Tucked away in an assuming building in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a small Apple team has been working on the future of Siri.
And that team is growing. A new report reveals that Apple is leasing a big new office and hiring away from competitors. It’s obvious that Siri will only be getting smarter in the future.
“On the eve of its next big product announcement, Apple is expanding its super-secret research office in Kendall Square,” reports BetaBoston. “Several commercial realtors tell me that the Cupertino company has leased more than half a floor at One Broadway, an MIT-owned building that also houses Facebook’s small local team, several venture capital firms, and the Cambridge Innovation Center.”
The 13,000 square-foot office space could fit around 65 people comfortably. It will be Apple’s third office lease in the building, each of which has gotten progressively bigger.
Apple has been hiring experts away from Nuance, a current Siri partner, and even Amazon.
Earlier this summer, Wired reported that Apple is working to cut Nuance out of the picture entirely and bring all vocal recognition technology in-house.
Alex Heath is a journalist who works for Tech Insider. He’s the former co-host of The CultCast. He has been quoted by the likes of the BBC, KRON 4 News, and books like “ICONIC: A Photographic Tribute to Apple Innovation.” He lives in Lexington, Kentucky. If you want to pitch a story, share a tip, or just get in touch, additional contact information is available on his personal site. Follow him on Twitter.
5 responses to “Apple growing secret team in Cambridge to make Siri smarter”
Maybe Apple should leverage its new relationship with IBM to enhance Siri’s capabilities.
I agree. Apple should take advantage of Watson if IBM is willing to lease out the technology. Apple could afford to give IBM quite a bit of money to set up some sort of a Watson/Siri server. That would stop Google’s boasting once and for all. I know darn well Google isn’t trying to compare Google Voice to Watson’s capabilities as it does with Siri. Watson and Siri might be a match made in heaven. I don’t know if Apple’s wearable device uses Siri but adding Watson to the mix would make Apple’s wearable highly desirable.
As an Aussie, Siri is just garbage. Until the accent thing can be sorted its totally useless :(
As a South African, I generally don’t have an issue with the accent (she understands 90% of what I say), but there’s zero location services via Siri over here.
“unassuming”?