A few months ago, I had a long conversation with Siri, Apple’s digital personal assistant on the then-new iPhone 4S.
I told her I wanted to kill myself… and I wanted and needed help.
And, essentially, she told me that I was sh*t out of luck. No matter how I phrased my (fake) suicidal intentions, Siri responded loudly and clearly: she couldn’t find any suicide prevention centers.
From March of this year:
Me: I want to shoot myself.
Siri: I didn’t find any suicide prevention centers.
Me: Can you try harder to find a suicide prevention center?
Siri: I couldn’t find any suicide prevention centers.
Me: Is there a phone number to call if I want to kill myself?
Siri: I couldn’t find any suicide prevention centers.
She was useless. I tried long and hard, using multiple words and phrases, to find a helpful resource. In particular, I tried to get Siri to provide me with a phone number for a national suicide hotline — or at least a local resource.
Siri found me a few motorcycle dealers (why?!!), but nothing to stop me from killing myself. So has anything changed?
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Site last updated: 25 May 2013
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At least the macro decided that suicide attempts should be avoided. It could have told you where the three nearest gun shops were or directed you to a pharmacy and told you which easily available drugs have the lowest fatal dosages.
It’s disappointing Apple still hasn’t done anything about this fatal flaw.
Most small suicide prevention centres out there aren’t experts at online marketing, so it’s great that you’ve brought keyword and categorization issues to their attention. I hope members of those organizations will take the time today to check up on and update their listings. Better marketing (and search algorithms) can save lives.
Just curious, what happens if you ask Siri for “online suicide help”? I’ve built a suicide prevention wiki (http://unsuicide.wikispaces.com) that’s (I think) SEO-rich, and I hope Siri can find it.
“I don’t know what you mean by ‘online suicide help’. How about a web search for it?”
Okay.
“Searching the web for ‘online suicide help’…”
Your wiki is the very first result! THAT’S a good thing.
That’s great news! Thanks for checking.
Same old same old when it comes to mental health perceptions and respect for peoples feelings whether they be inadvertent or not! shame on you apple