She was secretly hired to record random phrases without being told why—then her friend made her listen to Apple's Siri
From Alexa to Siri, most of us are used to listening to automated voices from one or more of our devices. But what if one of these voices turns out to be your own? Susan Bennett, a voiceover artist and the woman behind Siri's voice, experienced just that. Bennett shared that she got a gig in 2005 when the iPhone had not even been released. She recorded for "text-to-speech voices" for a "whole month of July" in 2005 without knowing what the recordings would be used for, per her interview with CNN. "[For] four hours a day, I was speaking all kinds of crazy sentences," Bennett said.
"People think that they came up with the phrases that [Siri] speaks. But originally, it was just a bunch of sentences and phrases that were created so that every single combination of vowels and consonants could be spoken." The voiceover artist shared that it was not a usual or "typical" kind of recording that she usually did. She had done a lot of video commercials and narrations, but this was "very different." She pointed out that she had "never" revealed that she was Siri. Until 2013, Apple had not confirmed that she was Siri, per CNN. However, Bennett knew it was her voice, and so did the people who legally represented her. An audio forensics expert with 30 years of experience confirmed it, too. Bennett was paid by the hour for the recording by a software company called ScanSoft. She did her job and moved on with her life until Apple released its iPhone 4S in October 2011.
"A colleague e-mailed me [about Siri] and said, 'Hey, we've been playing around with this new Apple phone. Isn’t this you?'" Bennett went to Apple's website and listened to the recordings announcing Siri and was sure the voice was hers. "Oh, I knew. It’s obviously me. It’s my voice." But as the company had not revealed anything about the voice, finding proof that the voice was hers wasn't easy. "The companies are competing to create the best-sounding and functioning systems. Their concern is driving revenues. Talking about the voice talent, from their perspective, is likely seen as a distraction," Marcus Graham, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of GM Voices, the company that worked with Bennett at that time, told the outlet.
"Most female voices are kind of thin, but she’s got a rich, full voice. Yes, she’s the voice of Siri…She’s definitely the voice," Graham revealed. "I’ve engaged in substantial negotiations – multiple, months-long negotiations – with parties along the economic food chain, so to speak, that involved her rendering services as the voice of Siri. It's as simple as that," Steve Sidman, Bennett's attorney, pointed out. "I believe and I’ve believed this for 30 years, that no two voices are the same. They are identical – a 100% match," Ed Primeau, an audio forensic expert and a member of the American Board of Recorded Evidence, explained. He went as far as to say that it was "100 percent" Bennett's voice.
Even though her voice had been everywhere since she started her career as a voiceover artist in the 1970s, Bennett enjoyed being anonymous as a person. "You have a certain anonymity, which can be very advantageous. People don’t judge you by how you look…That’s been kind of freeing in a lot of ways." She enjoyed working from the soundproof cabin at her home in whatever outfit she chose. Her auditions were done through email. She wouldn't have even thought of coming out as the voice of Siri if her son hadn't pushed her. The voice of Siri was changed with the introduction of iOS 7 in September 2013. As of now, Apple hasn't confirmed the voice of Siri.