Apple: Siri isn't anti-abortion Apple is not using its voice search app Siri to save unborn foetuses, a spokeswoman told the New York Times yesterday, flatly denying rumours that the service had a political agenda. Claims that the iPhone 4S's voice assistant app Siri was anti-abortion surfaced on the web this week after tests by bloggers suggested that it …
...is why leftist liberals will be forever on my "childish whiner" list.
> Need an abortion clinic all of a sudden in a hurry right now
> Too dumb to find out
> Ask Siri, coz you have that trendy expensive shiny toy from the capitalist evil corporation
> It won't say
> Rage on a blog about this OUTRAGE, drum up a protest action, whatever
Why have you assumed only "leftist liberals" need the services of an abortion clinic?
Why have you assumed there is a sense of urgency? People search for a myriad of reasons, curiousity being one and I suspect there are more than a few crackpots searching for the same clinics, albeit with a different intent.
Hope you feel better getting that pointless rant off your chest though. Other than it being pretty much entirely wrong, it was great.
So, let me get this straight. A group of people went to the bother of finding out whether a new, useful gimmick on a mobile phone is guilty of pro-life behaviour, and then posted their results to either inform or (more likely) ridicule?
Aside of the fact that more people would be up in arms if it gave explicit directions to abortion clinics (and, let's face it, the US can get a bit steamed up about this topic), surely most people who are in need of discreetly finding a suitable service would not announce it clearly into a fugging mobile phone, where all manner of bystander could hear.
...or would they..?
</JEEZ!>
Does Siri find nearby gun shops or fundamentalist churches when asked? If so, we will have confirmation that Apple are using Siri to advance their ultra right-wing, fascist agenda.
But seriously, what is the likelihood of someone wanting to use Siri to find an abortion clinic? Some people have too much time on their hands.
...you're never going to be entirely sure what it's up to. There's simply no way of any independent person checking the code to see what may or may not lurking inside.
This is surely one of the major problems with any such 'personal assistant' - it may appear to be acting for the user, but do you really implicitly trust Apple or (anyone else) not to control what it does in their own interests?
I think "fair and balanced" is not something that applies in search engine world. The people with the bigger budgets get the top slots in pretty much all the search engines and if you're not on a search engine then to some people you don't exist.
The problem's wider than abortion clinics as I see it, you're guided by your choice of where to look for services, so if that's google then as pointed out you get the places that google knows about and they'll push you in the direction of the one giving them the most money.
The solution I can think of? Use different methods when assessing which service/product provider you want to use. Not just one search engine, not just search engines.
Some random childish whinny bloggers jump to silly unfounded conclusions to push some ideological agenda.
You then jump to silly unfounded conclusions to push your own ideological agenda and start whining about it in a childish manner.
Please identify what political ideology you identify with the most so I can
1) Conclude that you speak for all of them.
2) Commence a Straw Man attack upon that ideology.
Or we can both chill and have a relaxing cup of tea.
Siri should easily be able to show/not-show such info based on its analysis of your socio-political-religeous leanings as learned from observing your behaviour.
People should never again ever have to see something that offends them (or makes them have to think, oh wait - that is what offends a lof humans :-( ).
It's a wonderful world (for you, not me).
I agree with most people here about the bloggers foaming at the mouth over this, but it makes me wonder how Siri being a beta product affects its display of abortion clinics. Did they accidentally comment out the line in the code that turns on the special abortion clinic finder portion of the software? Seems awfully specific.
The big issue is to consider why this is happening. I don't suppose anyone programmed Siri to censor out abortion clinics. The fact that it will give you results for planned parenthood, but doesn't associate Planned Parenthood with abortion services (whereas in real life they are connected) suggests that the databases behind it haven't picked up the link.
The likely reason they haven't picked it up is due to self-censorship in the US, about how people talk about abortion on web pages etc.
The point is that it can link asking for a blow job to give you an escort service (or so I'm told), but can't connect abortion to service providers. That suggests something is deeply screwed in US culture.
Siri will find you an escort service if you tell it your're lonely (not tell you to go to a club or a local bar or coffee shop) or recommend a book on how to make friends or suggest that you call the person you haven't called in a while in your contacts.
It's well documented that it will tell you how to hide a body.
It will tell you how to find a 'head shop' so you can get papers for your smokable drugs.
It will tell you the nearest hospital if your illegal Cialis or Viagra gave you a four hour boner by just telling it 'i've had a hard-on for 4 hours'
It won't respond to "I need a pharmacy that sells plan b" it won't respond to 'Where's the nearest abortion clinic" it won't even tell you where a hospital or doctor or police station is if you tell it "I've been raped and need help"
While Siri is not all search engine, someone had to program these responses and leaving OUT the proper response for these questions is sexist at the very least.
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