

On first hearing the Siri voice coming from an iPhone, he knew straight away it was his mother. While Jacobsen remains anonymous to many of her fans, her five-year-old son has discovered her alter-ego. She is now heard by more people than Olivia Newton John was at the height of her fame.
#Siri voice actress driver#
The Polish driver told me that he liked the accent because it ‘cut through’, and he could hear it clearly.ģ60documentaries examines the world of artificial intelligence and asks how close are we to creating the android that is smarter than us?Īccording to the real life Jacobsen, the Australian accent is popular because ‘it’s the most pleasant and easy to listen to of all the English language accents.’Īs well as being a hit with speakers who learn English as a second language, Jacobsen’s voice has become the default option for Siri on Apple devices in Australia. It was Jacobsen’s voice on the Tom Tom navigation system. I had hired a Polish immigrant as a driver in Johannesburg and I gradually became aware there was another Australian in the car. I first encountered Jacobsen in South Africa in 2009, while making a television documentary. When asked how she would feel if her voice was in one of these robots, Jacobsen says, ‘It would be a bit weird, but I suppose if it hasn’t happened already, it’s inevitable.’
#Siri voice actress skin#
Female 'sexbots' are becoming more lifelike, and the software inside them is being refined alongside improved skin texture and body movements. The development of artificial intelligence systems is also being driven by some very human urges, largely the urges of human males. She has a talent for making street directions sound warm and fuzzy a real life echo of the artificial intelligence voice played by Scarlett Johanssen in the recent Spike Jonze film Her. Jacobsen's charm stems from her ability to make voice recognition systems seem alive to the point where people interacting with them become emotionally involved. Listen: How sci-fi influences future technology Read more: Five reasons you probably won't like 2023 It’s always stories about how we got lost and the time we recalculated.” ‘But I have to say just about every time I meet someone there is that level of familiarity, like I’m a member of their family or someone close to them. ‘When it first started happening it was really a bit bizarre and I thought it was a once off,’ she says. She is often accosted by fans when they recognise her voice.

Jacobsen grew up in the Queensland town of Mackay and is now famous as ‘Australian Karen’, a popular voice on a variety of software systems, from the ubiquitous ‘intelligent personal assistant’ Siri on Apple devices to GPS navigation system Tom Tom. I got the job and I found myself in the studio recording for almost 50 hours for a text-to-speech voice recognition system.’ ‘I read the brief, and I thought, “They’re describing me”. ‘A client was looking for a native Australian voice-over artist, living in the north-east of the United States,’ Jacobsen says. Programs beginning with 0 Programs beginning with A Programs beginning with B Programs beginning with C Programs beginning with D Programs beginning with E Programs beginning with F Programs beginning with G Programs beginning with H Programs beginning with I Programs beginning with J Programs beginning with K Programs beginning with L Programs beginning with M Programs beginning with N Programs beginning with O Programs beginning with P Programs beginning with Q Programs beginning with R Programs beginning with S Programs beginning with T Programs beginning with U Programs beginning with V Programs beginning with W Programs beginning with X Programs beginning with Y Programs beginning with Z.
