AIM INTERVIEWS

Who are you?

My name is Adam Cheyer and I've been an AI professional for almost 40 years! I've helped start 5 companies, 4 of them AI-related: Siri → Apple (2B+ devices); Viv Labs → Samsung (500M+ devices); Sentient → Cognizant (2M+ CPUs/GPUs); most recently GamePlanner.ai → Airbnb. And I was a founding member of Change.org (500M+ members).

Why did you start Siri? Was there any inspiration?

In 1993, people would load up software on their PC and use it to compute -- there was no network! Before I saw the first web browser (1994, Mosiac), I said "Some day there will be content and services around the world on other people's computers that we will want to discover and interact with." The idea of hyperlinked web documents never occurred to me, I thought everyone would have an AI Assistant to which you could say "I want to know this or do that" and the Assistant would go out and help coordinate getting the job done. So you can think of "Siri" as my first conception of how the web would work.

What was the most surprising thing that happened while working on voice assistants both at Siri and at Viv Labs?

Building voice assistants is a daunting yet worthwhile task, and it was somewhat surprising that we were able to make it work as well as it does! There are millions of words/phrases in a voice assistant's vocabulary and their ambiguity can combine into an unbelievable number of possible interpretations. For instance, if I say "Book a four star restaurant in Boston", you immediately know what I mean. But did you know that there are 13 Bostons in the US? Did you know what "Book" and "Star" are also cities? Which city am I talking about? Did you know "Star Restaurant" is the name of a restaurant, but in this case, I am not talking about a restaurant name? Humans are so good at instantly parsing through all this complexity and ambiguity to arrive at the perfect understanding, so when you try to get a machine to do it, it was a real challenge!

You're also a successful magician, how did you decide to pursue magic professionally? Was it always a dream?

I grew up in a small town (no stoplights!), so there wasn't a lot to do. When I was age 10-14, I would read magic books and magazines, because magicians seemed like real-life superheroes! But then I left it behind as I grew older. When my son became a young teen, he also became interested in magic and it was something we could do together, so I fell in love with it again. Now I've had the opportunity to work with and be friends with some of the best magicians in the world (e.g. David Copperfield, David Blaine, Shin Lim, Yu Hojin, and many more). I say I've performed for Presidents in Palaces, in stadiums for students, and on television for millions. I love my life!

Are there any people or products you particularly admire?

I got to work closely with two of the best tech visionaries of all time:

Doug Engelbart, who pioneered the entire personal computer experience (e.g. mouse, text editors, multiple windows), the web (e.g. hyperlinked multimedia documents distributed around the world), and collaboration technologies (e.g. video conferencing, real-time collaborative document editing), all back in the 1960's. You can find his work by searching for "The Mother of All Demos"...

Steve Jobs, who saw technology waves coming better than anyone else, and who helped revolutionize personal computing with the Mac (mouse, GUI, windows), movies with Pixar, music with iTunes, mobile with iPhone, and even artificial intelligence with Siri.

If you had unlimited resources (time, money, etc.), how would you spend your time?

I already get to live the life I've always wanted! For me, the winning "life recipe" is to find the right mix of purposeful work, family and friends, exercise/sports, and passions (for me, basketball and magic).

What's a message you have for the world?

Life is short and your obligation is to make the most of this gift (= time) you have somehow been granted. Explore your passions and purpose, dream big, and then take small steps towards your goals, showing up every day to move forward while appreciating the journey as you go.