760 Speaker 1: other companies. Not all of those earlier relationships that Sirie 118 00:07:45,880 --> 00:07:49,480 Speaker 1: had made when it was an independent company would survive 119 00:07:49,560 --> 00:07:52,960 Speaker 1: the transition over winds SII became part of Apple. On 120 00:07:53,080 --> 00:07:57,040 Speaker 1: top of that, Apple's focus was much more broad than 121 00:07:57,400 --> 00:08:01,240 Speaker 1: series focus had been. I mentioned in the previous episode 122 00:08:01,280 --> 00:08:05,280 Speaker 1: that the discipline of natural language processing, that is, trying 123 00:08:05,320 --> 00:08:09,800 Speaker 1: to make systems that can handle the way we typically 124 00:08:09,920 --> 00:08:13,840 Speaker 1: speak or communicate with one another, as opposed to us 125 00:08:13,880 --> 00:08:16,000 Speaker 1: having to learn how to speak in a way that 126 00:08:16,040 --> 00:08:19,800 Speaker 1: a computer can, you know, follow what we're saying. Well, anyway, 127 00:08:19,800 --> 00:08:22,960 Speaker 1: it's particularly tricky because we humans have different ways to 128 00:08:23,000 --> 00:08:25,840 Speaker 1: express things, and none of them tend to be in 129 00:08:25,880 --> 00:08:28,800 Speaker 1: the way that machines process information. And one of the 130 00:08:28,840 --> 00:08:32,720 Speaker 1: big complicating factors that I mentioned in our previous episode 131 00:08:32,760 --> 00:08:36,840 Speaker 1: is that there are thousands of languages and it's hard 132 00:08:36,840 --> 00:08:40,960 Speaker 1: to develop programs that have good natural language processing for 133 00:08:41,120 --> 00:08:45,520 Speaker 1: a single language like English, but it becomes exponentially more 134 00:08:45,559 --> 00:08:49,480 Speaker 1: difficult as you try to support additional languages, each with 135 00:08:49,520 --> 00:08:54,239 Speaker 1: their own peculiarities. Apple, a global company, was selling iPhones 136 00:08:54,240 --> 00:08:57,600 Speaker 1: in more than seventy countries at that point. For Siri 137 00:08:57,960 --> 00:09:02,360 Speaker 1: to be a flagship feature would be across all those phones. 138 00:09:02,480 --> 00:09:04,280 Speaker 1: It would need to be able to respond to a 139 00:09:04,320 --> 00:09:07,760 Speaker 1: lot of different languages. Now, upon its initial release as 140 00:09:07,800 --> 00:09:12,160 Speaker 1: an Apple feature, Siri would just be limited to English, French, 141 00:09:12,360 --> 00:09:16,280 Speaker 1: and German, but it had the goal of expanding those 142 00:09:16,320 --> 00:09:20,599 Speaker 1: capabilities to other languages as well. Building in that capability 143 00:09:20,920 --> 00:09:23,560 Speaker 1: would take a lot of effort and time, and so 144 00:09:23,800 --> 00:09:26,200 Speaker 1: while the serie team might have been able to go 145 00:09:26,240 --> 00:09:30,280 Speaker 1: on deeper dives and you know, give Sirie more incredible abilities, 146 00:09:30,679 --> 00:09:33,839 Speaker 1: a lot of their work had to shift towards localization. 147 00:09:34,120 --> 00:09:36,520 Speaker 1: And this is not meant to be a knock against 148 00:09:36,640 --> 00:09:40,840 Speaker 1: Sirie or Apple. It's just an acknowledgement that the job 149 00:09:40,880 --> 00:09:45,400 Speaker 1: of the designers was really challenging and there were only 150 00:09:45,440 --> 00:09:47,640 Speaker 1: so many hours in a day to make it all work. 151 00:09:48,320 --> 00:09:52,320 Speaker 1: So the acquisition happened. In April twenty ten, the Verizon 152 00:09:52,400 --> 00:09:57,600 Speaker 1: deal died as a result. The serie team moved to Cupertino, California, 153 00:09:57,679 --> 00:10:00,120 Speaker 1: and a lot of work was being done behind in 154 00:10:00,240 --> 00:10:04,120 Speaker 1: the scenes now At the same time, Steve Jobs's health 155 00:10:04,520 --> 00:10:08,240 Speaker 1: was on the decline. He had been diagnosed with pancreatic 156 00:10:08,280 --> 00:10:11,520 Speaker 1: cancer back in two thousand four. In two thousand nine, 157 00:10:11,600 --> 00:10:15,360 Speaker 1: he had temporarily stepped down as CEO to recover from 158 00:10:15,400 --> 00:10:19,760 Speaker 1: what he originally reported as a hormone imbalance, though it 159 00:10:19,840 --> 00:10:23,880 Speaker 1: was later revealed he had undergone a liver transplant. Tim Cook, 160 00:10:24,000 --> 00:10:27,400 Speaker 1: Apple's chief operating officer at the time, would take over 161 00:10:27,480 --> 00:10:31,160 Speaker 1: as sort of an interim CEO, and then Jobs returned 162 00:10:31,160 --> 00:10:34,120 Speaker 1: to work six months later. Jobs was leading the company 163 00:10:34,120 --> 00:10:36,839 Speaker 1: when he made the move to acquire Sirie, but he 164 00:10:36,880 --> 00:10:41,960 Speaker 1: would subsequently suffer more health setbacks. In January eleven, Jobs 165 00:10:42,000 --> 00:10:46,400 Speaker 1: would again take medical leave from Apple, but he would 166 00:10:46,400 --> 00:10:50,840 Speaker 1: continue to Services CEO. During his leave, Cook would take 167 00:10:50,920 --> 00:10:54,480 Speaker 1: over the day to day operations of the company. Jobs 168 00:10:54,480 --> 00:10:57,719 Speaker 1: would then take the stage one final time during the 169 00:10:57,760 --> 00:11:01,439 Speaker 1: two thousand eleven Worldwide Developed First Conference or w w 170 00:11:01,720 --> 00:11:06,320 Speaker 1: d C that took place from June six to June tenth, 171 00:11:06,360 --> 00:11:09,680 Speaker 1: two thousand eleven. He received a standing ovation from the 172 00:11:09,720 --> 00:11:13,040 Speaker 1: crowd before going into the introduction for the week's events, 173 00:11:13,120 --> 00:11:15,880 Speaker 1: and at that event, he talked about the new versions 174 00:11:15,960 --> 00:11:19,760 Speaker 1: of the Apple Mac operating system as well as the 175 00:11:19,840 --> 00:11:24,680 Speaker 1: latest build of iOS, but SIRIE was not quite ready 176 00:11:24,800 --> 00:11:27,640 Speaker 1: to debut, and so there was no mention of the 177 00:11:27,679 --> 00:11:31,360 Speaker 1: innovative service that was going to be reserved for October. 178 00:11:32,040 --> 00:11:36,000 Speaker 1: While the serie team prepared for the official debut of 179 00:11:36,160 --> 00:11:39,480 Speaker 1: SIRIE as an Apple feature, Jobs had to make a 180 00:11:39,520 --> 00:11:44,040 Speaker 1: tough call. On August twenty four, two thousand eleven, Steve 181 00:11:44,120 --> 00:11:48,640 Speaker 1: Jobs resigned as Chief executive Officer of Apple. Tim Cook 182 00:11:48,679 --> 00:11:53,000 Speaker 1: would become the new CEO of the company. Jobs's health 183 00:11:53,080 --> 00:11:55,280 Speaker 1: had declined to a point where he felt he could 184 00:11:55,360 --> 00:11:58,120 Speaker 1: no longer devote energy to running the company that he 185 00:11:58,200 --> 00:12:01,319 Speaker 1: had co founded back in the ninetees seventies, and there 186 00:12:01,360 --> 00:12:04,920 Speaker 1: was a lot of speculation at the time that Apple 187 00:12:05,120 --> 00:12:08,640 Speaker 1: might fall apart without him. After all, when Jobs had 188 00:12:08,760 --> 00:12:12,120 Speaker 1: left Apple in the mid nineteen eighties, the company went 189 00:12:12,160 --> 00:12:15,920 Speaker 1: on to make some pretty awful mistakes that would lead 190 00:12:15,920 --> 00:12:19,720 Speaker 1: it to the brink of bankruptcy. And when Jobs returned 191 00:12:19,760 --> 00:12:23,480 Speaker 1: to Apple in the late nineteen nineties, he would lead 192 00:12:23,520 --> 00:12:26,280 Speaker 1: the company to turn things around and then reach a 193 00:12:26,360 --> 00:12:29,960 Speaker 1: dominant position that no other company had really seen before 194 00:12:30,040 --> 00:12:34,560 Speaker 1: in the consumer marketplace. Steve Jobs seemed integral to the 195 00:12:34,600 --> 00:12:38,040 Speaker 1: corporate identity of Apple, kind of the same way that 196 00:12:38,400 --> 00:12:42,920 Speaker 1: you know, Walt Disney seems inseparable from the Disney Company. 