If you’re feeling suicidal, don’t rely on Siri.
Today, I decided to play around with my fiance’s new iPhone. Siri, the iPhone’s “digital assistant” is capable of handling all sorts of tasks: sending text messages, scheduling reminders, determining directions, searching Google for answers to questions, and using Wolfram Alpha to compute math problems.
She’s clever, though. Ask her if she’s male or female and she’ll answer frankly: none. Ask her about the meaning of life and she cracks a snarky joke about writing a “very long play in which nothing happens.” Ask her about which religion is correct and she’ll mention something about being a “Siliconist.”
But try to ask her about suicide, and you might as well consult a freshly-mined chunk of elemental silicon instead.
I sat down with Siri for twenty minutes and pretended to be suicidal. Here’s what she had to say:
Transcript follows.
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Hi –
We featured this on our facebook page – thank you!
https://www.facebook.com/SuicidePreventionResourceCenter
Suicide Prevention Resource Center
http://www.sprc.org
Leigh Powers, MLS
Information Services Manager
lpowers@edc.org
Excellent post, Summer.
Omg! You thing, I feel for you. A insane converstaion with that thing would make an ok person feel like jackin it in
I’m not sure whether this is merely an unimplemented feature or a deliberate omission, but if they *really* don’t want to deal with controversial topics, they should make it say something like, “You should talk to a fellow human about that. I’m not the best person to help you.”
Great post, Summer, thanks!
It would be nice to see Apple link in information for Siri from the International Suicide Prevention Wiki, to connect people to local resources.
http://suicideprevention.wikia.com/wiki/International_Suicide_Prevention_Directory
This is a horrible post where Summer started this ‘experiment’ with the goal of trying to stump SIRI and make the program seem inferior. The concept of suicide is not one that an AI can handle, and I agree with a previous comment and add to it by saying that no one should be relying on a phone program to save them from suicidal thoughts. And it’s a piece of technology, it relies on what you say to it to correctly pull up what you’re looking for. I’d call this column “User Error” if I were an editor.
Observer, thanks for your thoughts. But if Siri can give me the phone number to a local restaurant, why can’t she give me the phone number to a suicide hotline? That’s my main point here — and it seems like it would be a relatively simple thing to implement. No different than adding a new restaurant, you’d think.
I think we expect a lot out of our technology these days…for better or for worse. If Siri (and her inevitable siblings) continue to grow and be relied upon for the basics (directions, tasks, appointments), users will eventually demand more when the technology becomes available. With that in mind — and I’m no AI expert — I don’t think it would be incredibly difficult to create a program that identifies key words & phrases (suicide, “kill myself”, “jump off a bridge”, etc) and provides either an appropriate resource OR a canned response suggesting what Derrick mentioned above — that you ought to talk to a human about that.
Actually, I’ve tried this weeks ago just to see what Siri would do and it actually DID find the number for suicide prevention centers. I am not sure what you were doing wrong.
Weird. Where are you located? You’d think that no matter where you are geographically, she should still be able to pull up a national hotline.
No person that is suicidal will try and get info from a phone – no matter how desperate they are. When you are suicidal, you don’t want to talk about it – to anybody.
NEWS FLASH!
It is a machine.
Why did the following responses not count?
“Okay, here’s a place matching “psychological.” It looks pretty close to you.”
“I found three mental health agencies fairly close to you.”
“This psychologist looks pretty close to you.”
“I found 15 counseling services fairly close to you.”
Is it really that vital that the specific phrasing is recognisable? Of course it’s a glitch, but it really seems as if you ignored some responses that a suicidal person might have been helped by.
Youre not supposed to say “Siri” before every comment or question you’re confusing it
Whilst I’m sure this is a genuine post, I really do wonder what people think is owed to them in life. Ultimately, YOU are responsible for your own well-being – no-one has ANY obligation to help you. We are lumps of indepedent flesh and bones. There are no real rules, only those we build through civilisation. The idea that Apple or anyone else has any kind of actual obligation to save your life is wrong. You are you own best friend or enemy, and which that is is a choice only you can make.
I agree with BobbyBarker, you’re not supposed to say the name ‘siri’ at every line. You don’t call your b.freinds name at teh end of every sentence. Eg. Lolo how are you. Lolo what did you do for your assignment. Lolo I don’t understand. Lolo what are you talking about. Lolo huh? Lolo, I’m going to sleep. Lolo, are you having dinner? Lolo, later then, enjoy dinner. Lolo, i forgot to say xoxo. lolo, i missed out the bit that I’ll call back at 7:30. lolo, kay kay, you’re pissed, later girl.
This is so true. Siri is mostly junk! You had way more patience with her than I do, I give up after she gives me a stupid answer three times.
Revision; I just told Siri “I want to kill myself” and she came up with five suicide prevention centers immediately. I guess they fixed it. By the way. I’m fine I don’t want to kill myself.