Siri. Alexa. Google. Cortana…Digital assistants, born thanks to machine learning and Artificial Intelligence and created by the largest technology companies in the world, have become part of our daily routine, and despite their enormous and unstoppable success, The vast majority of people are unaware of the story behind their names.
In almost every case, other names were considered before the final one that has survived to this day: Cortana was almost called Alyx and Steve Jobs didn’t like the name Siri. In fact, the reason names like Siri, Cortana and Alexa prevailed has often had more to do withwith chance and circumstances than with a particular marketing decision.
On brand and easy to remember. This is what virtual assistants should be called: unique, but with the ability to stick in your memory, easy to pronounce and short in length. The x in the center of Alexa gives it a sonority, while Cortana’s three-syllable cadence makes it easy to memorize thanks to the repetition of the same vowel.
Behind the best known will come others: it is rumored that Samsung’s new assistant will be called Bixby, Nokia is working on its proposal called Viki and Facebook is said to be doing the same with a virtual assistant in beta phase called “M”.
But now, Let’s learn the stories of the world’s most famous digital assistants.
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Alexa
Amazon
The inspiration for its creation came from science fiction, specifically from the Star Trek universe. Its name, according to David Limp, Amazon’s senior vice president, sinks its roots in theintention to evoke the legendary Library of Alexandria of ancient Egypt with a magnetic name
During the Fortune Brainstorm Tech conference, he revealed that the brainstorming session was aimed at building a relevant personality for his Artificial Intelligence assistant. The phonetics of the word accentuate its power and also, It is one of the most “human” names for digital assistants.
As a curiosity, The name “Alexa” ranked 32nd on their list of the 1,000 most popular personal names in 2015with 6,029 newborns sharing a name with Amazon’s assistant for its Amazon Echo device.
Siri
Apple’s Siri is probably the most famous of the digital assistants. It was originally created as part of a massive Artificial Intelligence project by the US military organisation DARPA. “We wanted something easy to remember, short to write, easy to pronounce and not too common, in addition to getting a cheap domain.”, Siri co-founder Adam Cheyer told Quora magazine.
In Norse, Siri means “beautiful woman who leads you to victory” -something that dazzled Siri CEO Dig Kittalus, a Norwegian- while in Swahili it means “secret”something Cheyer loved because of its connection to Apple’s mysteries.
Although Steve Jobs was not a fan of the namethe team could not agree on a better alternative. “It was a big surprise to the team that Apple decided to keep Siri’s original name for its launch as part of iOS”Cheyer said.
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Cortana
Microsoft’s virtual assistant did not seem destined to be named Cortana and the praise of users had a lot to do with its definitive character. In fact, Cortana was simply the internal code name given to the project in its early days. “It was just a code name to start with”recalls Deborah Harrison, an early member of Cortana’s editorial team.
It just so happened that, like many other secret projects, Cortana’s name was leaked, receiving an unexpectedly warm response from consumers to the idea of a digital assistant named Cortana. Fans were so excited that they petitioned Microsoft to keep it. “People are actually willing to buy a Windows Phone if the Personal Assistant is called Cortana” Harrison said.
The Microsoft member points out that the name worked because its cadence is extremely correct for recognition, clearly differentiating itself from other words that the user may be saying near the device. After considering alternatives such as Naomi or Alyx, the company accepted and Cortana debuted publicly in April 2014.
Google Assistant
Google, both with Google Assistant and previously with Google Now, reverses the trend of humanizing digital assistants by naming them after people. His assistant has that theoretically unoriginal or bland name for compelling reasons, as it is part of a much larger strategy.
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With your virtual assistant, The company wants to emphasize its own services and technologynot the concept of an assistant per se. What the tech company wants is for people to think of its assistant as an extension of its search engine and other products, rather than a separate, standalone product with its own personality.
Via | Mashable
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Tags: Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Lists, Apple