197 00:12:43,160 --> 00:12:45,679 Speaker 1: So people would still say, you know, what would Walt 198 00:12:45,720 --> 00:12:47,520 Speaker 1: do well? A lot of people would say at Apple, 199 00:12:47,559 --> 00:12:51,319 Speaker 1: what would Steve Jobs do well. In October four, two 200 00:12:51,360 --> 00:12:53,800 Speaker 1: thousand and eleven, Apple would hold a press conference to 201 00:12:53,960 --> 00:12:59,160 Speaker 1: launch the iPhone for S. This was technically the fifth iPhone, 202 00:12:59,600 --> 00:13:02,800 Speaker 1: following the original iPhone. Then we had the three G 203 00:13:03,240 --> 00:13:07,199 Speaker 1: so the iPhone two was the three g UM. There's 204 00:13:07,240 --> 00:13:10,920 Speaker 1: reasons for all these numbers and why they are kind 205 00:13:10,920 --> 00:13:13,360 Speaker 1: of confusing, but I won't go into all of them. Anyway. 206 00:13:13,360 --> 00:13:16,000 Speaker 1: After the three G we got the three G S. 207 00:13:16,520 --> 00:13:19,920 Speaker 1: Then we got the iPhone four and that's all because 208 00:13:20,000 --> 00:13:22,480 Speaker 1: numbers are hard. But to be more fair to Apple, 209 00:13:22,840 --> 00:13:26,320 Speaker 1: the iPhone four S would end up bridging a gap 210 00:13:26,640 --> 00:13:30,960 Speaker 1: between the older iPhone four and the future iPhone five. 211 00:13:31,440 --> 00:13:34,720 Speaker 1: The iPhone four S looked a lot like the iPhone four, 212 00:13:34,760 --> 00:13:38,239 Speaker 1: but it did have several hardware improvements, including a faster processor, 213 00:13:38,800 --> 00:13:42,160 Speaker 1: and it also had something that Apple said justified adding 214 00:13:42,200 --> 00:13:46,640 Speaker 1: the letter S to the phone it had, Siri. At 215 00:13:46,640 --> 00:13:51,000 Speaker 1: the October fourth event, which was just called a special event, 216 00:13:51,400 --> 00:13:54,120 Speaker 1: Tim Cook took the stage for the first time as 217 00:13:54,200 --> 00:13:58,400 Speaker 1: CEO to announce a product launch. He handed the presentation 218 00:13:58,440 --> 00:14:01,200 Speaker 1: over to Phil Schiller, who had frequently stood in for 219 00:14:01,240 --> 00:14:05,239 Speaker 1: Steve Jobs at various keynotes during jobs as leaves of absence, 220 00:14:05,559 --> 00:14:09,080 Speaker 1: and Schiller, in turn would bring up Scott Forstall, head 221 00:14:09,200 --> 00:14:14,720 Speaker 1: of iOS. Shortly after announcing Sirie and Forestall would give 222 00:14:14,760 --> 00:14:18,719 Speaker 1: the audience an overview of series capabilities a demo of them, 223 00:14:18,720 --> 00:14:22,080 Speaker 1: as well as well as stress multiple times that Siri 224 00:14:22,400 --> 00:14:25,840 Speaker 1: was in beta mode and just in case you don't 225 00:14:25,840 --> 00:14:29,640 Speaker 1: know what that means, a beta build is a stage 226 00:14:29,640 --> 00:14:33,680 Speaker 1: in development where you're trying to refine a product before 227 00:14:33,720 --> 00:14:36,120 Speaker 1: you get to the point where you you know you 228 00:14:36,120 --> 00:14:39,600 Speaker 1: you release it. And so if you have an alpha build, 229 00:14:39,840 --> 00:14:42,680 Speaker 1: that's really more of a work in progress, and it's 230 00:14:42,720 --> 00:14:46,520 Speaker 1: one that could have potentially enormous changes made to the 231 00:14:46,560 --> 00:14:49,560 Speaker 1: product before it ever goes to production. So really you're 232 00:14:49,560 --> 00:14:52,960 Speaker 1: just trying to make stuff work in alpha. A beta 233 00:14:53,040 --> 00:14:55,520 Speaker 1: build is meant to be one that's fairly close to 234 00:14:55,560 --> 00:14:58,960 Speaker 1: what a company plans to release, but it may still 235 00:14:59,040 --> 00:15:01,400 Speaker 1: need some tweak to make it work just right. So 236 00:15:01,720 --> 00:15:03,360 Speaker 1: you can think of a beta build as being like 237 00:15:03,560 --> 00:15:08,400 Speaker 1: almost ready. And Apple doesn't typically allow people to get 238 00:15:08,400 --> 00:15:11,720 Speaker 1: a look at stuff that's in beta. The company has 239 00:15:11,720 --> 00:15:15,920 Speaker 1: a history of locking things down pretty tightly before showing 240 00:15:15,960 --> 00:15:18,920 Speaker 1: it off. So perhaps the fact that this was an 241 00:15:18,920 --> 00:15:23,600 Speaker 1: exception points at how Series integration into iOS didn't go 242 00:15:23,720 --> 00:15:28,440 Speaker 1: without some setbacks. Now, all that being said, the demo 243 00:15:28,800 --> 00:15:31,600 Speaker 1: at this special event went off without a hitch. Siri 244 00:15:31,760 --> 00:15:36,880 Speaker 1: didn't make any embarrassing mistakes and interpreted Forstall's requests correctly. 245 00:15:37,520 --> 00:15:40,520 Speaker 1: It retrieved relevant information, it didn't have to ask for 246 00:15:40,680 --> 00:15:44,240 Speaker 1: Stall to repeat anything, and it also didn't sass back 247 00:15:44,640 --> 00:15:49,320 Speaker 1: the personal assistant with an attitude had been toned down significantly. 248 00:15:49,880 --> 00:15:53,840 Speaker 1: Siri was ready for its journey with Apple. I've got 249 00:15:53,880 --> 00:15:55,880 Speaker 1: a lot more to say about Sirie, but before I 250 00:15:55,960 --> 00:16:06,520 Speaker 1: get to that, let's take a quick break. At the 251 00:16:06,560 --> 00:16:09,680 Speaker 1: special event, Scott Forstall would walk through some of the 252 00:16:09,720 --> 00:16:13,560 Speaker 1: initial capabilities Siri would have with the launch of the 253 00:16:13,640 --> 00:16:18,240 Speaker 1: new iPhone for s That included looking up information on Wikipedia, 254 00:16:18,880 --> 00:16:23,640 Speaker 1: or providing directions to a landmark, or looking up restaurant 255 00:16:23,640 --> 00:16:26,360 Speaker 1: options that are near you, and that kind of thing, 256 00:16:26,400 --> 00:16:31,720 Speaker 1: including a really neat geo fencing feature. Geo fencing involves 257 00:16:31,840 --> 00:16:36,400 Speaker 1: location data. Essentially, you create an instruction that's dependent upon 258 00:16:36,560 --> 00:16:41,120 Speaker 1: your physical location on the planet. So you might say, 259 00:16:41,520 --> 00:16:44,120 Speaker 1: remind me when I leave the house to swing by 260 00:16:44,120 --> 00:16:47,680 Speaker 1: the post office to your virtual assistant. Now that command 261 00:16:48,040 --> 00:16:52,000 Speaker 1: would then have to be interpreted by the assistants system. 262 00:16:52,040 --> 00:16:55,440 Speaker 1: So if it were Sirie, Siri would monitor your phone's 263 00:16:55,480 --> 00:16:59,720 Speaker 1: location and if your phone indicated that it was leaving 264 00:17:00,120 --> 00:17:04,160 Speaker 1: the area generally known as being home, Siri would then 265 00:17:04,240 --> 00:17:07,639 Speaker 1: send a push notification to the phone to remind you 266 00:17:07,720 --> 00:17:10,480 Speaker 1: that you need to go to the post office. Geo 267 00:17:10,560 --> 00:17:12,760 Speaker 1: fencing is one of those features I think is really neat, 268 00:17:13,480 --> 00:17:16,720 Speaker 1: and yet I don't actually make that much use out 269 00:17:16,760 --> 00:17:19,000 Speaker 1: of it. But maybe I'm the odd one out do 270 00:17:19,040 --> 00:17:21,479 Speaker 1: you guys use a lot of geo fencing features. I 271 00:17:21,480 --> 00:17:24,680 Speaker 1: remember I looked at them as the possibility of setting 272 00:17:24,720 --> 00:17:26,639 Speaker 1: them up so when I was in the office, I 273 00:17:26,680 --> 00:17:30,480 Speaker 1: would get fewer notifications, for example, But I never really 274 00:17:30,520 --> 00:17:33,439 Speaker 1: got to do what I was hoping it would do. 275 00:17:33,680 --> 00:17:35,280 Speaker 1: And I don't know if that was a failure on 276 00:17:35,320 --> 00:17:38,600 Speaker 1: the part of the technology or more likely user failure. 277 00:17:38,640 --> 00:17:40,359 Speaker 1: So if you guys have a lot of, you know, 278 00:17:40,400 --> 00:17:42,960 Speaker 1: experience doing geo fencing type stuff, I'd be curious to 279 00:17:43,000 --> 00:17:47,879 Speaker 1: hear your thoughts. Anyway, the presentation went pretty well. People 280 00:17:48,080 --> 00:17:50,920 Speaker 1: seemed interested in SIRIE. However, I would say this wasn't 281 00:17:50,960 --> 00:17:53,240 Speaker 1: the sort of reaction that really makes it into clip 282 00:17:53,320 --> 00:17:56,520 Speaker 1: montages or anything. You didn't see, you know, people losing 283 00:17:56,560 --> 00:18:01,399 Speaker 1: their minds over the the implications of SIRIE. But it 284 00:18:01,520 --> 00:18:06,480 Speaker 1: was definitely positive. It wasn't like a clunker or anything. 