Siri is a Virtual Personal Assistant – a new way to interact with the Internet on your mobile phone. Like a real assistant, Siri helps you get things done.
What makes Siri unique is that it understands natural language, accomplishes tasks and adapts to user’s individual preferences over time. Siri leverages many services and technologies to accomplish the task requested.
You can ask Siri questions naturally, just as you would ask your assistant, “Will it rain today?” or, “Get me a table at a good Italian restaurant.” Through the streamlined interface, you won’t have to weed through web pages to get movie tickets or call a cab. Over time, Siri will get to know you and, with your explicit permission, personalize your results.
Siri was born out of SRI’s CALO Project, the largest Artificial Intelligence project in U.S. history. (CALO stands for Cognitive Assistant that Learns and Organizes). Made possible by a $150 million DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) investment, the CALO Project included 25 research organizations and institutions and spanned 5 years. Siri is bringing the benefits of this technology to the public in the first mainstream consumer application of a virtual personal assistant.
Siri has raised a total of $24 million in funding from Menlo Ventures and Morgenthaler Ventures.
