Fascinating look at the making of Siri, the contextually-aware personalized assistant acquired by Apple a few months ago, with several good takeaways for how ATS can successfully commercialize our government developed technologies.
Siri was created at SRI as part of DARPA-funded research into machine learning and AI. SRI took a deliberate approach to evaluating the commercial potential for the government technology it was creating. They had institutionalized processes for identifying commercial potential. They conducted external reviews with and collected feedback from the investor community. And they were adept at partnering with outside experts who could “bring to life” – achieve meaningful commercial traction – the early-stage technology being developed on DARPA’s dime.
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