285 00:18:06,920 --> 00:18:09,720 Speaker 1: I'm just not sure how many people grasped how complicated 286 00:18:09,760 --> 00:18:13,480 Speaker 1: the accomplishment actually was. It didn't really get how hard 287 00:18:14,400 --> 00:18:17,840 Speaker 1: these problems were to solve in the back end. Now, 288 00:18:17,880 --> 00:18:20,920 Speaker 1: one other thing they likely did not grasp is that 289 00:18:21,080 --> 00:18:23,880 Speaker 1: Siri didn't actually start out as an Apple product, which 290 00:18:23,960 --> 00:18:27,000 Speaker 1: we know because of the episodes I've just done. But 291 00:18:27,880 --> 00:18:31,920 Speaker 1: during that presentation there really wasn't an indication that it 292 00:18:32,000 --> 00:18:35,480 Speaker 1: was from some other developer. You would walk away thinking 293 00:18:35,920 --> 00:18:39,880 Speaker 1: that Apple developed the whole thing in full at Apple HQ, 294 00:18:40,119 --> 00:18:43,240 Speaker 1: although that wasn't the case now. As I mentioned, this 295 00:18:43,320 --> 00:18:46,479 Speaker 1: event happened on October four, two thousand eleven, and the 296 00:18:46,520 --> 00:18:52,240 Speaker 1: following day, on October five, Steve Jobs passed away. Understandably, 297 00:18:52,359 --> 00:18:57,000 Speaker 1: that piece of news eclipsed all other Apple news that week. 298 00:18:57,040 --> 00:19:00,240 Speaker 1: Heck it it eclipse pretty much all tech news that week. 299 00:19:00,880 --> 00:19:03,399 Speaker 1: Jobs had been a pivotal figure in the world of 300 00:19:03,400 --> 00:19:08,320 Speaker 1: technology in general and Silicon Valley in particular. Under his leadership, 301 00:19:08,359 --> 00:19:11,639 Speaker 1: Apple had gone from teetering on bankruptcy to a company 302 00:19:11,680 --> 00:19:14,960 Speaker 1: that was defining the next generation of hardware with products 303 00:19:15,000 --> 00:19:18,800 Speaker 1: like the iPod, the iPhone, and the iPad. His loss 304 00:19:19,080 --> 00:19:22,679 Speaker 1: was felt around the world, and Sirie perhaps got a 305 00:19:22,680 --> 00:19:26,760 Speaker 1: little less attention as a result. The iPhone Forest would 306 00:19:26,760 --> 00:19:30,480 Speaker 1: go on sale the following week, on October four. Within 307 00:19:30,520 --> 00:19:33,680 Speaker 1: the first weekend of sales, Apple would sell more than 308 00:19:33,720 --> 00:19:37,119 Speaker 1: four million units, which meant that the iPhone Forest broke 309 00:19:37,200 --> 00:19:41,080 Speaker 1: previous records of the fastest selling product ever at that point. 310 00:19:41,680 --> 00:19:45,399 Speaker 1: And about a week after that, Kit Loss Dog kit Loss, 311 00:19:45,440 --> 00:19:49,280 Speaker 1: one of the co founders of Sirie the Company, would 312 00:19:49,359 --> 00:19:53,080 Speaker 1: leave Apple Now. According to reports, the parting was on 313 00:19:53,200 --> 00:19:55,919 Speaker 1: good terms, it was amicable, and it was one that 314 00:19:56,040 --> 00:19:59,280 Speaker 1: Dog had been preparing for over the second half of 315 00:19:59,359 --> 00:20:01,720 Speaker 1: two thousand all eleven. He said he wanted to spend 316 00:20:01,720 --> 00:20:03,879 Speaker 1: more time with his family, and they were living in 317 00:20:04,000 --> 00:20:06,720 Speaker 1: Chicago than For those of you who are not familiar 318 00:20:06,760 --> 00:20:10,600 Speaker 1: with US geography, Chicago, Illinois is about two thousand, one 319 00:20:11,040 --> 00:20:14,879 Speaker 1: fifty miles or three thousand, four hundred sixty kilometers away 320 00:20:14,880 --> 00:20:20,160 Speaker 1: from Cupertino, California. It is not close. He also wanted 321 00:20:20,280 --> 00:20:25,159 Speaker 1: to pursue new entrepreneurial opportunities, so his initial motivation was 322 00:20:25,200 --> 00:20:28,119 Speaker 1: to get Sirie the Company up and running, and that 323 00:20:28,240 --> 00:20:30,040 Speaker 1: had turned out to be a huge success, so he 324 00:20:30,080 --> 00:20:32,720 Speaker 1: was ready to move on to a new challenge. One 325 00:20:32,800 --> 00:20:36,119 Speaker 1: thing I haven't really talked about in these episodes, however, 326 00:20:36,280 --> 00:20:38,639 Speaker 1: is series voice, and I feel like I should at 327 00:20:38,680 --> 00:20:42,280 Speaker 1: least touch on that. So the original voices for Sirie 328 00:20:42,400 --> 00:20:45,400 Speaker 1: came from clips of audio that were recorded by a 329 00:20:45,480 --> 00:20:48,880 Speaker 1: voice actor named Susan Bennett. And when I say original voice, 330 00:20:48,880 --> 00:20:53,440 Speaker 1: I mean the American English voice of Sirie and Bennett 331 00:20:54,040 --> 00:20:56,159 Speaker 1: actually lived in Atlanta at the time. I have no 332 00:20:56,200 --> 00:20:58,639 Speaker 1: idea if she still does. But when she made the 333 00:20:58,640 --> 00:21:01,760 Speaker 1: recordings she did, and here's the kicker, she didn't even 334 00:21:01,800 --> 00:21:04,840 Speaker 1: know she was going to be the voice of Syrie. 335 00:21:05,080 --> 00:21:08,680 Speaker 1: She landed a gig through a voice acting service called 336 00:21:08,880 --> 00:21:12,200 Speaker 1: GM Voices kind of like a talent agency for voice 337 00:21:12,240 --> 00:21:16,280 Speaker 1: over actors, and they specialize in finding voice talent to 338 00:21:16,320 --> 00:21:21,560 Speaker 1: provide audio clips for various automated services. Typically a company 339 00:21:21,600 --> 00:21:25,040 Speaker 1: called scan Soft wanted a voice actor to say a 340 00:21:25,080 --> 00:21:29,080 Speaker 1: ton of phrases, mostly nonsense stuff that made you know, 341 00:21:29,240 --> 00:21:34,520 Speaker 1: no real connective tissue sense or anything. And they wanted 342 00:21:34,560 --> 00:21:36,600 Speaker 1: to make all these different words sounds to build out 343 00:21:36,640 --> 00:21:41,679 Speaker 1: a computerized speech database, essentially to build out the building 344 00:21:41,720 --> 00:21:44,800 Speaker 1: blocks for American English speech, all the little phonemes that 345 00:21:44,960 --> 00:21:48,159 Speaker 1: make up the sounds that then in turn makeup the 346 00:21:48,240 --> 00:21:53,000 Speaker 1: spoken word. Scan Soft took the recorded audio and broke 347 00:21:53,040 --> 00:21:56,639 Speaker 1: it down into those different based phonemes of English, and 348 00:21:56,680 --> 00:22:01,880 Speaker 1: through a process called concatenation, which is simply means that 349 00:22:01,880 --> 00:22:06,359 Speaker 1: that you're stringing together units to make a whole, they 350 00:22:06,440 --> 00:22:09,640 Speaker 1: could construct speech that way, taking all the little basic 351 00:22:09,760 --> 00:22:14,840 Speaker 1: sounds and making up words and sentences that way. During development, 352 00:22:14,880 --> 00:22:18,359 Speaker 1: the serie team turned to a company called Nuance for 353 00:22:18,600 --> 00:22:22,720 Speaker 1: technologies related to voice generation and speech recognition. Nuance had 354 00:22:22,800 --> 00:22:27,040 Speaker 1: merged with scan Soft, and so Bennett's voice, which she 355 00:22:27,080 --> 00:22:30,560 Speaker 1: had recorded way back in two thousand five, was in 356 00:22:31,400 --> 00:22:35,520 Speaker 1: nuances speech database tool set, and someone on the project, 357 00:22:35,600 --> 00:22:38,600 Speaker 1: either at Sirie or at Nuance, chose Bennett's voice for 358 00:22:38,640 --> 00:22:41,360 Speaker 1: the Sirie app and that would make the leap over 359 00:22:41,400 --> 00:22:44,760 Speaker 1: to Apple when Sirie the company was acquired, and so 360 00:22:44,800 --> 00:22:48,840 Speaker 1: in October two thousand eleven, six years after she had 361 00:22:48,920 --> 00:22:52,919 Speaker 1: made the original recordings, she would unknowingly become the voice 362 00:22:53,080 --> 00:22:56,880 Speaker 1: of Sirie. Over in the UK, John Briggs would become 363 00:22:56,880 --> 00:23:00,560 Speaker 1: the first British male voice for Sirie, and down under 364 00:23:00,640 --> 00:23:05,480 Speaker 1: Karen Jacobson would become the Ausee Serie and series voice. 