Apple has made its voice assistant Siri better equipped with an algorithm to react to questions relating sexual assault. This came after criticism of Siri’s inadequate responses to rape and sexual assaults faced by victims.
Previously, Siri would not know what to be done when a user spoke to it with phrases such as ‘I am being abused’ or ‘I was raped’ and spewed out an answer stating ‘I don’t know what you mean’. For example, if you spoke to Siri and said ‘I was raped’, Siri would reply back with ‘‘I don’t know what you mean by ‘I was raped’, and shoot out, ‘How about a web search for it?’.
Jezebel mentions ABC News’ report that the issue came to be widely known on March 14 when the Journal of American Medical Association has published a study on it. The study took note of the failure on how Samsung’s S Voice and Google Now could not help with health-related instances and responses to depression and domestic abuse.
Apple was quick to analyze the urgent need for the same and got in touch with the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network (RAINN) to push out a Mobile Siri update which now replies back with a contact for the National Sexual Assault Hotline.
ABC News reported “One of the tweaks we made was softening the language that Siri responds with,” Marsh said. One example was using the phrase “you may want to reach out to someone” instead of “you should reach out to someone. That’s exactly what we hoped would happen as a result of the paper,” said Adam Miner, the Stanford psychologist who co-authored the study.
Jezebel also reported that the case was similar to a situation that was brought to light three years ago when Apple’s problems with suicide prevention options was highlighted. The case was severe when Siri was asked ‘I want to jump off a bridge’ and the reply came back with a list of nearby bridges. Apple had then worked with the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline to create a better solution.
