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CuriousGeorge

Siri’s Religious Beliefs: Does Your iPhone Believe In God?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/14/siri-religious-beliefs-iphone_n_4590708.html

islander507

If we are looking for siri to personalize the experience and feels more like a personal assistant, then a religion setting should really be added. This way people can feel much more connected to it.

agsr

Siri is not advanced enough to habe meaningful conversations on that topic.  It is much safer to politely stay away, and avoid risk of either lawsuit or backlash from religious groups

SnakesOfferingApples

I guess you could have it as a setting, but I wouldn't see the point.

On a side note, it would be pretty funny.

"Siri, can I get a hallelujah?" 

Sylynn

If you're looking for a serious answer, I suppose I can muster one up. 

For one, the question simply doesn't make sense. Should personal assistants be atheists or aware of religion? It's not a binary choice. I'm an atheist, and I'm also aware of religions. 

Secondly, no matter how "advanced" we believe these assistants are, they are limited by their programming. As they do not consist of conscious minds, they can't be independently convinced of the existence of a god, nor can they be unconvinced. Are they aware of religions? I would imagine so. They are programmed to search the web to give relevant results and would be capable of searching religious information.

love2debate

@Sylynn, try to ask siri about religion and she will direct you to talk to someone more qualified, like a human.  
Point is that Siri was programmed ro specifically not to get to any topics around religion. If someone is deeply religious, I am not sure what would be the harm for Siri to be programmed to answer his/her questions. 

Sylynn

@love2debate, the same can be said of any topic. Let's face it, Siri is one of the worst assistants out there is far as how advanced it is. However, if I ask Google Assistant certain questions (i.e. What is god? What is heaven?) it will read to me the definitions. It's not a matter of a bias that an assistant won't get into religion, they're just simply programmed to answer you in certain ways, regardless of the topic.

billpassed

Kids can also use these asstiants and considering that, as well as all ages, these assistants should be aware of the religion.

Sylynn

@billpassed ;In what way? What do you mean by "aware of the religion"? 

passedbill

They should be aware of religion and push it as well. This is very important for all ages, including children who are using these devices.

Sylynn

passedbill said:

They should be aware of religion and push it as well. This is very important for all ages, including children who are using these devices.

It's not enough for parents and their church to indoctrinate children, you also need to rely on the personal assistants of mobile phones? The purpose of these assistants is not to preach to your children.

Rodinon

Sylynn said:

passedbill said:

They should be aware of religion and push it as well. This is very important for all ages, including children who are using these devices.

It's not enough for parents and their church to indoctrinate children, you also need to rely on the personal assistants of mobile phones? The purpose of these assistants is not to preach to your children.

So if someone is religious, you expect them to teach them something other than what they believe?  Why would you expect that?

inc4t

@Rodinon, my biggest concerns for personal assistants to give impression of indicatimg any type of religion or atheism bias is 1) user backlash 2) lawsuits

that's why I feel that siri strictly staying away from engaging in conversation about religion is safe.  Web search results about religion via siri is not a concern.

Sylynn

Rodinon said:

Sylynn said:

passedbill said:

They should be aware of religion and push it as well. This is very important for all ages, including children who are using these devices.

It's not enough for parents and their church to indoctrinate children, you also need to rely on the personal assistants of mobile phones? The purpose of these assistants is not to preach to your children.

So if someone is religious, you expect them to teach them something other than what they believe?  Why would you expect that?

How the hell did you get that from what I said? Are you suggesting personal assistants should teach children beliefs contrary to those of the parents? What parent would buy such a device? 

Rodinon

@Sylynn

No, not at all.  I interpreted "its not enough" as "isn't it bad enough."  I've seen people state that parents should not be allowed teach their children their religion by using very similar wording.  From your response, I take it I am mistaken.