Many iPhone 4S users have uncovered some very humorous or quirky responses from Siri, the voice controlled intelligent assistant build into the iPhone 4S. There are even new sites (such as ShitThatSiriSays) that highlight the best of these.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Siri’s attitude was very much planned, and both Apple and Siri put a significant amount of work and thought into developing Siri’s delightful personality. According to Siri co-founder Norman Winarsky:
There were many conversations within the team about whether it should be g”ender neutral” or “should have an ‘attitude,’ ” said Mr. Winarsky, who didn’t go to Apple, and still works at SRI. The result, before the software was bought by Apple, was “occasionally a light attitude”
According to another individual, who actually worked on the Siri project at Apple, the company put considerable focus on ensuring that Siri’s personality remained “friendly and humble — but also with an edge,” and considered how they’d want a person to respond to a given question in developing the software.
The report goes on to claim that the Siri group is one of the largest software teams at Apple, and the carefully designed responses are created to form a emotional tie with customers.