Apple Virtual Personal Assistant app to be a "computing paradigm shift"

It was all the way back in February of 2010 when the folks at Siri introduced their original Assistant app for iPhone, and just one month later when their company was acquired by Apple. This week (tomorrow, as it were,) Apple is expected to release its very own version of the intelligent assistant interface with its newest iteration of the iPhone, this newest version made to work hand-in-hand with the newest iPhone's powerful A5 processor. Siri co-founder Norman Winarsky spoke with 9to5mac this week about the soon-to-be-released software, calling it world-changing and making no effort to hide the idea that it's coming soon, very soon.

Winarsky goes into a little bit of detail on what the iOS 5-standard Assistant app will be holding, and notes that although the original software from Siri does work on handsets as old as the iPhone 3GS, "all kinds of optimizations and shortcuts" had to be made to make it work correctly back then. This newest version, Winarsky says, will run "much better" on the newest-generation iPhone device. "World-Changing" is what Winarsky is saying this newest technology will be, certainly not holding back any punches about what he thinks it'll mean for technology and computing:

"Make no mistake: Apple's 'mainstreaming' Artificial Intelligence in the form of a Virtual Personal Assistant is a groundbreaking event. I'd go so far as to say it is a World-Changing event. Right now a few people dabble in partial AI enabled apps like Google Voice Actions, Vlingo or Nuance Go. Siri was many iterations ahead of these technologies, or at least it was two years ago. This is REAL AI with REAL market use. If the rumors are true, Apple will enable millions upon millions of people to interact with machines with natural language. The PAL will get things done and this is only the tip of the iceberg. We're talking another technology revolution. A new computing paradigm shift." – Winarsky

The video that follows is of the original Siri app, certainly a window into what will be and MORE come the full Apple-centric version this week:

This Virtual Personal Assistant will almost certainly be a main point at tomorrow's big iPhone event, and you can be sure you'll get the whole scoop here on SlashGear in the main news feed as well as in our Livecast: Apple "Let's Talk iPhone" Event – Oct 4th, 2011, starting at 10AM PT. Be there or be square!

[via 9to5mac]