DagKittlaus
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Samsung acquires Viv, an AI platform from the makers of Siri
Just a day after Google revealed its premium Pixel phone and Google Home featuring Assistant AI baked in, Samsung is making a splash by buying up some AI power of its own. Viv Labs was founded by some of the same people behind Apple's Siri technology, who have referred to their new platform as an assistant that's capable of anything. Co-founder and CEO Dag Kittlaus writes in a blog post that "Samsung will drastically accelerate our vision." Samsung says the team will continue to operate independently, but it clearly has an eye towards integrating natural language understanding into its phones, TVs, appliances, VR and everything else.
Insiders claim Siri co-founder Adam Cheyer has left Apple
It's not uncommon for executives of smaller companies to jump ship within a few years of the business selling to a larger firm, whether it's out of entrepreneurial restlessness or unhappiness with the corporate status quo. We don't know which of the two (if any) is a factor with Siri co-founder Adam Cheyer, but tipsters for AllThingsD and Bloomberg still say that he left Apple in June to "pursue other projects." The reported departure follows that of Dag Kittlaus, who quit Apple a year earlier, and should leave the Siri team without the brunt of its early leadership two years after Apple bought the company. Although the impact is uncertain, this doesn't necessarily mean Apple's version of Siri is at risk: along with holding on to any remaining Siri staff, Cupertino will have had a long time to familiarize itself with the code. We'd also take it all with a grain of salt. Apple has declined to comment, and Cheyer's LinkedIn profile still shows him as an Apple employee. Whatever's the truth, the rumor's sources don't have the best timing. [Image credit: Araya Diaz for TechCrunch, Flickr]
Steve Jobs reportedly disliked "Siri" name
Network World's Yoni Heisler attended Technori Pitch in Chicago yesterday, and related a story about Siri that not only sheds new light on the name of Apple's intelligent assistant, but on Steve Jobs' low opinion of the name. Technori Pitch is a monthly meeting where Chicago-based startups can tout what they're working on, and yesterday's speaker was none other than Dag Kittlaus -- one of the founders of Siri. The company was bought out by Apple in April of 2010 for US$200 million, and of course Siri became the outstanding feature of the iPhone 4S. We had always heard that the Siri name was a play on SRI International, the contract research institute founded by the trustees of Stanford University in 1946. Siri was a spinoff company of SRI before its purchase by Apple. However, in yesterday's talk, Kittlaus noted that "...Siri means in Norwegian, 'beautiful woman who leads you to victory.' I worked with a lady named Siri in Norway and wanted to name my daughter Siri and the domain was available. And also consumer companies need to focus on the fact that the name is easy to spell, is easy to say..." Kittlaus, who was the CEO of Siri, was invited to talk with Steve Jobs at one point for three hours at the late Apple CEO's home. Kittlaus noted that Jobs really didn't like the Siri name, but Kittlaus kept pushing him to keep the name. When Jobs couldn't find anything better, he decided to stick with Siri. Similar stories have come up about the naming of the iMac and iPad, both products that were given names that Jobs initially hated but eventually came to like.
An interview with Dag Kittlaus, the man who sold Siri to Apple
It only took one phone call to turn Siri's Dag Kittlaus's life around. Before the call, he was the head of a Silicon Valley startup and afterwards, he was a multimillionaire working with Apple. In an interview with Norwegian publication E24, Dag Kittlaus talks about his time working at Siri, the sale of his company to Apple and his life as an entrepreneur now that Siri has officially launched in iOS 5. In the interview, Kittlaus recalls the sacrifices he and his family made during the early years of Siri. It entailed a risky move to Silicon Valley, little money, long hours at work and lots of time away from his family. He also talks about his brief time at Apple after the acquisition. Unlike most companies which are driven by the bottom line, Apple, he says, is driven by the desire to create the best products in the world. His conversation with reporter Eirik Mosveen is a refreshing, personal look at a Silicon Valley success story. You can read the whole interview on E24's website. [Via 9to5mac]
