Jenna DePollo

Professor Malcolm Campbell

WRDS 1104

28 September 2021

Questions Proposal: Writing and Language with the Evolution of Siri

Initial Inquiry Question(s)

How were writing and language used to develop Siri?

Research

In this section, demonstrate that your question(s) is/are researchable by sharing sources

that you used to begin exploring your question(s). Address the following:

● Why is/are your topic question(s) significant? Why is your question worth asking? I

think this question is significant because we all use technology and Siri almost daily.

Learning more about how it all came to be such a big part of society today really

interested me.

● Who else is asking your question(s)? (You can name specific people but also include

what kind of people are asking the same questions. For example, scientists who study

language address this question through research into the various ways different cultures

shape writing.) Others who would be asking this question would be engineers and

people interested in technology. The engineers who created Siri were Adam Cheyer,
 Dag Kittlaus, and Tom Gruber. Adam worked with computers in the ’90s and

created a tablet that responded to verbal commands. Later it would be developed

into Siri. Then bought by Apple. Other companies like Samsung, wanted to keep up

with their competitors and use artificial intelligence. To be able to achieve this, they

would need to have someone to develop the software using language and writing.

Siri uses an Algorithm to answer questions and tasks.

● Where are these questions being asked? Where are the conversations about your topic

happening? (For example, they may be happening in scholarly journal articles or on

social media or in public debates or in other spaces.) The original creators of Siri

created their own company called Viv Labs, which is an artificial intelligence

assistant company and where research and further development takes place. Apple

was asking questions about this topic. When Apple bought Siri, she went from 1

language to multiple languages. New developmental strategies are still being

discovered.

● What implications for the future do your questions have? (In other words, what new

developments are ahead for your topic? What future questions will be asked?) A feature

Siri recently just developed was the ability to read your text messages to you. The

software is constantly developing. Apple is pretty secretive about upcoming plans

and ideas involving their products, but I’m sure they will not stop evolving Siri.

● What do you hope to learn based on the research you’ve done so far? Based on my

research so far I want to learn more about the technical side of how Siri came to be,

and how it is programmed to understand different languages and forms of writing.

 ● Finally, provide a list of at least four sources you used to research your question(s). You

can bullet these and do not have to cite them according to a specific format/style but do

provide hyperlinks if the sources are online. Summarize what you learned from each

source.

● https://www.bigspeak.com/cheyer-kittlaus-siri-viv/

From this source, I learned about the original creators of Siri and how it became part of

Apple’s company.

● https://medium.com/dish/75-years-of-innovation-siri-75244a25c741

From this source, I learned about the evolution of Siri and artificial intelligence.

● https://www.huffpost.com/entry/siri-do-engine-apple-iphone_n_2499165

From this source, I learned more about the evolution of Siri and how she went from one

language to many other languages.

● https://www.tomsguide.com/us/siri-ios-13-improvements,news-30234.html

From this source, I learned about past new editions to Siri that weren’t that long ago, but

we have come so far since then.

Interest in this Topic

Explain why you’re interested in researching your question(s). What is its significance to

you? Use various prompts for freewriting like, “I’m interested in ______ because______” until

you generate meaningful answers. If you have some type of personal connection to the topic,

explain.

I’m interested in learning more about how language and writing were implemented into the

creation of Siri because it seems fascinating and language has always interested me.
Technology is probably the most widely used source used in today’s society, and learning

more about using artificial intelligence to communicate with others is compelling.

Other Topic Questions

Use this section ONLY if you have MORE THAN ONE TOPIC AREA that interests you

and you can’t decide what question(s) you want to research this semester. You can bullet your

questions:

● Alternative question?

● Alternative question?