SIRI COFOUNDER TALKS TO CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
Siri, the virtual assistant on a billion devices around the globe, came close to calling Colorado rather than California its home.
Dag Kittlaus, former CEO and a cofounder of Siri, told a crowd gathered Tuesday for the annual meeting of the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce that he wanted to locate the startup in Denver or Boulder, which he considered a “hot” market for technology.
“I almost started Siri here,” he said. “But a couple of my cofounders wouldn’t move from California.”
Siri’s technology spun out of Stanford University’s SRI International Artificial Intelligence Center in 2007 and was based in Menlo Park, the heart of Silicon Valley. Its name isn’t derived from SRI. Rather, Kittlaus, who is NorwegianAmerican, said Siri is a Norse name for “beautiful woman who leads you to victory.”
Apple founder Steve Jobs noticed the technology and invited Kittlaus to meet at his home. In early 2010, Apple purchased Siri, turning it into a household name that spawned other virtual assistants such as Alexa and Bixby.
Virtual assistants have spent the past few years learning multiple languages. With that task mostly completed, Kittlaus said the next big leap is improving their understanding of the context of language, which will set the stage for actual conversations.
For example, Siri can tell a user who asks if snow is forecast for Vail, and when the flakes will start falling. But she will trip up if asked right after that, “And what about Aspen?”
Kittlaus’ current company — Viv Labs — has developed artificial intelligence software that is open source. Developers can create plugins for it and offer them on a platform or store. Viv can handle more complex queries than Siri and will work on devices beyond phones.
Samsung purchased Viv in 2016 and plans to introduce it in its next version of Bixby and over time in a host of televisions, appliances and other products it produces.
Kittlaus told his audience to not buy into the message of gloom and doom or the belief that things are only getting worse.
“The world is getting better in almost every measure,” he said. The poverty rate worldwide has fallen from more than 75 percent in 1950 to 10 percent and the literacy rate is now approaching 80 percent. Far fewer people die in war or during infancy than in past decades.
In Kittlaus’ view, artificial intelligence and other technological breakthroughs will transform lives in ways even more profound than what the generation born a century ago experienced, when in under seven decades humans went from taking flight to reaching the moon.
Ten people have had bladders replaced using bioprinted human tissue and scientists are close to replacing more complicated organs like livers. Because the organs are based on a person’s DNA, they aren’t rejected.
Nanotechnologists are developing artificial red blood cells that can provide superhuman energy, such as being able to sprint at full speed for 15 minutes.
And artificial intelligence systems can detect cancerous skin moles, just using pictures, with a 95 percent accuracy rate, surpassing even the best dermatologists.
When it comes to greenhouse gases, Kittlaus said he doesn’t think there is a viable political solution. Countries such as China and India have too strong an incentive to keep burning coal as they try to power their economies.
Plus, there is already too much carbon in the atmosphere to avert the warming now occurring. He said technology that pulls carbon from the atmosphere isn’t that far away and could change the equation.
There is a challenge that future generations will have to face. Artificial intelligence systems, decades from now, will eventually surpass the human brain, he said.