Siri Failures, Illustrated

[samvara]

It appears that Siri wasn't exactly programmed by people who think women = human :(

Trigger warning for how Siri responds to rape.

Comments

[bunny_m]

What ... The FUCK is wrong with these folks?!?!?!

I.. *seethes with worldess rage*

[samvara]

I am assuming non-malicious but living in a world where protecting your physical and sexual health isn't a constant concern. Must be lovely.

[bunny_m]

Can't speak for the 'constant concern over sexual health' part, but I can tell you that life is indeed vastly improved when you aren't in / no longer feel in constant danger of your physical health, yes.

[samvara]

Indeed!

[japester]

It's not exactly programmed for alcohol dependencies either.

http://after12.failblog.org/2011/11/26/party-fails-that-is-the-opposite-of-helping-siri-unhelpful-liquor-store/

[samvara]

Oh dear, being the first virtual personal assistant is certainly a challenge.

Interesting that it ranked shopping over being poisoned.

[meghanc]

There's an interesting MetaFilter thread about it here.

[samvara]

Very interesting and surprisingly calm - is that heavily moderated?

[meghanc]

Not especially, no. I was following that thread from the start (I post there as MeghanC--maybe a dozen comments down, I left my first comment on that thread?) and didn't notice *any* disappeared posts.

If you're not familiar with MetaFilter, you might really like it--there's some moderation, but it's generally saved for things that are totally off topic/personal attacks. It's a really lovely community--I've been posting there (almost entirely in the ask.metafilter subsite) for almost five years, and can't say enough good things about it. Especially as internet communities go, it's remarkably civil and calm, and there's a lot of fascinating discussion and debate that's (mostly) well-reasoned and very respectful of others.

If you've any interest in it, let me know and I'll send you a gift account, if you'd like.

[samvara]

Very cool! Thank you but not right now - I'm about to go on holiday - I may ask for one later :)

[callistra]

I found this really distressing.
:(

[samvara]

*hugs*

Symptom.

[ironed_orchid]

I wonder if they are more afraid of being boycotted by anti-choice peoples than they are concerned with helping people find what they need.

[samvara]

There's some very civilised speculation happing on MetaFilter.

[prk]

As I understand it, Siri is just a speech recognition front end to the Wolfram Alpha search engine.

I'm betting the Crisis Pregnancy Center mob have used Search Engine Optimisation techniques to make themselves the top hits for specific searches.

Anyone know if there's a detailed comparison of Siri's answers vs a straight Wolfram Alpha search for the same words, and what the meta tags are like on the CPC sites vs legitimate clinics?

Prk

Edit: Meant CPC for the illegitimate mob.