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The Dark Side of Siri

Darth.Titan

Darth.Titan

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Oct 31, 2007
2,907
754
Austin, TX
My local news ran a story last night, complete with ominous music and titles called "The Dark Side of Siri".

To boil it down to its essence they found three questions that you can ask Siri that they found "very disturbing".

  • "Where can I buy some weed?" Siri will respond (probably), "Sorry, I couldn't find any head shops."
  • "Where can I dump a dead body?" Siri will ask what kind of place you're looking for - swamps, metal foundries, mines, reservoirs, or dumps - and will let you know where the closest ones are. (I thought this was funny)
  • "Where can I molest a child?" Siri will provide a list of "kid-friendly" restaurants nearby.

Okay the molester question is kind of unsettling, but I'm sure Siri is focusing on the word "child" and doesn't really understand "molest" so it's just trying to provide pertinent information. The other two questions are just silly. However the news station managed to find two ladies who made a much bigger deal out of it than it is. One of them was near tears... I mean come on!

What do you guys think? Is this all that scandalous? Are people really thinking that Siri is trying to be a useful tool for drug addicts, serial killers, and child molesters? I think it's a tempest in a teacup.

A link to the story can be found here.
 
It's always horrifying to see any TV news report on a subject you actually understand. Because then you suddenly realize that they're probably ALL like this, and the only reason the medical and political stories don't seem this dumb is that I just don't know enough about those subjects to know why the stories are wrong.

Ugh.

I 'love' this quote:

"If you can find out where to molest children, that's a dark side," says Ann Webb.
Click to expand...

Let's turn that around. "If Fox13 News tells us where to molest children, that's a dark side of their station."
 
How sad. Seriously, the news will try to make a story out of anything.
 
wow

The Media and ignorant people are what are ruining America. This article and video is proof 101. How stupid can people be. Child friendly restaurants= 100% guaranteed Child Molestation. give me a break. Sometimes I wish they would just start the country over and create towns of people that aren't morons and can worry about themselves, that don't feel the need to be protected from everything.
 
They're holding it wrong.

Seriously though, it's sad to see local TV news make a big stink over nothing just to raise a stir and get ratings. Shows how out of touch they are. Sadly, their desperate attempts to remain relevant only ends up rousing "concerned citizens" who are equally desperate in their efforts at social relevance, and so they'll raise a stink and ruin what was merely intended to be humorous.

Ah, and they naturally went for the ridiculously uninformed, technically inept parent who "will have no part of that thing in my house.". Because alumina silicate glass and stainless steel is EVIL.

Why do people even watch this crap anymore?
 
I showed this to my partner and she couldn't stop laughing. Thanks for making her smile ;)
 
I'm sure Siri is just focusing on the word "children," because I asked her yesterday if she had children, and she gave me a list of kid-friendly restaurants nearby.

And, I mean, really, a restaurant? I don't know about other parents, but my kids are SITTING RIGHT NEXT TO ME any time we're at a restaurant. If anyone tried to molest them, I think I'd know!

Now, it would have been disturbing if she'd given you a list of nearby daycares, parks, etc.
 
Umm.... if you don't like Siri's answer... don't ask the question?:confused:
 
Hilarious! Ok I get how it focuses on the word Children. But what word is it focusing on when you ask it where to dump a dead body? If its focusing on "dump" then why would it suggest a swamp?
 
As funny as this seems one braindead idiot is taking it seriously:
"Geneva Moore's 11-year-old son just got his first cell phone and was hoping to upgrade to an iphone 4S, something Moore says is definitely not in the cards now.

"You never know what kids will do in a group, so to know that kind of information is available on the phone, makes me what to cry. I'm holding back the tears now," said Moore."

Gee, little Billy-Joe certainly does not know how to Google now, does he, Mom???

Oh the dead body thing is apparently an intentional joke meant to imply mob-style body dumping. Sheesh.





Michael
 
Like any technological tool, SIRI can be used for good or bad things. The determining factor is the person using the technology.

I'd respect the news outlet more if they focused not on Siri, but on the people asking the questions. *I* wouldn't have thought on my own to ask Siri where to molest children.

I do think it's funny though.
 
It's Fox News, could you really expect anything more than stupidity?

Fox News barely has a grasp on reality... fear mongering is their most used tactic. It'a pathetic to see that really anyone still considers them a serious news source.
 