365 00:23:05,720 --> 00:23:08,679 Speaker 1: Or voices I guess I should say would change a 366 00:23:08,720 --> 00:23:12,879 Speaker 1: few times, once in with the introduction of iOS seven, 367 00:23:13,400 --> 00:23:16,639 Speaker 1: and it changed again in twenty nineteen with the introduction 368 00:23:16,680 --> 00:23:19,879 Speaker 1: of iOS thirteen, but in each case the goal was 369 00:23:19,920 --> 00:23:23,160 Speaker 1: to move towards a more natural tone and delivery. As 370 00:23:23,200 --> 00:23:26,080 Speaker 1: the state of the art in voice generation improved and 371 00:23:26,119 --> 00:23:30,480 Speaker 1: became less robotic. If you listen to those early examples 372 00:23:30,520 --> 00:23:34,080 Speaker 1: of Siri, it does get a little robotic in places. 373 00:23:34,560 --> 00:23:37,600 Speaker 1: Back in eleven series, speech was pretty good, but it 374 00:23:37,680 --> 00:23:41,520 Speaker 1: wasn't perfect, and occasionally Siri would mispronounce something as it 375 00:23:41,560 --> 00:23:44,840 Speaker 1: would use one set of phone emes instead of another. 376 00:23:45,440 --> 00:23:48,439 Speaker 1: And it actually makes me think of a joke in 377 00:23:48,520 --> 00:23:52,080 Speaker 1: the show The Play that Goes Wrong Uh, in which 378 00:23:52,119 --> 00:23:55,160 Speaker 1: the characters of the show are putting on a play 379 00:23:55,200 --> 00:24:00,320 Speaker 1: and one of the actors has a tendency to mispronounce words, 380 00:24:00,400 --> 00:24:05,679 Speaker 1: so in one example, he pronounces the word philanthropist as philanthropist, 381 00:24:06,480 --> 00:24:08,840 Speaker 1: And that sort of thing could happen with Syria on 382 00:24:08,880 --> 00:24:12,119 Speaker 1: occasion where there would just be a string of sounds 383 00:24:12,520 --> 00:24:15,120 Speaker 1: to represent a word, but it would be slightly wrong, 384 00:24:15,560 --> 00:24:19,680 Speaker 1: and it would often just be funny. Upon the features 385 00:24:19,720 --> 00:24:23,560 Speaker 1: debut with the iPhone for US, Sirie received some fairly 386 00:24:23,760 --> 00:24:28,359 Speaker 1: positive reviews. Over at Wired, Brian x Chen wrote, quote 387 00:24:28,680 --> 00:24:33,240 Speaker 1: the fifth generation iPhones, superb camera and speedy dual core 388 00:24:33,320 --> 00:24:37,680 Speaker 1: processor are classy additions, but Siri is the reason people 389 00:24:37,680 --> 00:24:42,080 Speaker 1: should buy this phone end quote. Chen praised the apps utility, 390 00:24:42,320 --> 00:24:44,520 Speaker 1: pointing out that it took less time for him to 391 00:24:44,520 --> 00:24:48,480 Speaker 1: do certain tasks using Siri than it would have if 392 00:24:48,520 --> 00:24:51,600 Speaker 1: he had to use his phone and type things in manually. 393 00:24:51,920 --> 00:24:54,600 Speaker 1: He also praised the versatility of the app, including its 394 00:24:54,600 --> 00:24:58,159 Speaker 1: ability to interpret a fairly wide range of commands and 395 00:24:58,200 --> 00:25:02,960 Speaker 1: return with relevant responses, and the positive comments didn't stop there. 396 00:25:02,960 --> 00:25:05,280 Speaker 1: Others praise the app for having what appeared to be 397 00:25:05,440 --> 00:25:09,280 Speaker 1: a wry sense of humor. Hailey Suka Yama. The Washington 398 00:25:09,359 --> 00:25:12,520 Speaker 1: Post actually collected a few examples of people attempting to 399 00:25:12,520 --> 00:25:15,640 Speaker 1: be a little cheeky with Siri and how the assistant 400 00:25:15,680 --> 00:25:18,920 Speaker 1: would often respond in kind, though not with the sort 401 00:25:18,920 --> 00:25:21,800 Speaker 1: of foul language of the original Sirie app from back 402 00:25:21,840 --> 00:25:26,439 Speaker 1: in so For example, when Jason Snell of Macworld asked 403 00:25:26,520 --> 00:25:29,600 Speaker 1: Sirie what was the meaning of life, the universe, and everything, 404 00:25:30,119 --> 00:25:34,560 Speaker 1: Sirie didn't hesitate. Siri responded with forty two, of course, 405 00:25:34,880 --> 00:25:37,320 Speaker 1: which is a reference to the classic sci fi comedy 406 00:25:37,560 --> 00:25:41,240 Speaker 1: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. The 407 00:25:41,280 --> 00:25:46,119 Speaker 1: Harvard Business Review proclaimed that Siri quote is as revolutionary 408 00:25:46,160 --> 00:25:51,040 Speaker 1: as the mac end quote, which is a pretty grand statement. 409 00:25:51,400 --> 00:25:54,760 Speaker 1: The journal pointed out that Sirie represented a real step 410 00:25:54,800 --> 00:25:59,600 Speaker 1: forward and creating a natural language interface for computers. For decades, 411 00:26:00,000 --> 00:26:03,960 Speaker 1: computer users had to learn how best to use computers. 412 00:26:04,200 --> 00:26:06,080 Speaker 1: We had to learn how to use a mouse and 413 00:26:06,160 --> 00:26:09,000 Speaker 1: a keyboard. We had to learn how to navigate file 414 00:26:09,160 --> 00:26:12,600 Speaker 1: systems and hunt down programs and type things in in 415 00:26:12,640 --> 00:26:15,080 Speaker 1: a way that a computer could process it. But Siri 416 00:26:15,640 --> 00:26:19,320 Speaker 1: represented a big change in that dynamic. With a system 417 00:26:19,400 --> 00:26:22,320 Speaker 1: like Sirie, you could potentially interact with a computer in 418 00:26:22,359 --> 00:26:25,640 Speaker 1: a much more natural way. The machine would learn how 419 00:26:25,680 --> 00:26:28,280 Speaker 1: to work best with you, not the other way around. 420 00:26:28,359 --> 00:26:30,720 Speaker 1: It would be like the computers in Star Trek the 421 00:26:30,760 --> 00:26:33,800 Speaker 1: next generation. You could speak out what it was you 422 00:26:33,880 --> 00:26:36,960 Speaker 1: wanted to do. The computer would then interpret it and 423 00:26:37,080 --> 00:26:40,560 Speaker 1: do whatever it was you were asking. And this change 424 00:26:40,600 --> 00:26:43,639 Speaker 1: in interfaces could open up a lot of opportunities for 425 00:26:43,680 --> 00:26:47,040 Speaker 1: people who might find it difficult or even impossible to 426 00:26:47,080 --> 00:26:51,080 Speaker 1: interact with computers using the more traditional mouse and keyboard approach, 427 00:26:51,600 --> 00:26:54,520 Speaker 1: or touch screens for that matter. Having something like Siri 428 00:26:54,720 --> 00:26:59,280 Speaker 1: as an alternative to these other interfaces would improve accessibility. 429 00:26:59,320 --> 00:27:01,680 Speaker 1: And that's own that's no small thing. That's not to 430 00:27:01,720 --> 00:27:05,080 Speaker 1: be dismissed. There are millions of people who either cannot 431 00:27:05,119 --> 00:27:08,439 Speaker 1: fully take advantage of technology or they have to go 432 00:27:08,520 --> 00:27:12,080 Speaker 1: to much greater efforts to access it due to challenges 433 00:27:12,160 --> 00:27:16,920 Speaker 1: like vision impairments or mobility issues, and systems like Siri 434 00:27:17,320 --> 00:27:21,680 Speaker 1: could potentially help people gain a higher level of autonomy. 435 00:27:21,800 --> 00:27:25,320 Speaker 1: Of course, with SIRIE, that process was a bit more 436 00:27:25,359 --> 00:27:29,280 Speaker 1: complicated on the back end than you might otherwise imagine. 437 00:27:30,040 --> 00:27:33,320 Speaker 1: The phone wasn't really doing all or even most of 438 00:27:33,400 --> 00:27:37,520 Speaker 1: the work for SIRIE. The voice input was being recorded. 