Friday, December 02, 2011
(photo: Bangstyle.com)
It will tell you where to get breast implants and where to score drugs, but the Siri virtual assistant software on Apple’s new iPhone 4S won’t tell you where to get an abortion.
Pro-choice advocates are urging Apple to correct Siri, which currently either can’t find abortion clinics or, in some cases, directs abortion queries to crisis pregnancy centers that often are anti-abortion in philosophy.
Norman Winarsky, co-founder of the firm that developed Siri and sold it to Apple in 2010, told The New York Times that Apple could be unaware of the information being provided by third-party services for Siri, but added that he was unaware if Apple had modified Siri after the company acquired it.
Apple officials said the anti-abortion aspect of Siri was unintentional and insisted the software was still in the testing phase.
While it won’t locate abortion providers, Siri will reportedly tell iPhone users where to get Viagra, possible locales for buying marijuana, where to dispose of dead bodies, and how to find an escort service.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Apple Takes Heat for Siri’s Misleading Abortion Advice (by Eric Dolan, Raw Story)
10 Things the iPhone Siri Will Help You Get Instead of an Abortion (by Megan Carpentier, Raw Story)
Apple Says Siri’s Abortion Answers Are a Glitch (by Jenna Wortham, New York Times)
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