The real science of artificial intelligence is finally catching p to science fiction. HAL 9000, the creepy sentient computer from the movie “2001: A Space Odyssey,” has been incarnated, in the form of Siri, a virtual personal assistant that comes with Apple’s new iPhone 4S, which arrived in stores Friday.
The phone takes verbal commands and questions, and responds with computer-generated speech.
Real humans are responding to this alarming breakthrough by asking their iPhones ridiculous questions.
The good news is, Siri has a sense of humor.
A lot of work went into so much artificial sarcasm.
The creators of Siri put “deep thought” into the personality of their software, says Norman Winarsky, a co-founder of the company that was bought by Apple for $200 million in 2010. Siri was born out of an artificial intelligence project at SRI International, a research institute.
