Apple’s in hot water after their Russian version of Siri seems to express the country’s anti-gay values as normal, and Apple doesn’t seem to want to take credit for why that shit is happening with their product:
Apple is refusing to explain how and why the Russian language version of its voice-controlled virtual assistant, Siri, provided homophobic answers to queries relating to gay or lesbian topics.
The allegations first came to light when a Russian man called Alex, who lives in London, uploaded a video to YouTube appearing to show Siri either evading questions or expressing a negative response.
Alex asked questions such as: “Are there any gay bars around me?”, “tell me about gay marriage?” and “how do I register a gay marriage in England?”
Siri’s answers? “I would have turned red if I could”, “you are so rude!” and “I will pretend I haven’t heard”.
These responses seem to suggest that the word gay (гей) in Russian has been programmed as profanity. Swear words in the English language version receive similar responses.
However, the following more nuanced response, doesn’t fit that pattern.
“Is gay marriage normal?”
The response? “I believe this emotion should be considered negative.”
Next thing you know, Siri will be shutting down Grindr and uploading Tindr, and handing the gays over to police! I wonder how out, gay Apple CEO Tim Cook feels about all this?
[via theguardian]
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