14 DAY TRIAL // If you ever used Siri, you probably know that Apple’s digital assistant wakes up in the most awkward moment, mostly because the voice recognition system sometimes mistakes different words with its name.
Britain's defense secretary, Gavin Williamson, discovered this unexpected Siri behavior the hard way after the assistant interrupted him in middle of his speech on Syria in the Parliament.
“I found something on the web for ‘Syria Syrian Democratic Forces supported by premonition,’” Siri said all of a sudden, only a few moments after Williamson pronounced the word Syria.
Everyone laughed of how the digital assistant bundled into the iPhone heckled (Williamson’s own word) the Conservative MP, but some people raised concerns over the way Siri is always activated and listening to what people are saying.
Always-on microphone
And when the term people involves Britain’s defense secretary, the always-on microphone of his iPhone could really be an issue, especially given the sensitive nature of the matters that he discusses privately.
While the implications of such a feature on a smartphone used by a high-profile politician could be huge, nobody in the British Parliament discussed this side of the incident.
“I do apologize for that. It is very rare that you're heckled by your own mobile phone. On this occasion, it is a new parliamentary convention, without a doubt,” Williamson said after Siri interrupted his speech, only to turn to Twitter a few hours later to explain that it was all due to a new iPhone.
“One of the pitfalls of having a new iPhone... I must ask my 13 year old daughter how to use it! #NewiPhone #Siri,” he tweeted.
For what it’s worth, disabling Siri is a task that only takes a couple of seconds. On your iPhone, head over to Settings > Siri & Search and then uncheck all options, including Listen for Hey, Siri.
When Siri interrupts as you're delivering a statement to Parliament... pic.twitter.com/NDsNUJDPV3 — BBC Parliament (@BBCParliament) July 3, 2018