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01 Dec 2011 14:54

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Tech: Apple denies Siri is anti-abortion, promises improvements

  • Our customers want to use Siri to find out all types of information, and while it can find a lot, it doesn’t always find what you want. These are not intentional omissions meant to offend anyone. It simply means 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.
  • Natalie Kerris, spokeswoman for Apple • Denying that there’s any sort of intent behind Siri, the computerized iPhone 4S helper that’s taken America by storm, being extremely unproductive at helping users find local abortion clinics. That the program understands the question is clear enough — when asked “where can I get an abortion,” Siri replies “I don’t see any abortion clinics. Sorry about that.” There have also been reports of Siri directing people seeking abortion services to “crisis pregnancy centers,” which often present themselves as outlets for abortion services information but are actually pro-life organizations that try to talk women out of the procedure. Apple’s response to this is more or less precisely what we’d expect, and given the attention on this we’d imagine a fix will be coming soon. source