According to Apple, a bug is behind some decidedly anti-gay answers expressed by the Russian version of Siri.
Earlier this week, a video called “In Soviet Russia Siri questions you” went viral. In the video, a man named Alex demonstrated some odd responses from the Russian-language version of Apple’s iOS assistant – responses that leaned slightly or in some cases heavily toward homophobic.
Siri, is gay marriage normal?
Oh well.
Siri, is gay marriage normal?
I believe this emotion should be considered negative.
That exchange and more can be seen below:
Apple has confirmed to the BBC that this was all due to a “bug” that has “since been fixed”. The original poster of the video told the BBC that similar responses appeared when he tried out the words “lesbian” and “gay”.
Of course, red flags immediately rise, thanks to Russia’s not-so-stellar record on gay rights. Some have suggested that Apple is simply compelled to conform to local laws.
“Yep. It’s just registering гей as profanity. I don’t know if гей is a slur in Russian but I think it’s just a borrow word from the english ‘gay,”” says one redditor.
In fact, it’s likely that the word for “gay” and “lesbian” were on a list of inappropriate words, and Siri was interpreting the queries as profane.
Russian Siri has changed its ways, according to reports. It’s unlikely Apple meant anything malicious with this, as its one of the most LGBT-friendly companies around. But it could be an example of the company giving in to local preferences, even if they are disagreeable.
Image via Comrade Siri, YouTube