Adam Cheyer is a co-founder of Siri, a virtual assistant that is part of Apple Inc.’s iOS, iPadOS, macOS, audioOS, watchOS, tvOS, and operating systems. Siri uses voice queries and a natural-language user interface to make recommendations, answer questions, and perform actions by assigning requests to a set of Internet services.
Education
Adam Cheyer graduated from Brandeis University, with a bachelor’s degree in computer science in 1988, and a master’s degree in computer science and artificial intelligence from UCLA in 1993. Cheyer was the winner for “Outstanding Masters Student” award for the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) at UCLA.
Early career
In September 1987, Cheyer first worked as a senior software engineer at Bull, SA, where he was responsible for the implementation of the core inference engine of NOEMIE, an expert tool that automates the configuration of all hardware and software orders from a product line of more than thirty thousand parts.
In July 1993, Cheyer first worked at SRI International as a senior computer scientist in Artificial Intelligence Center. Cheyer was the primary inventor of a new approach to building complex, dynamic systems, called Delegated Computing. Cheyer was the leader of a research group focusing on distributed agent architectures and advanced user interfaces for web services. Cheyer also managed successful projects for government and commercial clients totaling several millions of dollars in research and development. Cheyer was the principal designer and developer of the Open Agent Architecture (OAA), a framework for constructing distributed applications using a dynamic community of software agents.
In February 1999, Cheyer got promoted to become a co-director in Computer-Human Interaction Center, where he was responsible for providing research direction for SRI’s advanced user interface group, comprised of eleven research staff and eight international visitors; and left the company in November 1999.
Soon after, Cheyer became the senior director in Advanced Products and Strategy at Verticalnet, Inc., where he helped manage a multi-disciplinary team of business analysts, software engineers, and research scientists, leading VerticalNet’s advanced technology strategy and development. Responsible for the vision, implementation, and commercialization of the Open Services ManagementTM platform, a new infrastructure based on technologies for just-in-time integration and advanced coordination of web services.
After more than a year, Cheyer became the vice president in engineering. Cheyer was responsible for managing VerticalNet’s distributed development teams creating products for deployments totaling more than $100M of committed revenue.
In January 2002, Cheyer worked at Dejima, Inc. as vice president. In January 2002, Cheyer worked at Dejima, Inc. as vice president. At Dejima, Cheyer was responsible for all aspects of development for Dejima’s product line, including product management, engineering, and engineering services (QA, Training, Support, Technical Publications, IT). Dejima’s products include a carrier-grade application server for deploying highly scalable and available Dejima applications; a suite of integrated development tools supporting a patented approach to software engineering; and various applications providing “Direct Access” to consumer and enterprise content and services.
After Dejima, Cheyer became a program director at SRI International in April 2003. Cheyer was the Chief Architect of the CALO/PAL project, an ambitious effort to create a next-generation personal cognitive assistant. Cheyer was responsible for managing all technical deliverables of this 300-person, $33M/year project, leading a team integrating state-of-the-art AI technologies from 25 research institutions, universities, and commercial companies, into a functioning system that can provide user value and show improvement on a set of yearly SAT-like tests.
Cheyer was also a founding member and advisor at Change.org in 2006 and a co-founder and advisor at Sentient Technologies (formerly known as Genetic Finance).
Siri
In December 2007, Cheyer co-founded Siri, a virtual assistant that is part of Apple’s operating systems, along with Tom Gruber and Dag Kittlaus. It is a spin-off from a project first created by the SRI International Artificial Intelligence Center. Its speech recognition engine was produced by Nuance Communications, and Siri applies advanced machine learning technologies to function.
Around 2005, its original American, Australian, and British voice actors recorded their voices, unaware of the recordings’ eventual usage in Siri. The voice assistant was launched in February 2010, as an app for iOS and it was bought by Apple two months later. In October 2011, Siri was then integrated into iPhone 4S at its release.
The separate app was also excluded from the iOS App Store. Siri has since become an essential component of Apple’s products, having been changed into other hardware devices over the years, including the newly released iPhone models, as well as iPod Touch, iPad, AirPods, Mac, HomePod, and Apple TV.
In 2012, Adam left the Siri team and founded Viv Labs, which was acquired by Samsung in 2016. Cheyer was also a keynote speaker at the 2016 Congress of Future Science and Technology Leaders.
Founding rounds
In October 2008, Siri raised $8.5 million in a Series A round, co-led by Morgenthaler Ventures and Menlo Ventures. SRI International has also joined this round. In November 2009, Siri raised $15.5 million in a Series B round from existing investors, including SRI International, Morgenthaler Ventures, and Menlo Ventures. Other investors include Li Ka-shing and Horizon Ventures.
Siri has raised a total of $24 million in funding over two rounds. Siri has $36.6 million in estimated revenue annually. Siri competes with Blue Tornado and DigitalGenius.