Sizing up Cortana, Microsoft's answer to Siri

Cortana, the new voice-activated personal assistant for Windows phones, takes its name from an artificially intelligent character in the Halo franchise. The software is expected to launch in beta form later this month or early next, along with the Windows Phone 8.1 update. In a recent interview with the New York Times, Joe Belfiore, corporate vice president of Microsoft's operating system group, promised that Cortana would go far beyond the capabilities of Apple's Siri assistant, to the point that Cortana could even (with permission) comb through a user's e-mail and anticipate any potential travel problems, long before the user recognizes those problems for him- or herself. "Siri is this anthropomorphized character, but Siri doesn't know you personally," Mr. Belfiore told the Times. Does this sound a little creepy?