{"id":2838,"date":"2014-10-18T12:28:31","date_gmt":"2014-10-18T16:28:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/tatar\/?p=2838"},"modified":"2014-10-18T12:28:31","modified_gmt":"2014-10-18T16:28:31","slug":"siri-and-other-sidekicks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/tatar\/2014\/10\/18\/siri-and-other-sidekicks\/","title":{"rendered":"Siri and Other Sidekicks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/tatar\/files\/2014\/10\/19JPSIRI-blog427.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-2839\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/tatar\/files\/2014\/10\/19JPSIRI-blog427.jpg\" alt=\"19JPSIRI-blog427\" width=\"427\" height=\"732\" srcset=\"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/tatar\/files\/2014\/10\/19JPSIRI-blog427.jpg 427w, https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/tatar\/files\/2014\/10\/19JPSIRI-blog427-175x300.jpg 175w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 427px) 100vw, 427px\" \/><\/a><\/strong>Here&#8217;s Judith Newman on the friendship that has developed between Siri and her autistic son, Gus.<\/p>\n<p><em>It&#8217;s not that Gus doesn\u2019t understand Siri\u2019s not human. He does \u2014 intellectually. But like many autistic people I know, Gus feels that inanimate objects, while maybe not possessing souls, are worthy of our consideration. I realized this when he was 8, and I got him an iPod for his birthday. He listened to it only at home, with one exception. It always came with us on our visits to the Apple Store. Finally, I asked why. \u201cSo it can visit its friends,\u201d he said.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2014\/10\/19\/fashion\/how-apples-siri-became-one-autistic-boys-bff.html?hp&#038;action=click&#038;pgtype=Homepage&#038;version=LargeMediaHeadlineSum&#038;module=photo-spot-region&#038;region=top-news&#038;WT.nav=top-news<\/p>\n<p class=\"story-body-text story-content\"><em>The developers of intelligent assistants recognize their uses to those with speech and communication problems \u2014 and some are thinking of new ways the assistants can help. According to the folks at SRI International, the research and development company where Siri began before Apple bought the technology, the next generation of virtual assistants will not just retrieve information \u2014 they will also be able to carry on more complex conversations about a person\u2019s area of interest. \u201cYour son will be able to proactively get information about whatever he\u2019s interested in without asking for it, because the assistant will anticipate what he likes,\u201d said William Mark, vice president for information and computing sciences at SRI.<\/em><\/p>\n<aside class=\"marginalia comments-marginalia  selected-comment-marginalia\">\n<header>\n<p id=\"story-continues-6\" class=\"story-body-text story-content\"><em>The assistant will also be able to reach children where they live. Ron Suskind, whose\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/ronsuskind.com\/books\/life-animated\/\">new book, \u201cLife, Animated,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0chronicles how his autistic son came out of his shell through engagement with Disney characters, is talking to SRI about having assistants for those with autism that can be programmed to speak in the voice of the character that reaches them \u2014 for his son, perhaps Aladdin; for mine, either Kermit or Lady Gaga, either of which he is infinitely more receptive to than, say, his mother. (Mr. Suskind came up with the perfect name, too: not virtual assistants, but \u201csidekicks.\u201d)<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"story-body-text story-content\">\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/header>\n<\/aside>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; Here&#8217;s Judith Newman on the friendship that has developed between Siri and her autistic son, Gus. It&#8217;s not that Gus doesn\u2019t understand Siri\u2019s not human. He does \u2014 intellectually. But like many autistic people I know, Gus feels that inanimate objects, while maybe not possessing souls, are worthy of our consideration. I realized this [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2125,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/tatar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/tatar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/tatar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/tatar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2125"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/tatar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2838"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/tatar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2838\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2840,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/tatar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2838\/revisions\/2840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/tatar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/tatar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/tatar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}