Morning Tidings

Tag: Apple Siri

  • Why this Tokyo Olympics question had some Chinese netizens blaming Apple’s Siri – morningtidings

    Why this Tokyo Olympics question had some Chinese netizens blaming Apple’s Siri – morningtidings

    It looks like Apple’s voice assistant has been the target of anger of some Chinese social media users. According to a report by South Morning China Post, a technical glitch led to Siri not able to respond to the simple question “how many medals China has won at Tokyo Olympics”.
    The report says that users took to Weibo, China’s popular social media platform, and posted screenshots of Siri not able to tell them how many medals China had won. One image posted revealed that Japan had 11 gold medals, China and US had 10 medals. However, Siri couldn’t read out the number of China’s medals.
    According to online report, it was a technical glitch earlier this week which led to this. Siri could read out the name of only one country if two countries had the same amount of gold medals, which was the case here with US and China. Siri ‘chose’ to say US and this led to the ire of China’s netizens on Weibo. The ‘bug’ was reported on Tuesday and was apparently fixed the next day. But that didn’t stop complaints against Apple on social media.
    The social media platform had complaints like Apple had deliberately ignored China because of the trade tensions between the two countries. Some also said that Apple was deliberately discriminating against China, according to online reports.
    China remains an all-important market for Apple and often the company has been accused of having different rules for China compared to the rest of the world. The Chinese ‘nationalists’ have been anti-Apple as Huawei was banned by former US president Donald Trump, which led to trade tensions between the country. While Huawei remains banned in the US and it has hurt the company massively, Apple continues to make billions from the Chinese market.

    timesofindia.indiatimes.com

  • Apple Updates Siri With Two New Voices To Eliminate Gender Bias

    Apple Updates Siri With Two New Voices To Eliminate Gender Bias

    San Francisco, April 1: With an aim to eliminate gender bias, Apple is adding two new voices to Siri’s English offerings besides removing the default “female voice” selection in the latest beta version of iOS. The latest update will allow iPhone and iPad users to choose their preferred Siri voice during device setup. According to a TechCrunch report, this is a positive step forward as it allows people to choose the voice that they prefer without the defaults bias coming into play. Apple WWDC 2021 To Begin on June 7, 2021; Next-Gen iOS, iPadOS, WatchOS, macOS & tvOS To Be Announced.

    “We’re excited to introduce two new Siri voices for English speakers and the option for Siri users to select the voice they want when they set up their device,” Apple said in a statement on Wednesday. “This is a continuation of Apple’s long-standing commitment to diversity and inclusion, and products and services that are designed to better reflect the diversity of the world we live in,” it added.

    In 2019, a report by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) revealed that assigning female genders to virtual assistants reinforced negative gender biases. The report found that by using a female voice for AI-powered assistants, gender stereotypes were being perpetuated.

    “Companies like Apple and Amazon, staffed by overwhelmingly male engineering teams, have built AI systems that cause their feminized digital assistants to greet verbal abuse with catch-me-if-you-can flirtation,” the report stated. “Because the speech of most voice assistants is female, it sends a signal that women are … docile and eager-to-please helpers, available at the touch of a button or with a blunt voice command like ‘hey’ or ‘OK’,” it added.

    The two new voices also bring some much-needed variety to the voices of Siri. The two new voices use source talent recordings that are then run through Apple’s Neural text to the speech engine. The new voices are available to English-speaking users around the world and Siri users can select a personal preference of voice in 16 languages. More diversity in voice, tone and regional dialect can only be a positive development for how inclusive smart devices feel, the report said.

    (The above story first appeared on Morning Tidings on Apr 02, 2021 08:36 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website morningtidings.com).