Check out this clip.

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/403350/november-30-2011/conservative-siri

It's not that it's pro life it's just that the algorithm was screwed up.

Apple has a long technical explanation for this but what it comes down to is that when queeried it first searches Yelp and then Wolfram Alpha and only looks at Google as a third option after going through the first two.

Because the pro-life people have put their centers on Yelp as abortion providers, and most abortion providers have not, the search string automatically pops up the pro life people first.

On the other hand, that only happens if you specifically ask "Where is the nearest abortion provider."

If, on the other hand ask "Where is the nearest Planned Parenthood" it gives you the correct response because when it doesn't find anything on Yelp or Wolfram it defaults to Google which has the correct response.

Apple is fixing this by having all non food or drink related queries start with Google and use Yelp as the secondary search string from now on.

If you've ever worked with AI software, you'd know that this is just the nature of the beast. It is REALLY hard to get one that works right with natural language questions, and to presume that it giving you bad answers is a 'plot' is just really stupid. It giving you bad answers is what AI software regularly does.

Exactly.

. . . giving you bad answers is what AI software regularly does.

Maybe not for long. This thread chronicles IBM's development of Watson, the computer that beat Jeopardy's reigning champs. Of course, IBM put a lot of manpower behind getting the right databases and algorithms in place, and then turned the corner by programming in some 'computer learning' code that let Watson figure out how to minimize its mistakes.

Historically, IBM and others have put a lot of manpower behind all of their breakthrough computer systems, many of which are now fairly commonplace.

I'm sure Siri will continue to improve and will one day be able to tell us not only where to get an abortion, but also to notify the National Enquirer that one of our esteemed posters has actually managed to get himself knocked up.

I'm sure Siri will continue to improve and will one day be able to tell us not only where to get an abortion, but also to notify the National Enquirer that one of our esteemed posters has actually managed to get himself knocked up.

ahahahahaha!

I don't have an iPhone.

What does Siri say if you ask her "Is Tom Cruise gay?"

Can anyone try it and find out?

Interesting response:

Ha!