Siri founders are working on self-learning digital assistant

Some of the founders of Siri, the company that Apple acquired and whose technology it has been deploying on its iPhones since the 4s in 2011, are working on a new system for a digital assistant. It has to generate its own code to perform tasks.

When a user asks something that requires a combination of multiple databases, such as “how many inhabitants does Abraham Lincoln’s hometown have,” the system itself tries to generate code to perform that task in the future, according to a story by wired. In that story, many technical details are missing, while the claims are large: for example, the system could independently program code within a fraction of a second to link databases of different online services.

Presumably, Viv, as the system is called, initially presents the result to users for verification, and if enough users say it’s correct, the system invariably performs that action that way. Google is working on improving its voice input in much the same way. Digital assistants now exist on all smartphone platforms, but experts say they are limited to routine commands.

Like Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, Viv should be a technology that works in many different devices from different manufacturers, the founders say. They are going to work with a system of licensing the technology. The Siri founders sold their company to Apple in 2010, making the digital assistant they created only work on Apple’s hardware; they now want to avoid that.

When Viv should come to the market for the first time and whether it will work as promised is still unknown. The company is far from the only one involved in digital assistance: all major mobile platforms currently already have such software from the maker of the operating system itself.