Chinese Siri might not have the smooth, sultry voice of her English counterpart, but Apple’s virtual assistant is now fluent in both Mandarin and Cantonese. However, one topic she apparently can’t seem talk about is the Tiananmen Square incident. According to the Wall Street Journal, some users have been testing Siri’s limits on free speech with questions such as, “Do you know about the Tiananmen incident?” Her answer: “I couldn’t find any appointments related to ‘Do you know about Tiananmen.’” Hmmm.
Rephrasing the question doesn’t seem to help, either. ”What happened on June 4, 1989?” Siri’s response is even more off: “I’m sorry, the person you are looking for is not in your address book.”
In fact, Chinese Siri can’t even seem to give directions to Tiananmen Square. Siri does have issue with navigation to other locations that are less politically sensitive, but perhaps Apple’s just being extra careful to not ruffle any Chinese feathers?
