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Apple is hiring a Siri Event Maven to make it smarter about cultural events

Apple is hiring a Siri Event Maven to make it smarter about cultural events

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Siri, when is national doggo day?

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Apple is looking to make its Siri assistant a little smarter when it comes to significant, upcoming events. The company has posted a job listing for a position titled “Siri Event Maven,” and the person who eventually fills that role will be responsible for providing “strategic awareness of cultural happenings in the collective zeitgeist.” 9to5Mac first reported on the posting.

Siri is already relatively competent at answering questions around major events — like the classic “What time is the Super Bowl?” — but clearly Apple wants to get a little more comprehensive and will task the future hire with finding events that Siri doesn’t already know about. Apple says “scouring social media and the web” is one way to assemble that list, but applicants should have a strong sense of noteworthy goings-on in the world all on their own. The job description makes that clear:

Do you bring “Wookie Cookies” to the office for "May The Forth Be With You”? Is your favorite holiday "∏ Day” or “Talk like a Pirate Day”? We’re looking for someone to help us keep Siri up to date on all the various events happening around the world. 

And the leading qualification for this job is:

Must consider yourself a maven, trend-setter or Czar of cool. Non-negotiable. :-)

Yes, Apple included the smiley face. The job listing doesn’t really specify what type of events that the company wants Siri to get better at recognizing. Are we talking TV and film? Popular concerts? Maybe Apple wants to help you get a better handle on the constant rotation of “national _____ day” celebrations that pop up across social media.

But as Siri expands to yet another device with the upcoming HomePod speaker — where it’s certain to face direct comparisons with Amazon’s Echo and Google Home — it’s in Apple’s best interest to shore up the assistant’s knowledge of everything hip to avoid any embarrassing misses.