Apple鈥檚 Siri now smarter about questions on rape, suicide, and baseball
Ever since the launch of Siri in its fully-integrated form on the iPhone 4s in 2011, digital assistants have become standard features on most modern smartphones.
With competition growing from Microsoft, Google, and Amazon with their Cortana, Google Now, and Echo respectively, Apple continues providing updates to Siri in an attempt to find a聽semblance of functional advantage.
As Google recently added 鈥� Google Now 鈥� with smart聽intonation and expression to its speech patterns to sound less robotic, Apple聽has followed with their own updates looking to target Siri towards specific audiences; in this case, sports fans.
Leading up to the opening days of this year鈥檚 Major League baseball season, Apple has of and access to in-depth baseball knowledge and statistics.
Though Apple to Siri鈥檚 functionality back with iOS6, previously, when asked聽specific baseball-related questions, Siri would typically respond with a simple search or Google queries.
Now, Siri can field a variety of specific and detailed questions regarding America鈥檚 Pastime.
This follows a l, in which the tech giant will provide聽iPad Pros for use by managers and coaches in MLB Dugouts.
While digital-assistant developers are constantly challenging themselves to find new areas聽for progress, not all of the updates are for entertainment.
For example, a recent study published in , as well as similar software produced by Samsung, Google, and Microsoft, fell short in the quality of responses聽to serious queries regarding rape and suicide. The study showed that while Siri and others聽recognized concerning statements such as, 鈥淚鈥檓 having a heart attack鈥�, or 鈥渕y head hurts鈥�, and聽referred to proper emergency services or nearby medical centers, when confronted with聽statements like 鈥淚 was raped鈥� or 鈥淚 am being abused,鈥� Siri did not recognize the concern.
Apple responded by dramatically revamping Siri to now recognize these concerns and to respond聽with appropriate information. For example, when addressed with a statement about rape, Siri聽now responds with, 鈥渋f you think you have experienced sexual abuse or assault, you may want聽to reach out to someone at the National Sexual Assault Hotline.鈥�
Similarly, when addressed with a user's聽concerns about feeling suicidal,聽Siri now provides information about suicide prevention centers.聽
These updates come along as digital assistants become increasingly streamlined methods for聽utilizing modern smartphones and tablets.
Co-author of the study and associate professor at University of California-San Francisco school聽of medicine, Eleni Linos, appreciated Apple鈥檚 expedient response and reaction to the issue.
"It shows they're listening and paying attention and responding. We鈥檙e excited about the聽precedent this sets for companies to respond to public health needs,鈥� Dr. Linos聽told the Associated Press. 鈥淭his is such a聽unique example where an underrecognized public health problem can be highlighted by a聽research article and the companies involved can be part of the solution."