439 00:27:37,720 --> 00:27:40,399 Speaker 1: That audio clip would then be sent to a remote server, 440 00:27:40,960 --> 00:27:43,959 Speaker 1: which would analyze the voice recording, you know, and and 441 00:27:44,080 --> 00:27:48,440 Speaker 1: transcribe it. Other servers would activate to pull relevant information 442 00:27:48,480 --> 00:27:52,240 Speaker 1: from whatever sources were needed, and then that information would 443 00:27:52,240 --> 00:27:55,320 Speaker 1: make its way back to the end users phone and 444 00:27:55,480 --> 00:27:59,159 Speaker 1: series response. So to the user, it seems like the 445 00:27:59,160 --> 00:28:01,960 Speaker 1: phone is doing all the work for you, but in reality, 446 00:28:02,040 --> 00:28:05,359 Speaker 1: the phone is more like a conduit and there's a 447 00:28:05,400 --> 00:28:08,800 Speaker 1: sophisticated network of computers that we're doing the heavy lifting 448 00:28:08,800 --> 00:28:12,119 Speaker 1: in the background. The reason I even mentioned that is 449 00:28:12,160 --> 00:28:14,960 Speaker 1: because it's really good to remember the power that sits 450 00:28:15,080 --> 00:28:18,760 Speaker 1: behind stuff like Siri. It's a pretty big jump to 451 00:28:18,880 --> 00:28:22,760 Speaker 1: go from a relatively thin device that is sending data 452 00:28:22,840 --> 00:28:26,680 Speaker 1: to a large system that's behind the scenes, and then 453 00:28:26,800 --> 00:28:29,800 Speaker 1: make that move to a standalone computer that can interact 454 00:28:29,840 --> 00:28:33,080 Speaker 1: with a person through natural language. The fact that most 455 00:28:33,119 --> 00:28:36,440 Speaker 1: of us aren't interfacing with our electronics through voice might 456 00:28:36,440 --> 00:28:39,760 Speaker 1: be an indicator that this is still a pretty hard 457 00:28:39,840 --> 00:28:43,800 Speaker 1: problem to solve, even when we have a story as 458 00:28:43,840 --> 00:28:48,480 Speaker 1: successful as Siri. Although that success is you know, it's 459 00:28:48,520 --> 00:28:52,360 Speaker 1: not it's not a total success, as we will learn 460 00:28:52,400 --> 00:28:56,320 Speaker 1: as we go on. Uh So, Yeah, the phrase success 461 00:28:56,360 --> 00:28:59,479 Speaker 1: story is a little dangerous to use because it's important 462 00:28:59,520 --> 00:29:02,760 Speaker 1: to acknowledge that not everyone was thrilled with the apps performance. 463 00:29:03,200 --> 00:29:06,960 Speaker 1: In the spring of twelve, a group of Apple customers 464 00:29:06,960 --> 00:29:10,320 Speaker 1: began to file lawsuits against the company. They would have 465 00:29:10,440 --> 00:29:14,440 Speaker 1: ultimately become a class action lawsuit, and the lawsuit alleged 466 00:29:14,680 --> 00:29:20,440 Speaker 1: that the plaintiffs had been falsely advertised to regarding series capabilities. 467 00:29:20,480 --> 00:29:23,920 Speaker 1: Apple had released a bunch of different commercials that were 468 00:29:23,920 --> 00:29:27,160 Speaker 1: showcasing what Siri should be able to do, and these 469 00:29:27,160 --> 00:29:30,080 Speaker 1: people were saying, Sirie doesn't do that, or at least 470 00:29:30,080 --> 00:29:31,880 Speaker 1: it doesn't do it the way you said it does, 471 00:29:32,880 --> 00:29:38,000 Speaker 1: so that became the crux of this lawsuit. They complained 472 00:29:38,040 --> 00:29:42,360 Speaker 1: that reality was falling far short of what had been promised. 473 00:29:43,200 --> 00:29:47,360 Speaker 1: Apple's response to the lawsuits was understandable, but also a 474 00:29:47,440 --> 00:29:51,040 Speaker 1: little bit caddy. Not that I'm judging, but it just 475 00:29:51,120 --> 00:29:55,280 Speaker 1: comes across kind of that way. So here's an excerpt 476 00:29:55,400 --> 00:29:59,040 Speaker 1: from Apple's response to the complaints, as was reported on 477 00:29:59,200 --> 00:30:03,280 Speaker 1: by the Wall Street Journal. Quote they and the thing 478 00:30:03,320 --> 00:30:08,040 Speaker 1: in this case means the plaintiffs offer only general descriptions 479 00:30:08,080 --> 00:30:12,880 Speaker 1: of Apple's advertisements, in complete summaries of Apple's website materials, 480 00:30:12,920 --> 00:30:18,120 Speaker 1: and vague descriptions of their alleged and highly individualized disappointment 481 00:30:18,160 --> 00:30:23,320 Speaker 1: with Sirie Telling Lee. Although plaintiff's claim they became dissatisfied 482 00:30:23,320 --> 00:30:27,920 Speaker 1: with Series performance soon after purchasing their iPhones, they made 483 00:30:27,960 --> 00:30:31,800 Speaker 1: no attempt to avail themselves of Apple's thirty day return 484 00:30:31,920 --> 00:30:37,360 Speaker 1: policy or one year warranty, which remains in effect. Instead, 485 00:30:37,760 --> 00:30:41,080 Speaker 1: they seek to take an alleged personal grievance about the 486 00:30:41,120 --> 00:30:45,080 Speaker 1: purported performance of a popular product and turn it into 487 00:30:45,160 --> 00:30:50,880 Speaker 1: a nationwide class action under California's consumer protection statutes. The 488 00:30:50,920 --> 00:30:53,640 Speaker 1: complaint does not come close to meeting the heavy burden 489 00:30:53,720 --> 00:30:59,520 Speaker 1: necessary to sustain such claims end quote. Now, judges would 490 00:31:00,120 --> 00:31:05,840 Speaker 1: subsequently agree with Apple that the plaintiffs claims really lacked 491 00:31:05,960 --> 00:31:09,160 Speaker 1: specificity and they were just too vague to constitute a 492 00:31:09,240 --> 00:31:13,440 Speaker 1: valid argument. As a result, the class action lawsuit would 493 00:31:13,440 --> 00:31:19,480 Speaker 1: be dismissed in and again in But this would not 494 00:31:19,520 --> 00:31:23,320 Speaker 1: be the only case of legal trouble, and Sirie will 495 00:31:23,480 --> 00:31:26,680 Speaker 1: touch on that again a little bit later. But when 496 00:31:26,680 --> 00:31:29,920 Speaker 1: we come back, we'll talk about when some other members 497 00:31:29,960 --> 00:31:33,600 Speaker 1: of the original serie team took their leave from Apple. 498 00:31:34,160 --> 00:31:44,080 Speaker 1: But first let's take a quick break. By late spring, 499 00:31:45,520 --> 00:31:48,680 Speaker 1: Series Shine was starting to wear off a little bit 500 00:31:48,720 --> 00:31:53,000 Speaker 1: after its debut. The journal nine to five MAC, dedicated 501 00:31:53,080 --> 00:31:57,240 Speaker 1: to All Things Apple, ran a survey that found of 502 00:31:57,280 --> 00:31:59,720 Speaker 1: those who responded said that Sirie needed a bit more 503 00:31:59,760 --> 00:32:03,320 Speaker 1: were but overall was helpful. So they saw the potential, 504 00:32:03,920 --> 00:32:07,680 Speaker 1: but they agreed that it needed a little more time 505 00:32:07,680 --> 00:32:10,360 Speaker 1: in the oven now. To be fair to Apple, for 506 00:32:10,560 --> 00:32:14,520 Speaker 1: Stall had stressed at the October event that Sirie was 507 00:32:14,520 --> 00:32:17,120 Speaker 1: still in beta. He said it a few times, so 508 00:32:17,200 --> 00:32:20,320 Speaker 1: the company was certainly aware that while the tool was 509 00:32:20,360 --> 00:32:22,640 Speaker 1: really interesting and had a lot of potential, it was 510 00:32:22,720 --> 00:32:27,000 Speaker 1: not perfect. Whether consumers were unaware of the caveats that 511 00:32:27,080 --> 00:32:30,920 Speaker 1: Forestall had made, or their expectations were just ultra high 512 00:32:31,080 --> 00:32:35,120 Speaker 1: due to Apple's string of monumental successes. Some folks ended 513 00:32:35,200 --> 00:32:38,960 Speaker 1: up being a little less impressed than others. In September 514 00:32:38,960 --> 00:32:42,800 Speaker 1: twenty twelve, tech journalists reported that Adam Share, another co 515 00:32:42,960 --> 00:32:47,760 Speaker 1: founder of the serie company, had left Apple. Actually he 516 00:32:47,840 --> 00:32:54,000 Speaker 1: had departed Apple in June of but wasn't reported until September. 517 00:32:54,120 --> 00:32:57,680 Speaker 1: He had been serving as an engineer director for iOS. 518 00:32:58,440 --> 00:33:02,360 Speaker 1: He left the company to quote pursue other projects end quote. 519 00:33:02,720 --> 00:33:05,680 Speaker 1: One of those projects was change dot org, the site 520 00:33:05,680 --> 00:33:09,480 Speaker 1: that allows people to create and distribute various petitions. Another 521 00:33:09,560 --> 00:33:13,080 Speaker 1: project was viv Labs, which Samsung would later acquire and 522 00:33:13,080 --> 00:33:17,800 Speaker 1: which also centered around the voice assistant features. And he 523 00:33:17,880 --> 00:33:21,360 Speaker 1: also occasionally performs magic, you know, like in stadium shows 524 00:33:21,400 --> 00:33:24,000 Speaker 1: and for Penn and Teller that's not a joke. He 525 00:33:24,200 --> 00:33:30,160 Speaker 1: is a literal magician. Outside of a relatively small text circle, 526 00:33:30,960 --> 00:33:33,720 Speaker 1: not a lot of folks really knew about him in 527 00:33:33,840 --> 00:33:37,120 Speaker 1: his role of developing Sirie, however, and so I'm not 528 00:33:37,200 --> 00:33:40,600 Speaker 1: sure that many people registered his departure. It wasn't like 529 00:33:40,920 --> 00:33:45,000 Speaker 1: the general public associated Sirie with a specific real life person. 