Skip to main content

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

Loose lips won’t sink Snips, a new Siri competitor that promises privacy

ai snips private by design app
Image used with permission by copyright holder
Looking to outsource your brain? Artificial intelligence is already getting close, and we may be even closer with Snips, a mobile AI company from the collective minds of three Ph.D.’s. Today, the company launched its AI platform for iOS, claiming to be the only technology of its kind that is “private by design.”

While technology’s primary goal seems to be making our lives easier, that convenience often seems to come at the price of security. But with Snips, the founders say that the platform’s design ensures that a user’s personal data never leaves their device, and more importantly, that no one — including Snips — can collect any sensitive information. This means that the user and the user alone has full control of his or her data.

The platform is meant to mimic the human brain, drawing inspiration from the way in which our memory stores information. Snips organizes and links data, making it searchable and anticipating your needs, the company claims. From remembering the name of your favorite coffee shop to helping you book an Uber with a single tap, Snips hopes to take all the legwork out of … well, life, it seems. And thanks to Snips’ machine learning technology, the platform gets smarter every day, recalling more information more accurately, the more frequently it’s used.

So how does Snips differ from other AI platforms and virtual assistants? According to the company, there are two major differentiating factors.

“First of all, Snips is working on building out the memory of AI first and foremost, using machine learning technology to build and understand connections,” Snips told Digital Trends. “AI like Siri have been focused more on building out the language of AI, which in the absence of a strong memory of connection leaves much to be desired (think about the fact that when you ask Siri “take me home” she just Googles that phrase rather than really understanding what you mean).”

But perhaps more importantly, Snips notes, its platform is “private by design, which means that while it’s building all of these connections, the information is being stored locally on your device.” Unlike Siri, which stores information it pulls remotely on Apple’s servers, Snips claims to be the only AI to avoid remote or cloud-based servers for storing the personal information the program is collecting, which means not even the Snips team can access your information.

“I strongly believe in a future where Artificial Intelligence will manage technology for us, allowing people to live their lives with the feeling of being unplugged,” said Rand Hindi, founder and CEO of Snips. “This is where AI is headed, and Snips is the first installment of that future. By focusing on building out the memory of your personal AI, we can make it actually understands what we want and can thus become ubiquitous.”

Download for iOS

Lulu Chang
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Fascinated by the effects of technology on human interaction, Lulu believes that if her parents can use your new app…
Trifo’s Lucy robot vacuum won’t run over poop, doubles as a security system
Lucy vacuum robot top

It's 2020, so it's about time robots started becoming more useful additions to our home. It looks like one particular robot is going to fulfill some of our futuristic fantasies. Trifo, a home robotics company, unveiled its latest robot on Thursday, January 2. Its name is Lucy and its basically a super-smart robot vacuum and a security system. Lucy will be strutting its stuff at CES 2020, though there's no word as of yet of when the robot will be available for purchase.

“Revenue for smart home products globally will grow to $28.4 billion in 2020, up 54% from $18.5 billion in 2018, and the feature set of these devices continues to improve,” Trifo founder and CEO Zhe Zhang said in a statement. “Lucy reflects the evolution of our products from robot vacuums to AIoT-enabled home robots that can assist with a wide range of features that help people with their life and work.”

Read more
Alexa and Siri can’t understand the tone of your voice, but Oto can
oto voice intonation ai call center mouthpiece

Speech-recognition technology is everywhere these days, most notably in A.I. smart assistants such as Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri, and Google's Assistant. But as anyone who has ever had a conversation IRL (in real life) will know, speech isn’t just about the words that a person says, but the tone of voice in which they say them. It’s one reason that text-based conversations online can be such a nightmare, since the basic words themselves don’t allow for sufficient nuance to always convey a person’s meaning.

One exciting startup looking to inject more understanding into speech recognition is Oto, a spinoff from the prestigious SRI International, which helped spawn Siri more than a decade ago. Oto is working on voice-intonation technology that will, at least initially, enable call centers to better understand the vocal emotions of callers and sales agents alike.

Read more
AT&T just made it a lot easier to upgrade your phone
AT&T Storefront with logo.

Do you want to upgrade your phone more than once a year? What about three times a year? Are you on AT&T? If you answered yes to those questions, then AT&T’s new “Next Up Anytime” early upgrade program is made for you. With this add-on, you’ll be able to upgrade your phone three times a year for just $10 extra every month. It will be available starting July 16.

Currently, AT&T has its “Next Up” add-on, which has been available for the past several years. This program costs $6 extra per month and lets you upgrade by trading in your existing phone after at least half of it is paid off. But the new Next Up Anytime option gives you some more flexibility.

Read more