[lit-ideas] 'Fish' = 'Sex'? iPhone Can't Understand -- Or Can't It
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 4 Mar 2009 15:57:31 EST
In a message dated 3/4/2009 3:39:06 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,
ritchierd@xxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:
When a Scottish user said 'iPhone,' the software thought he
said 'sex.'
-----
I don't think it was as easy as that. It was my idea:
JOURNALIST. There have been reports that
the voice-recognition software isa failure.
GEARY. In what sense.
JOURNALIST. It seems to work for American accents only.
GEARY. So?
JOURNALIST. Well, it is reported that when a Scottish
user said 'iPhone' the softwre thought he said 'sex'.
GEARY. _She_ said sex. We have it all on tape. She was naked too.
(As we say in our business, the funniest thing to do with your
clothes off is not orgasm, is surf).
JOURNALIST. But he did say 'sex'.
GEARY. No. He did say 'iPhone', in Scots. Not everybody
knows that the cluster should be pronounced /i ph owwne/
JOURNALIST. You don't ascribe it to a failure in the system?
GEARY. No. There is no _transcription_ involved. The woman
said _something_. She did say, in her view, 'iPhone'. What
our software did was what in the business of cognitive
science call 'mindreading'. The software actually literally
read her mind, and offered what she desired: a link to a
porno website. No lexeme 'sex' was involved, as none
was uttered.
JOURNALIST. And what do you make of this user from Surrey,
south of London, who had his request mistaken for “myspace”
GEARY. Same thing: mind-reading.
JOURNALIST. And why “Einstein” was the option offered for
“iPhone” spoken with a Kent accent.
GEARY. Oh, you tire me -- the whole lot of ya. Journalists. Always
focusing on the negative. It's _not_ all schadenfreude, you know.
What about ...
JOURNALIST. What about you?
GEARY. What about this user from Yorkshire. Why is so little
coverage of having his request correctly understood?
JOURNALIST. But was offered “bonfire.” In Maidstone, I read:
“I asked it to find my nearest pizza take away and it came
back with something about volcanoes"
GEARY (no comment)
JOURNALIST: “I asked it to find my nearest pub and it gave me
a link to some kind of weird dating website."
GEARY. Again, iPhone uses what we call a Gricean-Device. It
works by subliminal intentions. It _transcends_ the contingencies
of human-human communication. It goes beyond. It goes
well, mighty well, beyond.
Cheers,
JL
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