Apple’s Siri – An AI based intelligent virtual assistant

Not very long ago Artificial intelligence was a concept we use to hear about in films or read the newspapers. Today, Artificial Intelligence has made its entry into our homes in the form of virtual assistants. These smart assistants are aimed to make our lives easier and provide us assistance in our daily tasks.

A virtual assistant, also called an AI assistant or digital assistant, is an Artificial intelligence based application program having the ability to understand natural language and take voice commands to complete various tasks for the user.

Such tasks were traditionally performed by a personal assistant or secretary. Siri can perform tasks such as taking dictation, making phone calls, reading and sending text or email messages, looking up information and reminding about the appointments, etc.

One such AI based virtual assistant is Siri, developed by Tech giant Apple. Siri is a virtual assistant that lives on Apple devices. You can access Siri on nearly all the Apple devices, such as laptops, desktops, phones and tablets, and smartwatches. Apple also sells its own speaker, called the HomePod that can work with Siri

Siri assists you in a variety of tasks, for example, it can make calls or send texts on behalf of you while you are busy driving, or doing something else. It also has the ability to give suggestions. It can provide you with suggestions like texting someone that you’re running late for a meeting. Siri makes sure you stay in touch effortlessly.

You can simply say ”Hey Siri, call dad on the phone” or “Siri, text to Simon that I am running late for office.” Yes, it’s as simple as that. You have to say it without lifting even a finger.

Apart from calls, Siri proves to be a great assistant in every day’s tasks.
You can tell Siri to set alarms, timers, and reminders. Preview your calendar. AI-powered Siri can even anticipate what you might need to help you breeze through your day.

You can simply give commands as “Siri, remind me of packing fruits for office” or “Siri wakes me up at 7 am tomorrow” and consider it done.

Siri also knows your music preferences. You can ask Siri to play a song you would like to hear, and Siri will anticipate what kind of song you would want to hear.

With Siri, you do not need to go to google and find the converted to do conversions such as dollar to pound or even translate a line into other.
Just ask Siri, and it will present the answer at your disposal.

Siri streamlines your daily routine. Keeps you updated about stocks, cricket score, latest news or whatever you are interested in. Siri is a smart virtual assistant indeed, but you can make it smarter over time. Siri is always learning how to be even more helpful.

Machine learning is constantly making Siri smarter. You can personalize Siri to make it even more useful with customized applications. You can choose Siri to speak from 21 different languages. You can teach Siri who your family members are. And spell out unusual words so Siri can recognize them in the future.

Competitors of Siri include Alexa by Amazon, Google Assistant, Cortana by Microsoft.

Siri is indeed an exceptional AI based virtual assistant that gets smarter with time. It becomes your personal assistant in the literal sense, but only you do not have to pay it!