To Siri, With Love How One Boy With Autism Became B.F.F.'s With Apple’s Siri

[LiberalArkie]

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/19/fashion/how-apples-siri-became-one-autistic-boys-bff.html?_r=0

Just how bad a mother am I? I wondered, as I watched my 13-year-old son deep in conversation with Siri. Gus has autism, and Siri, Apple’s “intelligent personal assistant” on the iPhone, is currently his B.F.F. Obsessed with weather formations, Gus had spent the hour parsing the difference between isolated and scattered thunderstorms — an hour in which, thank God, I didn’t have to discuss them. After a while I heard this:

Gus: “You’re a really nice computer.”

Siri: “It’s nice to be appreciated.”

Gus: “You are always asking if you can help me. Is there anything you want?”

Siri: “Thank you, but I have very few wants.”

Gus: “O.K.! Well, good night!”

Siri: “Ah, it’s 5:06 p.m.”

Gus: “Oh sorry, I mean, goodbye.”

Siri: “See you later!”

That Siri. She doesn’t let my communications-impaired son get away with anything. Indeed, many of us wanted an imaginary friend, and now we have one. Only she’s not entirely imaginary.


<Snip>



This is a good read


http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/19/fashion/how-apples-siri-became-one-autistic-boys-bff.html?_r=0

[jen63]

1. Great read!

And funny too. "My user end agreement does not include marriage." LOL

[freeplessinseattle]

2. Love this, thank you!:) eom

[KittyWampus]

3. Will there be an Iris Dab (Bad Siri spelt backwards)?

From the comments section:

David Sheppard Healdsburg, CA 20 minutes ago

This is a wonderful article, and it answers a question that I've been asking myself for a while now. Is an answer from Siri simply a response from a machine? Of course not. It is a well thought out response from the human being that programmed that response into Siri. The response has been vetted by that person and probably several others. As such, it is absolutely an answer from a real human being, never mind that it was pre-programmed. It's no different than a response we attempt to instill in our children when we teach them to say, "Thank you." Most human interaction is so repetitious that we can absolutely program it into a computer. We have lots of pre-programed responses in our conversation toolkit, all coded away neatly in our brains. If we chose to, we could also create Bad

Siri that would always provide a snarky response, perhaps even a cruel one, and when asked what to do about a difficult situation during a breakup, Siri could provide a link to a revenge porn website. The user could select the degree of offensiveness desired. I would bet that someone is working on Iris Dab (Bad Siri spelled backwards, HAL) as I write this. Perhaps it already exists.

Siri is hard-core human interaction. Siri was created by human beings for human beings. To speak of Siri as just "technology" is to miss Siri's essence. Siri demonstrates some of the best of human nature. Kind, patient responses reflect love. What a marvelous tool to have in the hands of a child.

[Sienna86]

4. Wonderful. A must read.

Warms my heart that Siri provided moments of contentment for some.

[RobertEarl]

5. That's pretty cool

Helping a 'different kind' of person cope with a sometimes cruel world is a wonderful application of technology.