Siri heckles UK defense secretary in parliamentary debate
A British Member of Parliament has demonstrated the issues of having the 'Hey Siri' function active during meetings, by suddenly being heckled by his iPhone while addressing his peers in the UK House of Commons on Tuesday.
Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson was giving a statement to the House of Commons about the ongoing fight against the Islamic State, reports the BBC. During his speech at the despatch box, Williamson's iPhone started to speak, interrupting proceedings while the MP moved to silence Siri.
Video of the incident suggests the "Hey Siri" command was triggered, most likely by Williamson's mention of Syria or Syrian. Following the verbal prompt, Siri started to advise "I've found something on the web for Syria Syrian democratic forces," then providing a few details before dismissal.
Speaker John Bercow commented "What a very rum business that is," while other attended MPs quietly laughed at the situation. In response, Williamson apologized for the "intervention," before noting "It is very rare that you're heckled by your own mobile phone."
Parliamentary rules do allow MPs to have mobile devices on their person during debates, but are required to disable ringtones to avoid causing a disturbance. While smartphones and tablets can be used to "keep up to date with emails," they are not allowed to be used as a prompter for speeches or in debates themselves.
MPs are also urged to avoid spending too much time using such devices rather than discussing political issues. In 2014, MP Nigel Mills apologized for misusing his mobile phone during a Commons committee hearing, by playing Candy Crush Saga.
Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson was giving a statement to the House of Commons about the ongoing fight against the Islamic State, reports the BBC. During his speech at the despatch box, Williamson's iPhone started to speak, interrupting proceedings while the MP moved to silence Siri.
Video of the incident suggests the "Hey Siri" command was triggered, most likely by Williamson's mention of Syria or Syrian. Following the verbal prompt, Siri started to advise "I've found something on the web for Syria Syrian democratic forces," then providing a few details before dismissal.
When Siri interrupts as you're delivering a statement to Parliament... pic.twitter.com/NDsNUJDPV3
-- BBC Parliament (@BBCParliament)
Speaker John Bercow commented "What a very rum business that is," while other attended MPs quietly laughed at the situation. In response, Williamson apologized for the "intervention," before noting "It is very rare that you're heckled by your own mobile phone."
Parliamentary rules do allow MPs to have mobile devices on their person during debates, but are required to disable ringtones to avoid causing a disturbance. While smartphones and tablets can be used to "keep up to date with emails," they are not allowed to be used as a prompter for speeches or in debates themselves.
MPs are also urged to avoid spending too much time using such devices rather than discussing political issues. In 2014, MP Nigel Mills apologized for misusing his mobile phone during a Commons committee hearing, by playing Candy Crush Saga.
Comments
Not sure what is going on with Siri lately, but I had this happen recently seem to puck up what is thought was hey say and begin listening to what you said next and tried to give you an answer.
I was Watching the World cup and they had Hey Siri advertisement that it would tell you the latest standings and my homepod heard the hey sire world cup and it began rattling of the current standings
Fox are deliberately doing it during the World Cup Football shows by having a voice over say "Hey Siri list the up coming football matches". My paired HomePods now acting as my TV's sound system via Apple TV 4K respond with alacrity.
The possibility for more mischievous use is obvious. If every Apple device had a call sign that was semi-unique it would stop this nation-wide level of misuse and of course some but not all accidental triggers.
LOL, and no doubt you're immediately spammed with email ads for action figures, wall posters and blow up dolls of said lady!
I was not sure if Fox was doing it on purpose, since it really only works on the homepod, no other device response since the phone only respond to your personal voice. But it became annoying, having to yield at Siri on the homepod to shut up, I felt like an idiot yelling at my homepod like I would yell at my dog.
I agree AI has a long way to come, and I laugh at people when they say Apple is behind the AI wave. I personally think Apple is in a wait and see mode playing around see what works and what people value and they will come out with a solution when it really ready which works. The other guys already had some pretty public embarrassing situation with their AI voice assistances. Apple has yet to have one, they may and this one does not count since Gavin already took blame for being heckle by his phone for not fall the rules.
I am starting to believe Apple has cripple Siri for good reason, they saw what could possible happen if you allow it to do what engineers think is cool and interesting without the proper ethics and foresight of what could go wrong. Siri does not do everything perfectly well, but it has not done anything horrible wrong long record your conversation and send the recording to everyone in your contact list, or sent your photo library to all your friends.
I have one computer which runs some software 24x7 set up (System Prefs --> Date & Time tab) to announce the time on the hour and half hour and it does this in the 24-hour format.
Then when I got a HomePod, I was astounded to discover that Siri via the HomePod sometimes gets in a dialog with the default voice announcing the current time. And Siri doesn't always come awake for the same time announcement! Go figure that one out.
I notified Apple but naturally got no response. They always seem scared to death of publicly admitting something needs fixing. I guess for fear someone will file a class action lawsuit against the company.
So I'm not surprised to hear this story. Maybe the publicity will spur a fix which will also take care of what I found above.
Ordur. Ordur!...OORDUR!! Will the member remove his hand from his pocket!
Agreed. Any half descent AI is bound to come to that realization sooner or later. Humans are this planet's worst parasite bar none.
On a side note, I always say 'thank you' to Siri after an alert, alarm, timer etc. without thinking and she always says funny stuff. One being, "No, without you I wouldn't have job." One day, and I'm just waiting for it, it will be "Without me what would you do?"
Yet a saint next to 'Hey Google' I'd wager
Alexa to Maeve? And Siri to Bernard?