Siri

Siri – 2007

Siri, the first virtual personal assistant, arose from decades of artificial intelligence (AI) research at SRl. The technology was developed through the SRI-led Cognitive Assistant that Learns and Organizes (CALO) project within DARPA’s Personalized Assistant that Learns (PAL) program – the largest-known AI project in U.S. history – and joint work with EPFL, the Swiss Institute of Technology.

SRI spun off Siri, Inc. in 2007 to bring the technology to consumers, raising $24 million in two rounds of financing. In April 2010, Apple acquired Siri, and in October 2011, Siri was unveiled as an integrated feature of the Apple iPhone 4S.

Read our 75th anniversary blog feature

75 Years of Innovation: Siri


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