The First Voice Behind Siri, Your Virtual PA

Siri is the hilarious virtual personal assistant the World can’t seem to get enough of. Launched with Apple iPhone 4S as it’s “coolest feature,” Siri became famous overnight for her quirky replies.

But a few, maybe the die hard Siri fans knew of its origin.

The voice of Siri initially belonged to 67 year old Susan Bennet from Atlanta, USA and was developed for a research institute SRI International based in Menlo Park. Bennet spent 4 hours a day, five days a week, recording and building a bank of words with the voice recording company GM Voices in 2005.

Usually, voice artists aren’t informed where and how their voices would be used, therefore, she had no idea that her voice would feature in an iPhone someday. While Susan Bennet was the voice behind Siri in the USA, Jon Briggs gave voice to Siri for the British market and Karen Jacobson was the voice for Australia. Susan Bennet now uses her voice for public speaking forums besides doing voice overs.

SRI International launched Siri in the Apple’s App Store in 2010 and was later made an offer for Siri by Steve Jobs and Dag Kittlaus. Siri’s voice was later changed in 2013 with the iOS 7 update with new voices used.

Apple has neither confirmed nor denied whether Susan Bennet among others is the original voice of Siri, and Siri dutifully takes you to a couple of links off of the Internet.