Okay, seriously. I know that WWDC is a sales pitch moreso than a tech demo. But this supercut of superlatives tweaks every nerve I have as regards manipulative language.
There’s not a lot of actual innovation in their new iteration, that I can see, just a nice coat of paint slapped on the same old stuff. “This changes everything” was true when iOS first got introduced, but now it’s all “this keeps everything the same except for a prettier wastebasket.”
So, Apple’s engineers recently found themselves with egg on their faces with regard to the iPhone 4S’ Siri application. Why? Privilege, as it happens.
My best guess about the “Siri doesn’t help find abortion clinics” maneno is that the engineers responsible for the application completely forgot to vet stuff relevant to women today, like abortion clinics, when testing their assistant’s ability to pull real phrases out of voice commands then finding relevant information from various sources. And they probably completely forgot to vet this stuff because the people testing it initially don’t particularly have that concern. They’re likely all men, or women who weren’t in positions to need reproductive services for whatever reason. Thus, those without that privilege get short shrift.
Continue reading “Siri is probably not explicitly hiding abortion information”
