Technology & Innovation — October 4, 2011

AI Goes Mainstream, Thanks to iPhone

Artificial Intelligence is coming to the iPhone. How will it change your life? The iPhone Assistant is the reborn Siri app, obeying voice commands but also adapting to your needs.

bigthinkeditor

What’s the Latest Development?

Ben Parr says that iPhones are about to become a lot smarter with today’s launch of the new artificial intelligence-powered Assistant. The successor to Siri, the iPhone app that helped users with their daily tasks with natural language voice commands, Assistant allows users to tell their iPhone, “Please find me a Chinese restaurant within a mile of my location.” The key is that Assistant will learn about you, like what results you don’t like, where you go, who you talk to most, and adapt to your needs.

What’s the Big Idea?

We’re talking about a new computing revolution, says Ben Parr. Apple sparked one revolution with touchscreens and another with the App Store and is now introducing a whole new way of interacting with computers: through an Artificial Intelligence. “That is something that will change our fundamental relationship with the devices that sit on our desks and travel with us in our pockets.”

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