Apple wants to hire someone to help Siri be hip with the times
'Siri, how many days until Pi Day?'
As the Apple HomePod inches ever closer to release, it looks like Apple is also working to make Siri a much more interesting digital assistant to have around the home.
Apple posted a job listing today seeking a "Siri Event Maven." According to the requirements, this specialist will help plan Siri's "understanding of events for the year" and "provide strategic awareness of cultural happenings in the collective zeitgeist."
It appears that Apple is looking to boost Siri's understanding of special occasions beyond the usual major holidays. In fact, the posting specifically mentions sillier pop culture holidays like "Talk Like a Pirate Day" and "May the Fourth Be With You", aka "Star Wars Day."
Should you be interested in applying, know that Apple requires applicants to be a "Czar of cool" in addition to the usual prerequisites, but no pressure or anything.
Smarter Siri in more ways than one
While we imagine it won't be as useful as, say, playing music or calling a friend, knowing a bit about special events could go a long way to make Siri seem more 'fun,' especially compared to competitors like Amazon Echo's Alexa and Google Home's Google Assistant.
Additionally, we can see a solid foundation of current events be built up to cover more user-specific occasions such as cultural events or religious celebrations.
From there, it's also possible Siri could one day learn major events relevant to a user's interest, like an upcoming gaming convention or the release of an eagerly anticipated movie.
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In the meantime, we just look forward to seeing more third-party apps work with Siri with the release of iOS 11. Whether or not it knows when BlizzCon 2017 or Avengers: Infinity War comes out, however, will be a pleasant bonus.
Via 9to5Mac
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