Actress says credit for Siri's personality belongs to Apple programmers, not voice work
The attitude displayed by Apple's Siri assistant can really be attributed to programmers, not voice work, according to the actress responsible for Siri's U.S. female voice, Susan Bennett.
"We recorded hundreds of phrases and sentences that were created to get all the sound combinations in the English language," Bennett explained in a Typeform interview. "Now, the English language has over a million words, so you can imagine how long this took. The initial recordings took a month in 2005, four hours a day, five days a week, then I did updates for four months in 2011/12."
To get the necessary sounds, Bennett was made to say various nonsense phrases, like "Malitia oi hallucinate, buckry ockra ooze." Adding extra challenge, she had to use the same pace, pitch, and tone for every line, something Bennett noted was also very tedious.
Although she credits the use of her voice for making Siri sound less robotic, Bennett remarked that the various actors Apple uses don't have a role in what Siri says.
"It all has to do with the programmers," she commented.
Siri is currently available in 21 languages, a number of which have multiple actors for different genders, dialects, and/or accents. English alone has nine different dialects, and even people choosing U.S. English can pick from male or female voices in three different accents -- American, Australian, or British.
Bennett wasn't originally aware she was going to be Siri, thinking instead she was helping with a switchboard system. Indeed her main recording sessions took place before the launch of the first iPhone in 2007, and Siri originally debuted as a third-party app -- Apple would only buy Siri's developer later, and integrate the technology into iOS in time for the iPhone 4S in 2011.
The assistant is expected to get various enhancements for this year's "iOS 11," such as deeper integration with iMessage and iCloud.
"We recorded hundreds of phrases and sentences that were created to get all the sound combinations in the English language," Bennett explained in a Typeform interview. "Now, the English language has over a million words, so you can imagine how long this took. The initial recordings took a month in 2005, four hours a day, five days a week, then I did updates for four months in 2011/12."
To get the necessary sounds, Bennett was made to say various nonsense phrases, like "Malitia oi hallucinate, buckry ockra ooze." Adding extra challenge, she had to use the same pace, pitch, and tone for every line, something Bennett noted was also very tedious.
Although she credits the use of her voice for making Siri sound less robotic, Bennett remarked that the various actors Apple uses don't have a role in what Siri says.
"It all has to do with the programmers," she commented.
Siri is currently available in 21 languages, a number of which have multiple actors for different genders, dialects, and/or accents. English alone has nine different dialects, and even people choosing U.S. English can pick from male or female voices in three different accents -- American, Australian, or British.
Bennett wasn't originally aware she was going to be Siri, thinking instead she was helping with a switchboard system. Indeed her main recording sessions took place before the launch of the first iPhone in 2007, and Siri originally debuted as a third-party app -- Apple would only buy Siri's developer later, and integrate the technology into iOS in time for the iPhone 4S in 2011.
The assistant is expected to get various enhancements for this year's "iOS 11," such as deeper integration with iMessage and iCloud.
Comments
I want Siri to answer my calls and screen them and only put through the ones that are important. If Apple could solve the problem of all the SPAM calls I get every day, I would be very happy.
Siri: There are 5 taco places in your area.
A part of me likes how dumb Siri really is. As for being a real AI I would compare Siri to a stupid pet trick.
I love the fact that Apple now provides a text version of all my voicemails. I get the same call (from completely different numbers from different states) about a mysterious warrantee expiring over and over again. I don't even to have to listen to it to see that I can simply delete it. That's almost as good as what you're looking for.
- restaurants around here
- inexpensive restaurants --- correct list
- expensive restaurants around here --- correct list
- expensive (whatever cuisine) restaurants around here- correct list
- bars near me - correct list
- bars downtown Montreal - correct list
- bars near Mcgill campus
- gas station near here - correct list
- nearest grocery store - correct one
- nearest movie theater - correct list
- when is my flight leaving - response : couldn't find any events in the next 3 months
- remind me to take my flight tomorrow - Reminder put in
Then I set up a flight in my calendar - new event, flight 6pm, confirm
then saying:
- when is my flight leaving, tells me 6pm.
all of this is 100%, never get it wrong.
- IF I say what you said,
- I get the link to the departure page of the website for Montreal Trudeau airport which would be the best it can do unless It
can knows my flight number and its plugged into the flight db. Who knows if that's coming.
Your response looks more like it didn't understand what you were saying, not the AI part
- with the app they just bought to automate tasks, they could let people open up web sites of third party and get info from it.
Really, If I can't even get an AI to say dirty things to me. What good is she?
#JustJoking
I think that is probably your carrier that provides that. I get a transcription from my carrier and I am not aware of any Apple product. I to do find it handy -- but it would be really nice if I could read the email of the voicemail and the have it delete the email AND the voicemail that I still have to go to my phone for. BTW: I have a landline with VoIP that provides this but my iPhone carrier does not.
I live in New Zealand and our country is full of Maori names including the town I live. I just tried Siri with "Lookup Hawera" (pronounced Ha-Where-Ra) and she nailed it. She did the same with Rotorua (Roto-Roo-Ah) and Whakatane (Fucka-Tar-Nay - hey blame the Maoris not me) and she nailed it each time.
Basically most mistakes will be your fault not her's I'm afraid.
I personally like the idea of option two because it kind of sounds like something Apple would do.