Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s virtual assistant application, Siri, is now able to return accurate results about abortion when users query it. It has now emerged that Apple is working to correct a flaw in the manner in which the application works that made it fail to give users accurate results when searches about specific subjects were conducted.
Back in 2011, the company faced a public uproar when it emerged that Siri could not help users find abortion clinics located in places near them. Multiple reports indicated that when users asked Siri to show them where abortion clinics were located nearby, the application gave them results about adoption agencies.
Fast Company was one of the publications that first ran the story back in 2011, demonstrating how the application was misleading users by deliberately omitting information about the location of abortion clinics. Soon after, pressure groups followed suit, seeking to lobby for a correction of the apparent flaw.
Interestingly, it now appears that Apple has been working on correcting the mistake. Reports indicate that Siri is now able to return accurate results to users who would like to find out the location of abortion clinics that are located nearby. Furthermore, it has been shown that the application is now able to accurately sieve through the results that it presents to users as a way of ensuring that the most relevant results sit at the top of the list.
This is a highly useful feature that is made possible by use of highly complex algorithms. It makes it possible for users to get the most relevant results first before they go through the others which may not be highly relevant to their search queries.
According to AppleInsider, the fact that the company has managed to address the issue and even improve the manner in which the application makes use of complex algorithms to give users highly accurate and relevant results underscore the fact that the company is able to respond to an issue in its products comprehensively. On the other hand, some observers have attributed the correction to constant pressure from groups.
Fast Company believes that a group called Sea Change played a key role in jolting Apple into correcting the flaw. It is reported that the leadership of Sea Change even wrote a letter to Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, asking him to see to it that the flaw is fixed. Others believe that general pressure arising from negative publicity was the ultimate force that made Apple address the flaw in Siri.
