An open-source computing system you command with your voice like Apple’s Siri is designed to spark a new generation of “intelligent personal assistants” for wearables and other devices. It could also lead to much-needed advancements in the datacenter infrastructure to support them. Sirius, built by University of Michigan engineering researchers, is similar to Siri, Microsoft Cortana and Google Now—robust applications that accept voice instructions and questions, interpret them and answer in spoken words.Sirius even uses many of the same “[sophisticated] algorithms,” said Jason Mars, U-M assistant professor of computer science and engineering and co-director of Clarity Lab where Sirius was developed. But unlike its expensive and locked-down commercial counterparts, Sirius is free and can be customized.

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