When you build a robot or an artificially intelligent machine, there’s always going to be a fear that one day it will turn against you. That’s what Siri has done to Apple today, labeling one of the iPhone’s biggest rivals, the Nokia Lumia 900, the “best smartphone ever.”
If you’ve got an iPhone 4S, pull it out of your pocket now, call up Siri, and ask her, “What is the best smartphone ever?”
Rather than the humorous response you get to questions like, “What is the best smartphone?”, Siri will, surprisingly, tell you all about the Nokia Lumia 900, the Finnish firm’s flagship Windows Phone handset.
Of course, when you ask Siri a question, she’ll often find your answer from Wolfram Alpha, which is clearly what’s happening here; she’s just searching the service for the best smartphone based on “customer review average.” But even so, it must be a little embarrassing for Apple when its intelligent assistant pulls up a competitor when you ask her what the best smartphone ever is.
If you want our advice, don’t listen to everything Siri tells you.
Source: The Next Web
Killian Bell is a freelance writer based in the U.K. He has an interest in all things tech and also covers Android over at CultofAndroid.com. You can follow him on Twitter via @killianbell.
16 responses to “Siri Turns Against Her Creator, Calls Nokia Lumia 900 “Best Smartphone Ever””
Only searched for nearby Smartphone retailers for me.
Now we can list “modesty” to the list of Siri features.
‘The one you’re holding’ was my reply.
When I tried this, Siri responded: “Wait…there are other phones?” & “You’re kidding, right?” Maybe Apple “fixed” this on a server side of things. However, if I say, “Wolfram what is the best smartphone?”, she does return the Lumia results.
You should ask siri “what is the most expensive smartphone ever” :) answer is iPhone 4s :)
Killian, do you know how what the rest of wolfram alpha’s top 5 are based on that criteria? 2 no contract phones (always known for providing the latest and greatest ), a refurbished hp touchpad (which is famous for being the biggest flop in tablet history to date) and another Nokia lumina, but the 710 (not the worst phone in the world , but a t-mobile mango phone is never going to be a front runner). That list (and your “article”) should have been posted back a about 5-6 weeks ago on April first.
I got things like “You already know that” (assuming 4s), “The one in your hands” and “This one”.
I tried another phrase first though. “What is the best smartphone to purchase right now?” and it came up with a Google search.
I got the same results when I tried it afterwards.
“What is the best smartphone ever?”
“I found this for you.”
“Nokia Lumina 900 4G” as the results stated above.
How come this wasn’t on the cultcast!! funny..
Remember, Siri is in beta and obviously this is a serious bug; I’m sure Cook and company will fix it soon :)
I get lists of places that sell smart phones.
Well, she’s only telling the truth.
“wait, there are other phones?” was my reply! Lol
such an incorrect and idiotic statement.
Whelp some Siri def will lose their job/life