Unveiling AI Secrets: Discover the Origins of Names Like Claude, Siri, and Grok

Claude, Sora, Midjourney, DALL·E… These artificial intelligence names have become familiar in just a few months. But do you know where they come from? From literary references to scientific tributes and creative wordplays, here’s the story behind the names that shape the era of generative AI.

Claude: Tribute to the Father of the Digital Age

Claude Shannon (1916-2001), an American mathematician and engineer, is regarded as the father of information theory. Anthropic named its AI assistant after him, as reported by the New York Times. This choice, publicly confirmed by the company, is significant: Shannon laid the mathematical groundwork for information transmission, a fundamental pillar for today’s AI operations. It’s a nod to the theoretical origins of modern AI.

Sora: The Sky is the Limit

When OpenAI unveiled its video generation model in 2024, the chosen name, Sora, which means “sky” in Japanese (空), piqued immediate interest. According to the New York Times, the team selected this name to symbolize “unlimited creative potential”. This poetic metaphor suggests boundlessness, akin to a limitless sky. The selection of a Japanese word reflects a growing trend among tech companies to draw from diverse linguistic cultures.

Midjourney: In the Midst of a Taoist Journey

The origin of the Midjourney name is one of the most philosophical. David Holz, the company’s founder, explained in an interview that the name comes from his “favorite translation of an ancient Taoist text,” the Zhuangzi. “I like the word ‘midjourney’ because it’s easy to forget the past, and it’s easy to feel lost and uncertain about the future. But more than anything, I feel that we are truly in the midst of the journey”, he stated, adding: “We come from a rich and beautiful past, and ahead of us lies a wild and unimaginable future.” This reference to Taoist philosophy reflects a view of humanity positioned between its history and its technological future, literally “in the midst of the journey.”

DALL·E: Where Salvador Dalí Meets Wall-E

The name DALL·E, used by OpenAI’s former image models, appears to be a clever play on words that merges two worlds. On one side, Salvador Dalí, the Spanish surrealist master known for his dreamlike and quirky works. On the other, WALL-E, the endearing robot from the Pixar animated film. Various sources, including Martech Zone, suggest this blend symbolizes the merging of surrealist art with creative technology. The middle dot in “DALL·E” visually echoes that in “WALL-E,” reinforcing this connection with the Pixar character.

Grok: Understanding Like a Martian

Elon Musk, a notable science fiction enthusiast, reflects this in the name of his AI, Grok. The term was coined by writer Robert A. Heinlein in his classic novel Stranger in a Strange Land (1961). In the book, a human raised on Mars uses this word to describe a profound and intuitive understanding, far beyond mere intellectual comprehension.

Musk also received the Heinlein Prize in 2011 and described it as “one of the best prizes I have ever received”. According to Al Jazeera, Heinlein originally designed “grok” to mean “drink” in Martian, but in a deeper sense: to absorb something so completely that it becomes part of you. The word has since been incorporated into English dictionaries as a verb meaning “to understand deeply and intuitively.”

I am also inspired by The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams, ed.) for its witty and exploratory style, and by JARVIS in Iron Man for its helpful and intelligent assistance – all while prioritizing truth and utility, explains Grok, modestly.

Poe: The Open Exploration Platform

Behind this concise name lies an acronym: “Platform for Open Exploration.” According to several sources, including MakeUseOf, this is the official meaning of Poe, the chatbot from Quora. However, some users speculate on a possible reference to Edgar Allan Poe, whose most famous poem, The Raven (The Crow), features a bird that repeatedly echoes what it hears. A metaphor applicable to chatbots?

DeepSeek: Deep Quest in Chinese

The name of the Chinese startup that made waves in early 2025 is more literal than it appears. In Chinese, DeepSeek is written 深度求索, which translates literally as “deep quest” or “profound search.” A name that reflects the ambition of the company founded in Hangzhou in 2023 by Liang Wenfeng: to delve deeply into the possibilities of artificial intelligence, even with limited resources.

Perplexity: From Confusion to Clarity

The name of this AI search engine is a technical nod. Perplexity is a mathematical measure used in natural language processing and machine learning to assess the quality of a probabilistic model. A low perplexity score indicates that a model predicts data well; it is “less perplexed” or “less confused.”

According to the French Wikipedia page for Perplexity AI, “this name reflects Perplexity AI’s goal of reducing uncertainty and perplexity for users by providing them with precise and sourced answers”. A choice that transforms a technical concept into a marketing promise: reducing confusion about information.

When Llama Gets Angry, It Always Does So

Meta opted for a clever acronym for its model: “Large Language Model Meta AI” (LLaMA). The choice of this acronym is not by chance. It corresponds perfectly to the English word “llama” (the South American camelid), making the name far more memorable than a mere sequence of technical terms.

According to the French Wikipedia page, “this resemblance is likely intentional for better memorability”. Proof? This choice has inspired other open-source projects like Alpaca, a chatbot based on LLaMA, with the alpaca also being a camelid from South America.

Firefly: Adobe’s Spark of Inspiration

Adobe has not officially communicated about the origin of the name Firefly (firefly, in English). However, the choice naturally evokes light, creative illumination, and magic. Fireflies, with their ability to produce their own light, symbolize inspiration and creative potential, values that Adobe evidently wishes to associate with its image and content generation tool launched in 2023.

Suno: Listen in Hindi

The name Suno means “listen” in Hindi (सुनो). A perfectly fitting choice for an AI-based music generator. Founded in 2023 in Cambridge (Massachusetts) by four former employees of the startup Kensho, Suno quickly gained popularity thanks to its ability to generate complete songs with lyrics and instrumentation, though not without some controversies.

Siri: The Beautiful Norwegian Leading to Victory

The name Siri, used by Apple’s assistant, has its roots in Scandinavian culture. Dag Kittlaus, co-founder of the startup Siri Inc. (established in 2007 before its acquisition by Apple in 2010 for 200 million dollars), is an American of Norwegian descent. He chose this first name in honor of a former Norwegian colleague, but also because he initially intended to name his daughter Siri… who turned out to be a boy.

In Norwegian, Siri is a diminutive of Sigrid, derived from the Old Norse meaning “beautiful woman who leads to victory” (from sigr = “victory” and fríðr = “beautiful”). According to The Week, Adam Cheyer, co-creator of Siri, also liked the name for another reason: in Swahili, “siri” means “secret,” a nod to their stealth development phase under the name “stealth-company.com.”

Interesting tidbit: Steve Jobs did not like the name Siri at all during the acquisition. Dag Kittlaus had to fight to keep it. Apple eventually retained the name… for lack of a better option. Steve Jobs had similar hesitations with “iMac” and “iPod” before eventually accepting them.

ChatGPT, Le Chat, Gemini, Copilot, and Alexa: The Classics

Some names are more straightforward. ChatGPT simply combines “Chat” (for chatbot) and “GPT” (Generative Pre-trained Transformer), the model architecture developed by OpenAI. Gemini (formerly Bard at Google) refers to the astrological sign of Gemini, symbolizing duality and versatility, consistent with the model’s multimodal capabilities that handle text, image, audio, and video.

Microsoft’s Copilot uses an obvious aeronautical metaphor: the AI assists the user without taking control, much like a copilot aids the pilot. Amazon’s Alexa is inspired by the Library of Alexandria, a universal symbol of knowledge. Technical bonus: the “X” sound in “Alexa” aids in voice recognition by language processing systems. Lastly, the French company Mistral named its chatbot Le Chat. Isn’t that amusing?