Last weekend, I was trying out Siri for the first time and asked the question of "how do I get from Cleveland to New York?" I already had a plane ticket booked for the next day, but I wanted to see how the voice software would respond. To my dismay, I was told "sorry, I can't help you find flights." First of all, where came the assumption that I automatically was looking for a plane ticket? And furthermore, while a quick Google search would bring numerous results, why couldn't Siri find an answer for me?
Recently, it has hit the headlines that Siri can't help users find abortion clinics. This issue seems to have so much salience for abortion groups, that American Civil Liberties Union even launched an online petition saying that "if Siri can tell us about Viagra, it should not provide bad or no information about contraceptives or abortion care. Send a message to Apple: Fix Siri." In response, Apple claims that the omission is not intentional. An Apple spokeswoman stated the omissions aren't meant to offend anyone, but rather "that as we bring Siri from beta to a final product, we find places where we can do better and we will in the coming weeks."
Even if Siri moves away from its beta stage, it's highly doubtful that it will always find what users want, given the limitation of artificial intelligence. From finding restaurants to voice calling, Siri could be quite helpful. But it's not meant to do everything. To balance its usefulness and convenience, it needs, like all other software, a limitation. So far the public knows little of Apple's development behind Siri. Why can't it find flights, when it's easily done on a Google search, just like a restaurant search? Such function must not have been part of Siri's predefined capabilities. But for airline companies to claim that Siri and Apple are against those industries far bends the argument toward exclusive, self-motivated interests.
On a more practical note, those wishing to find abortion clinics could simply Google search for abortion clinics on the iPhone. It would take around a few more seconds to type out the search. It's not that those angry at Siri are unhappy at the inability to find their solutions. It's their discontent at the technology to not include their interests in the limitation of capabilities of the software. Software is as useful as its capabilities. Just like how a spell-check cannot detect all flaws, Siri is not meant to do everything. Only when can people understand that technology has definite limitations, will new software truly be appreciated for what it can offer.
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