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Apps & Software

The creators of Siri are back at it again with a powerful new AI [Update]

Update 05/09/16: Viv was publicly demonstrated for the first time at TechCrunch Disrupt NY today, revealing an artificially-intelligent voice command platform that is capable of writing its own code.

Former Siri co-founder Dag Kittlaus said that this capability makes it much easier for Viv to scale than other such technologies as not everything needs to be hard-coded. Instead, Viv will learn and grow in intelligence organically. In one example Kittlaus showed the crowd how Viv wrote a 40-step program in 10 milliseconds, connecting all of the aspects of the convoluted question: “Will it be warmer than 70 degrees near the Golden Gate Bridge after 5pm the day after tomorrow?”

Kittlaus also displayed how Viv can be incorporated in to use with third-party apps, such as Venmo. Kittlaus said it’s easy for developers to plug in to the platform because of its ability to generate its own code— a technology that his team is patenting as “dynamic program generation.”

“Instead of having to write every code instructed, you’re really just describing what you want it to do,” said Kittlaus. “The whole idea of Viv is that developers can go in and build any experience that they want.”

Kittlaus stated in an interview with TechCrunch Editor-in-Chief Matthew Panzarino that early integrations will be coming “later this year.”

Three of the creators of Siri are about to debut a new software called Viv, an advanced AI capable of learning, connecting multiple ideas in one command, and executing personal assistance tasks.

The self-titled “Global Brain” has been in the works for the past four years and will be demonstrated to the public for the first time next Monday at TechCrunch’s Disrupt NY by Siri vets Dag Kittlaus, Adam Cheyer and Chris Brigham.

What differentiates Viv from Siri is its ability to understand complex concepts and actually complete tasks, rather than just providing links. That means that it can do everything a personal assistant would, from ordering food to buying concert tickets, even if your wording isn’t entirely clear.

Cheyer gave WIRED an example: “Google Now has a huge knowledge graph—you can ask questions like ‘Where was Abraham Lincoln born?’ And it can name the city. You can also say, ‘What is the population?’ of a city and it’ll bring up a chart and answer. But you cannot say, ‘What is the population of the city where Abraham Lincoln was born?’”

Viv, on the other hand, will be able to do just that. In fact, according to the team, the remarkably self-sufficient AI will even be able to generate code to perform tasks.

The AI is also an open system, allowing developers to incorporate Viv in to their own applications. So far, Viv has teamed up with over 50 partners including Uber and Grubhub.

With Viv on the horizon it appears that events have transpired just as Kittlaus foretold in his 2012 TechCrunch post: “Siri is only the beginning.”

Related reading: theScore plans to launch sports bot for Facebook Messenger

[source]Wired[/source]

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