Artificial intelligences like Apple’s Siri have become so ubiquitous in many people’s lives that it’s no wonder the story of Persona 5 Strikers available today on Playstation 4, Switch and PC) has its own AI assistant in the form of EMMA. But what you may not immediately notice is that EMMA is played by the woman who voiced the original Siri.
Susan Bennett is a professional voice actor best known for lending her talents to Apple’s Siri assistant from its inception in 2011 to the iOS 7 update in 2013. Bennett’s voice was recorded in 2005 by a company called ScanSoft, a secret project that she didn’t realize it was for Apple until Siri launched years later. Apple still won’t officially confirm that Bennett is Siri, however a CNN investigation concluded in 2013 with 100% certainty from audio forensic experts that she is the voice of the personal assistant.
Fast forward to today and the release of Persona 5 Strikers outside of Japan. In-game, EMMA has many of the same features as Siri in the real world. It can find nearby stores, set itineraries, create schedules, and can even suggest things like what to bring on a camping trip. The main characters of the teens quickly realize how useful it is and download it on all their phones. An example of EMMA’s voice can be found below (jump to 9:44 if timestamp doesn’t work).
In the spirit of avoiding spoilers for a game released today, I’ll say EMMA will remain an integral part of the story from then on, but Bennett’s work is easy to miss if, like me, you’re playing with Japanese voices . This connection was first brought to my attention by Twitter user resolutionroute, who described Bennett’s hiring by the localization team as “the biggest flex” in her original tweet, and Kotaku has since then confirmed this is the case.
Since recording for Siri in the aughts, Bennett has provided her voice on a variety of projects, with clients ranging from Coca Cola and McDonald’s to Ford and Goodyear. Persona 5 Strikers may be her first major appearance in the video game industry, but she completely nails the “soulless AI that actually has bad intentions” that I think the game is going for with EMMA. I guess its time as Siri prepared her for that.