Apple Accused of Making the Russian Version of Siri Homophobic  

Was Siri programmed to be a Russian homophobe? A Russian-language speaker living in London recorded some rude responses to questions about being gay from Apple’s digital assistant.

“Is gay marriage normal?” Alex asks.

“I believe this emotion should be considered negative,” Siri responds.

BBC Russia tested Siri and received similar responses to Alex, publishing a story that backed up the YouTube accusations. Apple told the BBC that the responses “were the results of a bug that has since been fixed.”

Siri’s Russian-language answers about gay people started changing after the BBC released its article, suggesting that Apple tweaked the responses to be less homophobic in the past week. So weird how a “bug” that makes voice assistants homophobic only affected Siri in the language of a nation famously averse to homosexuality!

[Buzzfeed | BBC]

Lead image: screenshot from YouTube