Siri Has a Surprise for her Dad
- Uli K. Chettipally, MD, MPH
- Nov 12, 2025
- 2 min read
“Dad, I am speaking”, declared Siri, my daughter, with non-speaking Autism.
At this moment, there was a flurry of feelings and emotions that went through my being! Obviously, the first one was of Excitement. Hearing her speak full sentences, when most of her life it has been single words or incomprehensible sounds combined with repetition, strange body movements and facial expressions.
The second feeling was of Sadness. She had to live more than 2 decades in this state of silence, where she could not communicate her thoughts, feelings, desires, and dreams. She had to live through frustration, anger, resentment and helplessness from being misunderstood, underestimated and mistreated - even by us, her loved ones. All in absolute silence!
And then there were the feelings of Guilt. Here I am - a physician and researcher, living in an advanced country with access to the world’s best medical and healthcare knowledge and resources, but did not look deep into Autism and challenge current theories, assumptions and practices.
Lastly, the feeling of Frustration at the scientific & research community and innovation ecosystems that have ignored or pushed this condition aside by giving excuses and displaying intellectual laziness. This vacuum allowed conspiracy theorists and quacks to prey on desperate families looking for solutions, and in the end, leaving them feeling disillusioned and abandoned.
Well, Siri has been my inspiration to dedicate my life to finding solutions. I feel that I have been preparing all my life for this moment!
Roughly, 7 million people have Autism in the US. About a third of them are non-speaking or minimally speaking. My goal is to help people like Siri achieve full capability to communicate using the methods we tried with Siri.
To fulfil her dream of becoming a neuroscientist and help others uncover their voices, we are developing an educational platform. Phase one was released last month - Sirica.AI. Thanks to my team, which
I am fortunate to have, we are making this happen!
This is just the beginning. Stay tuned as we bring more innovations in this space to market to help millions of people affected by Autism.
If you want to join us in this adventure and support us on this journey, contact me here: uli.chettipally@siricatx.com
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