Ann Syrdal, Who Helped Give Computers a Female Voice, Dies at 74

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/20/technology/ann-syrdal-who-helped-give-computers-a-female-voice-dies-at-74.html

As a researcher at AT&T, she helped lay the groundwork for modern digital assistants like Siri and Alexa.

Dr. Sydral’s research at Bell Labs in speech synthesis was incorporated into AT&T’s Natural Voices, which in 1998 was cutting edge technology. It was later the foundation for the modern Siri and other computer voice systems.