Cambridge-based developer True Knowledge has launched its Evi app, which promises a semantic search engine and an artificial intelligence capable of answering questions, similar to Apples personal assistant app, Siri. The app is available for free on Android, and for £0.69 on iOS. 

Evi enables searching via natural speech – meaning users can speak or type a question as if speaking to a person. Evi – which the developers rather unnervingly insist on calling a she – is an “evolving intelligence”, according to True Knowledge, meaning the more question asked, the better equipped the app will be to answer future questions. Evi is able to understand the desire behind the question, filtering content accordingly and taking the users location into account.

Evi has its own, growing database of nearly a billion facts, but can also use external sources – including as nationalrail.com, Amazon, and Yelp – to present up-to-date information.