Siri made the iPhone more reactive with hokey intelligence , but now its founders need to put AI in every gimmick you own . Dag Kittlaus , who cofounded Siri , bequeath Apple five long time ago , but now he ’s back with a fresh phonation assistant name Viv that he portend will change the way of life we interact with not just our phones , but our home appliances , cars , and more . Viv hasgotten a lot of hypefor a product that has n’t transport yet , but Kittlaus demoed Viv publicly for the first time at TechCrunch Disrupt on Monday .
decently now , Viv is an iOS app , though it wo n’t always be . You launch the app and demand the adjunct question or outcome commands . These can tramp from basic queries like what the weather condition forecast front like , which Viv quickly answer with Weather Underground data point , or as complex as , “ transmit Adam $ 20 for last dark , ” and Venmo deal the transaction . You do n’t have to have these apps instal for Viv to work on your behalf .
Viv made its debut at TechCrunch Disrupt in New York .
The conversations are presently one - sided — the helper does n’t yet have a phonation , though that will change by the sentence it ’s ready to ship . And Viv by all odds seems useful , though not all that unique in its current incarnation . The demo I saw at Disrupt cue me ofHound , an app that ’s already on the market and has a robust ecosystem of integrate apps that it pulls data from to answer your commands .
Viv wants to go beyond apps , though like Hound , it require developer funding to make the assistant useful . Kittlaus said the startup has no plans to ramp up its own hardware , but it is in talks with computer hardware makers to build Viv into their gadget , so you wo n’t need a separate app to control your cable car dashboard or any of your smart house appliances .
“ No one company in the world has the resource to plug in all the different table service , ” Kittlaus said during his TechCrunch Disrupt demo . “ That ’s what Viv has spent a heap of time and money on . Each [ assistant does ] 20–30 dissimilar things . Now it ’s pop off to tens of grand of different thing . ”
Computer, program thyself
Kittlaus demo off Viv ’s software package backbone , which he call dynamical program coevals . While most voice helper or bot have to be programmed with preselected responses to specific queries and take out from one area at a clock time , Viv ’s software figures out the purport of your question and publish itself . In reception to a motion like , “ Will it be warmer than 70 degrees at the Golden Gate Bridge after 5 p.m. the mean solar day after tomorrow ? ” Viv write a 44 - point programme to answer with Weather Underground data point , but it can merge datum from several different sources to respond to a interrogative in seconds . That ’s telling and different .
Viv does n’t just Google thing for you . It parse your question and then writes a program to answer it .
While other company like Facebook are betting big on text - free-base chatbots , Kittlaus thinks vocalism conversations — being able to chat with your machine in natural speech without set up and interacting with various apps — are the future . But those assistant have to be more brawny than Siri , which is limited to Apple devices and ca n’t answer many basic enquiry , let alone Good Book hotel suite and send Venmo defrayal on your behalf .
Siri is reportedly still limited in its capabilities because ofApple ’s recondite concern for privateness , but the company has been criticized for being so slow to build more functionality into the iOS assistant . Siri is n’t even yet available across all Apple computer hardware , though rumor has it Apple is finallybringing Siri to the Mac this declination .
With Siri , Kittlaus and Co. prove they can build artificial intelligence that scales . Now , they need to go even bigger .
“ Viv will be the intelligent user interface to everything , ” Kittlaus said . “ For developers , this will be the next great market place . The thing that come after App Stores is this unexampled type of marketplace that works for all different twist . ”
That ’s an ambiitious goal , but Viv is still a ways off from seeing the ignitor of solar day . Kittlaus say Viv will see a “ rolled launching ” toward the end of this year , with developer partner announced around the same prison term .