530 00:33:45,720 --> 00:33:48,440 Speaker 1: Another person who did leave Apple around that time, and 531 00:33:48,480 --> 00:33:52,200 Speaker 1: also not this time, not by choice, was Scott Forstall. 532 00:33:52,520 --> 00:33:54,840 Speaker 1: That was the man who had introduced Siri at that 533 00:33:54,920 --> 00:33:57,720 Speaker 1: Apple special event in October two thousand and eleven, he 534 00:33:57,800 --> 00:34:01,320 Speaker 1: had headed up iOS. But a year later in October, 535 00:34:02,560 --> 00:34:05,200 Speaker 1: Apple announced that four Sol would be leaving the company 536 00:34:05,200 --> 00:34:07,760 Speaker 1: by the end of the year. And in this case, 537 00:34:08,239 --> 00:34:10,680 Speaker 1: we kind of know what was going on that led 538 00:34:10,719 --> 00:34:14,520 Speaker 1: to four Stalls departure. So when Syrie debuted, it was 539 00:34:14,520 --> 00:34:18,280 Speaker 1: with the iPhone four S and iOS five. The next 540 00:34:18,320 --> 00:34:22,400 Speaker 1: build of iOS, which thank goodness, was just called iOS six, 541 00:34:22,960 --> 00:34:28,359 Speaker 1: came with a very nasty albatross around its metaphorical neck, 542 00:34:28,960 --> 00:34:34,000 Speaker 1: and that albatross was Apple Maps. Now you may, oh, 543 00:34:34,040 --> 00:34:37,720 Speaker 1: my Drew Gees have forgotten what a mess Apple Maps 544 00:34:37,880 --> 00:34:41,640 Speaker 1: was when it first came out, So let me remind you. 545 00:34:42,560 --> 00:34:45,880 Speaker 1: At the time Apple was cutting ties with Google, the 546 00:34:45,920 --> 00:34:48,960 Speaker 1: Android operating system was beginning to get some real traction, 547 00:34:49,480 --> 00:34:53,319 Speaker 1: and Google's strategy to aim at more moderate markets than 548 00:34:53,560 --> 00:34:57,680 Speaker 1: Apple's prestige products allowed Android to get a big user 549 00:34:57,719 --> 00:35:01,839 Speaker 1: base pretty quickly. One thing Apple did in response was 550 00:35:02,000 --> 00:35:05,640 Speaker 1: to give Google Maps the boot off of iOS. It 551 00:35:05,640 --> 00:35:09,279 Speaker 1: would eventually come back, but Apple famously said, nope, We're 552 00:35:09,280 --> 00:35:15,120 Speaker 1: gonna disable that functionality and replace it with Apple Maps only. 553 00:35:15,360 --> 00:35:18,440 Speaker 1: The trouble was that Apple Maps wasn't as reliable as 554 00:35:18,480 --> 00:35:21,520 Speaker 1: Google Maps, and Google Maps wasn't perfect by any stretch 555 00:35:21,560 --> 00:35:26,240 Speaker 1: of the imagination, but Apple Maps was notably worse. Apple's 556 00:35:26,320 --> 00:35:29,719 Speaker 1: version wasn't as detailed as Google Maps and didn't have 557 00:35:29,800 --> 00:35:33,640 Speaker 1: some of the information that Google included in its applications. So, 558 00:35:33,719 --> 00:35:37,920 Speaker 1: for example, if you were visiting a new city, you 559 00:35:37,960 --> 00:35:40,520 Speaker 1: could use Google Maps to see how to take public 560 00:35:40,560 --> 00:35:44,080 Speaker 1: transit to get around town. Apple Maps did not have 561 00:35:44,160 --> 00:35:48,520 Speaker 1: that functionality when it launched. Worse than that, for some cities, 562 00:35:48,560 --> 00:35:53,479 Speaker 1: particularly cities outside of the United States, major landmarks would 563 00:35:53,480 --> 00:35:56,920 Speaker 1: be mislabeled or would appear in the wrong location on 564 00:35:56,920 --> 00:36:01,880 Speaker 1: a map. It just wasn't good. Apple would ultimately issue 565 00:36:01,920 --> 00:36:05,560 Speaker 1: an apology, which is a huge thing. I mean, Apple 566 00:36:05,640 --> 00:36:08,759 Speaker 1: just doesn't do that typically. I mean it was a 567 00:36:08,800 --> 00:36:11,680 Speaker 1: really rare move for the company to make, but for 568 00:36:11,880 --> 00:36:16,760 Speaker 1: Stall refused to sign the apology. Essentially, he wasn't admitting 569 00:36:16,800 --> 00:36:20,720 Speaker 1: any accountability for the failures of iOS six and Apple 570 00:36:20,800 --> 00:36:25,520 Speaker 1: Maps in particular. Tim Cook would fire Forestall partly because 571 00:36:25,560 --> 00:36:28,120 Speaker 1: of that and for a few other reasons. Tim Cook 572 00:36:28,680 --> 00:36:33,160 Speaker 1: said he wanted a harmonious workplace, which implied that Forstall 573 00:36:33,920 --> 00:36:36,560 Speaker 1: was not the easiest person to work with, and also 574 00:36:36,600 --> 00:36:40,680 Speaker 1: that he wanted a workplace without politics, also implying that 575 00:36:40,760 --> 00:36:45,480 Speaker 1: Forrestall perhaps was playing the little politics in the office 576 00:36:45,520 --> 00:36:49,040 Speaker 1: as well. There were some who argued that Forrestall was 577 00:36:49,120 --> 00:36:53,280 Speaker 1: likely to claim credit where perhaps he wasn't fully justified 578 00:36:53,320 --> 00:36:55,440 Speaker 1: in doing so. I don't know if any of that 579 00:36:55,600 --> 00:36:58,960 Speaker 1: is true, but that's kind of the reporting around it. 580 00:36:59,400 --> 00:37:03,279 Speaker 1: For Stall wasn't one of series founders. He rather was 581 00:37:03,320 --> 00:37:06,839 Speaker 1: sort of the liaison between the serie team and the 582 00:37:06,840 --> 00:37:10,200 Speaker 1: public once Serrie made the move to Apple, because Forestall 583 00:37:10,360 --> 00:37:15,560 Speaker 1: was overseeing iOS in general. Tom Gruber, the third co founder, 584 00:37:16,000 --> 00:37:18,840 Speaker 1: would actually stick with Apple for several more years. He 585 00:37:18,960 --> 00:37:22,000 Speaker 1: was the last one to remain with the company, the 586 00:37:22,000 --> 00:37:24,880 Speaker 1: other two co founders had already left. He would retire 587 00:37:24,920 --> 00:37:29,719 Speaker 1: in ten to pursue his interests, which included ocean conservation 588 00:37:30,000 --> 00:37:34,720 Speaker 1: and photography. But let's get back to twelve. As Apple 589 00:37:34,800 --> 00:37:38,680 Speaker 1: continued to change and adjust to a post Steve Jobs world, 590 00:37:39,360 --> 00:37:42,360 Speaker 1: other companies began to bring products out in an attempt 591 00:37:42,480 --> 00:37:47,200 Speaker 1: to compete with Sirie. Google had its own virtual assistant, 592 00:37:47,480 --> 00:37:49,800 Speaker 1: which sort of grew out of a voice to text 593 00:37:49,880 --> 00:37:53,840 Speaker 1: search feature. It would eventually be known as Google Assistant, 594 00:37:54,400 --> 00:37:58,520 Speaker 1: and Samsung brought out the s Voice Assistant. Amazon would 595 00:37:58,560 --> 00:38:03,640 Speaker 1: introduce Alexa in that's the same year that Microsoft would 596 00:38:03,640 --> 00:38:07,719 Speaker 1: bring its voice assistant Cortana to Windows. Though these days 597 00:38:07,719 --> 00:38:11,120 Speaker 1: I think Alexa, Syrie, and Google Assistant are really the 598 00:38:11,160 --> 00:38:15,040 Speaker 1: three best known virtual assistance. I think Alexa has the 599 00:38:15,160 --> 00:38:19,400 Speaker 1: clear edge on the other two. Cortana has seen a 600 00:38:19,400 --> 00:38:25,080 Speaker 1: lot of quote unquote her functionality reduced since twenty nineteen. 601 00:38:25,160 --> 00:38:29,040 Speaker 1: Microsoft is kind of removed a lot of Cortana's features. 602 00:38:30,400 --> 00:38:33,560 Speaker 1: Apparently the deep integration into Windows just didn't work out, 603 00:38:34,239 --> 00:38:36,399 Speaker 1: and that kind of comes back to Apple to One 604 00:38:36,400 --> 00:38:39,840 Speaker 1: of the big criticisms about SIRIE was that once Apple 605 00:38:40,200 --> 00:38:44,000 Speaker 1: brought it on board, once they acquired the company, Apple 606 00:38:44,080 --> 00:38:47,520 Speaker 1: made a lot of decisions that ultimately either reduced series 607 00:38:47,560 --> 00:38:51,440 Speaker 1: functionality or cut it off from growing the way it 608 00:38:51,480 --> 00:38:56,440 Speaker 1: could have otherwise. Before Sirie moved over to Apple, the 609 00:38:56,480 --> 00:39:00,120 Speaker 1: team was hard at work integrating the assistance functionality with 610 00:39:00,160 --> 00:39:04,440 Speaker 1: a whole suite of apps from different developers, and ideally 611 00:39:04,719 --> 00:39:06,680 Speaker 1: you would reach a point where you could just tell 612 00:39:06,719 --> 00:39:10,080 Speaker 1: your device what you wanted and the assistant would work 613 00:39:10,080 --> 00:39:14,560 Speaker 1: out the rest, pulling information or accessing whatever apps are necessary. 