Siri Assistant , Origins in CALO : Cognitive Assistant that Learns and Organizes

Siri based on CALO Project

CALO Project Website: http://caloproject.sri.com/
SRI CALO Website: http://www.ai.sri.com/project/CALO

Summary: "SRI International is leading the development of new software that could revolutionize how computers support decision-makers.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), under its Personalized Assistant that Learns (PAL - download brochure) program, has awarded SRI three phases of a five-year contract to develop an enduring personalized cognitive assistant. DARPA expects the PAL program to generate innovative ideas that result in new science, new approaches to current problems, new algorithms and tools, as well as new technology of significant value to the military.

The team dubbed its new project CALO, for Cognitive Assistant that Learns and Organizes. The name was inspired by the Latin word "calonis," which means "soldier’s servant." The goal of the project is to create cognitive software systems, that is, systems that can reason, learn from experience, be told what to do, explain what they are doing, reflect on their experience, and respond robustly to surprise.

The software, which learns by interacting with and being advised by its users, will handle a broad range of interrelated decision-making tasks that have in the past been resistant to automation. A CALO will have the capability to engage in and lead routine tasks, and to assist when the unexpected happens. To focus the research on real problems and ensure the software meets requirements such as privacy, security, and trust, the CALO project researchers themselves are using the technology during its development.

SRI is leading the multi-disciplinary CALO project team and, beyond participating in the research program, is also responsible for overall project direction, management, and development of prototypes. The project is bringing together leading computer scientists and researchers in artificial intelligence, machine learning, natural language processing, knowledge representation, human-computer interaction, flexible planning, and behavioral studies."

See video at Video.Google: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6477589906894112212

Other Spin offs:
http://www.adapx.com/
http://farecast.live.com/
and Radar Networks, makers of Twine: http://www.twine.com/

CALO presentation at DARPA Tech: http://caloproject.sri.com/DARPATech.pdf
DARPA brochure: http://caloproject.sri.com/PALbrochure.pdf
CALO publications: http://caloproject.sri.com/publications/

Related research efforts include:
"RADAR, the Reflective Agent with Distributed Adaptive Reasoning, is a $7 million dollar, five-year research project in Carnegie Mellon University's School of Computer Science. The overall goal is to develop a software-based "cognitive personal assistant" that will help busy military commanders and managers to work more effectively, with less time wasted on routine tasks. This new technology should be equally valuable to managers in industry, academia, and government. RADAR is funded by the Information Processing Technology Office (IPTO) of DARPA and managed by SRI International." At Carnegie Mellon's Computer Science Department: http://www.radar.cs.cmu.edu/

and

"IRIS is a semantic desktop application framework that enables users to create a “personal map” across their office-related information objects. IRIS includes a machine-learning platform to help automate this process. It provides “dashboard” views, contextual navigation, and relationship-based structure across an extensible suite of office applications, including a calendar, Web and file browser, e-mail client, and instant messaging client." http://www.openiris.org/

Participants include the usual suspects, such as MIT and Harvard, as well as:

CollaborX Inc.
Fetch Technologies, Inc.
iAnyWhere Solutions
International Computer Science Institute (ICSI)
ISX Corporation
Laszlo Systems
Natural Interaction Systems, LLC

See other posts here:

http://majorbenjamintalmadge.blogspot.com/2009/04/siri-assistant-founder-on-linkedin.html

http://majorbenjamintalmadge.blogspot.com/search/label/Siri

Siri Assistant Founder on LinkedIn

http://www.linkedin.com/ppl/webprofile?action=vmi&id=2358359&pvs=pp&authToken=GNqe&authType=name&trk=ppro_viewmore&lnk=vw_pprofile


Summary

Commercializing innovation

Experience
Founder & CEO
Siri

Information Technology and Services industry

January 2008 – Present (1 year 4 months)

Recently launched a venture funded company focused on a truly big innovation for consumer internet.

Coming soon...simplifying life for everyday humans.


Entrepreneur-in-Residence
Stanford Research Institute

Telecommunications industry

June 2007 – December 2007 ( 7 months)

Preparing internet venture for Fall 2007 launch.


General Manager
Motorola

Public Company; Telecommunications industry

August 2002 – May 2007 (4 years 10 months)


Vice President
Telenor Mobile

Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; Telecommunications industry

April 2000 – August 2002 (2 years 5 months)


Education
Handelshøyskolen BI
MBA, Strategy and Marketing

1993 – 1994



From Crunchbase:
http://www.crunchbase.com/person/dag-kittlaus

Siri’s CEO is Dag Kittlaus, who founded the company as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at SRI.

A serial innovator and consumer wireless internet veteran of 10 years in Scandinavia and the US, Dag is working on creating his third consecutive mobile internet product with over a million users.

Dag has held leadership roles as VP of Consumer Internet Services at Scandinavian telecom giant Telenor Mobile, and several consumer product groups at Motorola including GM of xProducts and founder and GM of Motorola’s Interactive Media Group. He conceived and launched Screen3, a breakthrough consumer mobile application currently used by millions of users and adopted by Cingular, China Mobile, and Telefonica.

See also posts here:

http://majorbenjamintalmadge.blogspot.com/2009/04/siri-assistant-origins-in-calo.html

http://majorbenjamintalmadge.blogspot.com/2009/03/siri-ai-assistant-startup.html

Siri - AI Assistant Startup

We have met our share of secretive startups over the years, but few have been as secretive about their plans as Siri, which was founded in December 2007 and did not even have an official name until today. Siri was spun out of SRI International and its core technology is based on the highly ambitious CALO artificial intelligence project. Today, Siri announced that it has raised an $8.5 million Series A financing round, led by Menlo Ventures and Morgenthaler Ventures.

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/semantic_stealth_startup_siric.php

http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/22117/

See also other Major Talmadge posts:

http://majorbenjamintalmadge.blogspot.com/2009/04/siri-assistant-origins-in-calo.html

http://majorbenjamintalmadge.blogspot.com/2009/04/siri-assistant-founder-on-linkedin.html