Siri is a virtual assistant packaged into the iPhone 4S and is being hailed as proof that speech recognition and artificial intelligence are ready for prime time.

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Ever since age 14, the 65-year-old inventor of everything from music synthesizers to speech recognition systems has aimed to create a true artificial intelligence, even going so far as to predict that machines would match human intelligence by 2029.

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In consequence, the applause was muted when, in his second inaugural speech, Brown bragged that his administration was building an artificial river down the spine of the state and mightily expanding the greatest system of public colleges and universities in the world.

ECONOMIST: American politics