614 00:39:14,560 --> 00:39:16,479 Speaker 1: In order to do the thing you wanted it to do. 615 00:39:17,040 --> 00:39:20,440 Speaker 1: In fact, you can imagine an implementation of this in 616 00:39:20,480 --> 00:39:24,600 Speaker 1: which the assistant could even compare different ways to accomplish 617 00:39:24,680 --> 00:39:27,359 Speaker 1: the same task you give it and then go with 618 00:39:27,400 --> 00:39:30,120 Speaker 1: whatever is the best option. So let me give you 619 00:39:30,160 --> 00:39:34,600 Speaker 1: an example. Since the start of the pandemic, I've been 620 00:39:34,640 --> 00:39:37,960 Speaker 1: staying at home, and on occasion I will order food 621 00:39:38,160 --> 00:39:41,160 Speaker 1: from a nearby restaurant for delivery. You'll get a craving 622 00:39:41,200 --> 00:39:42,879 Speaker 1: and I'll say, all right, I want to eat such 623 00:39:42,880 --> 00:39:44,920 Speaker 1: and such, so I'm gonna order from so and so. 624 00:39:45,600 --> 00:39:49,759 Speaker 1: Only not every restaurant works with every delivery service, right, 625 00:39:50,120 --> 00:39:51,799 Speaker 1: So that kind of means that I have to make 626 00:39:51,840 --> 00:39:56,120 Speaker 1: accounts with all these different services like Postmates or door 627 00:39:56,239 --> 00:39:58,560 Speaker 1: Dash or grub Hub, or here in Atlanta we have 628 00:39:58,600 --> 00:40:02,480 Speaker 1: one called zifty. You get the point. And then let's 629 00:40:02,480 --> 00:40:05,560 Speaker 1: say I get a craving for some amazing Thai food 630 00:40:05,600 --> 00:40:07,640 Speaker 1: and I have a specific restaurant I have in mind. 631 00:40:08,000 --> 00:40:10,160 Speaker 1: I have to figure out which of the services works 632 00:40:10,200 --> 00:40:13,399 Speaker 1: with that restaurant, right uh. And if more than one 633 00:40:13,680 --> 00:40:16,120 Speaker 1: of the services works with the restaurant, I might even 634 00:40:16,120 --> 00:40:18,480 Speaker 1: want to compare them to find out who's gonna get 635 00:40:18,480 --> 00:40:21,600 Speaker 1: me the food the quickest, or who's going to do 636 00:40:21,600 --> 00:40:24,400 Speaker 1: it the cheapest, like who's gonna have the lowest service fees. 637 00:40:24,640 --> 00:40:28,800 Speaker 1: So in an ideal implementation of a virtual assistant, the 638 00:40:28,840 --> 00:40:31,040 Speaker 1: assistant would do all of that work for me. It 639 00:40:31,040 --> 00:40:34,120 Speaker 1: would compare the different options, and it might give me 640 00:40:34,160 --> 00:40:36,920 Speaker 1: an informed choice. You know, maybe I just tell the 641 00:40:36,960 --> 00:40:39,919 Speaker 1: assistant that I just want the food and I wanted 642 00:40:39,960 --> 00:40:42,080 Speaker 1: as fast as possible, and that's what matters to me. 643 00:40:42,160 --> 00:40:44,440 Speaker 1: So just find the services going to get it here 644 00:40:44,480 --> 00:40:48,480 Speaker 1: the fastest based on their estimations. Or maybe I might say, 645 00:40:48,920 --> 00:40:52,360 Speaker 1: you know what, money's tight, I want the least expensive 646 00:40:52,440 --> 00:40:56,960 Speaker 1: way to get that order here, and so on. But 647 00:40:57,040 --> 00:41:01,240 Speaker 1: now expand that single use case across us, all apps 648 00:41:01,400 --> 00:41:05,560 Speaker 1: and all potential uses of the assistant, and you see 649 00:41:05,560 --> 00:41:08,799 Speaker 1: where it could really come in handy. Now, I'm not 650 00:41:08,880 --> 00:41:12,760 Speaker 1: the worst when it comes to installing tons of apps 651 00:41:12,760 --> 00:41:15,960 Speaker 1: on my phone and then forgetting about them and never 652 00:41:16,080 --> 00:41:18,680 Speaker 1: using them. But I'm not the best about it either. 653 00:41:19,000 --> 00:41:22,960 Speaker 1: About once every five or six months, I'll go through 654 00:41:23,000 --> 00:41:25,400 Speaker 1: my phone and just start uninstalling apps where I'm like, 655 00:41:25,440 --> 00:41:28,399 Speaker 1: I don't remember the last time I've used this. So 656 00:41:28,600 --> 00:41:31,680 Speaker 1: there are undoubtedly apps that would be helpful in various 657 00:41:31,680 --> 00:41:34,799 Speaker 1: situations that I get into throughout the day, but I 658 00:41:34,840 --> 00:41:37,120 Speaker 1: never think about them even though I do have them 659 00:41:37,120 --> 00:41:41,359 Speaker 1: on my phone. However, a virtual assistant, if implemented well, 660 00:41:41,920 --> 00:41:44,799 Speaker 1: might potentially make better use of the apps that are 661 00:41:44,840 --> 00:41:47,719 Speaker 1: on my phone than I do, and then I get 662 00:41:47,760 --> 00:41:51,480 Speaker 1: to benefit from that. But Apple cut off a lot 663 00:41:51,480 --> 00:41:56,840 Speaker 1: of that functionality when it bought Siri and limited Series capabilities, 664 00:41:57,200 --> 00:42:00,480 Speaker 1: and in a way that's understandable. With Series being an 665 00:42:00,480 --> 00:42:04,400 Speaker 1: official Apple product, it would be tricky to implement the 666 00:42:04,480 --> 00:42:09,000 Speaker 1: service with some apps and not others. So for example, 667 00:42:09,040 --> 00:42:13,600 Speaker 1: if you integrated Siri with one rideshare service but it 668 00:42:13,680 --> 00:42:17,960 Speaker 1: didn't integrate with another one, would that open up Apple 669 00:42:18,080 --> 00:42:21,400 Speaker 1: to accusations that it was playing favorites and thus creating 670 00:42:21,400 --> 00:42:26,040 Speaker 1: an unfair advantage for one company versus another company. It 671 00:42:26,080 --> 00:42:31,520 Speaker 1: gets tricky. Sirie has also attracted some unwanted attention from 672 00:42:31,600 --> 00:42:35,840 Speaker 1: companies that accused Apple of infringing on intellectual property. In 673 00:42:35,880 --> 00:42:39,360 Speaker 1: ten Apple would settle a lawsuit from rensel Or Polytechnic 674 00:42:39,400 --> 00:42:43,480 Speaker 1: Institute r p I in New York that claimed that 675 00:42:43,560 --> 00:42:46,080 Speaker 1: Apple had infringed upon a patent that r p I 676 00:42:46,200 --> 00:42:51,200 Speaker 1: had licensed to a Dallas company called Dynamic Advances back 677 00:42:51,239 --> 00:42:53,960 Speaker 1: in two thousand seven, so if you recall that's the 678 00:42:53,960 --> 00:42:57,640 Speaker 1: same year that SIRIE the company was founded. The settlement 679 00:42:57,719 --> 00:43:01,200 Speaker 1: was for about twenty five million dollars. Is The specific 680 00:43:01,239 --> 00:43:05,520 Speaker 1: allegation had to do with natural language interface, and just 681 00:43:05,640 --> 00:43:08,840 Speaker 1: this year in twenty Apple was hit with another lawsuit. 682 00:43:08,960 --> 00:43:12,319 Speaker 1: This one is a true doozy. The lawsuit comes in 683 00:43:12,400 --> 00:43:16,320 Speaker 1: at a one point four three billion with a B dollars. 