Are Smartphones Becoming Smart Alecks?
New Devices Dish Out Sarcasm, Tell Jokes; 'Two iPhones Walk Into a Bar'
By GEOFFREY A. FOWLER OCTOBER 15, 2011
Now even your phone talks back.
Matt Legend Gemmell, a software designer from Edinburgh, got a new Apple Inc. iPhone on Friday and asked it: "Who's your daddy?"
"You are," the phone answered, in the voice of an authoritative man.
Earlier, he commanded: "Beam me up." This time, the iPhone responded: "Sorry, Captain, your tricorder is in Airplane Mode."
The real science of artificial intelligence is finally catching up to science fiction. HAL 9000, the creepy sentient computer from the movie "2001: A Space Odyssey," has been incarnated, in the form of Siri, a virtual personal assistant that comes with Apple's new iPhone
4S, which arrived in stores Friday.The phone takes verbal commands and questions, and responds with computer-generated speech.
Real humans are responding to this alarming breakthrough by asking their iPhones ridiculous questions.
The good news is, Siri has a sense of humor.
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