Apple might have performed the proverbial U-turn when it comes to their Siri voice assistant that helps locate prostitutes for iPhone users in China. According to state-run China Daily, the voice-activated assistant Siri actually directed users to brothels, drawing from a database of information which presumably was posted by clients anonymously, since prostitution has been banned in China. This ‘discovery’ obviously sparked off plenty of comments on Sina Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter.
It seems that Apple has now programmed Siri to change its responses, and when one asks for the location of the nearest brothel, no ‘advice; is given. It is rather interesting to note that a Sina Weibo user objectively mentioned the ability of Siri to sniff out brothels more efficiently compared to typically Chinese restaurants. The user typed, “When I ask Siri about beef noodle soup or hotpot, she has no idea.”
From the beginning of this week though, Siri has far more diplomatic replies including “There seems to have been a mistake” or “I didn’t find anybody by that name”. Do you think someone else’s head might roll after this because he or she does not want to sign an apology letter like Scott?