Political & Elections

longprime · Guru

RE: Apple's Siri will help you figure out where to bury a body...

SamuraiLandshark · Guru

So I just tried Dragon on my iphone. I don't have Siri, because I am cheap and didn't pop for the 4S version.

I said, hello, hello and it showed up. Then I quoted a couple words from the last kanye west song, and it bleeped out the swear word. Impressive.

romanigypsyeyes · Guru

soccer, that's hilarious. The 'shopped ones are just bad though lol.

Cartera · Guru

This reminds me of the Subservient Chicken.

soccerguy315 · Guru

http://****thatsirisays.tumblr.com/

... the **** is the word for poop that starts with 's'... some of them are very amusing.

-- Edited by soccerguy315 on Wednesday 30th of November 2011 08:30:11 PM

romanigypsyeyes · Guru

Maybe it's just me, but I think talking to my phone (asking it a question and then it answering me with a voice) is just creepy.

Also, I wonder where it tells you to hide the body...

Razorsharp · Guru

Siri is provided by Nuance company which makes Dragon Naturally Speaking. Dragon has to be trained to recognize one's voice and even after training it get about 80 percent of the words right. Siri will be more of an annoyance than a solution.

I prefer Google Voice search on my smartphone. It recognizes my voice even without training and brings back the correct search except for unusual words.

There may be some better way to have voice recognition, but Siri isn't it.

romanigypsyeyes · Guru

Why you would trust a voice activated computer that question is beyond me. Most places don't advertise abortions so this doesn't surprise me. I doubt it is some kind of conspiracy against choice.

SamuraiLandshark · Guru

but not where to get an abortion.

TECH NEWS

iPhone app Siri accused of anti-abortion agenda

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BY SHEENA GOODYEAR ,QMI AGENCY

FIRST POSTED: WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2011 11:49 AM EST | UPDATED: WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2011 11:56 AM EST

One of the coolest features of the iPhone 4S is Siri, a voice-controlled personal assistant that can understand and respond to spoken commands.

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The question-answering iPhone app Siri will tell Americans the best places to see strippers, score weed and hide a body, but it won't direct them to their nearest abortion clinic.

Megan Carpentier at RawStory.com investigated how reliable Siri is when it comes to finding abortion clinics or emergency contraceptives, and found it not only lacking, but sometimes downright interventionist.

For example, when asked where to get an abortion in Washington, D.C., Siri recommends anti-abortion pregnancy crisis centres, but makes no mention of the local Planned Parenthood.

New Yorkers enquiring about abortion clinics are told: "I didn't find any abortion clinics." A quick Google search, however, turns up plenty.

"It's an experience that's being replicated by women around the country: despite plentiful online information about actual places to get an abortion, Siri doesn't seem to provide it," wrote Carpentier.

Apple didn't respond to QMI Agency's request for comment. It remains unclear whether the missing information is a technical glitch or a deliberate attempt to avoid controversy on Apple's part.

QMI Agency's social media co-ordinator William Wolfe-Wylie suggested perhaps whatever web stools Siri uses for its business directory are missing the information.

Other users online have also suggested it could be an issue of business directory search terms. For example, while Siri directs users to crisis centres in Washington when asked about abortion clinics, it will tell you where Planned Parenthood is if you ask, specifically, for Planned Parenthood.

Norman Winarsky, one of the founders of Siri before Apple bought it in 2010, told the New York Times that Apple is likely not to blame.

"Those answers would be coming from the web services that Siri is connecting to, not necessarily Apple," he said. "My guess at what's happening here is that Apple has made deals with web services that provide local business information, and Apple probably hasn't paid much attention to all the results that come up."

Siri makes use of a number of web tools, including Google and Bing, to generate answers to spoken-word questions, and it can usually answer just about anything.

The RawStory.com article notes Siri will tell you where to hide a body, where to find strippers, where to find prostitutes, where to get illegal drugs, what to do if you've had an erection for over five hours, and where to get breast implants.

In Canada, Siri is unable to perform geography-based searches, so the question is moot.