WASHINGTON – As she spent July of 2005 holed up in her home recording booth, Susan Bennett never knew that her voice would become one with a famous personality: Siri, Apple’s voice-activated virtual “assistant.”
Apple won’t confirm that Bennett is the voice of Siri. But she says she is, according to CNN, and is backed up by others that include an audio forensics expert.
Before the iPhone was ever introduced, Bennett, a voiceover professional, signed a contract with the software company ScanSoft to make recordings that would be used in a database to construct speech, CNN reports.
For four hours a day, she recorded phrases and sentences that were synthesized into longer combinations. In 2011, after Apple’s iPhone 4S was introduced, Bennett says she learned her voice had been used for Siri’s responses.
“Oh, I knew,” she tells CNN. “It’s obviously me.”
Bennett’s career includes being the voice of the first ATM and the voice that says, “Thank you for using Delta Airlines.”
But she didn’t realize she would become Siri. She says when she first realized she was the voice, it was a bit “creepy.”
Her relationship with Siri since has changed.
“She and I are friends now.”
Bennett talks more about Siri in this CNN video:
