Siri will sound more human on iOS 10

Next month, when iOS 10 is released, you might notice a change in Siri's voice. According to a report that cites the head of advanced development for Siri, Tom Gruber, machine learning will help Siri sound more human and less robotic. Apple's virtual personal assistant accesses words recorded in a database and strings them together to form sentences.

Siri's cadence and voice has become almost a trademark of the iPhone and iPad, and has been used on various television shows and commercials. Back in 2013, we told you about Susan Bennett who claims to be the original voice of Siri. Bennett's voice was recorded back in July 2005 as she spoke nonsensical phrases and words. The pitch was adjusted in order to change the sound. In July 2014, Apple moved Siri's voice recognition to a neural net, which greatly improved the assistant's ability to understand what is being asked by users. This change was made on the sly by Apple, which had kept the news quiet until today's report.


We might have a clue as to when Apple will make this change. The other day, Barbara Streisand complained to Apple CEO Tim Cook about the way Siri called her "Streizand." According to the star, Cook told her that this would be taken care of with an iOS update on September 30th.

source:  Backchannel via AppleInsider