Coming soon to an iPhone near you is a shortcut to launching the voice-activated personal assistant.
Saying two words, as people do now, will be cut in half to a single two-syllable command in 2023 or 2024.
Apple engineers are working hard on a new initiative that will allow users to drop the word “Hey” as the trigger phrase to get the attention of the helpful assistant and go simply with “Siri.”
Bloomberg laid out the details in a story that puts into perspective just how much work goes into a change that seemingly seems so small. It’s about altering the AI coding that has been in place, and it’s a two-year job minimum.
Part of the challenge is making sure Siri can cut through the multiple different accents and dialects that will be thrown her way. With a two-word command, the system clicks in more effectively, so the challenges lurk on every corner.
On top of providing a better service to the hundreds of millions of iPhone owners, there’s another motivation driving Tim Cook’s crew of brainiacs — competition. There’s an AI competitor at Amazon named Alexa, and she comes running when users use her first name sans “hey.”
Google is hard at work trying to rid their voice-activated assistant of the word “hey,” too.
This would be an excellent time to remind you that the voice of Siri belongs to an actual human being named Susan Bennett.
She is a voice actress who used to be a backup singer for Roy Orbison and Burt Bachrach.
She’s lent her voice to commercials for companies including Club Med, Coca-Cola, Hot Pockets, Visa, The Home Depot, Goodyear, and Macy’s.
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