????

????智能語音助手Siri之父對摸不著使用竅門的用戶有話說：Siri靈著呢。

????本周一晚上，Siri之父達格?吉特勞斯在克雷恩公司（Crain）于芝加哥舉辦的科技對話（Tech Talk）問答環節中說：“有些人說Siri不好用，我完全不同意這種觀點。”他對主持人湯姆?瑞恩（他也是Threadless公司的CEO，這家公司主要生產T恤衫）說：“一款產品如果在正確使用的情況下不能在90%的情況下保持正常，根本就沒人會發布這款產品。”

????吉特勞斯并不否認Siri存在問題。去年10月蘋果（Apple）發布了最新款的iPhone 4S智能手機，其中最大的亮點功能就是人機交互語音控制系統“Siri”。不過，它讓許多用戶失望了。人們最經常報怨的是它的應答太慢，而且語音識別能力太差。Siri在發布時罕見地被蘋果打上了“測試版”的標簽，這說明Siri還處在研發階段。另外，據一位曾經的蘋果內部人士告訴《財富》雜志（Fortune），蘋果公司的許多員工“都對Siri感到尷尬。如果喬布斯還活著，Siri一定會讓他瘋掉。”

????自然，吉特勞斯在談話中進行了回擊。他對瑞思說：“使用中偶爾也會出現一些連接問題。當然，肯定有些時候它的應答時間太長了。但是這是個非常復雜的問題，他們正在非常努力地修復它，使它變得完美。我想你會發現，隨著時間的推移，它會變得越來越好。”

????吉特勞斯用了“他們”而并非“我們”，是因為他現在已經不再為蘋果工作了。吉特勞斯最早曾在摩托羅拉（Motorola）供職，2007年，他參與成立了Siri的母公司。2010年4月，蘋果以約2億美元的價格收購了這家公司。后來吉特勞斯搬到了位于庫比蒂諾的蘋果總部，不過在一年半后辭職，也就是大約在Siri被集成到iPhone 4S的時候。經歷了四年的馬不停蹄地研發工作之后，他搬回到老家芝加哥郊區，花更多的時間陪伴家人，創作科幻小說，同時策劃更多的創意。他指出自己與蘋果是和平分手的。

????但對于批評Siri的人，他就不那么友善了。瑞恩念了一段Siri用戶發給克雷恩公司的留言，他說當Siri有效地工作的時候，他還是很喜歡Siri的。只是“有的時候它處理得比較正確，有時卻錯得徹頭徹尾。”吉特勞斯怒不可遏地說：“它不是完美無缺的。”瑞恩只好開玩笑地說：“別把氣撒在讀信的人身上啊，我只是在把這些問題念出來而已。”作為Siri的發明者，他個人很難在感情上接受這些批評，這也無可厚非。吉特勞斯有一半挪威血統，他說“Siri”這個詞在北歐指的是“引導你走向勝利的一個美麗女性”。他甚至想給他的第一個女兒起名叫“Siri”，不料他第一胎生了個男孩。

????The guy who invented Siri has a message for users who can't get the hang of the Apple's virtual personal assistant: She works just fine.

????Dag Kittlaus was speaking at a Crain's Tech Talk Q&A session in Chicago Monday night. "I completely disagree with people who say it doesn't work very well," he told moderator Tom Ryan, CEO of hip t-shirt maker Threadless. "You don't launch a product that isn't into the 90th percentile of working if you're using it properly."

????Kittlaus doesn't deny that Siri has her issues. What Apple (AAPL) touted as the marquee feature of the new iPhone 4S last October, has let many users down. Common complaints have included slow responses and poor speech recognition. Apple launched Siri with a rare Beta label, a tacit admission of work in progress. What's more, one former Apple insider recently told Fortune, that company employees "are embarrassed by Siri. Steve would have lost his mind over Siri."

????Naturally, Kittlaus pushed back during his talk. "You run into some connectivity issues occasionally," Kittlaus told Ryan. "And of course, there are definitely moments where it takes a little bit too long, but it's a very complex problem that they're working very hard at fixing and making it perfect, and I think you'll see it get better and better over time."

????Kittlaus says "they're" instead of "we're" because he no longer works for Apple. In 2007, the former Motorola (MMI) executive helped launch the startup that gave birth to Siri. In April 2010, Apple bought the firm for an estimated $200 million. Kittlaus moved to company headquarters in Cupertino but quit about a year and a half later, around the time Siri was integrated into the iPhone 4S. After four years of nonstop development, he moved back to the Chicago suburbs where he grew up to spend more time with his family, work on a science fiction novel and cook up more ideas. He noted that his split with Apple was amicable.

????But to Siri bashers, he's not as cordial. Ryan read a comment sent to Crain's by a user who said he enjoyed Siri -- when it worked. "Sometimes it gets it right," he read. "Sometimes it flat-out misses." Kittlaus bristled and answered, "It's not perfect," which prompted Ryan to joke, "Don't shoot the messenger. I'm just reading these questions."

????It may be hard to blame Siri's inventor for taking criticism personally. Kittlaus is half Norwegian and says that Siri means "beautiful woman who leads you to victory" in his Nordic tongue. In fact, he wanted to name his first daughter Siri but a son came first.?