How Apple's advanced self-learning technologies could make Siri a lot smarter

The assistant wars are in full swing, with Google Assistant and Viv entering the fray and existing players such as Apple's Siri, Microsoft's Cortana, Hound and Google's Now all stepping up fight for consumers' hearts and minds. Apple's rumored Amazon Echo competitor, which VentureBeat believes is a next-gen Apple TV, could blow all the assistants out of the water when it comes to deciphering complex natural language queries. And powering it--VocalIQ, a sophisticate technology Apple acquired back in October 2015. Tech Insider provided an in-depth overview of how VocalIQ could make Siri a lot smarter than it is today. Tech Insider's piece, titled "Apple is working on an AI system that wipes the floor with Google and everyone else," notes that Apple had been testing VocalIQ technology against Siri, Google Now and Cortana. "Users asked each AI questions using normal language, not the robotic commands you're used to using with digital assistants," reads the article.