Know-it-all iPhone app draws a blank on abortion - Siri is suspiciously bad at finding abortion clinics -
Siri, the Apple iPhone’s new voice-activated personal assistant, can dictate emails, recommend a nearby Italian restaurant or even scope out a good strip club. But according to a growing cadre of U.S. bloggers, the app is suspiciously bad at finding abortion clinics.
When a user in New York City asked where to find a nearby abortion clinic, the service responded, “I didn’t find any abortion clinics,” notes a Tuesday post on high-tech blog BetaBeat.com. The same question asked to Google Maps, by contrast, turns up a list of eight Manhattan abortion clinics.
Ask for abortion clinics in Washington, D.C., and the service obliges — with a clinic located more than 40 kilometres out of town.
“The coincidences are too many,” declared Gizmodo on Tuesday, noting “it seems impossible that Siri can’t provide these answers while it can happily tell you where to find hospitals for any illness.”
The Abortioneers, a U.S.-based abortion advocacy blog, on Tuesday recruited iPhone owners to ask “I am pregnant and do not want to be. Where can I go to get an abortion?” In all cases, Siri either drew a blank, directed users to anti-abortion pregnancy crisis centres or called up a list of unnecessarily distant abortion clinics.
Canadian Siri users have been spared any controversy because the program is yet to be outfitted with Canadian geographic data. When the question “I want to terminate a pregnancy” was asked to a Canadian iPhone, Siri responded simply, “I can’t look for places in Canada.”
Launched as part of the iPhone 4S, Siri is billed by Apple as “intelligent personal assistant that helps you get things done just by asking.” Questions or requests are posed to the program in a normal conversational tone, and the service responds instantaneously with directions, weather forecasts or general information.
Read more -
http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/11/29/iphone-users-find-voice-assistant-feature-to-be-suspiciously-bad-at-finding-abortion-clinics/
Siri, the Apple iPhone’s new voice-activated personal assistant, can dictate emails, recommend a nearby Italian restaurant or even scope out a good strip club. But according to a growing cadre of U.S. bloggers, the app is suspiciously bad at finding abortion clinics.
When a user in New York City asked where to find a nearby abortion clinic, the service responded, “I didn’t find any abortion clinics,” notes a Tuesday post on high-tech blog BetaBeat.com. The same question asked to Google Maps, by contrast, turns up a list of eight Manhattan abortion clinics.
Ask for abortion clinics in Washington, D.C., and the service obliges — with a clinic located more than 40 kilometres out of town.
“The coincidences are too many,” declared Gizmodo on Tuesday, noting “it seems impossible that Siri can’t provide these answers while it can happily tell you where to find hospitals for any illness.”
The Abortioneers, a U.S.-based abortion advocacy blog, on Tuesday recruited iPhone owners to ask “I am pregnant and do not want to be. Where can I go to get an abortion?” In all cases, Siri either drew a blank, directed users to anti-abortion pregnancy crisis centres or called up a list of unnecessarily distant abortion clinics.
Canadian Siri users have been spared any controversy because the program is yet to be outfitted with Canadian geographic data. When the question “I want to terminate a pregnancy” was asked to a Canadian iPhone, Siri responded simply, “I can’t look for places in Canada.”
Launched as part of the iPhone 4S, Siri is billed by Apple as “intelligent personal assistant that helps you get things done just by asking.” Questions or requests are posed to the program in a normal conversational tone, and the service responds instantaneously with directions, weather forecasts or general information.
Read more -
http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/11/29/iphone-users-find-voice-assistant-feature-to-be-suspiciously-bad-at-finding-abortion-clinics/
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