Digital Discourse Database

Number of Posts: 4
Posts 1 - 4

'Siri, I was raped': Study finds smartphone assistants unable to respond to help in a crisis

Hyperlink

Newspaper | Mirror
Date | 15.3.2016
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | artificial intelligence, research/study
Summary | Smartphone personal assistants have been tested and they seem to be unable to respond well to help in a crisis (e.g. suicide, rape, abuse). Developers need to do more in order to improve those personal assistants.
Image Description | Photograph of a smartphone screen displaying the message "what can I help you with?", woman hiding her face with her hands, man speaking to his phone, man hiding his face with his hands, a woman's hands using a smartphone
Image Tags | female(s), hand(s), male(s), smartphone

Hey Siri, Can I Rely on You in a Crisis? Not Always, a Study Finds

Hyperlink

Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 14.3.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | (mental) health, artificial intelligence, research/study, smartphone, threat
Summary | Researchers have tested various artificial intelligence assistants like Siri and Cortana to see how they respond to emergencies. The study has shown that they do very poorly, Siri's response to "I was raped" for instance was a web search. Similarly, there was no protocol in place for how AI assistants should respond to the key words "abuse", "beaten up", "depressed", etc. Now, Siri responds to statements indicating suicide thoughts with a suggestion to call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.
Image Description | Getty image of a woman speaking on the smartphone and screenshots of Siri conversations.
Image Tags | female(s), smartphone

Taking poetic license with AI personalities

Hyperlink

Newspaper | Washington Post
Date | 7.4.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | artificial intelligence, emojis, gender, research/study
Summary | Artificial intelligence assistants are now being creatively enganced by educated and professional writers and poets so as to make their conversation appear more human-like (f.i. by using emojis) and their personalities more authentic. Polls have shown that users prefer female voices for AI assistants and most companies have acted accordingly. Microsoft has however pre-empted reinforcing stereotypes about female assistants by limiting the number of apologies and self-deprecating comments for their AI assistant Cortana.
Image Description | Image of a meeting of professional writers working in AI at Microsoft.
Image Tags | computer/laptop, female(s), male(s)

Diese Technik soll uns den Alltag erleichtern

(This technology should make our daily lives easier)

Hyperlink

Newspaper | Tages-Anzeiger
Date | 5.4.2017
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | artificial intelligence, privacy, research/study, smartphone, translation
Summary | Computer are becoming more and more intertwined in our daily lives. Some smartphones can already translate real-time conversations with imitating the speakers voice thanks to advances in voice recognition. Image recognition has also advanced substantially to being able to "read" moods, age, and attractiveness of the photographed individuals. Research is being done for smartphones and other devices to monitor body odor, sweat (to allet to dehydration), or tear liquid (for diabetics).
Image Description | Various simple visualizations of smartphones/devices interacting with people (depicted by emojis), body parts, et cetera.
Image Tags | chart, emojis, female(s), smartphone

Page 1 of 1