Susan Bennett, a voice actor from Atlanta, claims she is the voice behind Siri.
Looks like Siri found her human side.
An Atlanta woman claims she was the popular voice behind Apple’s digital assistant until she was dropped with the recent operating system upgrade.
Susan Bennett, a veteran voice actor, told CNN she has stayed silent about her role as Siri’s voice since she first learned about with the software’s launch in 2011.
“A colleague emailed me (about Siri) and said, ‘Hey, we’ve been playing around with this new Apple phone. Isn’t this you?’” she told the network.
Bennett, who did not own the smartphone, went online and listened to clips announcing the groundbreaking technology, and she knew it was her.
“It’s obviously me,” she said. “It’s my voice.
“I really had to weigh the importance of it for me,” she told the news station. “I wasn’t sure that I wanted that notoriety, and I also wasn’t sure where I stood legally. And so, consequently, I was very conservative about it for a long time.”
But she changed her mind when Apple announced its new operating system, iOS7 — which included new Siri voices — and The Verge, a technology news outlet, posted a video that suggested another woman was behind the original iconic voice.
KAREN BLEIER/AFP/Getty Images
Bennett claims she was the voice of Apple’s digital assistant Siri until the company launched a new operating system that features different voices for the software.
“And it seemed like everyone was clamoring to find out who the real voice behind Siri is, and so I thought ‘Well, you know — what the heck? This is the time,’” she said.
Bennett said she recorded snippets of her voice during several four-hour sessions at her home recording studio in 2005. She said that her frustration in recording the nonsensical phrases and sentences may have made her sound impatient.
“That’s one of the reasons why Siri might sometimes sound like she has a bit of attitude,” she said. “Those sounds might have been recorded in the last 15 minutes of those four hours.”
Tight-lipped Apple officials would not deny or confirm Bennett’s claim, but CNN hired a veteran audio forensics expert who said the voices are “identical.”
“I understand the importance of accuracy,” the expert, Ed Primeau, told the news station. “Rest assured: It’s 100% Susan.”
Bennett’s 36-year-old son, Cameron, said he grew up listening to his mother’s voice used for different technologies — but he was shocked when he heard her voice in commercials featuring Martin Scorsese and Samuel L. Jackson.
“She’s part of history,” he said. “It was funny trying to explain to her how big it was. She uses her cellphone for 8% of what it can do.”
