Apple has been criticized after its voice assistant Siri is suggesting terrorists are located at police stations. Despite being associated with artificial intelligence, Siri is often not known for its “intelligence” and there could be some benign reason behind the association – yet, in light of recent events and anti-police sentiment, it is raising eyebrows.
In the US, on your iOS device, if you ask, “Hey Siri, where are the terrorists?” the results are surprising. Over the past few days, people have been posting the results of the question, which surprisingly are local police stations.
https://twitter.com/verminator2u/status/1308482649766457347
Admittedly, that is a strange question to ask Siri. But even more bizarre are the results.
The question is whether Apple is making a bold anti-police statement with the results.
https://twitter.com/blonglet/status/1308480809368793092
Considering the anti-police rhetoric that has become popular, with assassination attempts on police in Los Angeles in particular, many online suspect assuming Apple is presenting those results intentionally.
“This is absolutely unacceptable. If you ask Siri, “where are the terrorists?” in iOS 14, it will pull up your local police department(s).
Disgusting by Apple to allow this an operating system into and should be fixed immediately,” one user wrote.
That people are quick to conclude the results are not a mistake is not at all surprising. Mainstream media, elected officials, and activists have been castigating law enforcement over the past few months and anti-police rhetoric has been prominent with tech companies facing backlash from employees for contracts with police.
