Apple's Siri Voice Assistant to answer Calls in 2016 - How @IBM's Watson may power Siri AI in Corporate and Enterprise Cloud Heaven

Fancy having a personal Robot answer you phone calls?

Apple plans to do just that with Siri Voice Assistant by making her into a replacement for your Voicemail in 2016 as reported in the article “Apple may enlist Siri to answer your phone calls”, published August 3, 2015 by Lance Whitney, CNET News.

According to reports, making the Siri Voice Assistant answer your incoming phone calls is a feature coming with the next roll-out of iOS 10. Apple Engineers are currently testing this new feature for a 2016 launch.

If true, then it'll make the Siri Voice Assistant the first true AI (Artificial Intelligent), similar to IBM's Watson plan back in May 2014 to answer Voice Calls in a Call Center using Natural Language Algorithms as reported in my blog article entitled “IBM's Watson soon to be a Watson Engagement Advisor in Call Centers - The Internship of Ask Watson 40% faster Search puts Customer Service Agents in Jeopardy at The World’s End”.

So how will this new service work? And is there a connection to IBM?

Apple's Siri Voice Assistant to answer Calls - How the Siri Voice Assistant AI will work

The service would work as follows as explained in the article “Apple is preparing to launch a voicemail service that will use Siri to transcribe your messages”, published Aug. 3, 2015 by James Cook, Business Insider.  

 

1.      Siri Voice Assistant answers you incoming call if you don't pick up your phone, using a Natural Language Algorithms

2.      Siri Voice Assistant would then hold a conversation with the person over the phone

3.      Siri Voice Assistant would use the Apple iCloud to tell the customer preset messages but in a conversational format

4.      Siri Voice Assistant would explain to the user that you cannot answer the phone, again in conversational format

5.      Siri Voice Assistant would then take a message if you decided to leave one

6.      Siri Voice Assistant would then take the caller's voice message and convert it into a Text message

Via the Siri Voice Assistant AI, all Calls would be converted to a simple-to-read Text, with possibly an option to listen to the original Voice Message. That's how it'll work in a Nutshell, expanding on Siri Voice Assistant's ability to just play Voice Messages, as Voicemail-to-Text is a feature neither Google Now nor Microsoft Cortana doesn’t have.

So how does this tie in with IBM? And does this mean that Apple’s planning to launch an MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator) push, basically becoming their own Telecom Network.

Secret behind Siri Voice Assistant AI - How IBM's Watson may be behind Apple

This requires Natural Language algorithms to give Siri Voice Assistant some character, as Siri Voice Assistant is just really an automated Voice Command replacement for manually pressing buttons as explained in my Geezam blog article entitled “Siri and Kinect: Heralds of a coming world free of Remote Controls”. 

But combined with IBM Watson's Natural Language API (Application Interface), it'll make Siri Voice Assistant intelligent enough to answer calls and take messages. In fact, she'll become so “human” to the point that Apple and IBM may start looking into spinning off the Siri Voice Assistant AI as a separate product.

This isn't mentioned in any of the reference articles, merely my educated hypothesis. I believe as more information trickles out, it will be revealed that Apple and IBM are really the force behind making the Siri Voice Assistant Artificially Intelligent.

IBM is currently in a partnership with Apple since July 2015 to make iOS into a secure enough platform for Corporate and Enterprise customers as explained in my blog article entitled  “Apple and IBM for "IBM MobileFirst for iOS – How Apple with IBM Cloud Computing indicates Apple-Microsoft-IBM-Google Deal Possible in the Future”.

From August 2, 2015

In fact, Apple is selling Apple Macbook to be used by some 380,000 employees as their partnership deepens as explained in the article “Over half of IBM’s 380,000 workers could soon be on MacBooks”, published August 5, 2015 By James Vincent, The Verge and “IBM, Apple’s Rival-Turned-Partner, Plans to Help Other Companies Adopt Macs”, published Aug. 5, 2015 by Robert Mcmillan,  The Wall Street Journal.

But IBM has been doing research into Natural Language Artificial Intelligence since I was in High School, starting with Deep Blue as explained in my Geezam blog article entitled “IBM and the Watson”.

IBM’s Watson and Apple’s Siri – VoiceMail Match made in Corporate and Enterprise Cloud Heaven

Back then, IBM had been testing Watson’s bedside manner as it relates to making diagnosis of patient's illness as explained in my blog article entitled “IBM's Watson soon to be a Watson Engagement Advisor in Call Centers - The Internship of Ask Watson 40% faster Search puts Customer Service Agents in Jeopardy at The World’s End”.

This was thanks to a partnership between IBM, Memorial Sloan-Kettering and WellPoint back in May 2014. That initial research set the platform for their push into healthcare and the use of their Natural Language Supercomputer and Cloud Storage business in the Healthcare Sector.

IBM formed a partnership with pharmacy chain CVS Health to make more accurate dispensation of drugs based on a patient’s medical health records, prescriptions, environment, even fitness devices as reported in “IBM Watson Health now counts CVS Health as a partner”, published JULY 30, 2015 by  Jonathan Vanian, Fortune Magazine. 

This means that their services will be coming to some 7,800 pharmacies owned by CVS to not only do preventative healthcare but also help patients get better faster as explained in “CVS pharmacy is bringing IBM's doctor-like supercomputer Watson into its 7,800 stores”, published July 30, 2015 by Julie Bort, Business Insider.

So if IBM is expanding into the Health Sector with Watson, then it can only be imagined that Apple, with whom they already have a business partnership, will have some aspect of Watson in their Siri Voice Assistant AI come 2016.

Heck, maybe they’ll team up to actually make that MVNO counterweight to Google Fi in 2016 as well as described in my blog article entitled “Google's Project Fi Network – How @Google Fi's @Sprint and @TMobile MVNO will force @ATT and @Verizon to join their VoLTE Forces”

After all, in a World where Everything is Possible, it pays to Think Different.