Virtual Personal Assistant Leads List of Emerging Technologies for 2009

MIT has announced its annual list of emerging technologies. Known as the TR10, the list was published in the current edition of MIT’s Technology Review. Leading the top ten list is the Intelligent Software Assistant from Siri Inc. which takes Internet search to a completely new level. Adam Cheyer, Siri co-founder and VP of engineering, says Siri isn’t a search engine, it’s a “do engine” which helps users complete tasks rather than just collect information. For instance, Siri, which is connected to multiple online services, can decipher intent from the context of a user’s typed or spoken command to find a mid-priced Chinese restaurant in a specific part of town and make a reservation – all on the basis of that single command. 

The technology on which Siri is based is a military-funded artificial-intelligence project called CALO (cognitive assistant that learns and organizes) that originated at the research institute, SRI International. Cheyer, a project leader at SRI, led a team of engineers in building a consumer version of the software. Colleagues persuaded him to launch a startup based on the prototype. A beta version of the software will be available in the first half of 2009. 

Ever mindful of the failure of previous attempts to create such a virtual personal assistant, Siri founders are being conservatively cautious in early stages. The beta version will be aimed at mobile users and will perform limited and specific functions such as making a restaurant reservation, checking flight status and making weekend plans. 

Cheyer says recent improvements in mobile computer processing power have been essential in launching Siri as a viable consumer offering. Many of CALO’s abilities still can’t be crammed into consumer electronics, but the growing power of mobile phones and increasing speed of networks make it possible to handle some of the processing at Siri’s headquarters and pipe the results back to users. This allows the software to take on tasks that were previously impossible. 

Rounding out the complete list of the TR10 are:

• The $100 Genome
• Racetrack Memory
• Biological Machines
• Paper Diagnostics
• Liquid Battery
• Traveling Wave Reactor
• Nanopiezoelectronics
• HashCache
• Software Defined Networking

Explore the details of these intriguing emerging technologies by reading the story in Technology Review:   

http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/22110/