Siri tells boy to shut up
Charlie Le Quesne, a 12 year old boy, was playing with an iPhone 4S at a Tesco store in Coventry when the phone suddenly told him: “Shut the f*** up, you ugly t***.”
The boy had been fiddling with the phone’s Siri system which answers to spoken questions. Charlie had just asked “How many people are there in the world?” when he received the astounding answer.
His 39 year old mother, Kim, who is a nursery worker, explained the situation for the Sun:”The phone was a demo version and was low enough on the shelf for Charlie to have a go with it. He asked it a simple question and we couldn’t believe the filth it came out with. I thought I must be hearing things. So we asked again and the same four-letter stuff blared out. I asked for the manager and after staff heard it they agreed to unplug it. I couldn’t see the funny side.”
The staff of the store told the woman that someone had tempered with the phone’s set-up instructions. The Siri system is made so that is addresses the user by name. The feature uses the information entered in the contact system. Someone had entered the phrase as the user’s name therefore the phone blurted it out when asked a question.
Tesco said: “We have launched an investigation. The handset will be going back to Apple for diagnostic tests.”
It remains to be seen what kind of results the investigation will bring and whether the culprits will be revealed.
Recent Comments