Did Apple Spill The Beans On Its New Voice Assistant Product 24 Years Ago?

from the not-really,-but... dept

This one is just amusing — so please don’t try to pull any sort of “serious” statement out of it. Apple announced its voice activated Siri assistant feature, which is a bit more advanced than similar attempts at this kind of thing:

It’s definitely a step closer to the science fiction of our past and things like the “Computer” on Star Trek (though, perhaps many steps away from it being that useful). So, the idea itself isn’t that impressive. People have been talking about this kind of holy grail for years. The question was just always when would the technology be good enough to make it work. And, amusingly, it looks like Apple may have predicted the timing much more accurately than anyone could have guessed.

Back in 1987, Apple put out this video showing a future with a tablet-based virtual assistant called the Knowledge Navigator:

But where is the prediction of the timing in there? Well, I’ll let Andy Baio, who figured this all out, handle the explanation:

Based on the dates mentioned in the Knowledge Navigator video, it takes place on September 16, 2011. The date on the professor’s calendar is September 16, and he’s looking for a 2006 paper written “about five years ago,” setting the year as 2011.

And this morning, at the iPhone keynote, Apple announced Siri, a natural language-based voice assistant, would be built into iOS 5 and a core part of the new iPhone 4S.

So, 24 years ago, Apple predicted a complex natural-language voice assistant built into a touchscreen Apple device, and was less than a month off.

Nicely done, Apple of the past.

Filed Under: predictions, siri, voice assistant
Companies: apple