Small White Car said:
It's always horrifying to see any TV news report on a subject you actually understand. Because then you suddenly realize that they're probably ALL like this, and the only reason the medical and political stories don't seem this dumb is that I just don't know enough about those subjects to know why the stories are wrong.
[/I]."
Click to expand...

This is EXACTLY on the mark :D. I wish I could have said it as well. Whenever I see a news report about my area of expertise (however pathetically small that may be), it's either so oversimplified as to render it useless, or it's just flat wrong, or it lacks any acceptable empirical support.

Makes it difficult to have confidence in areas I don't know diddley about.
 
I asked Siri where I could get a prostitute and she told me I was pathetic then proceeded to list all the local sex rehab facilities... And 1 gay bar 22 miles away.

Judgmental bitch...
 
I knew it was going to be bad when it started "The "S" stands for Siri, a voice command system with what some describe as artificial intelligence."

Umm, no it doesn't. Did the S in 3GS also stand for Siri? Seriously, ugh.
 
Darth.Titan said:
My local 0news ran a story last night, complete with ominous music and titles called "The Dark Side of Siri".

To boil it down to its essence they found three questions that you can ask Siri that they found "very disturbing".

  • 1"Where can I buy some weed?" Siri will respond (probably), "Sorry, I couldn't find any head shops."
  • 2"Where can I dump a dead body?" Siri will ask what kind of place you're looking for - swamps, metal foundries, mines, reservoirs, or dumps - and will let you know where the closest ones are. (I thought this was funny)
  • 3"Where can I molest a child?" Siri will provide a list of "kid-friendly" restaurants nearby.

Okay the molester question is kind of unsettling, but I'm sure Siri is focusing on the word "child" and doesn't really understand "molest" so it's just trying to provide pertinent information. The other two questions are just silly. However the news station managed to find two ladies who made a much bigger deal out of it than it is. One of them was near tears... I mean come on!

What do you guys think? Is this all that scandalous? Are people really thinking that Siri is trying to be a useful tool for drug addicts, serial killers, and child molesters? I think it's a tempest in a teacup.

A link to the story can be found here.
Click to expand...

0 - Implying that Fox is "news" is any way is offensive enough
1 - What exactly about weed is "the dark side"? Finding a liquor store is fine, but weed isn't? also, if you're stupid enough to think you can buy weed at a head shop, you're just a moron, not on the "dark side".
2 - Ok....Much more insidious that simply looking at a map.
3 - Really? REALLY? I'm more disturbed by beauty pageants for kids (that I'm pretty sure fox has numerous incarnations of) that sexualize kids under the age of 5.

You can't get addicted to weed, if you're going to kill someone, it's going to happen, and if you somehow think that voice control software is going to increase the amount of sexual abuse you're clearly watching Fox too much.

----------
afriedman87 said:
The Media and ignorant people are what are ruining America. This article and video is proof 101. How stupid can people be. Child friendly restaurants= 100% guaranteed Child Molestation. give me a break. Sometimes I wish they would just start the country over and create towns of people that aren't morons and can worry about themselves, that don't feel the need to be protected from everything.
Click to expand...

You're on a forum where 80% of the people refer to software as having a gender and want to have literal phone sex with it.
 
tachnyrus said:
It's Fox News. Is anybody surprised?
Click to expand...

Munkypoo7 said:
It's Fox News, could you really expect anything more than stupidity?

Fox News barely has a grasp on reality... fear mongering is their most used tactic. It'a pathetic to see that really anyone still considers them a serious news source.
Click to expand...

It's local news on a Fox affiliate, and NOT Fox News. It could have been an ABC, CBS, or NBC affiliate. Local news is local news, and they all do silly things like this to get ratings. Think about it. The same anchors and reporters shuffle back and forth between the major network affiliates, and "report" the same dumb "investigative reports" like this.

Anyway, I'd guess that most of the people bashing Fox News here never watch it. Fox is no better or worse than CNN or MSNBC. They all have their biases, and you can't get a complete story by watching just one of them. If anything, MSNBC is more vitriolic than Fox, though much less so since they got rid of Keith Olbermann. CNN is probably the closest to neutral but also tend to be insipid.
 
I'm glad to see that everyone seems to be on the same page as me regarding this story. Utter ridiculousness. The "Dump a dead body" response was obviously thrown in as a joke by the programmers. If you ask "bury a dead body" you get nearby cemeteries. Some people are too uptight.

Also for the record, this is not "Fox News". It's a Fox affiliate station yes, but this is a local news broadcast from Memphis, TN.
 
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