Tom Gruber

Tom Gruber is a product designer and entrepreneur who uses AI technology to augment human intelligence. He was cofounder, CTO, and head of design for the team that created Siri, the intelligent personal assistant that helps you get things done just by asking. When Siri was released by Apple in 2011, it was a watershed moment in the history of Artificial Intelligence, bringing AI to the mainstream user experience. Now an integral part of Apple’s products, Siri is used more than 2 billion times a week in over 30 countries around the world. At Apple for over 8 years, Tom led the Advanced Development Group that designed and prototyped new capabilities for Siri and related products that bring intelligence to the interface.

Tom has also applied AI to support collective human intelligence. His research at Stanford in Artificial Intelligence, particularly ontology engineering, helped lay the groundwork for semantic information sharing and the Semantic Web. He invented HyperMail, the open-source software that turns email conversations into collective memories; HyperMail and its progeny have helped to create a dynamic conversational history of the Web. He was founder and CTO of Intraspect Software, which pioneered the space of Collaborative Knowledge Management — software that helps large communities of professionals contribute to and learn from a collective body of knowledge. He designed and built built RealTravel, a Collective Knowledge System where travelers from around the world share their experiences. Tom has served as an advisor to LinkedIn, SocialText, Mindjet, Radar Networks, Powerset, and the Internet Archive.

He is passionate about underwater photography and ocean conservation.