Two months ago the release of Apple’s iPhone 4S was highly anticipated. Apple always seems to come out with the next big thing, and the new iPhone was no different.
What really distinguishes the new iPhone from all other smartphones and what enticed many buyers was Siri, a virtual assistant.
Siri can send your text messages, tell you what the weather is like, give you driving directions, set your alarm or even find a nice restaurant for you. You can even have a conversation with Siri. “She” can do anything, and is the perfect personal assistant.
Or is she?
Apparently Siri isn’t perfect. Siri caused a huge controversy when it became apparent that Siri would not locate the nearest abortion clinic or Planned Parenthood when asked. Siri would either direct you to a clinic not in the area, or say that there were no clinics at all.
This angered many abortion rights activists and bloggers. They believed that this was Apple’s indirect way of saying they were a pro-life corporation.
According to Reuters, Nancy Keenan, the president of the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League, e-mailed Apple’s CEO complaining that Siri did not provide “Apple customers with accurate or complete information about women's reproductive health services.”
Apple, however, denied these claims. They claimed that Siri is still in its beta phase, and is bound to have some flaws. The application, in fact, is not trying to prevent people from having abortions.
“Our customers want to use Siri to find out all types of information,” Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr said, according to ABC News. “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.”
While Apple’s new technology is extremely cool and innovative, do people really depend on technology so much that they need to ask their phone where to get an abortion?
It seems a bit ridiculous that some would assume that Apple is sending subliminal “anti-abortion” messages through Siri. Surely Apple has better things to do than to prevent their millions of consumers from getting abortions.
Sometimes Siri fails to locate certain restaurants in the area or might even misunderstand your request. Surely doesn’t mean that Siri is anti-food or even anti-you.
Siri is simply an extended technological feature of the iPhone 4S. If you really need to find the nearest restaurant or even the nearest abortion clinic, there are definitely other resources you can use to get the job done.
Reach the columnist at agales@asu.edu
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