*Thanks to the Brandeis Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance chapter for these articles. Check them out at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/fmlas/.
I don't and never have had an iPhone, but I still know who Siri is. Friends love showing off that they can talk to a phone and get a response from it, although that's what phones were invented for in the first place. It goes back to some primal urge to control other humans, which is why scientists are developing human-like robots.
Anyway, Siri is pretty impressive. She can look things up, answer jokes with witty retorts, and more. But, people are discovering that she is still limited by what her designers want her to say, and some of these pre-programmed responses seem to have a specific, anti-choice agenda behind them.
"The recent illustrations of Siri, the iPhone 4S voice-recognition based assistant, failing to provide information to users about abortion, birth control, help after rape and help with domestic violence has gotten a lot of notice."
As the above site demonstrates via screenshots, ask Siri about birth control, where you can get an abortion, or even type in the address of a specific abortion agency, and Siri will not have any answers.
Apple's defense, according to a BBC News article, is that Siri is still in her developing stages, and does not have all the information yet to answer everyone's questions. However, Siri's lack of knowledge on specific, controversial subject matters has led to speculation that this is more than just the beta stage. Is it right for Apple to push a moralist, anti-choice agenda on iPhone users if this is true?
Since I don't have an iPhone I can't run a test myself, but I urge you all to ask Siri questions relating to pro-choice options and see what she says.
And if you think Siri should be updated to include information for pro-choice resources, go to Apple's website and fill out a user feedback review saying exactly what Siri is missing.
You should read this article to get a better sense about how this is not really a political issue but an Internet search issue: http://searchengineland.com/why-siri-cant-find-abortion-clinics-103349 "It’s not because Apple is pro-life. It’s because Planned Parenthood doesn’t call itself an abortion clinic."