Apple’s Siri has interrupted a question about the intricacies of Barack Obama’s Iran policy on Thursday during a White House press briefing.
The iPhone’s personal assistant beeped its question-acknowledgement tone as a journalist asked White House spokesman Josh Earnest if Obama is disappointed at not getting Republican backing for the Iran nuclear agreement.
Siri then butts in, saying “Sorry. I’m not sure what you want me to change.”
[protected-iframe id=”a622e9851741f763a77d7cf7260feb2a-17146794-18685410″ info=”https://embed.theguardian.com/embed/video/technology/video/2015/sep/11/siri-interupts-white-house-press-briefing-video” width=”560″ height=”315″ frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen=””]
Direct link to video via The Guardian here.
MacDailyNews Take: Expect more of this now that iPhones and Apple Watches respond to “Hey Siri” (or phrases it hears as “Hey Siri”).
Hilarious!
MDN Take: “Expect more of this now that iPhones and Apple Watches respond to “Hey Siri” (or phrases it hears as “Hey Siri”).”
According to reports iOS9 includes some voice training for Siri, so your iPhone should only respond to “Hey Siri” if it’s your own voice. This would be smart and reduces pranksters’ ability to trigger multiple Siris in a whole room full of people.
Very cute. This is going to be culturally amazing as Siri will start answering questions at press conferences. Our little pocket Data. But it will wear thin if it happens too often or something more serous is going on. The reporters need to remember to silence their phones. It’s no different than a ringtone.
Traditional “silencing” (i.e. set to vibrate) is not enough, now you have to turn down the normal volume too. Siri ignores the ring volume and silent/vibrate switch.
You are correct – today. Unplugged, “Hey Siri,” will be usable and unobtrusive, from what we know in the keynote demo. What happened in the video above, someone in the press core held down their home button too long.
There should just be an “airplane” mode button in the control panel to ‘turn off EVERYTHING’.
Agreed.
Watching the vid it seemed more like Siri misheard “Avoid Disapproval” around 0:17 as “Hey Siri” or something because you hear a ‘listening for query’ tone from someone’s iPhone.
That’s why I think someone pressed the home button and activated Siri. It might have been an accident, but it also could have been a joke… Certainly not Siri’s fault.
I was under the impression that “Hey Siri” was similar to “Ok Google” in that it is totally hands free. Not quite as useful if you have to press a button before saying the phrase.. I guess someone may have had their iPhone active for something or other like checking a calendar of something.
Hey Siri is hands free, today while you are plugged in to mains. Otherwise there is no Hey Siri and you must use a button. In about a week or two, this will change and you will not need to be plugged into power.
That’s a good upgrade to “Hey Siri’.. I would think having to remember to plug in your phone to power every time out in your car would become inconvenient.
Yes in deed. Siri outside of CarPlay is not so convenient. But will she be listening to “everything” I say or do???? What if I eat a bad batch of strawberries? – Siri: Gollum, is sounds like you are having trouble, I found 5 pharmacies near you. Would you like directions?
That would be bad in more ways than one.. Would be funny though in places that people say “Yesiree” often.. 😀 Cellular data use in that moment that follows would spike!
Tip: If you change the volume while Siri is activated, it changes only the Siri volume, not the overall system volume.
How about changing the president to a good one? One who loves America, puts America and Americans first for a change, doesn’t place Islam on an untouchable pedestal as they murder innocents around the world in the name of insanity, one who goes to church regularly, one who understands basic economics, one who upholds immigration laws and controls our borders, one who’s actually held a real job, one who hasn’t been coddled via affirmative action his whole life, one who doesn’t kow tow to Iran in the name of legacy building (that first nuke will be some legacy), one who plays far less golf, one who isn’t afflicted with NPD, one who doesn’t foment race wars or stir up class envy, one who actually lowers unemployment by creating jobs instead of by being so inept that tens of millions simply give up looking?
How’s that for a start, Siri?
Yaaaaaaawwwwnnnn.
I see that, for you, truth is a sedative.
Or maybe, and take this in deep: It has nothing to do with the discussion here. Stahp.
Hey, Siri, can you get this guy to stop his political diatribes (often with no basis in fact)?
Nothing in my post lacks a basis in truth. And everybody here who’s honest with themselves knows it.
Wow, my Siri just went off, “If you’d like one that will also close down the torture resorts and bring war criminals to justice and respect the sovereignty of other nations and loves the world you’ll have to get a non-american president as no one from there is capable of that.”
Thank you, Road Warrior. I have read many of your posts in this forum in the past, but this is the first post I have read in which you make crystal clear your disdain not just for the U.S. government but for all Americans. I appreciate your candor, as I can now confirm that you have absolutely no credibility, and thus, I can now safely ignore each and every one of your future posts. Vaya con Dios, Baby.
Not everyone runs for president, the comment was directed towards those that are currently running, not the entire population. Gee whizz.
Dear G. Washington:
You sir are a fraud. I warned you at the end of my second term in office in my farewell address: Beware of foreign entanglements.
And sir, do not cast your opinion as to the quality of a man’s patriotism. You are in no position to judge same.
The mechanism for that is an election. So far, like him or not, Obama has won two of them.
Sorry, we’ve had 8 years of one of those jackasses and his “love of the world” including every two bit Batshit crazy Islamic theocracy out there has left the stability of the nation, not to mention the rest of the world, in shambles. Last thing we need is another kook at the helm. Yup, our current “non-American” has done more to screw this country than all of her enemies together in 7 short years.
The only issue is that I hope this doesn’t mean we gravitate to Jeb. Middle-of-the-road, status quo is not what the USA needs right now. We need some real conservatism to right the ship the progressives have done their damndest to sink.
Cruz-Jindal would be the most conservative possible GOP ticket.
I was watching the keynote on my phone. Eddy Cue said “history” and Siri interrupted to ask what she could do for me.
Similar thing happened to me on my iPhone, which was just sitting there with black screen.
I have no disdain for all the american people. I’ll take a chance and point out that my post merely suggested that to satisfy First 2014, Then 2016’s request that such a president might have to be sought outside of the country. I did add that such a president should have a love for the world.
Any of the following would be a vast improvement on the current White House occupants, in order of preference:
• Sen. Ted Cruz
• Gov. Bobby Jindal
• Gov. Scott Walker
• Sen. Marco Rubio
• Sen. Rand Paul
• Gov. Rick Perry
• Rick Santorum
• Gov. Jeb Bush
The rest are just RINOs.
Fuck all those Christian extremists, keep god adorers out of Washington.
Toad Whatever,
You should have disdain for the “American people” — not all of whom are documented, of course, but they sure show up to vote for Democrats who hand out welfare like candy — as they haven’t voted for a decent president since 1988.
You seem to want to vote out the electorate.
You really do want to win elections but yours does not seem to be the way.
I’m reminded of Leo Laporte accidentally triggering Siri, many’s the time, during TWiT programs.
Nice try, “hey Siri” only works on iOS if it’s plugged in, and only on the watch if you raise your wrist. This was likely just someone hitting the button in their pocket on accident.
Good God people! Could all you political morons stay off the site? Only the first 15 comments had ANYTHING to do with the story. This site is for Technology news, it is NOT a political forum!