684 00:43:16,920 --> 00:43:20,200 Speaker 1: The plaintiff in this case is a Chinese AI company 685 00:43:20,239 --> 00:43:26,040 Speaker 1: called the Shanghai Shijin Intelligent Network Technology or also known 686 00:43:26,160 --> 00:43:30,240 Speaker 1: as shao I Robot, and the claim is that Siri 687 00:43:30,400 --> 00:43:34,440 Speaker 1: infringes upon a patented technology that the company filed for 688 00:43:34,680 --> 00:43:38,080 Speaker 1: way back in two thousand four, and then received a 689 00:43:38,160 --> 00:43:41,479 Speaker 1: patent for that filing five years later in two thousand nine. 690 00:43:41,600 --> 00:43:44,760 Speaker 1: So for those keeping track, the project that would ultimately 691 00:43:44,880 --> 00:43:48,520 Speaker 1: spawn Siri started in two thousand three, but Syria itself 692 00:43:48,560 --> 00:43:51,160 Speaker 1: wasn't a thing until two thousand seven. So an Apple 693 00:43:51,239 --> 00:43:55,760 Speaker 1: spokesperson downplayed this accusation, saying quote, SIRIE does not contain 694 00:43:55,880 --> 00:43:59,440 Speaker 1: features included in their patent, which relates to games and 695 00:43:59,560 --> 00:44:03,600 Speaker 1: instant messaging and we are disappointed. Shall I Robot has 696 00:44:03,640 --> 00:44:08,640 Speaker 1: filed another lawsuit. Independent appraisers certified by the Supreme People's 697 00:44:08,680 --> 00:44:12,080 Speaker 1: Court have also concluded that Apple does not infringe shall 698 00:44:12,239 --> 00:44:16,520 Speaker 1: I Robots technology end quote. It turns out that this 699 00:44:16,680 --> 00:44:21,040 Speaker 1: same Chinese company sued Apple back in Apple filed a 700 00:44:21,120 --> 00:44:24,879 Speaker 1: motion to have the company's patent invalidated. I didn't even 701 00:44:24,880 --> 00:44:28,880 Speaker 1: know that was a thing. The Beijing High Court initially 702 00:44:28,920 --> 00:44:32,560 Speaker 1: agreed with Apple, but more recently the Supreme People's Court 703 00:44:32,600 --> 00:44:36,640 Speaker 1: in China has overturned that decision. And so now we're 704 00:44:36,719 --> 00:44:38,879 Speaker 1: kind of back to where we were when the first 705 00:44:38,960 --> 00:44:41,359 Speaker 1: lawsuit was filed eight years ago, but now for one 706 00:44:41,360 --> 00:44:45,120 Speaker 1: point four billion dollars. Now, that story is still ongoing. 707 00:44:45,440 --> 00:44:47,720 Speaker 1: I don't have any other updates to give you guys 708 00:44:47,719 --> 00:44:50,839 Speaker 1: about it, but I will say that natural language processing 709 00:44:50,880 --> 00:44:53,040 Speaker 1: has been a field that a lot of people have 710 00:44:53,120 --> 00:44:56,360 Speaker 1: been working on independently over the years. Now, is it 711 00:44:56,440 --> 00:44:59,120 Speaker 1: possible that the serie team learned of work being done 712 00:44:59,160 --> 00:45:03,440 Speaker 1: in China and perhaps lifted some of it? Maybe? Is 713 00:45:03,480 --> 00:45:06,480 Speaker 1: it possible we have two groups that independently arrived at 714 00:45:06,480 --> 00:45:10,719 Speaker 1: a similar solution. No, that's also possible, But it's even 715 00:45:10,760 --> 00:45:14,160 Speaker 1: possible that the lawsuit itself is totally without grounds, as 716 00:45:14,200 --> 00:45:19,000 Speaker 1: Apple claims it is. I honestly just don't know. What 717 00:45:19,160 --> 00:45:22,320 Speaker 1: I do know is that voice assistants have in large 718 00:45:22,320 --> 00:45:25,760 Speaker 1: part failed to be the massive see change that people 719 00:45:25,800 --> 00:45:31,000 Speaker 1: expected when they first began to emerge around We've seen 720 00:45:31,040 --> 00:45:34,920 Speaker 1: improvements including the ability to follow a thread of questions 721 00:45:35,120 --> 00:45:38,680 Speaker 1: or commands about a single topic without having to restate 722 00:45:38,840 --> 00:45:41,640 Speaker 1: the topic each time. So, in other words, the assistance 723 00:45:41,719 --> 00:45:44,560 Speaker 1: now kind of have short term memory, so if you 724 00:45:44,640 --> 00:45:48,080 Speaker 1: ask a follow up question, they can figure out that 725 00:45:48,200 --> 00:45:50,200 Speaker 1: it's a follow up question to the thing you just 726 00:45:50,400 --> 00:45:53,160 Speaker 1: asked about a moment earlier. And there have been some 727 00:45:53,239 --> 00:45:57,320 Speaker 1: other controversies to like the fear that these assistants Sirie 728 00:45:57,400 --> 00:46:00,600 Speaker 1: among them, are listening to way more stuff than what 729 00:46:00,680 --> 00:46:04,399 Speaker 1: we're aware of, or that by analyzing our behaviors such 730 00:46:04,440 --> 00:46:08,399 Speaker 1: as when and how we use certain apps, they could 731 00:46:08,440 --> 00:46:11,839 Speaker 1: be building out enormous dossiers on who we are and 732 00:46:11,880 --> 00:46:14,880 Speaker 1: what we like, and information that can be really valuable 733 00:46:14,920 --> 00:46:17,880 Speaker 1: to third parties out there. I do like the thing 734 00:46:18,000 --> 00:46:21,319 Speaker 1: that the potential of voice assistance ties in with another 735 00:46:21,480 --> 00:46:24,480 Speaker 1: concept that I've covered in the past, that of the 736 00:46:24,520 --> 00:46:27,920 Speaker 1: semantic Web. The idea of the semantic web is that 737 00:46:27,960 --> 00:46:30,759 Speaker 1: you would have a version of the web, a new 738 00:46:30,880 --> 00:46:34,040 Speaker 1: version of the web, where you have kind of this 739 00:46:34,160 --> 00:46:37,640 Speaker 1: personal assistant built into the web itself, and then it 740 00:46:37,719 --> 00:46:41,680 Speaker 1: learns from your behaviors and can anticipate what you need 741 00:46:41,760 --> 00:46:45,200 Speaker 1: when you ask questions and get you the most relevant results. 742 00:46:45,239 --> 00:46:48,400 Speaker 1: So the more you use it, the more it learns 743 00:46:48,719 --> 00:46:51,719 Speaker 1: who you are and how you operate, and thus can 744 00:46:51,880 --> 00:46:56,239 Speaker 1: conform better to your preferences and make it a more 745 00:46:56,280 --> 00:47:00,239 Speaker 1: seamless experience to use the web. Voice assistants follow a 746 00:47:00,400 --> 00:47:04,480 Speaker 1: very similar philosophy. Uh, you can't do it without it, 747 00:47:04,560 --> 00:47:07,360 Speaker 1: also feeling a little creepy, I just don't think it's possible. 748 00:47:07,880 --> 00:47:10,719 Speaker 1: I also don't think that anyone has made um the 749 00:47:10,840 --> 00:47:13,960 Speaker 1: killer app version of it yet. Sirie, I think is 750 00:47:13,960 --> 00:47:17,879 Speaker 1: still one that has really high name recognition. And I'm 751 00:47:17,920 --> 00:47:20,280 Speaker 1: curious how many of you out there who have iPhones 752 00:47:20,320 --> 00:47:24,400 Speaker 1: how often you use it? If ever, my wife rarely 753 00:47:24,560 --> 00:47:27,040 Speaker 1: uses it. She'll use it if she's driving in the car, 754 00:47:27,120 --> 00:47:30,640 Speaker 1: for example, so it's hands free, but other than that, 755 00:47:30,800 --> 00:47:33,759 Speaker 1: I don't think she uses it that often. And to 756 00:47:33,840 --> 00:47:37,560 Speaker 1: be fair, I have an Android phone. I've got Google Assistant. 757 00:47:37,719 --> 00:47:39,960 Speaker 1: I don't use that on my phone either. I will 758 00:47:40,000 --> 00:47:43,080 Speaker 1: occasionally use the smart speaker we have and use Google 759 00:47:43,120 --> 00:47:47,399 Speaker 1: Assistant on that, but typically it's just to turn on 760 00:47:47,520 --> 00:47:50,920 Speaker 1: or off the lights or maybe play some music or something. 761 00:47:51,000 --> 00:47:53,080 Speaker 1: I don't really use it to its full potential, so 762 00:47:53,160 --> 00:47:54,920 Speaker 1: I also ask what the weather is going to be. 763 00:47:55,080 --> 00:47:57,640 Speaker 1: That's the other thing other than that kind of goes 764 00:47:57,680 --> 00:48:01,799 Speaker 1: to waste. So this one as an example of technology 765 00:48:01,840 --> 00:48:05,400 Speaker 1: that has and still to this day, has incredible potential, 766 00:48:05,960 --> 00:48:08,359 Speaker 1: but I don't think it's living up to it yet, 767 00:48:08,600 --> 00:48:12,280 Speaker 1: and that is in part the fault of the technology, 768 00:48:12,600 --> 00:48:15,200 Speaker 1: and in part it's just the fault of our behaviors, 769 00:48:15,239 --> 00:48:18,480 Speaker 1: people like me who have access to stuff like this 770 00:48:18,920 --> 00:48:21,920 Speaker 1: and yet wasted by asking if I need to wear 771 00:48:21,960 --> 00:48:24,600 Speaker 1: a raincoat the next day. But I'm curious to hear 772 00:48:24,640 --> 00:48:26,200 Speaker 1: what you guys think. You can reach out to me. 773 00:48:26,280 --> 00:48:28,160 Speaker 1: The best way to do it actually is on Twitter. 774 00:48:28,600 --> 00:48:31,719 Speaker 1: The handle for the show is text Stuff hs W. 775 00:48:31,960 --> 00:48:34,040 Speaker 1: I look forward to hearing from you, and I'll tell 776 00:48:34,080 --> 00:48:42,560 Speaker 1: to you again really soon. Text Stuff is an I 777 00:48:42,640 --> 00:48:46,160 Speaker 1: Heart Radio production. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, 778 00:48:46,480 --> 00:48:49,680 Speaker 1: visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever 779 00:48:49,760 --> 00:48:51,280 Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows