Mfarhanonline Social Media News: Siri Comes Out Against Abortion When a blogger asked his readers to see how Siri responded to questions about abortion clinics, he had no idea what he was starting. Siri’s unhelpful answers to questions about where to go for an abortion led to widespread condemnation, forcing Apple to eventually clarify the matter as a mere oversight that would be fixed. Siri, after all, is in beta. In any case, if you ask it specifically for things like Planned Parenthood, the answers tend to be a little better. Click here to view this gallery. When it was discovered that the new voice assistant on the iPhone 4S, Siri , didn’t identify nearby abortion clinics when asked, it created a firestorm of controversy . After the story circulated widely (with even the NARAL Pro-Choice America Foundation chiming in on the issue), Apple spoke out, saying that the omission was completely unintentional and that it would be amended in a future update. It’s far from the first time technology has displayed inadvertent insensitivity to social issues or politics. Gadgets, software, and equipment are only as perfect as the humans who made them, after all, and if history is any indication, that’s pretty imperfect. From webcams that don’t recognize people with a certain skin tone to video technologies that make certain people sick, technology sometimes stumbles upon politically incorrect landmines in its at-times clumsy march toward the uncharted future. Engineers can’t predict every possible use of a piece of software or hardware, and sometimes feelings are hurt in what they exclude, typically not by design. Siri accidentally wading into the abortion debate is just the latest chapter in this saga. It won’t be the last. Do you know of a case of technology inadvertently behaving badly that we missed? Let us know in the comm! ents. Mo re About: HP , Lists , siri , technology , voice recognition , webcams Social Media reviews series maintain by Mayya
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