Huffington Magazine Issue 33 | Page 48

SIRI RISING need to localize the assistant in the nearly 100 countries that offer the iPhone. Sending Siri abroad requires training the assistant in dozens of different languages, a timeintensive affair given the technical challenges of teaching the algorithm to understand human speech. People familiar with the early version of Siri gripe that Apple, usually so meticulous about its products’ look and feel, has hidden Siri’s capabilities with a design that over-promises on what Siri can deliver. To avoid disappointing its users, the original Siri app tried to teach people what they could ask by s